What is the Best Tea Knife?

Over the years I have collected a stash of different tea picks and knives for breaking compressed teas. Like any hobby, you grow to prefer certain tools, but I thought I’d try a few other tea tool options to see what is the best tea knife.

Today I will be trying a number of tea knives as well as home/kitchen items that aren’t intended for tea cake breaking.

Method

I had the task of breaking down 3 Shou cakes, 2 white cakes, and 4 Fu Bricks, all with varying compression and leaf styles, for samples. This was the perfect opportunity to test a whole bunch of tools.

Tea Knife Rubric:

Cost – Is this Tea Knife affordable?
Availability – Can you buy this item anywhere or you need to order it from specific tea shops?
Durability – How long will this Tea Knife last?
Comfort – Is the Tea Knife handle comfortable? Does this Tea Knife hold up to breaking down a whole tea cake in a single sitting?
Safety – All these items are stabby, but how dangerous can they be while breaking tea?
Does it Puer Knife?

Tea Knife Battle! What is the Best Tea Knife?

Flat Metal Tea Knife

This tea breaking tool was labeled a “Tea Knife professional” on Amazon.

Cost – $3 on Amazon. Cheap!
Availability – Online Amazon/Aliexpress/etc
Durability – It is a solid lump of metal and it is so thick I cannot bend it.
Comfort – Awful and uncomfortable to hold. The handle is scratchy and gave me finger cramps due to the flat design.
Safety – The Tea Knife Professional is so dull and blunt, you aren’t cutting or hurting anything.
Does it Puer Knife?
I had my doubts, I have butter knives that have more of a taper, but the Tea Knife Professional worked well on loose compression, gently lifting up sheets of tea, but I can do that without a tool. This item was utterly useless with all other teas as it is too blunt and thick! The Flat Metal Tea Knife thing is trash and I’m going to shove it in a plant to look pretty.

Wooden 2-piece Cigar-look Tea Breaking Tool

I called this tea knife the Wooden “Cigar-look”. It has a screw on wooden top and brass fittings, with a tightly fitted tea knife inside. Great aesthetic if you love a classic wood look!

Cost – $7-12 each on Amazon.
Availability – Amazon, tea shops, and Aliexpress
Durability – Overall feels solidly built and super smooth job on the wood. All the metal pieces are welded/screwed on and strong. One of the most sturdier puer knives of the bunch.
Comfort – Fairly comfortable to use for daily use thanks to the thick round handle.
Safety – This tea knife is pointy but not drawing blood sharp.
Does it Puer Knife?
Quite well. This cigar-look wooden tea knife tears through puer cakes well, even with tight compression.

A few of my tea friends have this style of tea knife. I’ve teased them for not having a more sexy puer knife, but I can see why they never replaced it as it works decently enough for all situations.

Bamboo/Wooden Handle Tea Pick

These tea picks tend to have a carved bamboo handle wrapped in thread or wood with a metal stiletto or flat point spike glued on.

Cost – Often a “free with purchase” tea knife. Typically purchased for around $5.
Availability – Tea shops, Amazon, or Aliexpress.
Durability – Poor. In my tea journey so far, I have completely broken at least 5 and bent the majority of them. My bamboo tea knife bent when I was testing it for this article.
Comfort – The thumb cut-out is quite nice, so I didn’t mind using this tea pick.
Safety – Pokey, and I have drawn blood using them.
Does it Puer Knife?
These cheap bamboo/wooden tea picks do puer knife decently – the slim-taper works well to go through cakes but will bend and fall apart after a run-in with tight compression tea cakes. Also, thin stiletto-style tea knives tend to create a fair amount of shattering and tea dust if you are not careful.

“Beengslayer” Square Tapered Tea Knife

Before testing all the puer knives, the Beengslayer is my puer knife of choice. It is square, with a long diamond shaped taper.

Cost – $10- $20.
Availability – Crimson Lotus Tea is the first I saw to carry this style of tea knife and where I purchased mine. However, other tea shops have been carrying it, and I also found a “Beengslayer” on Amazon for $9.99.
Durability – Excellent, this is a slab of metal. I worry the handle will come off, but I haven’t had problems yet. If I break this one, I’ll replace it with an all metal model.
Comfort – The square thin handle becomes uncomfortable and crampy if you are breaking up a whole cake in one sitting, but okay for occasional use.
Safety – I have drawn blood with this guy – it is very sharp! Hide this from children and wrap it well in travel as it will stab through bags and packaging.
Does it Puer Knife?
“Beengslayer” makes quick work of anything you throw at it, even tight compression. The only con is poor ergonomics, so the Beengslayer isn’t great for chopping up entire cakes in one session.

Folding Leaf Tea Knife

I found this folding tea knife at a World Tea Expo, and I proceeded to buy one for my friends as it worked well.

Cost – $10 on Amazon.
Availability – An uncommon find and it isn’t labeled clearly. Some places label it as tea, others as a leaf pocket knife.
Durability – Quite solid since it is all metal.
Comfort – The Folding Tea Knife is a bit clunky to hold as the spine digs into the hand.
Safety – Mine is good but had reports of others being very sharp like a regular folding knife!
Does it Puer Knife?
This was my choice for bricks as it just goes right through due to the long wide flat shape. The wide blade helps pry off wide sheets of tea in bricks. However, the Folding Tea Knife doesn’t do well for cakes as it has the wrong leverage.

Awl

Awls are used to punch holes in leather, scratching wood, and sewing. Every tea forum/community has some tea nerd hipster constantly pushing that the Awl is the best puer knife solution.

Cost – Awls can be very cheap! $2-$10 each on Amazon. Even cheaper in bulk.
Availability – Easy to find! Awls are cheap on Amazon, but you can go to any physical Hardware or Craft store and find one.
Durability – Mine was poor, the construction is cheap as Awls are more or less meant to be replaced when dull.
Comfort – Awls are fairly comfortable to use thanks to the round handle.
Safety – Caution, Awls are incredibly sharp! My Awl cut through the package during shipping! You can impale yourself with this tool.
Does it Puer Knife?
Awls perform well, this is essentially a puer knife with the long stiletto design. My Awl did not hold up to a tight compression brick, I bent it on first use making it immediately trash. Awls are intended for a stabbing motion than prying, so I can see why it didn’t hold up. I rank Awls similar to the Bamboo Tea Pick (due to the same shattering tea issues), but Awls are easier to find and more comfortable.

Oyster Knife

One tea master told me an oyster knife is his tool of choice. I watched him use his oyster knife to pry a beeng horizontally in half, making two perfectly thin round cakes with very little drop.

I purchased a new Oyster Knife for this tea knife test. The one in my drawer looked just as good, but it has been in contact with oysters many times.

Cost – $10-$20. Mine was $13 Boston Blade 3″. There are a few shape options meant for different types of oysters.
Availability – Amazon and Kitchen supply shop. You may have this on hand.
Durability – Almost buy it for life. The intended use is to crack open shells so it is overclocked for tea.
Comfort – The most comfortable of all the non tea and tea knives. You can chop up tea cakes all day!
Safety – Not sharp at all, fairly safe. My oyster knife has a nonslip handle (and my kitchen one has a guard), so you are never scraping your knuckles on the tea cake.
Does it Puer Knife?
Oyster Knives is the best tool out of the lot! This Oyster Knife went through tightly compressed bricks excellently and did cakes well, with little dust or shattering. The blade does not bend at all despite the slimness as it needs the leverage and strength to pry open shells. What makes the Oyster Knife the best it uses the same range of motion to pop an oyster as prying off tea, and comfortable as most are shucking multiple oysters in a session.

Once I was done with my testing but still had more tea to break into samples, I did it all with the Oyster Knife.

Letter Opener

Out of all the test Tea Knives here, Letter Openers will vary a lot – there are many styles and price points. I almost didn’t include it.

Cost – $5 but they can range heavily. You can drop $50 on ones that look like swords.
Availability – I got mine off Amazon but I know I could get one if I raid my parents’ house.
Durability – Weak, it is made to rip paper.
Comfort – Poor as again, you are ripping paper.
Safety – Fairly dull, like a butter knife.
Does it Puer Knife?
On my first try the Letter Opener bent so bad I was worried I was going to break it. Letter Opening was okay for loosely compressed cakes, but otherwise should be back to ripping envelopes. As I mentioned earlier, Letter Openers will vary a lot on style and quality, so if you want to go this route I would select one in person than buying a random one online.

Flathead Screwdriver

I had no tea breaking options when I got my first puer cake in 2013, so I resorted to a screwdriver. I have also used a screwdriver + hammer to take down obnoxious jinchas.

Cost – $4 + but likely you own one or a set.
Availability – Easy to find at any big box or hardware store.
Durability – These are rated to take more abuse than a puer cake can dish out.
Comfort – Comfortable and easy to hold onto, though the intended motion is different.
Safety – Fairly safe, screwdrivers tend to not be sharp.
Does it Puer Knife?
I found Screwdrivers too aggressive and made excess tea dust due to thickness. Since there’s no pointed tip, it is hard to wedge into the tea cake, but if it can catch a Screwdriver works decently. I tried thinner screwdrivers but found the barrels were never long enough, only able to chip the edges of a tea cake. A screwdriver would be the desperate option if you own no tea knives and don’t eat oysters.

Table Knife

A regular Table Knife is my go-to tea knife while traveling. Why bring a tea knife that will get confiscated by TSA, but I can get one at any hotel or restaurant.

Cost – N/A
Availability – N/A
Durability – Excellent, but can range.
Comfort – Depends on the knife, but mine is flat and not comfortable for long usage.
Safety – Mixed. Mine is a butter knife so it can scratch me at most. Do not use a steak or kitchen knife! I have seen people whip out their sharp fishing knife and get hurt breaking a tea cake.
Does it Puer Knife?
Despite times calls for desperate measures. A regular table knife works okay on loose compression cakes and can get into bricks if you are determined. The leverage is wrong, the edge isn’t right, some knives will bend or shatter the tea. There are better as well as worse tools out there, but if you can’t find anything, you can make a table knife work.