Category: Tea Reviews

Tea reviews and tea tastings

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Autumn Harvest Laoshan Green from Verdant Tea – Tea Review

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Autumn Harvest Laoshan Green is a green tea from Verdant Tea. Autumn Harvest Laoshan Green is from the He family farm in Laoshan Village, Shandong Province, China. I have a giant pile of teas and samples that I haven’t gotten around to trying yet. It is pretty bad. While I was waiting for my rice to cook, I figure I should get the gaiwan going. My little crochet Owl Laoshan came over with my sample of Autumn Harvest Laoshan Green with a disapproving look on his face. We went to the computer and saw this tea is out of stock for the new Verdant Spring Harvest Laoshan… Continue reading, hoot!

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Bao Zhong from The Persimmon Tree – Tea Review

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Bao Zhong is a twisted pouchong oolong tea from The Persimmon Tree. Mmmm, Bao Zhong, I love this oolong! It is also used often as a base in all my favorite oolong blends that feature creamy or fruity flavors. Oh yeah! I had to give The Persimmon Tree‘s Bao Zhong a try! DRY LEAF: Mmm, delicious smelling dry leaf! It smells sweet, buttery and a little floral. Nice big leaves too! STEEPED: I steeped Bao Zhong as per instructions on the tin – 190F for 4 minutes. After 4 minutes, I had a golden yellow/green cup of tea that smells buttery! TASTE: A very delicate tea! Bao Zhong has… Continue reading, hoot!

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2013 Yiwu Spring Sheng Pu’er from Misty Peak Teas – Tea Review

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Today, I am sampling some 2013 Yiwu Spring Sheng Pu’er from Misty Peak Tea. This tea is produced in pu’er country – Yiwu, Xishuangbanna Yunnan China. Misty Peak Tea was giving away a free sample of this tea and I jumped on it fast. Sheng pu’er? YUM! DRY LEAF: This one is a doozy as I’m pretty sure my sample was smashed up by USPS – it happens. I had one small intact piece of cake, with the rest being pretty loose. I’m not getting much smell off the dry leaves. The tiny green Owl is sitting in my tea cup. I bet… Continue reading, hoot!

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Wonders of Kashmir from Della Terra Teas – Tea Review

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Wonders of Kashmir is a unique white and green tea blend featuring sweet corn, pineapple, papaya and jasmine. This tea is from Della Terra Teas, an online tea seller of some really creative blends. I bought this tea purely on crazy unique value. Corn? Fruit? Jasmine? YEAH! DRY LEAF: Wonders of Kashmir features some nice big leafy tea mixed with large corn kernels and cubes of fruit. Giant corn! There’s only one jasmine bud in my entire 1 oz!  Kind of odd, I guess they wanted the jasmine to be really slight – I’m going to make sure it makes it way into… Continue reading, hoot!

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Mandala Wild Monk Raw Pu’er 2012 – Tea Review and Experience

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MY FIRST PU’ER CAKE! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT! I mentioned previously that I’ve been shopping for pu’er cakes. I did lots of research and set a budget. After checking ratings, I discovered Mandala Tea has a great lineup, along with their own exclusive cakes. They also have really great customer support! This Mandala “Wild Monk” Raw Pu’er 2012 caught my eye for it’s promise of smokey and creamy notes, without any bitterness. It is also a 100g cake, so it is small enough to be affordable and low risk for a new to pu’er cake tea owl like me to try. I got this cake, and… Continue reading, hoot!

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Jasmine Blueberry from Art of Tea – Tea Review

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Jasmine Blueberry is a floral and fruity green tea blend from Art of Tea. DRY LEAF: Interestingly, the dry leaf smells mostly like blueberries! Just a smidgen of jasmine scent. The dry leaf consists of tightly spun dark green tea accented with dime sized blueberries, with the odd jasmine bud. STEEPED: I followed the steeping instructions of 185F for 5 minutes. Geeze, I haven’t steeped a tea for this long for awhile. While I wait 5 minutes, I grabbed a jellyfish to share my tea with. In the end, I was left with a brown gold cup of tea, that smells interestingly… Continue reading, hoot!

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Yunnan White Jasmine from Verdant Tea – Tea Review

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Yunnan White Jasmine is a jasmine silver needle white tea from Verdant Tea. This tea came as a sample with my last Verdant Tea order. I almost ordered this one! It was in my cart, but I was in one of those annoying “I need to order more to hit free shipping, but I’m already spending too much” problems, so I dropped it and requested it as my free sample. DRY LEAF: When I snipped open my sample package – holy moly! It was a blast of jasmine! Really good jasmine! Can I wear this as perfume? The leaves are a… Continue reading, hoot!

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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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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!