Mandala Tea

Oh, man. Finding this buried in the very back of my cupboard was the tea drinker’s equivalent of striking gold. Practically untouched, this incredibly smooth and creamy puerh has remained hidden from me for over three years. That fourth short steep is glorious (thank you, tea gods).

And now it’s all gone.

At least my faith in delicious tea is restored (booo, rancid coconut rooibos infested cupboard).

This tea has that smell that makes me cautious around puerh so I did a 30 second “rinse” before doing a 30 second steep. I’ve gotten three big mugs out of it so far and all of them have lots of flavour. I can see this one going strong for a while.

Right now everything about this tea reminds me of cream of mushroom. I’m honestly not a fan of that, but I’m curious to see where this tea goes in later steeps.

EDIT: I don’t mind the 4th steep, which still has the mushroom but with a lot more cream, and the additional dash of sugar with something nutty.

Holy sweet mother of god. This is good.

I drank it for the first time 3 months ago thanks to a sample from Dexter. I knew I wanted to order it, but always got so mesmerized by Garret’s pu’erh and oolong selection, I’d always forget to add it to the cart.

MzPriss’s Dark Beauty cocktail helped me remember this time. I finally got my supply of it. Obviously, I did not order enough, but that’s another story. (Garret, you know what this means, don’t you?)

It truly feels like a leafhopper bitten tea, except that it’s not. It’s like a mix of mellow “bready” Yunnan an sweet fruity Oriental Beauty oolong.

It may be smooth and silky like honey in the mouth but it’s got lots character, it’s a little boozy and feisty, I like that. Fiona Apple’s lyrics comes to mind “slow like honey, heavy with mood”…I think it’s just the perfect way to describe it!

There is no information available on the origine of this tea…at least I didn’t find any.

Is it a Taiwanese black? I’m a big fan of Oriental Beauty oolongs, and this somehow reminds me a lot of that. Maybe that’s the reason it’s called Black Beauty? The strong honeysuckle sweetness makes me wonder if it’s a leaf hopper bitten tea, just like Oriental Beauty. Garret, if you read this, please enlighten me, I’m the curious type :-)

Regardless of where it’s from, it’s mighty delicious. It’s got dark chocolate notes, and it’s a little boozy and bready. There’s that common note I find in Oriental Beauty that I always have a hard time putting my finger on, like citrusy and spicy at the same time. Once, Terri Harplady commented on one of my OB review that the note I was referring to tasted like coriander to her. I don’t think I would have been able to identify that myself, but because she has mentioned it, I’d say I agree with her, it’s close enough.

This is a tea worth having in the cupboard, thank you so much Dexter3657 for this opportunity, it’s right up my alley. I might be sipping down the last of your sample, but I’m so glad I made it part of my last Mandala order!

This was a sample generously included in my order. And one that I’ll have to add to my next order.

This is smooth. Medium gold red color. Hay and dry grass, wheat stalks, medium malt, mainly smooth.

“Like a baby’s behind” smooth. And if you recognize that quote, you have excellent taste in bad movies. :)

Love this tea thermos! I’ve been using it for months and I’m pretty happy with it!

Pretty, simple design. Double walled glass. Easy to clean and use. Doubles as a tea pot and pours nicely with the strainer in. I use this thermos all the time while on the go, lazy oolong steepings while on the computer at home, and cold brewing.

Only cons is it isn’t leak proof, it’ll dribble a bit if you have it on its side. The strainer, though i like the design (over a mesh wire strainer), doesn’t filter out smaller teas like rooibos.

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/mandala-teas-glass-tea-thermos/

This is a lightly fermented safely tasty shu. Just a slight touch of fishiness, which I actually like in this tea. It is quite smooth, with light body, and a hefty caffeine kick! Kind of a safe shu. Hard not to like, though I enjoy bolder teas.

I received this as a sample in my latest Mandala order. with only 10 grams to work with, I decided to split it into two 5 gram sessions in my 100 ml gaiwan. Since this is less leaf than my normal 6 to 8 grams in this vessel I tried to ‘short-pour’ the water a little to compensate. I took detailed notes but I will spare you from the dreaded copy&paste. Just the highlights follow.

The first session involved short steep times (5/5/7/10/… sec) to see what aromas and flavors I could unmask. The shu brewed up a beautiful medium burgundy color with aromatic hints of mushrooms, warm figs, raw sugarcane, vanilla and mulling spices over the 12 steeps I took this through. It was light to medium bodied with mild flavors of mushrooms, pepper, cedar, leather, minerals, allspice, cinnamon, and a noticeable sweetness tying it all together. Near the end I picked up notes of SweetTarts in one steep and Cinnamon Disc candies in another. In all cases the aromas and flavors were quite mild, causing me to really focus on the tea to get a sense of what was gong on.

The second session used longer steeps (15/30/45/… sec) to see how it reacted. Again the tea revealed only mild aromas and a light to medium body. Aromas of raw cane sugar, vanilla, caramel, and, oddly enough, grape gum (at the end) came forth. This session had significant sweetness in the aftertaste, some spice up front, mild shu flavors and a lively feeling on the tongue over the course of seven steeps.

I’m not going to rate this tea since I don’t really feel like I got a chance to know it. When it becomes available on the Mandala site I will buy a few ounces and put it in a clay jar for six months or so and try it again with my normal amount of leaf. I don’t have a great deal of experience with new shu, but this came across as ‘young’ to me. It seems to have promise and I’m willing to give it another try.

I have been spending a great deal outdoors lately watching my baby bears in the mountains. This tea is great for the morning to warm me up and bring a smile to my face.

When I opened my sample packet and sniffed the leaves I knew this was going to be good. The aroma was so sweet and creamy.

The first infusion I found sweet caramel butter with hints of something nutty. The second infusion led to a deeper, richer taste of butter, a touch of salt and a vegetal taste lurking in the background.

I’ve a few more infusions to go, but so far I am finding this to be a delicious treat. Thank you Dexter3657 for sharing this treasure!

So my rating of this has not changed. It’s a great tea. :) I underleafed this on purpose (at least it was underleafing by my standard method) and used only 1 cone for a 6 oz pot. It was lighter than using 2-3, obviously. The flavor was more delicate and not a rich but still smooth and lightly malty. With only one cone, some of the mineral tones came out a bit more.

Here’s a picture of the single cone, flowered in the pot, along with the new tea box I grabbed from Vital Tea Leaf on my most recent order. Had to do something to get that free shipping, right? :)

http://s1165.photobucket.com/user/dagony/media/Tea%20collection/teabox_zps63a9d0ee.jpg.html

Such pretty little things. Sweet, malty & smooth.

I steeped them today for the first time for a tea tasting party. I used 4 cones for about 16 ounces of bottled water. Left them in the little glass pot for probably 20 minutes all told.

I tasted it first at about 10 minutes. It was strong but not bitter. I steeped another little 16 ounce pot with 3 cones and tried it at about 5 minutes. It was obviously not as strong, but it was smoother. I honestly liked them both ways.

Everyone at the party liked this one a lot. There was one attendee who was new to our group and she mainly does bagged grocery store greens. She is now a Yunnan convert. :) We also did Harney’s Apricot Black, Butiki’s Rose Violet Calendula Oolong, Boston Tea Company’s Lemon Honey Chamomile Premium Rooibos, Mandala’s Morning Sun (which, by the way, is also fantastic with a spot of cream), New Mexico Tea’s Cream Earl Grey and Capital Teas’ Dragon Pearls. I had planned to do another 3 or 4 but we were all floating after these, even with small cups!

A small note about myself, I do not like coffee since I was a child (I know I committed a crime! But I am not American so I guess I get a get-out-of-jail-free-card! ;p!) I mention this because most people try to find a ripe tea to replace their morning coffee but I am on a mission for a morning tea for tea not coffee…

Method: Gong Fu
I used my new gaiwan (120ml) and did 2 flash rinses. Began with a 30 second steeping and increased 15 seconds in subsequent infusions.

The first infusion has a bitter aftertaste, but a good bitter, and a nice full feeling in the mouth and almost cocoa taste in the back of the tongue. However, my favorite infusions were the ones after the first two! Bitterness completely gone by the second steeping but the thicker body and cocoa notes lingered so vividly in my mouth quickly after the second steeping. Utterly pleasant! In this pu erh I do not get any mushroom or earthiness, at least not like Phatty Cake, its tenderly sweet with toffee like notes coating my tongue. Did I mention how pleasant this pu erh is? Its very pleasant and gentle! Honey hints in the middle steepings still lingering chocolately mouth feel. I lost count on how many steepings I did but I brewed this until it was almost hot water! Loved this tea so much! Need to get more later! The last infusions were more floral with a hint of cocoa, like I said, I brewed this until I couldn’t really squeeze any for flavors!

This is truly a Special Dark pu erh! Please, join the Dark side! We have tea!

Very clean and refreshing green tea. If you are a fan of Dragonwell teas, you will really like this. It tastes sweet and has a nutty flavor like a chestnut. Another very good quality tea from Mandala.

If you love DragonWell teas you must try this. It has the characteristic chestnut type taste that comes from the pan frying of this tea, however, it has a slight sweetness to this tea like butter. I find this better than almost all Dragonwell’s sold in the states. Highly recommend this tea!

This is a very light tea. For all of you that like White Peony tea the taste is very similar. As for buying the tea I would say Mandala offers much better options. This tea is not bad its very high quality but for most people it will be too light. If your favorite teas that you like are white peony’s than I would recommend, otherwise there are better teas.

Finished up the last of this over the course of the afternoon. This will likely be a restock eventually :) Although, maybe not given that i adore wild monk and this one is a slight step down :) Still though. i’ve really enjoyed this one. slightly smokey and just a great time through each infusion

mmmm i’ve been working on drinking this one this morning because i need to make a conscious effort to work on some of my puerhs. I have a number of “sample” sizes that i ordered eons ago but have either never tried, or tried once, loved and have been hoarding since. lol. This falls in to the latter category. I love this sheng. Yet another offering from Mandala that i am a fan of! :) So good.

this was my first tea of the day. I knew today was going to be a bad day so i wanted to get it started right. I managed to get in a few steepings of this while getting ready for work and it was enjoyable enough that i may be doing it more in future. I really like this one a bunch. just the hint of the smokiness if super tasty to me.

This is so yum. I didn’t put this in with my last order but it was included as a sample – such a lovely reminder that I really liked this tea! I did this steeping in my little glass pot. 30 seconds, 60 seconds, 2 minutes… I don’t notice any different flavors coming to the fore with the longer steeps but they definitely intensify. This time around I’m getting more savory notes with tobacco overtones. Goes really well with dried honeycrisp apples. :)

Another winner! Malty, sweetish but also with a bit of sour, cocoa-y, somewhat savory. Not as deeply bready as Golden Strand or Morning Sun but still a baked kind of taste. Beautiful, beautiful leaves.

Again, I went with the longer single steep. Will resteep in a bit to see how it fares. Right now I’m wishing I’d done a 16 ounce cup instead of just 8!

And again, no rating at this point. Need to give this a shot after allergies have subsided to make sure I’m doing it justice. Also I want to try it with filtered water at work. Using my tap water at home doesn’t provide a very good review for someone else since it’s not like they can use my water! :)