Author: Oolong Owl

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2016 Nightlife from White2Tea

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White2tea‘s Nightlife is a Yue Guan Bai (aka Moonlight white) Yunnan white tea. Nightlife is apparently a high grade tea, made from a large leaf varietal reserved for sheng puer. I purchased this tea on a whim. Hey, I like Yueguanbai/Moonlight whites, so I had no issues dropping blind on a 200 gram cake from my dealer White2Tea. I purchased it at release and it smelled really strong funky from the journey, so I let it air a bit before tucking it with my other moonlight cakes. Quickly, 2016 Nightlife sold out. At first, I am not sure why they sold… Continue reading, hoot!

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Will it Gongfu? Red Rose Canada Day Edition

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Red Rose is a tea I drank as a kid growing up in Vancouver Canada. Majority of restaurants and coffee shops in Canada carry Red Rose. Likely many homes have a box of it in the cupboard, along with Canadian Tetley tea. Interestingly, and I have wrote about this before, Canadian boxed tea is prized in the US as it tastes better than the ones made for US drinkers. It appears the Canadian Red Rose tea in particular is a straight Orange Pekoe, vs the weaker blend that the US gets. It actually took me visiting four shops in Vancouver to find Red… Continue reading, hoot!

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Cusa Tea – Premium Instant Tea Review

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I came across Cusa Tea at the World Tea Expo. I was reluctant to try as instant tea is generally not that great, and I’ve had a few run ins with other instant tea sellers who disliked my review as they claimed their tea is better than loose leaf tea (like whaaaat?). I had a sample as was actually pretty impressed with Cusa Tea’s product, which is fast tea for people on the go. What sets Cusa Tea apart from the other instant teas is the material is all USDA organic. They also use a different method to instant their tea by… Continue reading, hoot!

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May 2017 White2Tea Club feat. Fresh Lincang

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Ooooh, finally it is 2017 tea time! May 2017 White2Tea club is Lincang Fresh Green and Puer Maocha. Both teas are the same material and farmer, but processed differently. As much as I wanted to drink these side by side, rolling two different temperatures would of drive me crazy. I own two kettles, but that also requires me to clear room in my cluttered tea space. 2017 Lincang Fresh Green Tea I went low temperature rocking 175F/79c, going high on leaf for a green – 1 gram for 15ml vessel size. The hot leaf smells quite fruity, like chewing gum.… Continue reading, hoot!

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2017 World Tea Expo Trends and Thoughts – Oolong Owl Hooty Tea Travels

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| Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Haul | What was trending at the 2017 World Tea Expo? Lots of Korean Tea – The most common question I was asked was “I got X-amount-of-time, what do I need to check out that stands out this year?” My answer every time was “Korean Tea!” There was so much Korean Tea this year, at least 7 booths! Previous years there was only one or two Korean tea booths and they mostly carried traditional medicine stuff. I’ve been busting my butt trying to get Korean tea for years, but so much of it doesn’t… Continue reading, hoot!

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2017 World Tea Expo Haul – Oolong Owl Hooty Tea Travels

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| Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Trends & Thoughts | HAUL TIME! I packed ultra light this year, so I had most of a carry-on left for tea. I even left my camera behind, which gave me more personal bag carry room. I still had things shipped home because I bought something sharp, but I ended up using a medium flat rate to lighten the damage. Thankfully, my flat rate box arrived in 2 days as I was going crazy trying to not open what I took home in my suitcase. This is the full spread, mixed with samples and… Continue reading, hoot!

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2017 World Tea Expo Day 3 – Oolong Owl Hooty Tea Travels

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| Day 1 | Day 2 | Haul | Trends & Thoughts | This was a shorter day today, due to me having to leave a few hours early to make the post office and my flight home. Today’s goals were to get to the remaining places on my list and vulture circling to lighten my wallet. The Expo today had a smaller turnout and many vendors were late or not ready, causing me circle around and around for the first hour. Zealong Tea uses the Taiwanese Qing Xin cultivar, but grown in New Zealand. Of most interest was their unflavored teas and modern… Continue reading, hoot!

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2017 World Tea Expo Day 2 – Oolong Owl Hooty Tea Travels

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| Day 1 | Day 3 | Haul | Trends & Thoughts | I started Day 2 of the World Tea Expo with some Rhubarb Oolong from the Tea Source. I actually quite like this flavored oolong as it does taste like rhubarb. I forgot to post this for day 1, so here it is today – while I waited for the expo to start I saw this tea bag which gave me a chuckle. First booth to flag me down was Cusa Tea. I will admit, I am scared by instant tea these days after a few bad encounters, especially at World… Continue reading, hoot!

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2017 World Tea Expo Day 1 – Oolong Owl Hooty Tea Travels

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Welcome to Oolong Owl’s coverage of the 2017 World Tea Expo! Day 2 | Day 3 | Haul | Trends & Thoughts | Day 1 was a short day of 3 to 6pm, which made it more of a networking day as there wasn’t much time to see much of the show floor. I flew in that morning, and arrived to the convention center early, wandering around looking for people I knew. This year was kind of sad as many tea bloggers and people I know were not in attendance. Upon opening of the day, they had dragons open the show. First stop, I… Continue reading, hoot!

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Oolong Owl will be at the World Tea Expo 2017!

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The Tea Owls and I will be at the World Tea Expo 2017 in Las Vegas June 13th to 15th! World Tea Expo is an industry only event, showing the best and newest happening in tea! This will be my fourth year attending. Here are my previous World Tea Expo adventures! World Tea Expo 2016 – Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Haul World Tea Expo 2015 – Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Haul World Tea Expo 2014 – Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Haul These will be the Tea Owl in attendance for… Continue reading, hoot!