How my "tea lifestyle" is shaping up for 2024

the deep steep on my favorite blends, current sipping habits + what's ahead

I’ve always loved a good cup of black tea in the morning, but after beginning to dabble in some new-to-me varieties and blends in 2022, I would say 2023 was the year I really "got into” tea. That heated-up interest and new focus led to learning more about teas, trying quite a few new teas, and even rebranding my podcast and this Substack.

Looking into 2024 and beyond, I envision tea becoming a bigger and bigger part of my life. It seems to be evolving beyond a simple beverage for me and into something more akin to a hobby—even, maybe, a lifestyle.

It’s about more than just the tea blends themselves. I could spend the rest of my life studying and tasting tea and never know everything there is to know about this magical drink. But there’s an essence to the preparation, serving, and enjoyment of tea I’m trying to incorporate in the rest of my life as well.

Simply put, I want to create a reality in which the kettle is always on. A life in which I’m available for the things that matter, like quiet connection or warm conversation. A world in which slowing down and enjoying small rituals becomes a regular part of each day.

Perhaps it sounds simplistic, but tea feels like my doorway to this way of being in the world, and the more I explore it, the more drawn-in I feel.

To celebrate tea’s place in my life and look forward to the future, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite sips of 2023, as well as what I’m hoping to incorporate into my “tea life” in 2024 and beyond.

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

Looking back: my fave sips of 2023

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• My go-to morning MVP for the past couple years has been Gorge Sunrise, a smooth, traditional British breakfast blend from family-owned tea company Good Medicine Tea (use code TEASMADE at checkout for 15% off your first order.)

• That said, this year I branched out quite a bit in the black tea department. I dabbled in seasonal teas, like Celebration from Harney & Sons and No. 25 Morning Light from Smith Tea.

• I reserved Sunday mornings for Sunday Morning, a very special blend with notes of vanilla from Light of Day Organics, a tea farm in - get this - northern Michigan!

• I also added more decaf black teas to my cabinet, including Decaf Paris and Decaf Earl Grey. I often enjoy a flavorful black tea as an afternoon beverage, but also enjoy avoiding caffeine after 2 PM or so. These blends let me do both.

• I’m excited to see that Lover’s Leap, a delicate black tea featuring rose and chamomile petals, is back in stock at Smith Tea - I enjoyed it quite a lot around Valentine’s Day last year!

• Herbal blends are their own category entirely, so I’ll be writing about them in detail in a future post!

New-to-me in 2023

• I started dabbling in white teas, and it turns out I love this delicate, gently-processed version of camellia sinensis. No. 72 White Petal from Smith Tea and White Christmas from Harney & Sons were two I enjoyed in 2023, and I’d like to really dive in and learn more.

• I said “ooh!” to oolongs. These are smooth, easy-drinking teas that I love in the afternoon. To start, you can’t really go wrong with a creamy and smooth blend like the Guangzhou Milk Oolong from David’s Tea.

• I started backing off the add-ins. Don’t get me wrong, there is still nothing I love better than a milky, slightly-sweet black blend first thing in the morning. But I’ve slowly started adding less and less sweetener, and relying less on half-and-half or milk to tone down bitterness.
  
  This is a lot easier to do now because…

• I started saying “no” to low-quality tea. Sometimes when you’re out, you do what you gotta do. But most of the bagged teas on the grocery store shelf are made with really low-grade tea - “tea dust” as it’s aptly called - and the bags themselves are often treated in chlorine and other chemicals. No, thanks.
  
  The more I’ve replaced those cheap bags with high-quality, loose-leaf tea, the more it’s revolutionized tea for me. It does cost more, but a little bit will brew a lot of tea, and it is easier to make correctly than in those tightly-packed tea bags. When loose-leaf isn’t an option, sachets and pyramid-style bags are my second choice. They allow the water to better circulate around the leaves and typically hold better quality tea, too.

Photo by 五玄土 ORIENTO on Unsplash

What’s brewing in 2024?

• More experimentation with new blends and varieties. I’ve never been a huge fan of green teas, but I’m wondering if applying a “quality first” mentality might help me get past that bias - and I’d like to get better versed in matcha, too! I want to keep expanding on my white tea repertoire, and start dabbling in pu-ehr, an oxidized and fermented black tea that, as I understand, can take some getting used to.

• Learning more about worldwide tea rituals and practices. I’m most familiar with the English-style afternoon tea, but am curious about Japanese and Chinese tea rituals, tea meditations, and tea traditions from all over the world.

• I will be looking for opportunities to sit down with a cup. There’s something about our modern grab-and-go culture that is really hard to pull off with tea. Try ordering a cup of tea at a typical coffee shop and you’ll see what I mean. There’s something just plain depressing about being handed a paper cup with a teabag string hanging limply out the side. The tea’s usually under-brewed or over-brewed, and if you want to add anything, there’s going to be an awkward juggle to remove the lid, take out the bag, stir, and put the whole thing back together again.

My stepdaughter Sammi and I, enjoying afternoon tea at Apothica Teas in Niles, MI

It seems to me that in order to capture the spirit of tea, it’s meant to be prepared mindfully and enjoyed socially. So I’ve found myself drifting away from an on-the-go style of consumption, even though that sometimes means the alternative is a mug of bagged tea in a diner (at least I’m sitting down).

I would love if more restaurants put care and thought into their tea options and tea service! Sometimes the only option in the moment is an awkward paper cup or a weak bag in a mug, but in the future I’ll be looking for more ways to enjoy tea slowly, mindfully — and preferably, sitting still.

Are you a tea drinker? Do you have any favorite varieties to share, or tea practices you’d like to try in 2024?