Author: Oolong Owl

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March 2016 White2Tea Club

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Let’s transport back a month to review the March 2016 White2Tea Club! The teas included for the month of March: 2011 Aged White Tea Fuding and 2009 Yiwu Raw Puer, 50 gram samples each and both available for purchase. I’d say White2tea was pretty generous this month with the sizes. Both teas are entering middle age, so this is a tasting of teas we can snag now at a decent price as the same tea a bit older is much more money. Both teas would be great for further aging. 2009 Yiwu Raw Puer from the March 2016 White2tea Club… Continue reading, hoot!

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Golden Honeydew Rooibos from Lupicia – Tea Review

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Today’s tea review is a popular tea from Lupicia – Golden Honeydew rooibos! Golden Honeydew is a California honeydew melon scented, green rooibos tea with marigold petals. I believe this tea is a San Francisco exclusive tea, as it was available for us non San Fran folk online only during special promotions. However, at the time of writing this, it is available without mention of it being limited time availability. I heard from many people this is one of the best Lupicia teas, so I had purchased it with my last Lupicia order. My Golden Honeydew rooibos came in the special… Continue reading, hoot!

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Chai Cola from Taylor’s Tonics – Tea Soda Review

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I found Taylor’s Tonics Chai Cola at a trip to a Long Beach California BevMo! My husband buys a lot of soda. My thing is tea, his thing is funky sodas. We will hit up BevMo!, old soda shops, small grocery stores when travelling, and World Market for weird and strange sodas. I occassionally post the most offensive tasting sodas on my instagram. My husband usually buys fruit or root beer type soda, he isn’t into cola or cream. That said, this Chai Cola would be something he’d pass on, but I snagged it as it is tea, a tea soda! This… Continue reading, hoot!

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2015 Bulang Ripe Puer Mini Cake from Bana Tea Company

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I purchased the 2015 Bulang Ripe Puer Mini Cake from the Los Angeles Tea Festival 2015. Bana Tea Company has excellent shou pu’er and the taster at the booth was lovely and the price was good for a little 100 gram cake, so I went for it. This bulang is a spring harvest from 100 year old trees from Bulang Mountain. The packaging is nice and simple, though had a chuckle with the translation it was from jungle trees. You have to go through Bana Tea Company’s site, but there you will find that the owner’s tea master is Tea Master Versper… Continue reading, hoot!

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05 Keemun Congfu from Joseph Wesley Black Tea – Tea Review

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I always recommend Joseph Wesley Black Teas for people who want really good black tea. I put in order a few months back for one of their beautifully handmade chawans, but also snagged their 05 Keemun Congfu. More packaging! I always enjoy Joseph Wesley’s packaging. Dry Leaf and Steeping Instructions Joseph Wesley’s 05 Keemun Congfu has thin delicate leaves with odd gold tip. The scent of this tea is strong, heady, and fruity. I am in the process of finding a good ratio for steeping blacks, and turns out there is very little info out there on how to gongfu a… Continue reading, hoot!

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2012 Huron Gold Needle from Whispering Pines Tea Co – Tea Review

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Today’s review is a shou cake from Whispering Pines Tea Co – 2012 Huron Gold Needle. I purchased this cake, along with the 2013 Ontario Shou, when they were just released in cake form. I had sampled both from tea community Travelling Tea Boxes and thought they were pretty tasty, inexpensive, and worth having a cake on hand. Interesting wrapper on this cake! Dry Leaf Wow, this is a gorgeous cake, one of the best looking shous I’ve seen! Huron Gold Needle has beautiful ripples of gold throughout the warm brown tea. Steeping Instructions I used boiling filtered water to… Continue reading, hoot!

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Sunday Tea Hoots 18 – Hello Hoot from Seattle

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I finally arrived in Seattle! I had a number of stressful days during the move. I have a big tea and tea ware collection, so I was nervous letting movers pack it, yet they know how to pack and it is insured that way so it is best to let them do the packing. I did lurk by the tea stash and watched them pack which made me feel better. What scared me was the sheer amount of tea ware I had squirreled away and how many boxes it took. This is all my tea ware, and these boxes are… Continue reading, hoot!

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Sunday Tea Hoots 17 – Moving Fatality

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Well this happened, the first fatality of my long distance move. Actually, I wasn’t even moving this tea pot yet, it was chilling on the tea table. The tea pot has been sitting on the tea table to dry before I was going to pack it into a box. I approached my tea table and the clay tea pot was broken, most of the pieces scattered on the table, with a few bits off the side of the tea table. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I was more baffled about what the hell happened to break the tea pot as it obviously did not fall… Continue reading, hoot!

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Clay Tea Pots from Taiwan Tea Crafts

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I found out that amazing Taiwanese tea seller Taiwan Tea Crafts has clay tea pots at a great price. I checked them out, and they got clay tea pots in the $35 to $50 range, but more importantly in the sizes I like – 100ml or less. If you like bigger pots, they also have 160-200ml sizes for $40-$48. I posted my clay tea pots on Instagram and have been getting lots of questions about them. First off, Taiwan Tea Crafts is quite clear these tea pots are not authentic, “…the clay used is tested to be free of heavy metals and contaminants.… Continue reading, hoot!

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Sunday Tea Hoots 16 – Moving Tea Woes

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Hi Tea Readers! I just dropped my husband off, who is heading to Seattle to start his new job. I’m lurking back here in Long Beach to finish up the move, and in 2 weeks I’ll be in Seattle. I was pretty busy the last few weeks going through things worth moving, and visiting friends and family. We went as far as driving up to Utah for a few days to see the Grandmother in Law. Black Tea Owl had a great time being on the road. One of the huge stressful things about me moving is my tea, specifically the… Continue reading, hoot!