Category: Tea Journey

Oolong Owl’s tea discoveries!

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Let’s Blend Genmaicha – Yunomi September 2013 Tea Samplers Club

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Wow, Yunomi.us out did themselves for the Tea Samplers Club for September! For the month of September, Yunomi.us Tea Samplers Club  included: Organic Autumn Bancha from NaturaliTea. The leaf has an interesting mix of yellow and lower saturated green, compared to sencha, with a herb and celery scent. Organic Autumn Hojicha from the Takeo family. This tea as a lovely roasted scent with a great colour of fall: light greens and browns, a little lighter and delicate appearance than other hojichas I’ve seen. Genmai (toasted rice)  from Kyoto Obubu Tea Plantations. The genmai features petite roasted rice with the odd mini… Continue reading, hoot!

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Oolong Owl Visits the 2013 Los Angeles International Tea Festival

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I was lucky enough to visit the 3rd annual 2013 Los Angeles International Tea Festival on Saturday, September 28th! Well, I bought tickets off Living Social for a 2 for 1 deal, so I brought my tea hating husband along.. to carry my spoils and steal extra samples! First off, my Owl tea manicure for the event! The 2013 Los Angeles International Tea Festival was held at the Japanese American National Museum. The festival had booths outside as well as inside the museum, with about 20 booths along with seminars and workshops going on. I’ve been to other festivals and trade… Continue reading, hoot!

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Oolong Owl’s Disneyland Club 33 Experience

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Hi Tea Owls! Recently, I was able to go to Disneyland’s Club 33 and have tea there! What is Club 33? It is a member’s only club/dining room and the only place at Disneyland that serves alcohol. This place is not open to the public and you’ll need to be a member or invited. Eating at Club 33 is quite pricey, over $80 minimum for lunch kind of pricey. There is a dress code to eat at Club 33 which I found annoying to deal with. It was A. Pack extra clothes and shoes to change into or B. Wear… Continue reading, hoot!

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Traveling Tea box: Oolong Owl’s first experience with a traveling tea box!

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This lucky tea owl got to participate in a traveling tea box! A traveling tea box is a tea package full of tea goodies pass-mailed around. Whatever tea you take out or sample, you replace with teas you own, then you mail the box to the next person. Of course, these boxes take quite a bit of organization to pull off and trust that they don’t get lost. Some tea boxes are shipped around the world! This particular one I participated in was for US only, to save on shipping costs. There are a couple travelling tea boxes going around… Continue reading, hoot!

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Oolong Owl’s New Mexico Tea Company giveaway – CLOSED

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Hello Tea Owls! I’m having a small giveaway with New Mexico Tea Company! $10 Gift Certificate Coupon Code! SWEET! What I like about New Mexico Tea Co is that they have 1oz sizes, nice diverse selection of teas and free shipping in the US! They got some neat herbals that are really fruity. Yum, Pondi Cherry! But also some adventurous pu’er like this Mandarin Orange filled pu’er. My favorite so far is Plum Oolong, which is fun to share with an Owl friend. With cool artwork for their tea labels. I’m a sucker for their Guayusa Spice just on picture alone, hoot. Also… Continue reading, hoot!

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Yunnan Sourcing Tea order! Pu’er Cakes and an awesome gaiwan!

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Usually I just post what I get in the mail on my Oolong Owl Facebook page, however this Yunnan Sourcing.com order was pretty epic. It wasn’t a huge order, but an interesting one. By the way, if you aren’t familar with Yunnan Sourcing, they have 2 sites – the China based one,  Yunnan Sourcing.com and the US based one, Yunnan Sourcing.us. My order was with the China based one, as one of these items is only on sale there at the moment. First off, my order took a few weeks to arrived as I cheaped out on shipping. Hey, more money for tea!… Continue reading, hoot!

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Oolong Owl Tea Experiment: The Ice Steeping Method

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First of all, this is the first post of OolongOwl.com! I’m happy to of made the move to my own domain and webspace!  Yunomi.us posted an interesting method of steeping tea – Ice Steeping. The idea of this tea steeping method is for the tea leaves to steep away as the ice melts. I do plenty of iced teas (hot tea chilled) and cold steeping (tea steeped in cold water in the fridge) but steeping just with ice is a new idea to me! Ice Steeping apparently works best with spring harvested teas, like gyokuro. I got some fantastic gyokuro, Kurihara… Continue reading, hoot!

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THE SEASONING! Oolong Owl seasoning yixing teapot special!

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Finally, it is time for… THE SEASONING A horror film with a great black metal soundtrack. The air is filled with the earthy clay scent of yixing clay. Boiling pots of water of cleansing and dark shu pu’er THRASHING WITH QI! /metal yell Yeah I’m weird. Admittedly, I am a little scared of THE SEASONING, hence the horror film theme playing in my mind. These yixing pots are pricey little tea pots and it’s something I don’t want to mess up. Though logically, seasoning a yixing pot sounds easier than boiling pasta. As planned, I decided to season Oolong Owl’s Yixing pot… Continue reading, hoot!

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Gravity Tea Steeper Love and Care

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In early into my tea journey, Gravity Tea Steepers got me started into making amazing loose leaf tea. Before gravity steepers, I was use those tea ball chain things which were messy and didn’t give tea room to expand. I also used paper filters that you can fill with your own loose leaf, but I found that was a bit of waste. Once I got my first gravity steeper, in my case DAVIDsTEA the Steeper, I immediately noticed a flavor difference. Tea had a fuller and stronger flavor! Years later, I acquired other tea ware for steeping, such as teapots and… Continue reading, hoot!

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Tea Bunny

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I wanted to introduce you all to my bunny, Benson! He’s a 1 year old holland lop. A very handsome rabbit. However, he’s rarely photogenic and always full of bunny mischief. I’ve tried taking photos of him with tea and it usually doesn’t go very well. That’s a tea tin under his bunny butt!! I tried to photograph him with the tin, and he quickly dragged it around then sat on it. I guess he doesn’t like black tea. Now can you see why this blog is called Oolong Owl and not Black Tea Bunny? Before this photo, I was… Continue reading, hoot!