Mandala Tea

Finally got around to trying this one – i need to get quicker on that whole rotating teas in to my cupboard when i buy them. Hopefully my smaller cupboard will allow for that! I don’t recall much about this one beyond there being a really strong sweetness to this that i haven’t seen before in other teas that claim to be sweet. Looking forward to having this more.

must. get. more. Thanks again for sending this my way dexter. It’s on my list for the next mandala order i place :) this really is a great cup of tea. perfect for the miserable day that’s happening outside of my window. I love happy tea days!

nom nom nom nom nom another one from dexter who is one of those awesome swapping tea friends. I hadn’t yet tried this from mandala so she sent me some to nom on. it’s deeeelicious! and also one of those teas that i just want to say YAYAYAYAYAYAY about. lol

Anyone who follows me knows that I don’t do green….. green oolong is not on my list of preferred teas.
I had a little bit of this left in my cupboard and decided to continue with my Mandala love tonight.
TheTeaFairy commented on an Instagram photo that this is a pina colada tea . I wouldn’t have come up with that on my own but I agree. There is no pineapple but sweet, milky, and a touch of coconut. I’ve been pretty happy drinking this tonight. It’s never going to make my top 10 list, but considering I don’t like green oolongs and I stayed with this through 8 steeps – it must be pretty decent. I would encourage anyone who hasn’t tried this – should, even if it’s not your style.
First photo was steeps 1 and 2 – 15 seconds each. The second was steep 8 for one minute – still beautiful.
http://instagram.com/p/yiY5wJOExQ/?modal=true
http://instagram.com/p/yioK_sOE8W/?modal=true

Yep this amazing. Not too floral for me. Fantastic. That’s all I have to say…

A very roasty black tea. Got honey notes as well.
Smooth.
Loved it. Thanks Dexter3657 for sharing

Milk Oolong has an almost buttery type flavor to it, cream if you will. If you are into a buttery cream type tea, then this is for you. I enjoyed it, but be forewarned if you do not appreciate a buttery taste, as it will and can overwhelm you if you place too much tea leaf in.

This wild monk has an interesting smoky flavor that may be too intense for the average tea drinker. Although some may say it is an acquired taste, I would definately give this one a try if your taste buds appreicate a smoky rendition.

I AM IN LOVE!!! I have had heard so much about this tea and every time I wanted to order some it was out of stock… The moment it was in stock I jumped and bought some. No regret here!

About 5 sec rinse with 195 purified water. As per instructions by Mandala Tea the infusion times. Decided to add more tea to water. So dangerous! LOL!

The aroma was so strange to me, butter. Do not really expect butter as an aroma for leaves? However, they are delicious wet leaves and the aroma becomes more green after about two steepings. The leaves unfold so beautifully and fill the small 120ml gaiwan! The color of the liquor is at first yellowish green and I love looking at the leaves! Sorry, so pretty! Buttery and creamy, no bitterness. The flavor evolves so much and you can get quite a few steepings from this tea and its just buttery smooth and pleasant! I became so happy sipping on this tea through out the day while working. Eased my mind but didn’t put me to sleep. Just so pleasant. Gets a little fruity, like honey passionfruit later, so amazing! Coconut and just creamy! So sad when it was over… I will be buying more when I get paid!!! Thank you Garret!! Favorite tea shop so far!! Love the samples too!!

Wow! My first experience with raw Pu’er and I must say it was delightful. While I don’t yet feel experienced or developed enough to offer all the interesting tasting notes and intricate details provided by most others around here, I will say it was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced and I can’t wait to enjoy it again! This time I went with 195° water, about 1tsp, brewed in a Gaiwan, 15 seconds per infusion, adding 30 seconds per in the later infusions (thanks to Oolong Owl for the steeping instructions).

The dried leaves are soooo pretty! But this tastes nothing like I expected from looking at the leaves. It brews up a deep reddish color. It hits my very happy place of smooth dark maltiness – but there is a roastiness there that I like very much. There is also a slight floral note that is a little elusive. I overleafed it a bit, but even with that there is no astringency (surprised me) but there is a different (and pleasant) little bite at the back of my throat. It is surprisingly complex and absolutely delicious. I realize this is a very obvious song for this tea but it is VERY appropriate and I’m singing it (badly) to myself as I brew my second cup:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRdtKUWn_wI&feature=kp

Thanks to sami kelsh’s urging, as well as Garret’s encouragement, I tried this tea a different way this morning. The keychange way! that’s right—that means there was milk and sugar. And I found that to make a pretty big difference for me. It tasted sweeter and creamier, and I could pick up on distant floral notes that without additions seemed to be missing. And I love floral notes, so this made me very happy indeed.

Sipdown! thanks, Stephanie, for giving some of this to me to try. I may eventually be persuaded to visit this tea again.

And thanks, Garret, for such a thoughtful response to my original tasting note.

Ok, so I’ll say it: I think I may be the only person in the universe who hasn’t had a good experience with this tea (yet). Stephanie was kind enough to send me a sample of this, which is awesome because I’m always excited to try a steepster beloved. I steeped this Western style, for about four minutes. It tasted fine, although I must admit I was itching to add milk and/or sugar. It did taste milky and a bit sweet, but I just wasn’t blown away. I’m convinced it was something I did though, because i find it peculiar that everyone and their mother swoons over this tea and I can’t seem to make it work. Maybe unflavoured oolongs (sans additions) simply aren’t for me?
I have enough left for another cup due to Stephanie’s generosity, but I’m hesitant to brew it until someone tells me what to do differently LOL.

I am more of a white tea person and generally say Oolong teas are an okay tea. I bought an ounce of this and I have to say I really enjoyed this tea! I actually want to order more but they have sold out for now. If I were to recommend an Oolong tea this would be it. Very impressed, the only reason I do not rate it a 100 is because I have not tried milk oolongs from other companies so I do not know if this is superior, however I know this is rarely sold other places.

Brace yourselves guys, ‘cause I’m about to go full-on housewife. This stuff is as close to a miracle product, actually-like-as-seen-on-TV-demos as I’ve ever tried. I’m lazy and used to a routine with my teaware where I just rinse it out daily, and then perhaps 2 times a week I’ll go at it all with the usual suspects—baking soda, white vinegar or lemon juice, occasionally something a touch more exotic like cream of tartar or citric acid or Bon Ami etc. And it does an ok job—respectable but not squeaky,-just-out-of-the-box immaculate and bright. You know, where there’ll be a couple hard to reach spots or ridges or whatever that have faint tannin discoloration no matter what (in particular, I was convinced the tannin stains on the inner bottom of my For Life basket and the thin glass spouts of my teapots were here to stay). Also, the Breville is nice (though I would say now definitively I prefer the Zoji if you have to choose one), but one thing that’s rough is it’s a little bit of a pain to clean (to do it properly you have to leave it overnight and boil and reboil and all that, which means no insta-morning tea!) and stains very easily, with the section behind the magnetic arm that’s nearly impossible to delicately/safely reach to clean well. But I was thinking, you know…a life of tea means some slight stains on a few hard-to-reach spots you just live with. Not a big deal. But I do sometimes get self-conscious when guests are here, wondering if they think those things are filthy or something.

Well no more. Now I know if/when it really matters, bringing everything back to brand spankin’ new condition is no sweat. Today I took a tablespoon of Smart Soak and 8 cups of boiling water (straight from the Zoji!) and submerged or poured it into or onto everything that had those sorts of pesky stains—lots of pouring back and forth between teapots to reach the spouts, dunking brew baskets in and then once they came out pouring that water into tea cups, what have you. And my gosh. I didn’t even have to wait the 10 minute soak time. Everything dipped in when the water was truly hot came out sparkling, factory-new immaculate immediately (the aforementioned For Life basket is so shiny it’s like a looking glass—ALL of it too, the bottom that no amount of scrubbing or homemade remedy chemical reaction could budge, the rim, everything). !!!! I felt like that Billy whatshisname guy from the informercials. And nothing was damaged, no paint or images or anything. No harsh fumes either; simply some effervescence and watching those yellow-brown tannins instantly bleed from the gear into the water. MAGIC. I was worried I’d have to use a lot for it to be effective, or that it’d smell harsh or potentially harmful, or make a mess, or require long soak times. Nope. No cleaning product has ever delivered on what it promised to this extent. I am so, so grateful Dexter3657, Azzrian, and other Steepsters sang its praises enough to convince me to bother to try it. I don’t ever want to be without this stuff—if Mandala ever announces they’re pulling it (the horrors!), I’ll be first in line to stock up on the remaining tubs. Fantastic product (especially on stainless steel, glass, and tumblers, but really everything).

Another from the sweet Dexter3657
Black gold is exactly my type of black tea : mellow mellow and mellow but malty .
It’s a real blold tea without any astringency. I detected clearly fruit notes, mostly raisin ot me and a big sweetness.
Loved it.

Another awesome surprise from Dexter3657!

This one I may prefer over the Gaba. They are both great black teas, but this one is not quite as thick tasting. Perhaps that’s just due to the shorter steep time. This one has all the aspects of black tea I love. The subtle sweetness and smooth taste.

This was in a surprise parcel waiting for my from Dexter3657 when I got back. I’m on the resteep now, and I had the initial steep last night so this is mostly from memory.

Upon my first sip, I was reminded on Bailin. Which is great, since I keep that one around in decent amounts. The honey, syrup-y thickness was awesome. I have begun steeping Bailin at shorter steep times just because the syrupy quality can be a touch overwhelming, but not knowing what to expect I steeped this one longer and it was still tasty. The resteep is tasty, but in a much lighter flavoured way. Overall a great introduction to Mandala.

Thanks Dex!