Hooty Tea Travels – Traveling Gongfu Tea Style

During my last few cruises, I had a few readers ask that I go into more detail on my teaware set up. I just came back from (yet another) cruise through Alaska, so I have my travel teaware already set up. 2019 also brought some new tea gadgets so traveling with tea is even easier.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Char – Oolong Owl (@oolongowl) on Sep 10, 2019 at 2:04pm PDT Traveling Gongfu Tea Style – Hot Water When I road trip I take an electric kettle if I know my final destination… Continue reading, hoot!

Hooty Tea Travels – 2019 Teafest PDX in Portland Oregon

The 2019 Tea Fest PDX was in Portland Oregon on July 20th at the World Forestry Center. Compared to last year, the tea festival had 8 more vendors (48 total) and a couple of bigger vendors rented larger spaces. Portland also has the most amount of vendors that also have a table that you can sit down and have tea with. Like the previous two years, Tea Fest PDX sports a large range of vendors from Japanese teas, British tea time style, expensive puer, and kombucha. 2019 Tea Fest PDX Vendor Booths Minto Island Tea Company grows tea in Western… Continue reading, hoot!

Hooty Tea Travels – 2019 World Tea Expo Haul

2019 World Tea Expo Highlights | 2019 World Tea Expo Trends Now for the most important part of my trip to the 2019 World Tea Expo, the tea haul! Be sure to check out the World Tea Expo Highlights as I go more into detail on some of these teas. Oolong Owl’s 2019 World Tea Expo Tea Haul The big eye drawing items in this haul is the stuff I purchased – 2018 800 gram Fu brick, the 2015 heicha log, and a 2019 puer cake. All these teas I bought quite inexpensively and strangely. There were shenanigans of me going out… Continue reading, hoot!

Hooty Tea Travels – 2019 World Tea Expo Trends

2019 World Tea Expo Highlights | 2019 World Tea Expo Haul What was Trending at the 2019 World Tea Expo I go into more detail about some of these teas I mention below in my World Tea Expo Highlights. 2019 is a Rough Year A repeated topic during the World Tea Expo was the 2019 teas weather. Most regions are late or poor yield due to bad weather. A lot of stuff is now crazy expensive as there isn’t much tea out there. The overall message is the tea hits are dazzling, whereas the misses are dreadful. I heard the same… Continue reading, hoot!

Hooty Tea Travels – 2019 World Tea Expo Highlights

  2019 World Tea Expo Trends | 2019 World Tea Expo Haul  The 2019 World Tea Expo was in the Las Vegas Convention Center from June 11 to 13. If you are unfamiliar, the World Tea Expo is the biggest tea industry tradeshow in North America. The World Tea Expo is the place to check out the newest tea gadgets, trends, and teas. This is the place to network and learn about tea. This is my 6th World Tea Expo, so I’m no stranger to the three day tea bender in the desert. I took a lot of Instagram Story videos… Continue reading, hoot!

Hooty Tea Travels – 2019 Mediterranean Atlantic Cruise 2 – How I Tea on a Cruise Ship

My Mediterranean Atlantic cruise was a 12 day trip with a day or two on each end for travelling and time zone craziness. Previous cruises I brought simply a travel tea tumbler to do grandpa style, along with a double walled stainless steel tumbler to double as hot water storage for tea or ice water for non-tea use. I’d often use the travel tea tumbler as a pseudo teapot. I found after a couple of days I got really bored with grandpa style and cold brew tea, so for this trip, I brought a teapot. I looked for a few… Continue reading, hoot!

Hooty Tea Travels – 2019 Mediterranean Atlantic Cruise feat. Ports and Hauls

I recently came back from a long, well-needed vacation from Rome to London. I stayed in Rome for two days, then hopped on a Princess Cruise ship from Civitavecchia, then sailed to Livorno, Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Gibraltar, Lisbon, Normandy, and Southampton for 10 more days. To make it confusing, I did a tour bus up to Florence from Livorno, a day in Nice from Monte Carlo, and finally a day in Paris from Normandy. Along the way, I looked for tea but mostly found food. I ended up buying all flavoured teas this entire trip. All the shops I went… Continue reading, hoot!

Will It Gongfu? The Last Hoot

This is it. THE LAST HOOT. In the deep bowels of tea drunk, I thought up the unholiest blend. White2tea’s 2016 Last Thoughts Sheng Puer First We Feast / Heatonist’s The Last Dab Reduxx Pepper X and Chocolate Pepper X Reduxx Both of THE LASTS must be gongfu’d into THE LAST HOOT! If you aren’t familiar with White2Tea’s Last Thoughts, it is a high-end sheng puer currently priced at $469 per 357gram cake. I like this tea for real special occasions and tea drunk tomfoolery, though I am more than happy with cheaper tea drunkard teas like 2016 We Go High.… Continue reading, hoot!

Oolong Owl’s 2018 Tea Consumption and Stash Data Report

Hello 2019! With 2018 done, it is time for me to look back on how much tea I drank and own. For readers, a look into someone with a potential tea hoarding problem. Here is a template of my Tea Stash Spreadsheet! Save a copy and start keeping track of your stash. I highly suggest tracking your tea stash before it gets out of control! This is the method I use to track my personal tea consumption. Everything tea that I own is weighed, including samples. I weigh every gram of tea I drink. Oolong Owl’s 2018 Tea Stash Count… Continue reading, hoot!

Hooty Tea Travels – 2018 Caribbean Princess Cruise

During December 2018 I went on a Caribbean Cruise.  I love cruising. I find it ultra relaxing being able to sit in the lounge and drink tea while watching the water and the people. The boat does all the travel for me, stopping in new places giving a taste of each spot. Cruise ships have lots of things to do from trivia, movies, pools, spas, shopping, live shows, but also raffles and free stuff (I got so many free necklaces and tote bags). However, my main priority on cruises is not swimming (this owl hates water and beaches) but eating… Continue reading, hoot!