Mandala Tea

Another yum tea from Mandala. This is smooth and yummy. It’s less sweet, but has some nice leathery and almost coffee notes.

I don’t know why I didn’t try this sooner. I did two rinses, and then it was ready to rumble. I’m on the 5th steep and still going strong!

This is a very tasty tea with the caveat that it still has a lot of fermentation flavor left. If you don’t mind a little fermentation flavor it is an excellent tea. There are some complex notes including chocolate or cocoa notes. It will be a while before this tea develops complex date notes. Its pretty good.

I steeped two mini tuochas, about 10g in a 350ml yixing teapot with boiling water. I gave it one rinse and then steeped it for 15 sec, 10 sec, and 15 sec. I was going to give it a second rinse but the first rinse was dark enough so the tuochas had broken up. It did not require two rinses.

My western infusion brew parameters that I usually use for my Milk Oolongs did not work well with this one. I will have to infuse for a shorter amount of time in the future.

Another tea from the raw sampler. This one was much more enjoyable up front, but too mild for me in the later steepings. I did a 10-second rinse and then steeped 10/10/15/15/25/25/35/45sec/1:30/2:30/5min. In the early steeps, I enjoyed mild camphor, fruity, and even a bit buttery notes. There was a bite to a couple of these steeps. After the bite receded, I was left with a mild sweetness, but nothing too exciting. I think I like Heart of the Old Tree better. Not bad, and certainly, the first steeps were good, but not memorable to me.

My head hasn’t been quite where it should be at lately… So I’ve been drinking lots of shou.

For some reason, shou helps me find my balance. I’m very passionate about it, and wish to convert as many people as I can to it.

It gets a bad wrap sometimes. But once you get passed the misconceptions and open your mind to it, it’s so rewarding…

Of course there are bad ripe pu’erhs out there and you must find the right ones.

This is the right one.

So smooth and warming. Not heavy on the earthy and leathery notes, perfect shou to try if you’re a little afraid of them.

Temple Stairs is a go to tea for me, and tonight I’ve been sipping on both the tuocha and the loose version of it. (Thanks Sarsita for those cute mini tuos!)

Thank you Mandala for helping me find my centre tonight…

-Dry leaves: Medium sized leaves, warm brown with a spicy-sweet aroma. They’re covered in little silver hairs that give them an almost holographic look

-1st steep: Soft yellow infusion with a sweet and savory tastes that lingers in the mouth long after drinking. Unique taste that reminds me of green pepper, accompanied by mineral, molasses, and wet moss notes. Slight bitterness, but still pretty mild.

-2nd and 3rd steeps reveal more sweetness. Notes of muscadine grapes, rich soil, and something reminiscent of white cake.

-Around the sixth steep a menthol/cooling effect becomes noticeable, and a slight mushroomy flavor. Unfortunately the leaves are beginning to loose some of their strength already. I squeezed out ten infusions, but the last few were pretty weak.

-Spent leaves are slender and olive green. Plump stems with less defined veins. A good number of the leaves have browning/damaged edges

-Overall a nice sheng with a good amount of flavor and power, but burns through it’s stamina quickly. Like the other sheng that I’ve tried from Mandala it is fairly mild and has nice a nice cha qi.

Today, I finally got around to using this. It works so well. I got tea stains off of two mugs, and two travel mugs. In fact, the only stains left were those where the smart soak didn’t reach. Very glad this works so well.

Sweet. Creamy. Really good.

I was distracted by work this morning and let an early infusion go longer than planned. Then all other infusions had to be long, too. I had a couple of really long ones at the end. The last was maybe half an hour…possibly longer…and it was just sweet. So delicious.

I had this one today at work. It’s been a bad week or three so far, crazy busy. I guess it’s not a horrible thing that Steepster has been having issues, because I haven’t been tempted to spend too much time on here.

Anywho, this tea.

I was busy, so I don’t remember a lot. The first few infusions were strong, but kinda sweet. Then it got a lot mellowed, but still delicious. I went from 20s all the way up to 8m before deciding this one was pretty much done.

I liked it a lot. It kept me company. I don’t remember details, because I was too distracted by all the rest of the crud going on here in the office, but I know I really liked it.

This is an excellent sheng puerh with almost no bitterness and notes of honey and apricots. I added a very small amount of sugar to this tea which may have helped bring out these notes. This is extremely good tea. The good news is I called Mandala Tea, they are not near to running out. It will still be there when I get around to another Mandala order. This tea had a nice golden yellow color. The spent leaves have the aroma of apricots.

I steeped this tea 7 times in a 150ml gaiwan with 200 degree water and 6g leaf. I steeped it for 10 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec, 1 min, and 2 min. There is still more left in these leaves but I have had enough sheng for today.

Got my sampler today! I greatly enjoyed the 2012 Wild Monk maocha that I tried a while back (the leaves in my profile pic came from it) and I’m excited to try the new batch as well as the other offerings.

Dry leaves: Medium-small leaves have a peppery aroma, light brown-green color.

The first steep is very pale and clear. Mild taste with a nice round mouthfeel. Bready rye flavor balanced out by tastes of olive oil, fresh camphor, and a slight nectarine sweetness. Little astringency, bitterness is nearly non-existent.

Second and third steeps reveal more sweetness and tastes of glutinous rice, honeysuckle, and minerals. Cha qi becomes evident in later steeps, and I would consider this tea pretty strong in it. The tea provided me with eleven infusions, and I might have been able to squeeze out one more.

The spent leaves are very attractive. Medium-small size with a few budsets, but mostly single leaves. The leaves are delicate but have nice thick veins and a rounded tip.

Overall this is a nice clean tea with good stamina, but a bit too mild for my tastes. Very similar to Yunnan Sourcings Ailao shengs.

It has been a while since I’ve had an unflavored black tea and this is a tasty one to come back to. Although I probably shouldn’t be drinking this right before going to bed..

It smells like any other black tea but it’s flavors are much deeper. It has an underlying sweetness and chocolate to it with a nice mouth feel. Not too bitter. I highly enjoyed this and I’m going to resteep those leaves in the morning for my commute.

I had a nice session this afternoon with this tea. I’m trying to enjoy some good stuff before I travel tomorrow. I’ve got my little travel bag of tea to take with me…all sample sachets that I keep around for such an occasion, but it’s going to be hard to be away from the good stuff!

This tea was very nice. I did one 10-second rinse and then 10/10/15/15/25/25/35/35/45/1:15/1:45/2:30 steeps. Overall, this is a nice and sweet, juicy tea, with some tobacco in early steeps, and later, some sweet grape notes. The tea became a bit bitter in a couple of the early steeps, but the bitterness didn’t stay long…it wasn’t terrible either…reminds me of that pungency you sometimes get when eating artichoke leaves. I enjoyed it and I can’t wait to try the others in the sampler!

A great Shou featured by Mandala in a limited time sampler, very balanced, smooth and mellow, easy to drink from first steep to fourth. Chocolate and malt notes, along with leather and wood in early steeps. I would recommend this to people (like me) that are new to Pu-erh.

Sipdown….
I am done with this tea, used one long Western style infusion for around 3 minutes. This is definitely a nice golden yunnan type of tea. Not bitter, lighter in body with notes of sweet potato, malt & cocoa. I don’t know that I’ve ever had a yunnan black tea I didn’t like. I am enjoying this as a breakfast tea.

My plans for today have been dashed because I’ve been feeling sick all day, though finally feeling better after sleeping too much this afternoon. I thought a nice cuppa would be good and I haven’t reviewed this yet. :)

Lovely tea from Mandala! The leaves are long and lightly colored, and they smell like spicy cinnamon in the bag. I decided to steep this for 60 seconds according to package directions and it is soo yummy. I may have overleafed this slightly but it’s good this way… I got a mild, sweet infusion that is devoid of astringency and perfect to sip on plain. Truly does taste like caramel and I am picking up that cinnamon note in the brewed tea. This is terrific plain but was also good with the addition of some unsweetened soymilk. I’m hoping I feel better tomorrow and a little more energetic. This is yummy, though I haven’t had a bad tea yet from Mandala!

Got this from a while back but only had it a few times. Lovely, buttery texture. Lightly floral and slightly vegetal with a hint of savouriness.

To be honest, since I got this I discovered that I’m not a huge fan of floral notes in my teas (which is why I’m choosing to not rate it). Otherwise, this is an excellent tea for lovers of Anxi tieguanyin. Personally, I find it a bit too green for my taste, but I’m glad to have tried it. I do like the texture.

I got this as a sample in my last Mandala order. I don’t remember when that was, but it’s been a while. 5 pearls. I put them all in my larger mug and steeped it for 2 minutes. Took the steeper out. Then forgot about the tea. So I’m drinking it now luke-warm and I cannot say that I like it at all. I added milk and sugar and it did not improve. There is just something that’s triggering the face scrunch when I drink it. Can’t quite put my finger on it.

Avast!

This tea was not bad and not great either. It had strong notes of camphor but they were not overpowering or unpleasant. It also had strong sour notes as well. These persisted throughout all four steepings and were quite prevalent. If you like camphor and don’t mind sour notes this tea might be for you. The next time I brew this I will try 190 degree water and see if the sour notes are less strong. Perhaps the tea will lose the sour notes as it ages.

I brewed this four times in a 207 ml Taiwan Clay Teapot with boiling water and 8g leaf. I steeped it for 10 sec, 5 sec, 10 sec, and 15 sec.

Brewed Western-style. 15 second rinse. Steeping times: 30 sec, 45, 60, 120, 300.

The wet aroma smells sweetly of fresh leather, and then of creamy chocolate mousse as the leaf cools. The liquor is consistently full-bodied, thick, and sweet. The first infusion is very sugary, tasting of maple syrup. Underneath, mushrooms. A peppery finish. The second infusion – my favorite – has a wonderfully creamy texture. Sweet again, but with dark bitterness like hot cocoa. I shared this cup with my non-tea drinking dad, who liked it (seems he like shou in general).

The creaminess disappears in the third infusion, which has a distinctive leathery note. In the fourth infusion the mushrooms and pepper return, and there is also a musty note. I can’t say anything about the fifth infusion because I drank it after I ate, like, 15 handfuls of chocolate Lucky Charms. But at that point I think the leaf was overworked anyway.

This was from the shou sampler. Man, I wish I got some of this when I made my larger order a couple weeks back. I like it so much more than the 2011 blend.

From the Lewis and Clark TTB.

Brewed Western-style. Steeping times: 30 sec, 45, 60, 90, 120.

The wet leaf aroma of has notes of earth, portobello mushrooms, and bread. The first infusion yields a reddish brown broth with a light earth note. In the subsequent infusions, the color changes to that of coffee, the earth is stronger (though not as strong as in other shu I’ve had), and a woody taste comes forth. Creamy and full-bodied in each cup.

Rich in spite of the lightness. Eat something substantial and not just an English muffin before you drink this, folks – it might briefly give you nausea.

I wish I could go beyond tasting earth and wood…at least I know I like it!

Sipdown of the 2012 batch.

Tastes different from the cake form. Some notes seem stronger, in some way, but other notes (like the light smokiness) seem to have disappeared. Still pleasantly sweet and crisp. I think I prefer the cakes, but this is still very good!