Mandala Tea

Ok so I was crazy last time I said this tasted like “dark” but “not chocolate.” This is straight up liquid dark chocolate. But better because I normally find dark chocolate to be too bitter and prefer milk chocolate, but I really like this tea.

1st steeping (5s): Very strong, very dark chocolate, very delicious, ever so slightly bitter.

2nd steeping (15s): A little on the weaker side compared to the 1st brew. Same taste just not as bold. I think this is because the temperature had dropped to 201 when i brewed this one.

3rd steeping (5 min): so after hearing about crazy 8 minute, 15 minute etc. steepings I decided to go out on a limb and do a really long steeping time and see what happens. I didn’t want it to get cold, though. So I stopped at 5. Surprisingly, the strength of the brew was somewhere between steeping 1 and 2. Closer to 2 even. It wasn’t very strong at all! It made me think what would happen if I had done steeping number 3 for somewhere around 25 seconds like normal o.O At first I thought that maybe this tea just doesn’t have as much stamina as I thought, but looking at other tasting notes I know it has too! I’ll just have to try using more leaf next time and see what happens.

Oh, and by the way, I usually stop at 3 steepings due to caffeine sensitivity, but I did 2 more brews just to feed my yixing pot. :P

This tea is so appropriately named! Finally getting around to this one from the sampler that I bought months ago and it really does taste like dark chocolate without tasting like chocolate. So that means it tastes like dark. Wait, what?

Made this is my yixing and my tea pet thinks it’s delicious!

How is it possible that there are no tasting notes on this tea!!!?

I received this as a sample with one of my Mandala orders. Thank you!!!

I of course am not going to have the correct vocabulary to accurately describe this wonderful oolong. I really like dark oolong and usually the darker the better. This one isn’t that dark. I think it’s really well balanced. It’s not too woody, it’s not too minerally, it’s not too “roasted” – but it’s a little of all of the above. People who don’t like oolong because of some of those characteristics should try this one. It’s a little sweet, it’s a little fruity, and just plain yummy. I really, really like it. Easily in my top 5 favorite oolongs.
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This tea is good and this tea is strong. There were definite notes of apricots in this tea and it was sweet. I drank the first three steeps without sugar and it had apricot and sweet notes, maybe even stonefruits but I am not sure. There may have been a little smoke in there too. It was slightly bitter through the first four steeps and then the bitternessa became first noticeably dulled and eventually gone. The tea had a pleasant aftertaste throughout eight steeps. I must stress again that this was a strong tea. It never got as sweet as the 2014 Wild Monk, its character was a bit potent. It was an enjoyable tea session though and a rare afternoon one for me.

I steeped this eight times in a 150ml gaiwan with 7g leaf and boiling water. I gave it one rinse and let it rest for 10 min. I am not sure this really did anything but it couldn’t hurt. I steeped it for 10 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec, 1 min, 2 min, and 4 min. EVen after eight steeps this was strong tea. I would guess that if I wanted to continue I would get another seven steeps out of it.

a nice and smooth tea. with honey taste and little spicyness/smokyness

when i smell the brewed tea, i smell honey and sweetness

the same when i taste it :)

thankyou mrmopar for this amazing tea

Jin Xuan is sooo good! Known as Golden Daylily. I call this Golden Delightful. This is a dessert tea for me that I love to brew! Its creamy and elegant. You can appreciate the delicacy of this tea and appreciate the slow growing climate it grows in. The tea also has milky flavor like cold milk that is thin and light. I also can detect a light floweryness to this tea. I brew this with a gaiwan, typically use one teaspoon, if I use 1.5 teaspoons I can get 12 infusions.

This is by far my favorite oolong tea. Its very floral and refreshing. Its like taking a sip from the fountain of youth and savoring every moment. This has to be one of top oolong tea from Mandala and best oolong I have had. The only reason why I do not give it a 99 is because I get about 7 flavorful cups from the gaiwan out of this, but well worth the money.

Very relaxing cup of tea. Can brew over 20 times in the gaiwan. Its not too light which was what I was afraid of but this never disappoints. Rather it has more health benefits or not, that is not what matters. Very pleased with this tea.

This is a sample I got from Mandala a while back. I’ve been drinking more of my shus lately, they definitely seem to be a wintertime tea for me.

As others mentioned this still has a bit of the fermentation flavor left but it doesn’t bother me much. Also I think the tea has a slight aroma of roasted grain and coffee. It’s a very dark shu as well. As far as flavors go, I am getting cocoa with a slight bitter taste like buckwheat. It’s smooth but a little rough around the edges still, could benefit from a bit of aging I think but overall this is a nice tuocha. If you steep it for very short period of time, like 5 seconds, you don’t get much bitterness. I don’t find many mini tuos I am overly fond of drinking but I would consider getting some of these once I can support my tea habit again :)

a nice and mellow tea! :D

when I smell the leaves dry, it smells floral.

when I smell the leaves wet, it smells like spinach.

when I smell the brewed tea, it smells lightly like spinach then after it has sit a little while it smells like flowers

when I taste the brewed tea, it tastes like honey with just a tad hint of flowers.

many thanks to mrmopar for this amazing tea!

Backlog: I got a small amount of this tea on my last Mandala order. Some of the older raw Pu-erh’s have a good energy buzz and yesterday I needed that.

Dry it smelled really mushroomy . I had to let my cat Amber smell the bag to see if she would like it like Chairman does. No deal. She was not interested. Darn!

I used 10 grams with 8 oz. Two quick rinses. First brewing was really strong. Only 15 sec at 200F but it had a strong woodsy, mushroomy flavour. A bit of smoke. I could detect the stone fruit in there as well. A very robust cup. Not my favourite but okay.

2nd infusion was for 20 sec. Already the smoke was becoming less as well as the mushroom.

By the fourth infusion it was much more to my taste. The stone fruit coming through much stronger with only light mushroom notes and hardly any smoke left.

I had a cup this morning too and it keeps getting better.

This tea does have good Cha Qui. Yesterday it helped pick me up and keep me focused. I am finding the hearty shengs seem have the better Cha Qui although for each sheng the energy is different. I prefer not to stick a rating on this one right now as my tastes change over time and it could become a favourite. For now I am finding it a bit strong but next time I have it will use less tea.

This was a sample that I received with one of my Mandala orders.
This is obviously a high quality tea, but it’s not to my tastes. This is too green for me. I preferred the earlier steeps to the later ones. I also preferred it at a lower temp – about 85C. The later steeps became sort of floral/vegital definitely reminded me of a green tea or a light oolong. I’m way more of a dark kind of girl.
This is really smooth, not bitter, not rough, not astringent. For those who like the lighter teas this is one to check out. Its just not my style.
Thanks Garret for the experience.
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Its not a first time try. I wonder why i didnt log it. I thought i did.
Anyways, since its not a new tea i made it in my Yixing. i decided to use more than usual because i think my Yixing “steals” some flavors.
its great tasting shou and its really hit the spot.

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Okay, so once again I’m trying to match wrappers of the mini tuochas from the variety pack with those online and…there are some similar to this, listed as 2011, but the wrappers I have include the same markings, but are different in color and have a 2007 date on them. Hmmm. So, I made a new tea page for it. Anyway, this is a solid ripe mini tuo. Nice and earthy and smooth. Nothing too remarkable, but easy to drink. :)

This is a tale of two teas, or at least two different approaches to the same tea. As an experiment, I tried Morning Sun twice on the same day, both times following Mandala’s recommendations, but once in a gaiwan and once Western style. The dry leaves, BTW are just lovely – an attractive mix of gold and dark curls and with a smokier tang than I expected. The gaiwan version (1 tsp, 208°, rinse/1’/2’/4’) was smoky but not too much with a slight sweetness at the back. Predictably, it faded by the third steep. The Western version (~2 tsp, 208°, 3½’) was the same but more so. I found this brew richer, softer, and with the smoke perfectly balanced with the sweet undertone. When I have the leisure to do so, I usually prefer gaiwan drinking. This one is a solid mugful.

time for a full review:

when i smell the leaves dry, it smells musty with a hint of jasmine

when i smell the leaves wet, it smells like strong jasmine.

when i smell the brewed tea, it smells like strong jasmine too

when i taste the brewed tea, it tastes very good with honey and jasmine flavor

many thanks once again to mrmopar for this tea :)

a good tea, tastes like jasmine green tea with some spiciness. sweet too!

as I have a second sample ill do a full review next time

many thanks to mrmopar for this tea :)

I had to use cheese cloth and some plastic to tie it up to steep the tea as I lost the strainer to the pitcher. I don’t know if it altered the taste or not but grandma says it doesn’t.

time for a full review:

when I smell the leaves dry, it smells musty and nice

when I smell the leaves wet, it smells smoky

when I smell the brewed tea, it smells smoky and spicy.

when I taste the brewed tea, it tastes quite smoky and very spicy.

this tea has a peachy after taste

many thanks to mrmopar for this awesome tea :)

This sample is part of the Ripe Puer sampler I got from Mandala teas a while back. I drank it prior to writing this review (I usually drink tea while writing the review), so I can’t say too much about it in specific detail.

Shu Puer is a strange category to me in that I find most of them to be mediocre. They rarely have really distinguishing qualities and often taste rather similar to me. Further, they have never really “wowed” me yet, but this is what I like about them. They are easy to drink without giving too much attention to them. They are gentle and comforting, mild.

I will say this one didn’t have any real mustiness or leatheriness to the flavor. It was mild and easygoing all around and rather enjoyable. However it lacked any notes that really stood out. It got a little sweet in later infusions.

This is an all around good Puer to have if you want to drink tea casually and relaxed, perhaps with some conversation.

After drinking water for most of the day, I made a cup of this, western-style. The first oddity was that I drank water for most of the day. The second oddity was that I made this western-style, steeping for four minutes instead.
It was pleasant, but not big on flavor. Perhaps I did not use enough leaf, or perhaps this would be better with a gong-fu brewing.

Sipdown! 300/365!

I believe this was a sample from Sil – and it was delicious! Sweet and light (for a black), and a nice treat.

Ohhhhhhh wow. This is freaking amazing. SO sweet (I could smell the sweetness while it was brewing!), light, malty, a bit of chocolate, but SO MUCH sweet. But that perfect sort of delicious sweet that’s not cloying or anything, just really decadent. And the tea is so smooth, too. A serious treat. Agh. I envision a solid Mandala order in the future, because so far, I’ve been very impressed. I believe I’ve had varying teas from golden tips/buds before, but nothing like this. And I even oversteeped this, based on my typical parameters.

Thanks for sharing all these absolute gems with me, Sil!