Mandala Tea

Thanks so much, JakeB! One serving of this one left… so sipdown! And yes… I’m steeping a Mandala tea Western style again, though I realized a while ago they should be steeped Gong Fu. A tiny bundled, dark green oolong. I swear the dried leaves had the scent of peaches and I was really hoping the flavor would be the same, but no. Sadly, only roastedness from the leaves is revealed in the flavor. And maybe some sweetness. To me, Jin Xuan should be the natural milk oolong, but I wasn’t noticing that at all. All steeps were the same. None of them seems oversteeped. Not special enough for me. If any oolong has any roastiness at all, I’m usually not very interested, especially if it’s the only characteristic of an oolong. I’m happy I tried it though!
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for a full mug// rinse // 10 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // 10 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // 3 minute steep

While the notes of this tea are already accurate, I’d like to weigh in as I have drank this 3x at work in the morning.

The term bitter and chocolate does apply, but not in the sense of a bittersweet dark chocolate. This is more like the astringency of an Assam tea but a chocolate taste you would get from some leftover chocolate powder used in a mixture that happened to be on your fingertips. Not that strong, quite dry, but noticeable. I prefer my golden needle dianhong to this due to the bitterness that makes it hard to enjoy fruits right away in the morning.

Well this is pretty interesting. Rice scented puerh. As soon as the hot water hits the mini tuo, there is a mushroom-y rice scent that wafts up. After a ten second rinse, I steeped it for 30 seconds. Someone who reviewed this mentioned that it tasted like the mushrooms from a basmatti rice, or something to that effect. And I 100% agree. That is the best way I can describe this. I get some white button mushrooms as well as a little wilder flavor of a morel. And it tastes like they’ve been boiled in the water that you will use to cook the rice and then you cook the rice and if that mushroom rice was liquefied, you’d have this. Or, you could pour off some of the water before it is all absorbed into the rice. Either way. Mushroom rice.

Fascinating for sure. Not sure that it is something I am 100% into. I don’t know why I shouldn’t be. I mean, I like rice and I adore mushrooms. But for some reason it is kind of weirding me out. I could see using this in cooking though. Maybe it will grow on me.

The second steep I only let go for 15 seconds as it got much darker much quicker. Same basic flavor though maybe the mushroom flavor is slightly amped up. Just a very unique experience here. I don’t know what to make of it.

*UPDATE EDIT

So, what can be said of this is that it has longevity. I’ve been steeping it on and off all day long. The flavor is holding up quite nicely as is the color. It has certainly grown on me and after about 4 or 5 steeps a slight sweetness comes out to play with the mushroom rice flavor. I’m ticking up the rating a bit.

Clearly this tea comes with a pedigree. When tea masters and discriminating connoisseurs Redford and SkyBlu immortalise your tea in song, you know you’ve made it. Well done Mandala.

I am not yet at the level of these esteemed sommaliers of Chinese tea, however, as I do not believe I have the capacity to enjoy this tea every day, as they have reported doing. It is a remarkably smooth drinker, yet with enough punchiness to retain interest, it’s true. But their refined palates must be grasping nuances beyond the ken of a beginner such as myself, to lead them to imbibe this on the daily. I do not think it could hold my interest at that frequency, though the fault is surely mine.

Yes, I will just come out and admit it. At best, I’d be shufflin’ monthly.

Got a sample of this one from the Puer TTB!!

The leaf smelled slightly smoky when rinsed, with some fruity notes as well. The first two steeps were a tad bitter, with some subdued smoky notes and peachy fruitiness. To me, the taste started to go a little in the mineral-y direction for the next few steeps, with a peachy aftertaste. The remaining ~6 steeps had a light hay flavor with a peach and sometimes honey sweet aftertaste. This one was pretty good. I think the session was slightly muddled by the water I was using, so probably not as good as it could have been. Too bad I only had enough for one session!

Sample from 2016 Puerh Plus TTB.

I made sure to grab some Mandala samples since their store is only a few hours from here which as far as tea vendors go means we are practically neighbors. Plus I’m going to have to place an order some day for some tea soak anyway and its not like I’m not going to order any tea as well.
Im not very experienced with sheng, the vast majority of what I’ve had has been either very young (1-2 years) or nondescript (unidentifiable “green puer”). One of the things I sort of got a handle on while sorting through the TTB samples is how older sheng said start to smell when fermentation gets underway, and thus sheng smelled older to me. I brewed about 175F and didn’t rinse. The 1st cup came out with the fruity apricot of a young sheng. The 2nd steep was a bit bitter, but with an earthy flavor. A ruddy color started to come out here which continued to darken over the next few steps into a dark gold color. 3rd steep was tobacco, smoke, and acrid bitter. 4th became so pleasant that I drank it without taking notes. After that the tea smoothed out considerably and became a little sweet. There was also a silky texture to the tea. I lost count of steeps after this,but it lasted awhile. The leaves at the end of this were mostly green with some with dark purple brown coloration. There were quite a few fat buds as well.

This reminds me a bit of Autumn Song, with the base flavor, but instead of lemon notes there is wood (cedar in particular, I think), nuts, and a cozy warm feeling when drinking.
The base is smooth and mellow and there is no bitterness, dryness, or astringency here.
This would be a good daily drinker, as the taste is not overpowering, and it would be perfect on a chilly night.
The woody flavor was much stronger in the first steep, almost like a ripe pu er but with a bit more mellowness, but at the second steep it calmed down a bit and blended nicely to a balanced cup.

I did one 15 second rinse, then 45 seconds, then 1 minute.
This actually made me very sleepy! Some pu er (like Heart of the Old Tree) makes me jittery and very awake, but this is a very calm tea and I’m ready to hop off to bed, or I’d do more steeps.
I will have to play with this more over the weekend.

Over all pleasant, and I’d recommend it to those who want something they can drink every day.

I finally got a gaiwan, so I decided to pick a tea to sit down with and give it a spin.
The first round I oversteeped it (at 5g per 140ml) but after a do over, I settled down to 3g I was off.

20 (rinse) – 25 – 30 – 30 – 35 – 40 – 60 – 70 – 85

first steep:
Very slight astringency, aftertaste of light basil on the tongue, floral on the nose, bit of a drying sensation on the tongue

third, fourth, fifth steep:
CREAMY, this tea tastes and feels super creamy and thick, plus slight vegetal and floral on the nose. The taste does not linger long so you end up going back for more pretty quickly!

sixth steep:
very floral, still a little creamy (both in taste and feeling), but over all pretty light

Seventh, eighth:
all floral, the creaminess is gone now, however it is not a weak taste. The floral starts out somewhat light on the 6th steep but at 7 it tastes more and more floral until it’s like drinking flowers at the 8th steep. The taste also lingers for quite a while before fading!

I think I could have continued with this, as there was still plenty of flavor, but I had a feeling I’d just keep getting more and more floral as time went on, and I wanted to move on to something else.
My rating hasn’t changed, but after using a gaiwan to brew this this tea is a fun ride for the eight steeps I put it through! It handled it pretty well, but it can be overleafed and boiling is too hot for this tea as I once found out – do either of those and you mostly just get bitterness instead of creaminess and floral tastes.

I got a sample of this and planned to get a cake but they were out! Oops!
Oh well, I’ll enjoy the remaining amount of sample I have while waiting for my tea order to come in.

Dry leaf: Smells like a mix between fresh hay (slightly sweet, sunny, warm) and a little bit of smoke.

Buttery, hay, and that light light smoke scent again.
Very thick tasting butter taste on first sip, with a bit of astringency at the edges of my tongue.
A sweet mellow scent on the exhale, mixed with apricot, and the taste of dried apricot clings lightly to the tongue until fading after a few seconds.

The apricot and thick feeling is stronger on the second infusion, and there is a little bit of sweetness this time. Mmmm, I love this tea. Although, at this rate, all the raw pu ers I taste over two years old are a favorite!

Thanks JakeB! Sadly, this is another Mandala I probably shouldn’t be Western steeping. I thought this might have some kick or something to it, with the ‘bamboogie’ name (I figured the name had something to do with music, and looking at Mandala’s description, I was right)… but to me, this just tasted like raw pu-erh. I like my raw pu-erh to have a little something extra to them, so that I really want to steep them over other teas, including ripe pu-erh. But this is just raw pu-erh. Probably not steeping it ideal. At least it didn’t get bitter, and that is nice enough for a raw pu-erh to me! :D This one isn’t my jam… on to the sale list it goes.
Steep #1 // 20 minutes after boiling // rinse // 30 second steep
Steep #2 // 20 minutes after boiling // 40 second steep

This is an oolong with added aroma of buttery, milky, caramel. The taste is quite strong, and lasts through several steeps. I’ve steeped this up to five times currently, and it started out strong and then the added flavor faded away to reveal the oolong behind it. At the fifth steep the taste reminded me a bit of genmaicha with its sweet, toasted, rice crispy flavor.

The leaf quality is pretty fantastic, with nearly whole leaves that puff up and expand from tightly rolled balls to big slightly mottled leaves over the course of your steeps.

I went for pretty loose qualifications for steeping as I was drinking it mostly at work, and wasn’t paying a huge amount of attention.
It was something like 25 – 30 – 45 – 1m – 2m

I’m not a huge fan of dessert teas (which this definitely is) but it doesn’t taste artificial (it probably isn’t, actually) nor is the sweet taste overpowering.
Over all I wouldn’t drink this tea with cake, or cookies, but I would drink it in place of dessert!
I would recommend this to anyone who loves caramel and butterscotch and who’s looking for a high quality flavored tea.

Bonus! A picture of the leaf :)
http://i.imgur.com/wNgev4H.jpg

Got this in a puerh starter-package from LP quite a while ago. Used the whole 4.5g in a 100mL gaiwan. Aroma was kind of bitter vegetal with a hint of smoke – not enough to worry me or anything though.

First steep I got some vegetal bitterness and spiciness with apricot and slight wisp of smoke in the aftertaste. Next steep, the vegetal flavor reminded me more specifically of asparagus and the apricot afteraste got a little sweeter – same otherwise. Over the next couple steeps, the bitterness mostly left, and the fruitiness came to the fore with a light smoky aftertaste. The next 5 steeps or so were pretty consistent, with a distinct peach flavor followed by the same smoky aftertaste. The tea had pretty decent body to it. For these steeps it seriously tasted almost exactly like that Arizona Peach tea you can get in a can, but without the crazy sugar levels.

I got about a dozen good steeps off of this tea, and I did go decently light on the leaf. Not sure if it’s the same as the Wild Monk cakes currently available on Mandala’s site, but when I finally get around to making an order with them, I’ll be sure to at least get some more to try. This was pretty good.

I didn’t get much body feeling from this tea. The early steeps gave a slight buzzing feeling on the tongue, but other than that, no noticeable qi or anything for me. Possibly due to lighter leaf, but this one might just not possess those qualities.

This is the first pu er cake I bought. Once I brewed it up and tasted it, I knew I had to have it!

Dry leaf: A sweet, grassy, hay or alfalfa like scent.

Brewed cup: Golden yellow. There is a sweet lemon taste throughout all infusions. I will post a more detailed review when I next drink it, for right now this is just a placeholder.

Trying to drink down my samples lately. Tried this one today. I didn’t do that many infusions but what I had was okay. There wasn’t much bitterness. It had a creamy mouth feel to it. Not much fruitiness/apricot which I like in my shengs. This is not one I would go and buy. Even though it was a decent cup of tea , it just wasn’t the best.

Today’s a rainy day, so I thought it’d be perfect to try out this sample.

45, 60, 90, 120, ect

This tea is interesting because it’s not as “in your face” as black tea can sometimes be. I just threw my sample into my gaiwan, so maybe with more leaf it could be, but the character in this one just seems milder. The description of baked goods is incredibly accurate. I got a lot of sweetness, especially as it cooled.

10, 10, 20, 30, 40, ect

This is something I could definitely drink everyday. It has a bit of cinnamon spiciness. Sweet, a little grassy, fruity with a tiny bit of astringency. It’s really refreshing. I think this would be an interesting cake to age and see where those flavors go.

This was a sample in my last Mandala Tea order. The dry leaf smells very smokey, like the remnants of a campfire left on your clothes. This is really different from the two other young raws I’ve had which have a more of a floral and sweet smell. Whoa! The first infusion blew me away. Sweet, citrusy, a little spice, with some background smokiness. There’s a pleasant astringency there too. Lemon lingers in the mouth. Maybe almost a little basil or mint?

Overall, I really enjoyed this one. I’d love to get a cake and see how it changes.

The dry leaf on this one certainly seems much more fruity and less honey like compared to the 2012 “Heart of the Old Tree”. The first few steeps were light and crisp, a little lemony. The flavor coated my mouth and lasted for a bit. The later steeps were less “in your face” and more mild and sweet. This tea gave me this really interesting feeling in my chest, something I’ve never experienced before. This tea is a really easy to drink, with not much if any bitterness (I’m not particularly sensitive to bitterness).

Overall, really nice to drink. I’m probably going to get a cake.

Another sample from my recent order. GABA is not really something I’ve heard about, so I went in with no preconceptions. The dried tea leaf looks like little pellets, and the liquor brews up to be a light golden color. It’s honey-sweet, with a touch of ripe fruit, maybe plum or muscatel. On the second steep, the honey note takes over completely. This is a very light-bodied, smooth tea. As to whether it has a calming effect, it’s too early to say, but it definitely doesn’t have much of a kick as most other black teas, and is a nice cup to enjoy slowly.

This is my first experience with young sheng! How exciting!

The smell of the dry leaf was just incredible, honey and floral. After doing a short rinse, the smell of the leaf had changed, more noticeably smoky but still retaining that floral element. The first few infusions were light, grassy and very easy to drink with no bitterness. The later infusions were interesting, like wine or cider.

Overall, this tea was incredibly refreshing after a long day. After this really positive experience with young sheng, I can’t wait to try more.