Mandala Tea

I’m not sure what happened with my first cup of this. Maybe my adjusted steeping parameters made all the difference. But this cup was significantly more tasty than my first one. Lots of sweetness, butteriness, and creaminess; it did remind me a fair amount of kettle corn. This was a delight to drink, and definitely impressive. I would place this one and ATR’s Milk Oolong in the same category, but I’d have to drink them back to back to really do a good comparison. Acutally I drank ATR’s yesterday so I almost did just that, but I’m afraid I didn’t pay good enough attention to either tea to suss out the specifics. But I’m glad to have gotten a great cup out of this one this time.

Aww, I thought this would be the last or second-to-last tea in my cupboard, but then I realized I had never added a couple of free samples that Mandala sent me with the order. (Side note: this tea has more “flavors” listed at the top than I have ever seen!)

Anyway, I finally get to try Mandala’s much-vaunted milk oolong (#–5). For a while it was never in stock, and then I never got around to ordering it. But I finally did order it, and now I am finally trying it. The dry leaf certainly smells like what I am looking for: sweet, buttery, and a slight tang of fruitiness. Steeped, the “tang” goes mostly away, and yes, it very much smells like buttered popcorn. Perhaps kettle corn, with a hint of sweetness. I think that part of what is evoking that is a note of toastiness, particularly toasted grains.

The flavor is lighter than I expected, at least while it is very warm. Perhaps I should allow it to cool some. Hmmm, mayhaps I need to gongfu this one. It’s just not wowing me right now. When it was still hot it was not very flavorful. Now that it is lukewarm it has at least gained some creaminess and a bit of peachiness. It tastes more like what I was expecting, minus the sweetness (suprisingly). Maybe a hint. Definitely I think I need to futz with the parameters.

I still need to do some notes for the gongfu sessions I had with Equusfell yesterday, but for now I will continue with the cupboard sip-through because I am almost done!! This tea (#–4) represents the Mandala order for smart soak that also included some tea. I had read good things about it, so I threw a small pouch of these cones in the order.

I think I will need to play around with steep parameters for this one. This time, I used 4 cones for 12 oz of water, steeped for 3 min at 205°F, which is close to the given parameters. Actually I steeped it for three minutes, sipped it, and then decided it was too weak so I put the cones back in for a bit. It came out decent, but not as good as I was hoping. I think my downfall was putting it back in. Or maybe I need fewer cones for longer. I dunno, but the main flavors were general earthiness and maybe some dark chocolate, but not very predominantly. It reminds me a good amount of Black Dragon Pearls. I think it needs to be a little lighter for my tastes, and hopefully some sweetness will come out. Fortunately I have enough cones to play around with them a bit.

Mmmm, mandala to go!

I love how smooth this is. I have been so lazy with my teas at work lately, grandpa style everything. This one is just made for it!

Sunday sample sipdown!

This was a swap either from VariaTEA or Dex – I think VariaTEA. I’ve heard various hymns about Mandala, and about the high quality of this oolong in particular, so I thought I’d see what the fuss was about.

Man, this tea was wasted on me. I waited too long to sip it, so it probably absorbed the flavours of the other teas sitting nearby. In addition, I know myself well enough by now to know that green floral oolongs are not my favourite, and this was very floral. Third, I didn’t get much of a taste of cream or milk at all in this.

I tried brewing this gong-fu style with my gaiwan, but I got only about 3 or 4 steeps in before I decided that this tea just wasn’t working for me. I did a quick 10 second rinse, and my steeps ranged from 15-25 seconds. The leaves had started to unfurl quite nicely inside the gaiwan and the liquor was generally a pale golden colour, but the flavour still wasn’t compelling for me.

At least I have another data point to add to my observations about (my general dislike of) green oolongs.

I need to withhold my rating for now. So this review is more for future reference.
Definitely getting a hint of spearmint. Something wintery as well. Like the unsweetened sap from a fir tree? A bit bready as well. Hmm.

Today is mine and the Ashman’s 33rd anniversary. We are simple folk who like simple pleasures, so to celebrate we split an everything bagel from Panera at home. He picked up while I made tea.

Da Hong Pao teas can be so different from each other. I had one from a Chinese friend that was almost like drinking a cup of hot cocoa. This one reminds me more of a roasted Dong Ding.

We made three steeps Western style in an 18 ounce pot. Temp was about 190F and I kept it to 3 minutes.

This one really isn’t chocolate-y at all. The texture is thin but silky and goes down smoothly. It is heavily roasted as promised but isn’t smokey, just roasty. It is also a bit nutty, so toasted walnuts are coming to mind for me.

This is an older tea and I will be working on it as my next sipdown. I am eager to try it gongfu because I don’t think I have done that yet with this one. I bet it will be awesome.

Song pairing, cuz it is my anniversary and I am listening to this song over and over this morning. (He isn’t home right now so the repeat doesn’t bother him! I am not that cruel!)

We watch very little tv but we are enjoying this gentle little show.

https://youtu.be/Q5LbTeti0sw

I love Da Hong Pao, LOVE IT. I have finished two tins from different companies and have started this one and there is another one someone in there that I can’t find right now.

And MY BAD but this one got messed up tonight, and it is a testimony to how great this tea is. Hubby and I headed out to pick up Asian buffet takeout and I asked youngest to prepare the tea, as she often does. She makes a couple of steeps while we are gone and pours it in my large tetsubin with the tea light warmer. I shouted as I left that I had put the tin on the counter and the instructions were in it, not realizing that they were gong fu instructions.

I thought the tea was a little weaker than I expected and asked about the steeping and she said she gave it thirty seconds for the first, etc., just like the paper said. Wow. This tea came out tasting “a little weak” when it was less than a third of the way through steeping? And you know, it was still really palatable.

I almost poured out the remainder after supper but decided to have it with my dessert of orange-lemon pound cake that youngest made. And it was really good! It was so good that I can’t wait to have it again, this time made properly, at which time it will no doubt blow my socks off.

A nice tea, but not really a good flavor profile for my tastebuds. It was kinda like a sweet, twig-like taste. If you like that sort of thing, then I’d recommend it to you :P

This is a strong young sheng. It was quite bitter in the early steeps. It took a while to mellow out. Not entirely sure what notes I’m getting here but its good. I definitely need to pull something out of the pumidor and find a place for this. My pumidor is packed you see.

I steeped this ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 9g leaf and 200 degree water. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min.

The first steep of this tea is amazingly clear – it didn’t look like there was any color at all! I went to taste it and you could smell the vegetal notes, which come through quite strong even for such a light tea. I really liked this tea, though didn’t find it that much different from a green tea.

I am so behind in my tea notes, updating my cupboard and spreadsheet. I was drinking this one a couple of days ago (?)
I was given this sample by the most wonderful OMGsrsly because I like the new Silver Buds.
This is really nice – I liked it, steeped it a bunch, spent an evening with it. I think the newer one is more “pu’erh” and this one is more “white” and therefore I feel the newer one is more interesting.
Thanks for the opportunity to try it. :))

I’ve had this one a few times now without writing a note. I picked this as my morning tea since i have a bit of time this morning before work gets a little crazy. I also desperately need to get through more of my puerh since my cupboard is back over 100. sigh I’m a fan of this one…if i had any sort of set up for storing puerh, i’d likely pick up a cake/box of this one. It’s very smooth and has creamy mushroom and brown sugar notes in it. I’ve only done a couple steepings but there’s no fermentation flavours here to throw things off and it’s just an overall good time. yum.

I’ve been drinking this and another puerh today – lazy style in my finums with short steep times while i map out my paris walking/shoppping/exploring. I am thoroughly enjoying this one, though other mandala’s probably take precedent over this one for me. it’s sort of earthy, leathery, sweet and smooth with a buttery element there in later steeps. I feel like this might work well as an intro puerh….slight nuances, without anything here that would scare someone off :)

seems weird that i have no tasting notes on this one…i’m sure i’ve had it before. I’ve been drinking this all morning as part of my goal to try and work on drinking some of my smaller/older samples of puerhs. This one is delicious as i recall…. initial steeps being slightly earthy but more leathery than anything…bold…deep flvours. Later steeps are more subdued..almost buttery and molasses like… overall delicious!

Mandala order arrived today!!! Yay!!!

So, I ordered this on a whim before “moonlight” teas really registered into my brain, so that worked out well. This doesn’t actually SAY moonlight, but it sure does look like one of them. The leaves are just BEAUTIFUL, and some are white/silver on one side and black on another. This also doesn’t say anything about aged. The couple that I’ve tried have been listed as pu’erh and have some age on them. So is this one or not?!? Dunno but I’m happy to be drinking it right now.
I’m not one to obey the “rules” when it comes to steep parameters but I did read the package and the recommended temp was 160-175F – that seems low to me, but what do I know….
So I used what looked like quite a bit of leaf (shrug) with 75C water for about 1 minute. Sweet, a little hay, a little mouth dry, but really nice and interesting. Where are the fruit notes that I’m looking for? Need to play with steep temp.
Second steep – 85C for two minutes – Honey, less hay, no astringent, a little juicy but no specific fruit.
Third steep – 90C 3 minutes – The hay is back, the honey is still there, and something tangy (sheng like) strange but I like it.
Fourth steep – 90C 4 minutes – totally changed – Honey and a little malty? Weird – I can’t even tell you what this is like….

I don’t really like white tea – I usually find it either grassy or it tastes like nothing. This is one I can get behind. It’s interesting, flavorful, but I think I need to play with the steep times and temp. I really happy with this one, but I don’t think it’s my MOONLIGHT tea.

https://instagram.com/p/1MTM5muEyw/?taken-by=dex3657
https://instagram.com/p/1MU8DLOE1M/?taken-by=dex3657
https://instagram.com/p/1MVLEJuE1m/?taken-by=dex3657
https://instagram.com/p/1MhDUduE19/?taken-by=dex3657

A nice smooth sheng. I really enjoyed this one opposed to some other shengs that I’ve tried recently. It has a great build up of buttery, vegetal notes.

Thanks scribbles for the lovely sample!

This is such a pretty tea. And pretty freaking delicious. The happy orange liquor is thick, and looks like clear liquid sweet potatoes. I taste roasted sweet potatoes, a hot slice of fresh baked bread, as well as perhaps a light dusting of cocoa. This tea is some serious NOMS. All the little golden fuzzies pack a punch, and got me bouncing off the walls. This was my breakfast tea today, maybe I should have eaten something with this because I am SO friggin wired. heh.
This holds up to many, many steeping in my lil’ gaiwan, so I will be obnoxiously hyped all day longggg :P

So after a few disappointments with my more recent tea hauls, I finally brewed this bad boy up. And wow, what a good little milk oolong this is. Creamy, buttery, with a confusing but lovely burnt caramel/fresh gardenia finish that shouldn’t work half so well together. It reminds me a little of creme brule. I’m a little baffled that it isn’t flavored, to be honest, given the sheer depth of flavor and how well it holds up under repeat steepings. It does seem to evolve into a more floral brew over time, but nothing overpowering.

I tried this gong fu style last night. I found the initial flavors of cinnamon, which slowly dissolved into a sweet almond milk at steep 4, but still retaining some of the spice. The oolong is mineral throughout. It’s very delicious and has a nice amber color brew.

Yesterday was Chinese green tea day :P

I had this last night and it’s a new tea for me. The instructions say to use 1 tbsp per 8oz of water, so I ended up using about 3 tbsp for 32 oz, just in case it was going to be strong. The taste is very vegetal on the first steep (30sec) – almost too vegetal for me. The second steep (1min) was more mellow and slightly sweet. I enjoyed the second steep a whole lot more. I probably could have gone with more steeps, but it was already really late when I was drinking this last night.