2020 was a very weird year, but I drank a lot of teas this year. A lot more and better teas than in 2019, so I am really excited to go through the articles again and see which teas I enjoyed the most to make a list of the best teas of 2020. I still remember some of them without seeing the articles, but some other ones immediately come back when I look at the pictures. This list is in no particular order, as all these teas are winners, each for their own reasons.
Best teas
2014 Jianyang Lao Bai White Tea
This is the first tea I drank in 2020 and I already knew this one would be hard to beat. It’s not the best tea of the year, but definitely up there.
It’s a white tea from 2014 from Sichuan and is made using the Lao Bai cultivar. Time had transformed this tea into something really interesting. It was similar to a roasted oolong with a deep sweetness. Unfortunately, a full cake of this tea is not available anymore.
Tai Ping Hou Kui
This remarkable green tea was everything I usually look for in green tea. It was a bit grassy with a sweet and nutty undertone. I drank this one in July and it was so good and refreshing.
This tea had been a year old when I drank it, but it still had its freshness. It was the first Tai Ping Hou Kui I tried and it was a remarkable first experience.
2018 Mahei Owl Tea Cake
I remember this one vividly. I bought a sample of this tea because a full cake was a bit expensive at the moment. Especially when I did not know how it would be and whether I would like it or not.
Because of this tea, Mahei is one of my favourite villages for sheng puerh. It was refreshing, but not too much. It was mainly sweet with notes of honey and golden raisins. After this session, I did buy a cake and it has been in my storage until now. I’m thinking of drinking it very soon… This clearly shows that this was one of the best teas of 2020.
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1999 4 Gold Coins Liu Bao
2020 is the year I started my Liu Bao journey and I tried many different ones. The Liu Bao that was the most remarkable of them all was a 4 Gold Coins from 1999.
The liquor flowed really well and had creamy flavours of camphor. The creaminess was and still is the best I have ever tasted. So full, rich and long-lasting. Definitely one of the best teas of 2020.
Yiwu Gushu Sheng 2008
I remember this one because I did not really want to drink it at first. I opened the bag and noticed relatively small leaves. I was ashamed of this thought because it was a superb tea.
It had a fruity and sweet flavour profile with a fantastic aftertaste. This is one of those sessions I will treasure for a long time.
2002 CNNP Dai Language 7542
I had this tea for the first time back in April during the first lockdown. I used an Yixing f1 teapot, but that pot did not really work well with this tea. I tried it again almost half a year later and I used a thick-walled Qing-dynasty Neiziwaihong teapot and I had a completely different experience.
It had a strong camphor flavour profile and even some creamy notes. This was a solid example of (semi-) aged sheng puerh. I still want to buy a full cake of this one, but need to find the budget for it…
Wu Di Hong Cha
I got this tea very recently in the EoT tea club and had such a fantastic experience with it. The flavours were good, but everything else just fell into place. Everything felt as it should be and it felt right.
The music was good, the tea was good and that was all I needed at that particular moment. This hong cha from Wuyishan is truly one of a kind.
Conclusion
I tried to make this list of the best teas I drank in 2020 as short as possible, but I wanted to include a variety of teas. I could make a list of only puerh or Liu Bao, but that would not really be interesting. For this list, I tried to pick some teas of every genre.
There is no particular order as these teas were all fantastic in their own way. They all had an impact on my life during the session and afterwards and that is why I put them on this list of best teas of 2020.
2020 was a bad year for most things, but not for my relationship with tea. It was a really interesting year in which I learned a lot. I tried new things, made new friends through tea and got to know myself a bit better. Onto an even better 2021!
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