Mandala Tea

Birthday “Cake Tea” Tasting 6/8

The only straight tea in our tasting! I’m glad at least one straight tea wound up getting included; I knew I couldn’t include simply every pu’erh cake but this one does ACTUALLY have cake in the name, so it made the cut off.

Of the people I invited to my birthday tasting, half of them were from the Store Operations department at work and the other half were a mix of people from Research & Development and Quality Control. I would call everyone present BIG fans of tea, but without a shadow of a doubt only the R&D/QC people are really big fans of straight and traditional teas – for all of us, that’s what we gravitate to the most outside of work. It definitely came across in the tasting too, because the only people who liked this tea were the R&D/QC staff members – everyone from Store Ops found it too intense.

This was actually my first tasting of this tea, and I will definitely need to try it again to get a real sense of what this is like – I don’t think the cupping style of preparation tends to do most Shou pu’erh any sort of justice; always better to Gong Fu, Grandpa, or even just brew Western. My snap impression was that this was very earthy though, with a bit of a sharper saline top note – and maybe a wee bit oceanic in a sort of “crabby” sort of way over the less pleasant “fishy” descriptor sometimes used for pu’erh.

Glad I got to share this one, though!

I haven’t been feeling the gaiwan love for several days and have been wanting easier teas to drink, so thank you Kawaii433 for sending this mini tuo cha my way :) Grandpa is the theme of the week I guess.

I must first point out the aroma because I know there are a lot of cocoa lovers here: cocoa and walnut. The tea is clean and alive for a shou. It’s very mineral and complex, with bright and dark layers moving around in a kind of creamy suspension that later turns oily. It’s like drinking a walnut tree, wood and fruit. Hints of cocoa, healthy dark soil and leather all elevated from the walnut grove floor by a pervasive brightness and light sugarcane sweetness. Clean camphor cools then warms the throat and chest. I feel grounded and calm. Definitely the best mini tuo I’ve had.

It’s been a few years since I’ve had one of these mini tuocha that Kawaii433 sent in a swap (I hope all is well out there, miss!). I received a few of these as a freebie in my most recent order with Mandala and brewed one gongfu tonight so I figured I’d give another review.

This is the mellowest, most potentially inoffensive shou I’ve ever tasted. Dark in color but not in taste. Earthy but never overbearing; hay, leather, still getting a touch of autumn leaf. Light sweetness and bitterness. Stable, simple and pleasant through every steep, of which I got a good amount. Very low caffeine. I don’t think I’d go out of my way to purchase these, but it’s a nice break from some of the strong shou that I gravitate toward.

[Initial rating 74]

Really mellow and lightly sweet brewed grandpa. Kawaii433’s description of hay, honeysuckle, leather seems spot on to me. Maybe some autumn leaf. Small to medium chop and pretty much no dust. An agreeable, non-fussy shou. It just is, nothing really stands out to me except for its easy-drinking quality.

Thanks for the sample, Kawaii.

West’n is the best’n if you want a very sweet and creamy experience.

The green is grassier on the gong fu side of the fence.

Exquisite paired with coconut roll cookies from Costco.

This tea is a gateway drug. Will lead to trying other high quality loose leaf teas. Kawaii433 is a pusher.

Sample generously provided by Mandala Tea

(I think this is the Golden Daylily although my sample was only marked as “Jin Xuan”, so apologies if it’s another variant).

I was baad about mindfully drinking this sample; I meant to savour and make note of it properly but it turns out this Jin Xuan is an easy drinker (aka- totally chugged it. Sorry).

I do recall that it was juicy, silky and somewhat buttery, although not to the extent of the scented Milk Oolong, which knows no equals in its richness and creaminess. There was one particularly noteworthy cup where this Jin Xuan transformed into an extremely happy mango pudding; that was one fine cup.

Steep Count: 6

Sample generously provided by Mandala Tea

This vibrantly green oolong is like drinking a silky bouquet of spring flowers. During various sessions I picked up notes of honeysuckle, clover honey, lilac, citrus blossoms, and… licorice to finish once? (the latter is probably the result of a White Wolf anise contamination but it was still lovely).

The enthusiastic garden display reminded me a tad of this ridiculously floral Gewürztraminer I once had. Like aforementioned wine, this turned out to be a happy pairing with Palak Paneer, Dahl Makhani and some garlic naan. Maybe I should try more floral-sweet tea with spicy food pairings in the future.

Steep Count: 5

There was always a long break between the first steep and second steep because I could never get into the first cup, even with a rinse. Consecutive cups were almost always better and more complex

(2018 harvest)

Another sample from Kawaii433. Thanks, yo.

This is definitely a high quality jasmine tea. The jasmine is very natural and not overwhelming and the aroma is softly fruity jasmine. The base tea struck me as a white tea rather than a green because of the flavors. The jasmine perfectly integrated, matching well with the fruity tea. No distinct flavors to the base tea but it was a good balance of tones including peach-apricot-cantaloupe, hay-seed-grain and a nectar sweetness. A light aftertaste, mouthwatering mineral qualities and complementary astringency urged me to continue sipping. Very clean light body that could be made thicker by steeping a little longer which I found out by oversteeping.

3.4g, 8oz, 160F, 4 steeps western

Sipdown and my “afternoon” puerh. When Garrett first sent me a sample of this one he hadn’t yet given it a proper name, but i confirmed with him that this is the same tea :) Happy to finally be giving this a try (i always feel bad when my samples from Garrett sit for so long) but also a little sad that I hadn’t really tracked it as being in my cupboard so no progress there in terms of sipdowns haha.

mmmmm short steeps – that familiar leather, earth aroma i adore. Familiar Mandala puerh :) This didn’t change much through the multiple steepings but it was what i wanted it to be. I think I prefer some of Garrett’s other offerings (noble mark, special dark) but I’d be happy enough to have this back in my cupboard some day to give is another few run downs. It’d also be a good one to drink western i think – more of a rich dark earthy/leathery profile would come through. Today is a good day. :)

Sipdown! sad to see this one go but not as sad if it was dark star or special dark. I know i can get more of this one anytime :)

Taking some time for myself today – it’s REALLY hard to slow down when there’s so much to do and my husband really doesn’t have time to help as much as he should be. But today i’m forcing myself. Going to try and get through 2 of my puerh today as long as the caffeine seems ok. Started out with this one at breakfast because i really do often enjoy a good sticky rice puerh. Mandala’s is no exception. Just a super mellow sticky rice puerh. Nothing complicated here, but still delicious in it’s simplicity. I could go for a little more “rice” but it’s nothing to make me not enjoy this. Thanks for the sample garett! May need to order more in future.

Thanks to Kawaii433, I was able to try my first ginseng oolong :)

I was amused by the dry goods because they looked like aquarium pebbles that smelled like ginseng and syrup. With the Mandala-recommended rinse, the pebbles hadn’t yet cracked open but they smelled of ginseng and cooked vegetables and greens.

After the rinse, I did 7 steeps western style at 30/30/30/40/50/60/? seconds. It started off really pleasant, with a nectar sweetness and light ginseng-herbs. The nuggets finally cracked open in the second steep and were fully unfurled by the fourth. The brew stayed pleasant with its nectar and ginseng-herbal qualities. It had some light oolong grassiness, hay impressions and butteriness came forward in the mouth and the aftertaste. The tea made me really warm!

I was hesitant about approaching this tea since I’ve read some reviews about ginseng oolong being very vegetal and obnoxiously sweet from licorice root mixed into the ginseng coating. That was definitely not the case with this tea. It was very clean with no grit from the coating (what made it through my strainer settled in a very thin layer at the bottom), lightly sweet and grassy, a bit mineral. To repeat myself: light and pleasant. Very easy sipping. Thanks again, Kawaii433.

Thanks so much for letting me try this, Kawaii433! I thought a teaspoon would work great in my smaller dragon mug. The leaves look larger for a pu-erh, not the tiny pieces. To be honest, I would expect a puerh with a rice flavor to use the smaller leaves… the smaller leaves would impart a darker, deeper flavor. This is certainly tasty, with plenty of sweet rice flavor. Also NONE of the negative flavors that puerh might have. As I expected, the larger leaves aren’t creating as deep of a flavor as I love in puerh. But the rice flavor is certainly making it a tea I really like. I suppose I could have just used more than a teaspoon, as you can’t really overdo a ripe puerh.
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for full smaller mug // 18 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 4 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // 4 min

Swap Sample Sipdown! (65)

Another one from Kawaii433!

Yum, these are really good! I’m practically gulping down my mug-full…

Overall flavor is sweet and smooth with a lovely fresh jasmine flavor. There’s also a nice mellow apricot note from the green tea, but otherwise the jasmine is the star. This tea has a nice refreshing quality to it that tells me it would be great as a cold brew.

Unbelievably sweet! And there’s an almost creamy quality here as well. It’s not often I go back for a second steep when I brew Western-style, but I definitely will for this one.

Yum yum yum. Fresh, fruity, jasmine, delicious! ❤

Swap Sample Sipdown! (64)

From Kawaii433, of course!

I’ll be honest, I really didn’t enjoy this one…

The rinse was extremely tasty, with sweet notes of honey and dried apricots, comforting roasted grains, and a light floral overtone. I was excited for the steeps to come!

Unfortunately, all of the remaining steeps had a really strong floral note that was just too much for me. It was almost perfume-like. I don’t know if that’s a normal aspect of da hong pao, or if I just did a terrible job with my steeping parameters…

I stuck with it for seven steeps total, just to see if there was any change in the flavors. I was actually surprised that the taste didn’t seem to change much at all after the first steep. There was still plenty of flavor left in the leaves when I called it quits.

Kawaii did send me another da hong pao sample as well, so I’ll have to try that one out and see how it compares. Maybe da hong pao just isn’t for me!

5g – 110ml – 200°F – 5/15/20/20/30/40/60s

Steep #1 // 1 heaping teaspoon for a full mug // 35 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 30 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #3 // 26 minutes after boiling // 2-3 min
2019 sipdowns: 3

Here’s my first foray into the abyss of a tea gift box Kawaii433 sent. Thank you!

I brewed 5g in a 100mL gaiwan with 205F water for 10 steeps at 10/15/20/25/30/40/50/60/75/90s.

The dry leaf was loose in the bag and very dark with a burgundy tinge. It smelled warm with a note of campfire smoke. Rinsing brought out a spicy note along with cherry wood, osmanthus and butter. The first steep started off smokey, a little bitter on the sip. Fruity flavors of apricot and berries presented in the back of the mouth along with osmanthus and a stronger bitterness. The first few steeps had an astringency in the throat. The liquor left aftertastes of apricot and a light concord grape. As the steeps progressed, the tea became more bitter, the kind of bitterness that might make one cringe. The dominant taste/aftertaste was a generic citric or malic acid tartness which was strongest in the back of the mouth along with a hint of smoke and some wood. The bitterness maintained until the end, at which point some butter came forward.

Overall, the tea early on had those fruity flavors I’ve gotten in purple-leaf teas before but those tastes faded pretty quickly. Most of the activity happened on the swallow, not a whole lot going on upfront. The tea lacked depth, body and any sweetness and the bitterness I could see turning off a lot of people. It’s also full of energy — I had a really difficult time falling asleep despite drinking this tea in the afternoon. Tread lightly with this one.

Swap Sample Sipdown! (39)

From Kawaii433!

I admit, I feel a bit silly drinking these oolongs Western style, but gongfu isn’t really my thing… I did order an inexpensive gaiwan off of Amazon today though, so I’ll try to set a goal to do a couple of sessions per week or something. It’s good to get out of my comfort zone! It seems to me that oolong is one of the tea types that lends itself best to gongfu preparation, so I’m happy that I have all of these great samples from Kawaii!

But for now, Western style!

This is certainly an interesting one. It has a strong mineral note that I wasn’t expecting! I do enjoy mineral flavors in tea though, and happily in this case it reminds me of a clear mountain stream rather than the odious “licking a rock” sensation I’ve also gotten previously.

So because of that, this tea feels very refreshing to me. It does have some floral presence as well, and it’s a tad bit more than I would prefer (not being a flower lover). But it certainly doesn’t go anywhere near perfume – it more makes me picture a lovely trickling spring carrying large pink blossoms floating past. I’m not sure I can place the flower specifically, but my best guess would be gardenia. There’s also a light and sweet peach note that goes swimmingly with the floral flavor.

I have a hard time describing the greener flavor in oolongs… It’s not particularly vegetal, perhaps grassy in the sweet and fresh sense? I suppose it’s because I am more used to green teas, which are often grassy, and this is not the same as that.

So much sweetness here! There’s a very light honey note that lingers on the tongue, as well as a clear honeysuckle nectar-like flavor that almost verges on melon-like.

I very much enjoyed this one, even if it was a bit more floral than I’m accustomed to. And even if it’s not my very favorite flavor profile, I can still appreciate that this is delicious tea.