Author: Oolong Owl

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Sexy Chai from Steep City Teas – Tea Review

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Sexy Chai is a black chai blend featuring floral elements of lavender and rose. This fun, sexy take on chai is from Steep City Teas. Hmmm, this is the first chai for me to review here at Oolong Owl. I’ll give you tea owlets some background on my chai history. During my last year of university, I loved SPICY chais. I actually burned my tongue on too much spice once when I added multiple tea bags for one cup of tea. After university, I had a bad run in with cardamon, so I stopped getting chais, especially with cardamon in it. These… Continue reading, hoot!

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Mandala Phatty Cake from Mandala Tea – Tea Review

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Mandala Phatty Cake is an exclusive, ripe (shu) pu’er 2011 cake from Mandala Tea! My tea collection is on the high side and as 2013 first flush teas are starting to be sold, I’m freaking out. All those greens and white teas I have in my stash that I need to drink now! I dislike stale tea. Then I started thinking, hey, pu’er teas get better with age! I should get some and I don’t have to worry about my teas going stale. So I researched! Mandala Tea caught my eye for having some good pu’er. After trying to figure out what to… Continue reading, hoot!

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Oolong Owl’s First Tuocha

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I had met some other tea lovers in person from Steepster the other weekend and we had a tea swap. One had brought a baggie filled with pu’er tuochas. I was happy to take some off her hands! The problem? We weren’t sure what tuocha was what, since there was very little English on the packaging. She did inform me there was some sheng/raw pu’er in there, but not sure which ones. I’m not experienced enough to tell any of the little cakes by smell, if that is even possible to do. To my surprise, Tuochas are smaller than I thought… Continue reading, hoot!

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Coconut Oolong from Zen Tea – Tea Review

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Today’s tea review is the lovely Coconut Oolong from ZenTeaLife.com! I got this tea as a free sample awhile back and drank it all! It was soooo good! When I was making a  ZenTeaLife.com order, Coconut Oolong was a no brainer addition to my shopping cart. DRY LEAF: Very creamy coconut smell! The leaves are quite large, and a wonderful rich green colour, oooh yum! STEEPED: I did a 190F steep for 3 minutes. Lovely dark gold cup of tea here! Uggg and I filled my cup too high! I was stuck sipping my tea cup off the kitchen counter until it was safe for me to… Continue reading, hoot!

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White Pu’erh: Mandarin Orange from New Mexico Tea Co – Tea Review and Experience

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White Pu-erh: Mandarin Orange is an aged white tea pu-erh presented inside a real mandarin orange! This tea is from New Mexico Tea Company. The description of making this White Pu-erh: Mandarin Orange tea: “From the careful plucking of centuries old tea bushes, to the rolling on wide wicker baskets to the natural wood fires used to flash heat the mandarin orange peel, everything is done entirely by hand. Firing the orange peel serves to kill any microorganisms that may be present.” Okay, that is hardcore. However, I purely bought one of these oranges because it seemed really cool and crazy that there’s tea… Continue reading, hoot!

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Liquid Jade from Art of Tea – Tea Review

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Liquid Jade is an organic green and white blend with bergamont. This award winning blend is from Art of Tea. When I saw this tea in Art of Tea‘s lineup I was intrigued. I do love “fresh” teas that add some relief to this dry, hot California weather. Let’s give this tea a try! DRY LEAF: Liquid Jade, from the package, smells lightly of bergamont. Yum! The tea leaves are a mix of varying shades of green and brown. STEEPED: After 3 minutes of steeping at 175F I had a classic golden cup of tea that smells fresh, grassy, citrusy and a little… Continue reading, hoot!

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Gyokuro Standard (Kurihara Tea) via Yunomi.us – Tea Review

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Gyokuro Standard is a 2012 Ichibancha first flush Gyokuro from Kurihara Tea, which I recieved from Yunomi.us. Ahhh Gyokuro. I need more of this tea in my life. I want to experiment more with steeping times, but this tea is on the pricey side as well as having a short shelf life. I’m in conflict as they seem like a tea I should save for special occasions  but gyokuro feels so full of energy that I need to have them often! Yunomi.us pointed out to me I need to try gyokuro at a lower temperature – which is what I’ll be doing today with my… Continue reading, hoot!

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Peach Picnic from The Persimmon Tree – Tea Review

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Peach Picnic is a caffeine free, fruity and citrus green rooibos blend from The Persimmon Tree. I admit, I’m not big on rooibos, but I always am up to trying some as I need more caffeine free teas in my tea rotation. You know, so I can drink more tea at all hours! However recently I’ve been noticing green rooibos is pretty good. Unfortunately, green rooibos blends seem not as common, most likely because it is more expensive to produce. BOOO! The Persimmon Tree does some really great teas so I am happy to give this one a try! I invited Speedster to join… Continue reading, hoot!

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Pineberry Honeybush from 52 Teas – Tea Review

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Pineberry Honeybush is a caffeine free blend featuring freeze dried pineapple, strawberry and marshmallow root. This tea is from 52 Teas, tea of the week for April 8th, 2013. What the bleep is a pineberry? Lemmie wikipedia it for you. Pineberries are smaller than strawberries, but have a taste of both pineapple and strawberry. Funky! I was hoping to find some for when I reviewed this tea, but no luck. I don’t think I’ve ever seen these fruits in person, and I’ve see some weird ones like kiwi berry/grape things. I knew what a pineberry was when this tea popped… Continue reading, hoot!

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Laoshan Black Chocolate Genmaicha from Verdant Tea – Tea Review

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Laoshan Black Chocolate Genmaicha is a genmaicha blend from Verdant Tea. This blend features Verdant’s Laoshan Black, a little Shui Jin Gui Wuyi Oolong, hand crafted wild rice from Minnesota, and organic fair trade toasted jasmine rice. Oh, and organic cacao nibs. I really wanted to try Laoshan Black and this blend, but I was on a budget. So I opted to get an 1 oz of this blend, as I tend to drink more blends than straight unflavored teas. DRY LEAF: The tea smells like dark chocolate! Good dark chocolate, kinda like Lindt’s Dark Chocolate – Ohh yum, I love that… Continue reading, hoot!