Author: Oolong Owl

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Hooty Tea Travels – 2018 Tea Fest PDX Portland Oregon

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I recently attended the 2018 Tea Fest PDX in Portland on July 21st. Last year the Tea Fest PDX was successful, but it was cramped because they had a small space and got way more visitors than expected. 2018 Tea Fest PDX rented the entire World Forestry Center, instead of just a section of the outdoor area. With more space came more vendors, 40 listed on their website. It had a better flow this year as booths were not in straight rows causing traffic, though booths inside the building had some squished spaces. What I find the most interesting about… Continue reading, hoot!

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Aged White Tea Comparison from Healthy-Leaf

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Healthy-Leaf has an excellent aged white tea selection. I previously reviewed their 2009 Bask in the Sun, which was awesome. They have 2017 through to 2008 aged white teas. Today we will be drinking a 2015, 2011, and a 2008 Old White Tea.  All three white teas are Lao Bai Chas. Not much information on each besides year and the 2015 white is organic and wild. The price range of 2011 and 2015 is close, with the 2008 tea as a big jump. Leaf and Steeping Method Left = 2015, Middle = 2011, Right = 2008. The 2015 and 2011 look pretty… Continue reading, hoot!

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2016 Red Sunset Twin Shou Puer from Bana Tea Company

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I have enjoyed all of Bana Tea’s shou puer. At the last winter sale, I bought a whole bunch of teas from Bana Tea. This 2016 Red Sunset Twin Ripe puer caught my eye as it was a Vesper Chan tea and a 2 pack! I felt I didn’t need 2 cakes, so I split it with James TeaDB. It was simply 1 wrapper over 2 x 200gram cakes stacked together, so it was easy to pass the second cake away. This shou/ripe puer is grade 2-3 Bulang material. The fermented material was rested in Menghai for 2 years before… Continue reading, hoot!

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Honey Oolong and Honey Black from Floating Leaves Tea

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At my last visit to Floating Leaves Tea, I tried their Honey Oolong and Black Honey teas. I liked them both and the prices were great, so I purchased an ounce of each to play with at my own tea table. Let’s go! Floating Leaves Tea’s Honey Oolong Honey Oolong is actually Guifei Meiren (or Mixiang Oolong), the Oriental Beauty of Dong Ding oolongs. Dry Leaf and Steeping Infusions: The rolled balls of oolong smell like dried fruits. I used around 1 gram of leaf to 15ml of vessel size. Floating Leaves Tea’s oolongs love boiling water, so I used that. The… Continue reading, hoot!

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2012 Bulang Ancient Tree Shou Puer from Healthy-Leaf

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Today’s review is a 200 year old tree Bulang ripe puer. Healthy-Leaf’s 2012 Bulang Ancient Tree Shou Puer is a 357 gram cake that is priced at $49 (at this time). I love Healthy-Leaf’s selection of aged white tea, but I dipped into their shou to experience their range of teas. Dry Leaf and Steeping Method: The dry leaf is sweet and earthy scented. I went 1 gram of leaf to 14ml of vessel size, steeped gongfu style in boiling water. I did 2 rinses. Tasting of Health-Leaf’s 2012 Bulang Ancient Tree Shou Puer First, Second, and Third Infusion: This tea steeps up… Continue reading, hoot!

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2017 Secret Forest Sheng Puer and White from Essence of Tea

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Back in 2017 I did my first Essence of Tea order. I made a very calculated, review-read heavy buy as Essence of Tea is on the pricey side, and a bit more unexplored for me. I snagged 2017 Secret Forest sheng, but more so because I was buying the 2017 Secret Forest White, which is the same material processed differently. I sampled the 2017 Secret Forest White when I was over at a tea friends place and that tea sang to me. What makes this post a bit odd is I first sampled and drafted the review back in February.… Continue reading, hoot!

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2017 Impression Sheng Puer from Yunnan Sourcing

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Yunnan Sourcing‘s Impression series have been blended to be an affordable ager. Years back I tried the 2012 and 2014 Impression, both which were floating around in tea community Traveling Tea Boxes. At this time, all the Impression cakes are $23-$34.50 for 357grams, which seems to attract unsuspecting new tea drinkers to a cheap young puer out of Yunnan Sourcing’s huge collection. With that, this tea has a rep in the tea community as BITTER, harsh, strong, gut bombing toilet bowl cleaners that scare tea drinkers who are used to a more gentle tea. Now it is 2018. I have… Continue reading, hoot!

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Hooty Tea Travels – TEA PET CON 2018

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A Tea Pet convention is obviously one of those ideas you come up with while tea drunk. When I heard Pheonix Tea created the first annual TEA PET CON I had to go, despite my husband needs the car for the day. It was a cute, fun tea session with a large number of friends in which everyone brought their own tea pets to the table. I shared a couple of photos on Instagram, but I wanted to post more. Phoenix Tea always has the most interesting and weirdest of tea pets. This event had some new ones! I took advantage… Continue reading, hoot!

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Hooty Tea Travels – 2018 World Tea Expo Trends and Thoughts

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2018 World Tea Expo Highlights | 2018 World Tea Expo Haul What was Trending at the 2018 World Tea Expo? Everything is Expensive and the 2018 Tea Harvest is Killer 2018 is an expensive year, across the board. However, 2018 is also a good tea year, especially compared to 2017 which was not so great that I didn’t buy much oolong and puer despite the urge to stockpile for it being my zodiac year. Across the board, every farmer and tea producers I asked told me this year their teas are great, regardless of area. One Taiwanese vendor told me… Continue reading, hoot!

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Hooty Tea Travels – 2018 World Tea Expo Haul

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2018 World Tea Expo Highlights | 2018 World Tea Expo Trends & Thoughts It is everyone’s favorite World Tea Expo post –  the OWL HAUL! There were fewer vendors this year, so fewer samples, but I felt I got some good quality stuff. I skipped a number of vendors that I’ve gotten samples from in the past as I got plenty of tea. I managed to not need to ship things home, which was a first. My purse was filled with gushu, which I thought was entertaining. I did get pulled over for my suitcase setting off a problem at… Continue reading, hoot!