Sunday Tea Hoots 13 – Tea Table Flowers

As an checkout impulse buy at the Asian Supermarket, I bought a narcissus bulb in a water dish. I’m pretty bad at plants, I’m alright with succulents as I can propagate them faster than I can kill them and I can keep a lucky bamboo alive, so I figure I could give this narcissus a go. I placed it behind my tea table for a more interesting background, whereas most of the background is my paper towel holder, blow torch, and tupperware containers. In a few days, it bloomed pretty white star shaped flowers with yellow middles! Interesting background indeed!… Continue reading, hoot!

Oolong Owl’s Daily Tea Consumption

Since I’ve been in Spreadsheet everything mode, I started a spreadsheet documenting my daily tea consumption which I find to be the most helpful tea spreadsheet I’ve created. I found tracking how much tea I drink to be SUPER SUPER helpful in understanding my tea drinking practices, learning about my teas and being more effective with tea purchases. What my Daily Tea Consumption Spreadsheet tracks 1. Tea per gram each day. 2. How much tea leaves my house (gifted/swapped) 3. How much tea comes in. 4. Running totals of whether my stash is growing or shrinking Here is a screen shot of my spreadsheet for… Continue reading, hoot!

Oolong Owl’s Tea Favorites of 2014

The Tea Owls and I had a lot of awesome tea in 2014! What I find the most interesting when I think about the teas I’ve had in 2014 is how my tastes have changed. I still love trying new teas – sometimes opening a tea package gives me more joy than drinking an old favorite. Drinking a wild tea blend is still exciting. However, now I don’t mind astringency these days whereas before it was a big turn off. I remember last year brewing raw pu’er with lower water temperatures of 185F, now I use boiling water. Come at me… Continue reading, hoot!

Discontinued Teas – Finding old favorite teas and heartbreak

I write this as I sip at one of my favorite teas – Good Morning Sunshine – a guayusa citrus blend from Butiki Teas. Not too long ago, Butiki Teas announced she is closing up shop. My undergrad major is psychology. In a marketing psychology class I came to realize what drives me to buy stuff – limited quantities. If I have the feeling if I miss out on something, I freak out. When I heard Butiki Teas was closing down, I ordered a bunch of my favorites (and some new teas that I would regret not trying), not waiting for any… Continue reading, hoot!

World Tea Expo 2014 – Day 1 Experience as a Tea Blogger

  Oolong Owl Invades the World Tea Expo – Day 1 Read Day 2! | Read Day 3! Hi Tea peeps! The Tea Owls and I were at the World Tea Expo 2014 today! YAY! This is my first World Tea Expo and it was really spiffy to be in my city of Long Beach, California this year. I read on IHeartTeas blog to prepare for the tea expo. I made a list of teas booths I had to see, but walking into the showroom…. S O  M U C H  T E A Not the greatest pictures today as they are all… Continue reading, hoot!

Oolong Owl will be at the World Tea Expo 2014!

Good news everyone! Oolong Owl will be at the World Tea Expo 2014 in Long Beach California! The World Tea Expo is going on this year May 29th to 31st, 2014. The World Tea Expo is a trade show for all specialty tea needs – tea sellers and suppliers, tea room owners, and other merchants meet and show off new tea products! Also at the World Tea Expo is conferences, tastings, and workshops. In the World Tea Expo schedule, blending award winning teas, current tea trends, tea business selling topics, and specific tea type tastings. In addition, World Tea Expo will have the 2014 World Tea Awards… Continue reading, hoot!

Oolong Owl Tea Tip #1 – Get organized by adding notes to your tea

There is a point a tea drinker reaches when you have so much tea stashed and you lose track of specifics for each tea in your collection. As a tea drinker with a big stash, I’ve come across tea stash organization problems like: Steeping a cup of tea that was fantastic, especially after experimenting with the steep times or amounts, and forgot what I did when making the next cup. Finding a package of tea in the back of your cupboard and have no idea how old it is. The tea came without steeping instructions, no ingredient list, or isn’t in… Continue reading, hoot!

Lupicia Honolulu – Oolong Owl’s Cruise to Hawaii part 3

During my cruise to Hawaii, I was lucky to go to Lupicia in Honolulu! I’ve been to the Lupicia in Torrance, California, but their location in Honolulu is much bigger and appears to carry more of their tea lineup. Lupicia is located in Ala Moana Center, on the ground floor. It was really easy to find, at least for me as I was entering from where the buses and trolleys unload. After some brief wandering around the mall, I found it! Whoa, big store! This is probably one of the biggest tea shops I’ve been to so far. All along the left wall is tea that… Continue reading, hoot!

Afternoon Tea Journal – Oolong Owl’s Hawaiian Cruise part 2

Holy Pu’er cakes! Princess Cruises‘ Afternoon Tea is amazing! On my last cruise, I had just 3 days to have afternoon tea. My most recent cruise to Hawaii I was on a 15 day cruise. I only missed 2 afternoon teas. Intern Tea Owl, Aloha Owl (he was called Sunset Owl, but after Hawaii he wants to be called Aloha Owl), Tea hating Husband and I ate so many mini sandwiches and cakes. We also had lots of fun and ate way too much food! We went to afternoon tea so much they had my hot water for my loose leaf… Continue reading, hoot!

The Life of an Oolong Tea Leaf – Guest Post

Hi Tea Owls! Most of the time the Tea Owls and I guzzle down Oolong tea like it is going out of style. Time to switch gears a bit and have some learning time here at OolongOwl!  Sit back and learn about the love and effort put in to making Oolong tea by Guest Poster Samantha from Seattle Coffee Gear. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Life of an Oolong Tea Leaf Far from an episode of the X Files, here are the basics to jump start your Oolong education. While Oolong remains most popular in southern China and Taiwan, don’t be afraid to try this… Continue reading, hoot!