Takeya Flash Chill Iced Tea Maker: Oolong Owl review!

Noooo! My A/C died and it’s still hot here in Southern California! Thankfully, my new Takeya Flash Chill Iced Tea Maker arrived the night before! I have been eyeing the Takeya Flash Chill Iced Tea Maker for awhile. What interested me for the Takeya Flash Chill Iced Tea Maker was the long, large tea filter, which I thought gave plenty of room for the tea to expand as well as no need to completely fill the pitcher with hot water. I also wanted a non-glass pitcher, as my household is crazy. I purchased this snazzy iced tea maker off Amazon.com.… Continue reading, hoot!

Caramel Vanilla Assam from Butiki Teas – Tea Review

Caramel Vanilla Assam is a black tea blend with Taiwanese Assam. This tea is by Butiki Teas, an Oolong Owl favorite tea seller. I have heard so many good things about Butiki Teas black teas, especially their Taiwanese Assam. Caramel Vanilla Assam is also highly rated on Steepster, currently riding the first page of the best rated teas of the community. I had to snag this tea with my last, giant, Butiki Teas order. Dry Leaf: I tried scooping out the tea and WOW LOOK IT THE SIZE OF THE LEAF! This is something I expect with a good oolong… Continue reading, hoot!

Sweet Fragrance Pu’er from Tea Setter – Tea Review

Sweet Fragrance Pu’er is a 1992 loose ripe pu’er sold by Tea Setter. Tea Setter has a small, yet interesting selection, of oolong and pu’er teas. It appears they are in the process of getting some green teas as well. What I found to be a sweet deal on their site is their Gaiwan Starter Set as you get a glass gaiwan + 6 tea samples, perfect to start the gongfu tea adventure! Their entire pu’er line looks great – I decided to try this Sweet Fragrance Pu’er first, as I do have a sweet tooth. Dry Leaf: The leaf… Continue reading, hoot!

Cotton Candy White Tea from 52 Teas – Tea Review

Cotton Candy White Tea is a shou mei base with cornflowers and organic flavoring. This white tea blend is tea of the week for September 2, 2013 as part of 52 Teas. You can purchase this blend at their online store, Zoomdweebie’s. First off, I need to mention that Zoomdweebies has a crowdfunding project at Indiegogo to revive their local tea bar. Totally check that out! Mmmm, cotton candy. It was one of those foods my parents never let me try as a child. I finally had cotton candy as a teenager, when I was old enough to go to… Continue reading, hoot!

Hand Picked Early Spring Tieguanyin from Verdant Tea – Tea Review

Hand Picked Early Spring Tieguanyin is an oolong from Verdant Tea. This batch was picked on April 12, 2013. This tea is hand in the mountains near Daping, China. However, this particular batch is hand picked by us at Oolong Owls, as I accidentally spilled the pouch of tea on the floor. Sigh. By the way, tieguanyin is painful to step on. I preordered this tea and received it sometime in May – talk about fresh! However, mass tea backlog here at Oolong Owl got it shuffled to the back. Thankfully, as I write this, Hand Picked Early Spring Tieguanyin… Continue reading, hoot!

Special Dark Ripe Loose Leaf Pu’er 2006 from Mandala Tea – Tea Review

Special Dark Pu’er is a loose leaf, ripe/shu 2006 pu’er from Mandala Tea. Mandala’s Special Dark Pu’er was on my “must try!” list before it was even listed for sale. With my last Mandala Tea order, I snagged this and a bunch of other ripe pu’er for more pu’er tea drunk party times. The website description of Special Dark Pu’er cites an indulgent cocoa like tea with a soundtrack of the dark side….hmm. I do like the dark side! Let’s give this pu’er a go! Dry Leaf: Special Dark Pu’er has a dusty dry coloured brown leaf, with some lighter… Continue reading, hoot!

Orange Glam from Steep City Teas – Tea Review

Orange Glam is a green tea accented with orange peel and lily blossoms.  The tea is from Steep City Teas. Blarg, I really want pu’er but it’s FREAKING HOT outside. It’s the end of August, it’s Southern California, and ewww so hot!!! Hot tea is not appealing right now, however the Oolong Owl must drink something! I did a huge Steep City Teas order recently and I purchased Orange Glam purely on their Ginger Zinger having a really nice orange flavor to it. Since Steep City Teas is a Florida company, I figure their orange tea has to be good.… Continue reading, hoot!

Kuwacha Sencha – Mulberry Leaf from Kesennuma Kuwacha Eitoku via Yunomi – Tea Review

Kuwacha Sencha – Mulberry leaf tea is from supplier Kuwacha Eitoku. I obtained this tea from Yunomi.us from the August Tea Samplers Club. Mulberry leaf? I never heard of this tea! I’ve had mulberries in tea, which taste very sweet and honey like, but not the leaves and definitely not as the main ingredient. According to the information I got with my tea, the processing of this tea is the same as sencha, and as we see later, so is the steeping method. Out of the three teas in this month’s Tea Samplers Club, this Kuwacha Sencha – Mulberry leaf… Continue reading, hoot!

Traveling Tea box: Oolong Owl’s first experience with a traveling tea box!

This lucky tea owl got to participate in a traveling tea box! A traveling tea box is a tea package full of tea goodies pass-mailed around. Whatever tea you take out or sample, you replace with teas you own, then you mail the box to the next person. Of course, these boxes take quite a bit of organization to pull off and trust that they don’t get lost. Some tea boxes are shipped around the world! This particular one I participated in was for US only, to save on shipping costs. There are a couple travelling tea boxes going around… Continue reading, hoot!

With Open Eyes from Butiki Teas – Tea Review

With Open Eyes is a Hangzhou Dragon Well flavored with strawberry, ginger and toffee. This tea is from Butiki Teas! Oooh a dragon well green tea blend! You don’t see those too often! Of course, it is a Butiki Teas blend, so it will be good! I do love strawberry and ginger combinations as they remind me of berry ginger ale, one of my favorite soda pop flavors. Dry Leaf: Nice sheets of dragon well leaves accented with strawberry slices and stringy looking ginger. There is a generous amount of strawberry in this blend! Smell? Oh man. Out of my… Continue reading, hoot!