During the 2024 Cascadia Tea Festival, I did 20-minute aged white tea tasting in silver teaware. I had hypothesized that silver could greatly change the taste of aged white tea, potentially for the better. For the comparison, I used my seasoned clay teapot dedicated to aged white vs my persimmon silver teapot – both similar in size. For those who couldn’t make it to the Seattle area, I did a tasting by myself to check the theory. Note, I did not use these teas in the festival tasting. For that, I used an assortment of white teas from 2008 to 2018 from White2tea, Moychay, and a couple of vendo ..read more

Years back, I borrowed two silver teapots. With those pots, I did plenty of testing to see what teas tasted best in silver teapots. Eventually, I returned those teapots and made do with a silver tea cup and my silver gaiwan. Thankfully, silver teacups also influence the tea’s taste. I never bought my very own silver teapot as they tend to be: Expensive. $300 to $500 is a lot to drop on a single teapot. Silver teapots influence tea enough to make a large difference, but still not worth the price. Honestly, it is best to buy better tea and learn by drinking more tea. Most teaware is min-maxing ..read more

Continuing my previous review of Third Culture Bakery teas, today we have Roasted Matcha! Isn’t Roasted Matcha just Hojicha Powder? Hojicha is made from roasted Sencha or Bancha. Matcha is made with Tencha, which is specifically grown for Matcha. That said, this is a Roasted Tencha Matcha. I can understand why I haven’t had Roasted Matcha, it isn’t as common and search results confuse it with Hojicha. Matcha Powder and Preparation The smell is closer to cutting hardwood than roast. Roasted Matcha has a warm brown colour showing off the rich roasting job. The first few tries with this tea I ..read more

iTeaworld has been knocking on my owl house for months for a review. I figured other writers had it covered. However, iTeaworld approached me with a Jasmine Tea Sampler that I’d never seen before – four jasmine teas with different levels of scenting. This is educational, but also interesting as not too often tea vendors cite how much scenting is done. Even though I don’t like green tea I want to experience the jasmine levels. A good jasmine (or any floral tea) tea is scented with fresh flowers over time. I often see jasmine teas getting their floral essence from added fragrance oils or dried ..read more

Breakfast teas have made a comeback in my tea drinking. My work schedule is just too busy to gongfu. Lazy style just gets over brewed. I have time for a 3pm pick me up with tea and a biscuit. I’ve heard about Adagio’s Brigadoon Tea from others, but never got it as it is sold only on February 29th, so only 1 day every 4 years. I reliably get suckered by limited edition things. Adagio kindly sent me a tin of Brigadoon early. So what’s up with Brigadoon? This tea is named after a Scottish legend of an enchanted town stuck in a time warp, only being visible one day every hundred years. The story ..read more

Today’s oolongs are from Third Culture Bakery – a brick-and-mortar California shop known for its Mochi Muffins! It is awesome to see a cafe carrying good tea, but also the ability to purchase online. The sourcing of these oolongs is a 3rd generation farm in Luye Valley of Southern Taiwan, which is 20 minutes from the Third Culture Bakery owner’s mother’s house! Red Oolong from Third Culture Bakery At this time, Third Culture Bakery sells their oolong in compostable tea bags. Each bag has 3 grams of leaf, which is awesome for flavorful tea. Most bagged teas contain only 1-2 grams of tea. 3 gr ..read more

Welcome to 2024! 2023 went incredibly fast for me with all the caffeine and crafting. 2024 is looking to be a large shift compared to previous years. I’ve been Oolong Owling for 12 years now. A decade public display of my tea guzzling, teaware collecting, addiction, and wallet destruction. Oolong Owl’s Tea Stash Google Sheet Template of my Tea Stash Spreadsheet!  Save a copy and start keeping track of your stash. Spreadsheets are forever, flexible, and unitaskers – you’ll never be at the mercy of an app or website. Previous Years 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018&nb ..read more

This is my most anticipated teas of the year – the Kuura Esprit De Corp 2023 Tea Club. When they announced it, I didn’t even hesitate to join. I’m a sucker for limited quantities, and there were only 50 spots. This club has 2 shipments, which include 3 teas, a teacup, tea cloth, and “surprises”. I was also able to add on other Kuura teas to ship with the club. The first shipment, which arrived in September, included a booklet, teacup, and 200g raw sheng puer cake. The cup has delicate walls and a griddy unglazed texture on the outside. The booklet covers more information on the puer material ..read more

Today’s tea is a Single-origin organic Matcha from the Isagawa region of Shizuoka, Japan – Naoki Matcha’s Aozora Matcha. I’ve had a couple of Naoki Matcha’s Master Collection, the most recent one being Mame Matcha, and they are fantastic. The powder smells fantastic! It is sweet and grassy with a vibrant green hue. It is recommended that this matcha be sifted first and to use 65c / 150F water. I failed both. I used a paste method, adding a little water and whisking till smooth, then slowly topping up with 71c/ 160F water. Aozora Matcha whisked up fantastic and thick, almost like milk foam ..read more

Space Girls is an ongoing series of raw puer by Crimson Lotus Tea. For the 2023 Space Girls version, you get a tong of four 50 gram cakes. This gives you the tong experience for a low price and you won’t be stuck with a lot of tea. The tong fits in my hands. I love opening tongs. It is almost like I’m doing something I shouldn’t, like it should stay incased. The cute artwork on the wrappers is done by Stasia Burrington. Each cake has a different space girl on it. The compression is on the tight side, not iron cake tight but you need a good puerh knife tight (and here are the best puerh kn ..read more