Mandala Tea
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Put a bit of this in my little bat pot last night. Had to try out the newly arrived pet and geyao cup from Teaware.house.
This is still a purely awesome tea. Still a malty, caramely, smooth, sweet, bready perfection of a tea.
And today I took the little bat pot and another Teaware.house cup into work. Figured There’s no reason for a cubicle to not have some beauty in it, right? :) Think I’ll take in a second small cup tomorrow. Small enough volume to feasibly offer to share a cup with someone who visits for work related reasons. Tea converts ahoy! :)
Nothing new to say. Still om nom nommy. After opening the box of malty, Yunnany awesome hoarding tea, I feel a need to have a deep, smooth weekend. This was the second of the evening. First was Downy Tips – also om nom nommy.
:)
I miss ordering from Garret…
I miss ordering tea…
my recent tea order has made me want to place orders from all my favorite venders!
I need more money… I probably don’t need more tea. :)
i am with you there Terri… i slipped and made a small order with august uncommon because i had paypal funds…now i’m trying to hold off all the other orders i want to place..mandala, verdant, teavivre, bellocq, 52 teas…
I looked at the August uncommon page. Some of those teas looked pretty interesting! I think we need to restart our BBBB…
that’s what i said! and make dexter join…and maaaybe nicole :)
Sounds like a party!
But doesn’t that mean buying tea to have new and fun things to add to the box?
not necessarily…you might have things in your cupboard that you want to share but don’t want to drink 100g of. OR it does let you buy something, but know that while you’re buying the one thing that has lots of weight, you’re splitting it and getting 3 other teas back in small quantities to try also :)
Lawd. You people are bad influences.
NU UH
I felt the need to have something wonderful this morning. So I put all that I had left of this fantastic tea in my steeper and brewed up a full 6 cup pot. So smooth, so deep, caramely golden and malty. /contented sigh
I’ve been sipping on it all morning along with some sharp aged cheddar and some garlic-feta dip with crackers. It is hefty and full enough to stand up to strongly flavored food without being overshadowed. And this is the last of this tea in my stash. :( But that means I’ll need to order more once I finish up another couple of Mandala’s teas! Sometimes I think I love to order tea almost as much as I love to drink it. ;)
This is just gorgeous. The leaves almost look waxy in the package. Man, it smells awesome and tastes even better!
Malty, caramely, sweet, smooth, bready perfection. I lurve teas like this. I went with the single prolonged steep and it is a deep reddish brown in color, hefty and luscious. I will definitely be resteeping to see how that turns out but I could see myself zooming through this package and wanting, nay, needing, more very soon.
I am tempted to rate this but since my allergies are going crazy I am going to hold off.
Oh, and let me just say – this was freaky fast shipping. I’d be tempted to say they were an offshoot of Jimmy Johns. :)
Update: Second steep is good, but not as good as the first. Probably my choice of lengthy steeping time impacted the taste of the second steep. It’s a tiny bit bitter and not as smooth. Also a little dustier.
Preparation
Sounds delicious! Adding it to my wishlist :)
If you like yunnans, and I think I recall several being on your reviews, this is definitely one to get ahold of. :)
Mmm.. yum! Have to try this one!
Ah, this goes on my wishlist! Nicole, you are my Chinese black teas mentor :D
Yahooo!!! Freaky fast shipping… gots to be our new slogan at Mandala Tea!
Awww…ya gonna make me blush! Kat_Maria, you could do so much better for a mentor. I am pretty much in deep smit with most yunnans and fujian blacks. So I’m not too discriminating. I want them all in my cupboard forever! :) That said, I’d be happy to share with you if I have some you want to try.
Ok, I made several Mandala’s orders in the last few weeks. It just seemed that every time, I had forgotten something or I just needed more of something else.
The last order was triggered by looseTman. He reminded me of something I had said in a previous review about this tea.
I had written that this was a very masculine tea, a “Stetson and Chaps” kind of guy.
That made me realized I had completely forgotten about it cause I had only a sample at the time.
I don’t know about you ladies, but I just can’t resist stetsons and chaps. So I placed another order for it and now well it’s here!
This tea is solid. It’s a hugger. I just want to cuddle with it.
Oh, the smell of leather bindings and old books, so lovely! Earthy and musty, very sweet with zero astringency. Just a tad of menthol at the end of the sip.
It’s spectacular! This is possibly my favourite loose shou pu’erh ever.
(dare I say it, it might have surpassed special dark just by a tad)
LooseTman, thank you for reading my previous review, the fact that you reminded me of it made me order this and now I’m in tea heaven because of you :-)
I love this too. A lot;)
Stop, you make me want all the teas!
Boychik, I so love it!! And I can’t wait to try phatty cake, got one of this babies as well.
Mandy, that’s only because I keep drinking all the best teas!!!
Cowboys! Oh wait. tea.
And I love this tea. But not more than Special Dark. The Phatty Cake is awesome. And I also have to do yet another Mandala order. I can’t even make that one your fault. It’s Sarsonator’s fault.
This review made me smile :)
I’m having this right now. Leather and prunes my perfect combo
Hee Haw!!!
Yummy!
And Cowboys.
Lol.
But I need some help. (No not with the Cowboys – I got that) but I want to mae sure I don’t miss something and have to oder again after this because really. I can’t. I already need to have my credit cards taken away.
I just looked at my shopping cart over at Mandala and I felt very afraid. LOL. But what the hell? You only live once and pu’erhs are meant to be aged, so it’s not like they’ll go bad, right? RIGHT? :p
Haha! so you also got this one? Oh, I’m glad you did…can’t wait to find out what you think of it :-) Hee Haw!!!
I didn’t place the order yet, but I added some of this.
Can you tell me the difference between this and the phatty cake? Because it says the phatty cake is pressed from this. So do they taste much different? Should I get the loose or the cake?
Thanks, dearest!!!
I haven’t tried the cake yet, it’s one of my new pu’erh!!! I got it only because I like the loose one so much I figured I must get the cake, lol. let’s ask honeybelle, i think she has the cake.
You know I should try them side by side – never done that. Mostly I think of the loose as easier
Would y’all like for me to set up the side by side test RIGHT NOW and tell you?
I guess I’ll just have to get both and compare them. In the name of science, of course.
Oh well. Then yes. YOU do the science. I’ll wait :p
Starting on it. I will put pics on flickr
This is so fun! I love little comparison tests!!!
Oh, totally missed the experiment! How’s it going? Oh, now I understand the other thread’s comment !! I’m a little slowww today…
OK – after a side by side comparison, I believe I can say with some confidence that it would be up to your personal preference. I used 6 grams of each – did two rinses and 4 steeps of each. It would take a FAR more refined palate than mine to really tell an appreciable difference. And what else did we learn?
I am a badass gongfuy mistress – I can pour two gaiwans at the same time with equal success yo.
I have now dumped them all in one mug which I am enjoying now.
What else did we learn? Don’t use your lacy white gaiwan for shou. It’s little bottom got stained – but fear not! I have magic miracle soak http://shopmandalatea.com/smart-soak-tea-stain-dissolver.html from Garret.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/125488674@N02/14460115030/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/125488674@N02/14646779865/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/125488674@N02/14644590824/
Nice!! I know that miracle soak is awesome, but I always forget to get some!
It is lifesaving to me – especially for my white things. I drink a LOT of Special Dark
Added miracle soak to the cart! I’ve actually been meaning to so that for awhile
So I realize the loose tea is more convenient, but I’m really digging the cakes, so I think I’m getting the phatty. I really aappreciate the comparison.
I thank you. Science thanks you.
Oh and also, the tea tray is gorgeous!
You are welcome. Science is welcome. You will thank yourself for the miracle soak
We also learned I need a &^^#$%# pu-pick
Ah yes. I have one of those in the cart, too!!!! I figured if I’m buying all these cakes, better get the tool to go with ’em.
You will have the perfect haul Sars, so excited for you!!
Please someone remind me to do that and LTF – will you please help me remember what all I need to get?
Oh I’m glad you like my tray. Guess what??? You might tsake a little gander at Garret’s trays while you’re over there….it’s really reasonable too and I LOVE it
What is it you need??
I need to find what we talked about this morning. I have Autumn Song, but I think I need Temple Stairs? And something else. And a pu-pick
Don’t forget the heart of the old tree!
YES! That! See?? See why I need help? And Cowboys?
Good thing that sars came to the rescue, I had no idea that was the one you were looking for…(we all need cowboys)
Yes, yes we do. That was one of the ones. So I need those two and a pick, cause I’ve been using all kinds of weird things like knives and screwdrivers
I think you’ll really love the HOTOT.
Lol. HOTOT.
Oh and yes, cowboys, pls.
OK I’m off to get a mug warmer back soon.
Haha! HOTOT Cowboyzzzzz
(i will be calling my old tree cake hot cowboy from now on)
The hot cowboy tea cake. Love it!
Never seen live cowboy but firefighters. Omg they are so hot in Brooklyn haha
(Ok now, boychik, you are bringing this topic to a whole new level…let’s try to keep Steepster PG13…)
I want to go hoomeeee
Haha! Firefighters will have that effect on you I guess ;-)
Yep, I can’t sleep here. Too quite. I need police, ambulance, fire truck siren , helicopters. I go to bed at 2am then by 5-5:15 I’m up because birds chirping
Oh man, I need to feel I’m safe haha
I used to live next door to a fire station
You are so lucky MzPriss! I remember we had blackout some years ago. Ppl used candles and then our neighbors had tiny fire across the street. I think it was just smoke. Anyway 3 fire trucks came to our block at 6am. Everybody wearing practically nothing (hot summer night) got on a block to stare at those gorgeous men. It was like a show. Free show.
They used to work out outside. Yeah it was nice
Awww, you got some cutsie tea pets! Look at all that pretty stuff! That lacey taiwan is like what you’d get if a white porcelain taiwan & a bad mitten shuttlecock had babies ;)
Thank you Terri :) LOL that is EXACTLY what that gaiwan looks like. It was the first gaiwan I ever bought and I still love it, I like pretties
My tea is now so far out of control I don’t even know what I have anymore. I HAVE Temple Stairs. SMH. So now maybe I just need some Hot Cowboy and a pu-pick
Garret – when you read this, sorry we’ve turned your beautifully named Heart of the Old Trees into Hot Cowboy. Sorry about that. Sorry.
It might be slightly more accurate to say that I would like to be sorry HOTOT is now Hot Cowboy
(I’m gonna drink me some hot cowboy this very minute…sorry too Garett for the brutality of this…but Hot Cowboy Sheng makes me such a happy fairy)
I’m working on the last steeps of my Wild Mountain Green from yesterday – just got my assistant all shenged-up as well so she can keep up :)
A happy Fairy is a good thing Garret
TheTeaFairy,
You’re welcome. I’m glad you’re in “Heaven” and thoroughly enjoying your “Stetson and Chaps” so much! However, I’m now confused. How can you rate Loose and Luscious Lincang – 2007, a shou you “forgot”, higher than your beloved Special Dark of which you’ve waxed poetically about numerous times on Steepster? It doesn’t even contain the most Special tea flavor: Chocolate!
Haha!!! LooseTman, I guess I’m all confused cause Mr. Garret Awesomeness makes too many excellent teas and they seem to compete with one another!!!
Can you have too much of a good thing? And this is all your fault, I totally blame you for this….I had forgotten about this tea…thank god you did remind me ;-)
No, you can’t you have too much of a good thing! It’s not my fault. The Devil made me do it! :-)
Did SD just increase from 93 to 96? Thus, making it 1 point higher than your “Stetson and Chaps”.
Yes, forgot to tell you…in all seriousness, SD in a yixing clay pot is very close to perfection, and will probably reach 100 on my next session…
Wow! This sounds very intriguing. I’ll have to check out your most recent SD tasting notes & comments.
What a beautiful tea this is tonight…gives me the clarity I need on certain decision making. Tea does that for me.
They say “sleep on it” when uncertainty hits you. Well, I’m not much of a sleeper, I’d rather have tea and reach for a nice cha qi moment, that warming feeling that makes everything seem brighter and gifts you with its silent lucidity.
I’m loving this tea. It’s robust, not for the faint of heart. It’s the solid type you can rely on, it welcomes you and embraces you when you feel weak, a hugger. A deep black sea once brewed, I just stare at it with gratitude.
I know I’m weird, but often, tea has a “gender” for me. Leathery, and earthy, very manly, this on is the “Stetson and Chaps” kind of guy. Masculine and yet, it works its magic on the girly girl that I am…
Thanks Sil for this last sample, simply wonderful…and thanks Mandala for providing such a tea.
YAY! i’m so glad you enjoyed it my dearest teafairy
I liked most of the teas you sent me my dear Sil :-)
oh man.. that’s a hard act to follow lol
Lol, no pressure…I had a few misses with the flavoured ones, but really, I pretty much liked all the straight teas :-) we’ll have to do this again, but I must bring that humongous stash of mine down first!!!!
I’ve thought many things of my teas, but never gender. I find that concept fascinating and will have to reflect on that. Thanks :)
Haha! TeaExplorer, maybe this just works for my crazy mind, but yes try it, you might be surprised :-)
i totally agree with this whole note! it is a very masculine tea. makes me think of a classic old man type library with leather upholstered furniture and musty old books and a window opening out to a wet forest. this was the first pu erh that ever blew me away and i think it’s still my favorite (granted, i’m still a pu erh newb though so take my excitement with a grain of salt maybe, ha).
TeaExplorer, when i had this one the first time it made me want to do a tea party where “gender” was a theme…floral things like victoria-type earls, the french perfumed blends, but also these leathery pu erhs and smoky chinese teas.
How is it possible that I haven’t tried this one?
So happy that you enjoyed it!!!
When Grace first introduced me to Mandala (THANK YOU GRACE!!) she referred to Noble Mark as a gentlemanly pu’erh – interesting that ifjuly thinks this one is an old man type. Love you guys and your interesting comments. :))
This is what makes patty cake if I remember right. I’ll put some in your box dexter
Loved this review so much that I am brewing this one up in the shop today for sampling, gosh darnit! Grinning from ear to ear with your postings!
Sil… yes, the Phatty Cake is made with this exact same material. Phatty Cake II is this same material with the addition of some slightly larger leaves to switch is up a bit. They were steamed and pressed 2.5 yrs apart or so.
Wishing everyone a very joyful day!
Ifjuly: love your description!! I’ve been reviewing with “gender” in mind for a long time, glad to know there’s other people in my “tea gender club”! And a tea “gender” party sounds awesome, what a great idea :-)
Thank you Dexter, we love you too!!!!
Garrett, thank you and a joyful day to you also :-)
it has a minty quality to it, subtle but cooling and clean, as a heads up Dex. at least i think so. i love it—it’s what sets it apart and to me takes it over the top—but i know you have an uneasy relationship with mint, so i thought i’d mention it. i don’t know yet if phatty cake retains it (i mean i suppose it should, but it’s funny how things work sometimes), haven’t broken into mine yet…
tea gender club! hee. it is nice to know i’m not weird. or, if i am, i’m not the only one. ;)
Yes, I had only a sample of Phatty (from Dexter actually), and I checked my note, it does seem to retain it as I wrote «a minty fresh finish». Lots of good quality pu’erh have that finish I find, but it’s more a fresh feeling in the mouth than an actual mint taste most of the time for me, so maybe Dex could tolerate it? So thoughtful of you to mention it…
I think we should all fully embrace our weirdness together :-) :-)
http://steepster.com/Dexter3657/posts/198968#comments
That’s what I wrote about Phatty cake… I didn’t think mint at the time.
I think WE are perfectly normal – it’s the rest of the world that whacked…. :))
Lol, Yes Dex, it’s us against the world…and I bet we are having more fun than they do!!!
WOW! Very unique aroma and equally unique taste—this one is an instant favorite and a MUST try. Not to mention it can be infused more times that I could count! Steeped in a glass tea pot at the recommended 1tsp per 8oz at 1 minute, adding 15 seconds per infusion, with an initial 10 second rinse.
Preparation
So far this is my favorite Pu Erh! I just love this tea! I must, need to order more! I wish the cakes were larger because I am afraid I will go through this too quickly! I am trying to slow down and drink different pu erhs but I mindless go back to this one. I just love how smooth and full bodied it is! I have to give a better review than this later but I just had to drop by and say I LOVE this PU ERH!!
Smooth, tasty!! MMmmm…. May make more?
Preparation
I am so happy that you are enjoying this tea, my friend! It is one of my favorites. I can’t wait to have you try the new cake that is being pressed this week in China. I’ve made a ripe blend from 2012 and 2013 material and it is named “Temple Stairs”. The loose leaf blend is already here (not up on website yet) and I had 500 100g cakes pressed along with 10,000 mini-tuochas. It’ll be the best mini-tuo on the market, hands down. Looking so forward to it. We shall have to make sure you get to try some :) Thank you for your review of the Year of the Dragon!
HellieCreed – I liked your review, and put a cake in my basket for my next Mandala order.
Garret – My latest order arrived in Palm Bay today and included a sample called “Commemorative Ripe 2013 – Not Yet Named”. Is this the loose material from the new “Temple Stairs”?
Garret I am so curious about this new mystery pu erh! I know I would buy some the moment I can! So far I am in love with your pu erhs! I cannot wait for this new Temple Stairs, oh, I am so curious!
I just love this pu erh and you did a fantastic job on it! I think this was the one that just made me think, wow, this is my wow omg I must have more ripe pu erh!
TeaExplorer thank you so much for enjoying this review! I am hoping to give this pu erh a more justified review in the future! I hope you enjoy this! Must let me know what are your thoughts on this “Not Yet Named” tea! Curiosity is killing me!
Hi! Yes… the unnamed tea became “Temple Stairs” after I had a chance to do gongfu with it just prior to a meditation session. I got up from my cushion after meditating and “Temple Stairs” popped right up.
I am loving the Temple Stairs and the handful of people who have tasted it have great things to say. We’ll have it in to the hands of many soon enough. I just got wind from the tea factory that this tea will be pressed this week! It will be a while before we see the cakes and mini-tuochas, but it will be worth the wait. For now, we have 40 + lbs left in loose leaf form. Tea-lish!
Sipdown! Finished this one off today while working on going through things in the house. We haven’t really taken a lot of time to get the house organised for “baby” and we really need to spend more time getting organised before i turn in to a waddling mess who can’t help haha. Pulled this one out because it’s super tasty and i knew it would be a sipdown. Such a great tea to kick off the day – i really love mandala’s offerings.
I have yet to try anything by Mandala. Need to change that. But I am currently working on what I’ve got at home.
lots of great puerh and black tea options there – i even really enjoy the milk oolong they have. I’m down to 9 teas…so i’m allowed to order eventually when i feel the urge. I resisted black friday though, so feel like i’ll manage to hold off for a while yet
almost done this one – maybe one more cup. Probably more in this tea to give than i do for work. lol
seriously though did everyone just stop caring? i can’t handle the apathy these days.
No some of us old timers still worry about how they do. Take pride in your work is a good motto that I use. No matter how everyone else does.
I totally agree with you, mrmopar. Good advice! :)
i hear you guys. It’s just been an extremely frustrating week. I don’t know how not to care lol
I cared a whole lot about my work until I quit after giving my old firm months of notice and a replacement for me. I was supposed to leave at the end of June but they took so long to hire someone to replace me (the replacement I gave them) that I stayed on until the end of July. In that last month, I sort of grew rather apathetic although not terribly so because I focused on training my friend…and writing application guides so that when I left someone would know what was happening. Hopefully things are better now. I know at my old firm, people tended to not really do much the entire month of December and then took a couple of weeks to get back into actual work in January.
Tea from yesterday. It was a long day but a decent day. Just wrapping up things this week so i can go on vacation and followed by a week in chicago for work. I’d forgotten how much i like this one, so i need to try and remember to pull out my mandala teas a little more. Maybe take some of them on vacation with me since i should have time to drink a little each day. Still though, i miss having multiple cups of tea in a day.
Tea for today. We’re not doing much this thanksgiving, and I’m ok with it. We spent most of the weekend moving the house around and throwing out things that we probably should have tossed a while back. Starting to feel like we’re getting somewhere with things we’ve held off doing. I wanted a straight tea today and this one was pulled out because it’s been a while. It was the perfect accompaniment to breakfast this morning! Kinda wish i could have another cup, but trying to keep caffeine to the minimum.
teas are back in my cupboard! Small order from Mandala was placed and now i have a few more black teas to drink. Had this one today and man…really nice to have options again. This covers the straight teas and variaTEA’s samples covers the flavoured spectrum. :)
Final Count: 60
i love this tea. I usually steep this western for a full on taste delight. It’s smooth, sweet and cocoa-y. Perfect morning/afternoon tea. I’ve been up for so long today i can’ hardly believe it’s only almost 2pm. eesh! so much to do, and yet so much time still to do it!
mmmmm love this tea first thing in the morning. I’m passing off the very last of this to Cavo, who seemingly hasn’t tried this yet since she was good enough to let me try her WP samples. Mostly, she’s in for a shock if she ever comes to pick up her bag….box….uh tea samples lol I’ll be stocking more of this at a later date…though i think it’s funny that sometimes i like this one more than golden strand, and then i like it less. both are awesome though :)
oooooh man. today this was sublime. maybe it was the two minute steep or the rainy day..but this was exactly what i wanted it to be today and more. love garrett;s teas! wish i could partake in the sale ending today :(
It was also really tempting for me to partake in the Mandala sale! I had to remind myself that I had plenty of tea to enjoy and explore, some of which I’ve never even tried.
hehe i’m finally getting my cupboard under control so i’m trying to make small orders infrequently heh.
I got a lot of pu samples. By the time I try them they already sold out.
haha that’s part of why i want to get my pu samples under control…so that when i get more in, i try and and buy a cake right away hahaha i DID buy the one apricot cake you guys were happy with…
