Mandala Tea

My heart currently belongs to oolongs. This was a treat. Sweet, creamy, decadent. I enjoyed several steeps. If you have been wanting to try a milk oolong this is worth trying. Savor & sip down! ahhh…

Hot from a week(ish) ago…

I just made this whisked straight up, and I was pleasantly shocked by how phenomenally it both frothed up but also held that froth. I drank this very slowly over the course of a morning, and twenty minutes or so later the majority of my initial froth was still standing! Very impressive!

Taste wise, I like this a lot – it’s pretty sweet for a black tea powder/matcha, with a sort of starchy golden sweet potato/caramelized type of overall flavour with beautiful malt and bread notes. Maybe a little fruity too? A shared with a coworker and they described it as plum skins, and I’m not sure that I shared their tasting notes exactly but I can get that very subtle stonefruit type of vibe.

We were also trying to guess what kind of black tea this is (like, in terms of country of origin) since we realized that neither the sample bag or website actually said what it was specifically. We theorize that it might actually be Japanese black tea, but I think Chinese is also very likely. Who knows, though.

Made a huge mug of this one, with some added milk.

This was a perfect example of smooth, full bodied black tea with really sweet notes! I found it incredibly malty in the body notes with top notes of honey and milk chocolate and supporting undertones and finishing notes that were really bread heavy. Freshly baked, sweet French bread in particular! So smooth, so tasty! It was incredibly delicious!

Does anyone else know any companies that sell black tea matcha like this? I’d love to explore more teas/‘matchas’ like this one!

Tried this one out yesterday, at the start of the day. Hot, and straight.

I’ve had a few 50/50 green and black flavoured matcha teas from Red Leaf Tea but this is definitely my first exposure to a straight black matcha. It smells really lovely though; like honey glazed sweet bread and cocoa powder.

I found it whisked up pretty well; I was able to get a decent froth on it! It did seem to settle for me quicker than a typical green matcha and I’m not really sure the reason for that. Flavour wise it was pretty smooth; very malty with notes of honey, bread, and molasses. Not really any cocoa, despite the dry leaf smelling of cocoa powder to me. It was nice though; and I can see it being excellent in milk hot or cold. I also think it would be fun to use this one in cooking and other culinary uses.

High up on my list of ideas are in lemonade, as per Garrett’s suggestion, but also I’d like to try making black tea ice cream out of it as well!

Finished this one off today as well. I really wanted to have a gongfu sessoin I special dark but given I’m on my own today (like usual) I didn’t want to risk kiddo waking up and ruining that for me. I may try tomorrow though as my poor teapot has been neglected. I did a couple western brews of this one. It’s good, but mandala has sooooo many other shus that I love even more. Not sad to see this one go and don’t need to restock it when there are others I prefer.

western brew of this one today while everyone was still sleeping. We have so much to do around the house and it sucks ‘cause it’s sunny and wonderful outside. Here’s hoping we can get a bunch of it done and maybe still get out this evening at least. sigh this was an enjoyable cup to start the morning. Smooth, dark, delicious.

Continuing effort to have ALL my puerh this week. I’ve had this one before and it is up my alley. Smooth, dark, bold…just what i want from my shou! This one starts out quite woody but later steeps it softens out a little, with a bit of added sweetness. Happy to have this one around until it’s gone.

this isn’t really a fair review, but i at least wanted to track that i had this one. I pulled this one out in an effort to start getting through more of my puerh and spent a chunk of time breaking this one down. The brew for today was just a western brew of about 2 mins with the small bits that broke off. I’ll do a proper gonfu session with the better bits at a later date. I figure having this western is a good thing as well, since maybe i can start doing western brews with the teas i take to work.

initial western thoughts: wood,earth, sweet, smooth.

looking forward to trying this “properly” later on

Unintentional Sipdown.

Like the majority of Steepsterites here, my family prefers by and large, black tea. I don’t have a lot of variety to offer them but the ones I do have (Yunnan Golden Snails, Jiri Horse, etc.) usually rock. Almost Keemun-like is profile, this is very different from what they are used to having with their milk: it’s lighter and fruitier for one thing. That didn’t stop them from saying “this is nice” and drinking it all up though. I wish they’d help me drink up my green tea and oolong varieties with the same enthusiasm.

(2017 harvest)

It’s been a long time since I’ve had a Keemun, Laoshan Black, or any other non- What-cha Golden Snail black tea (so good). I’ve forgotten how comforting they are in their cocoa-malt predictability, and subtle but rich profiles. I thought I was over Chinese black teas; it’s probably the time of year? Oolong is out, black tea and white tea are in- I need to draw a better year plan for my tea drinking habits so I’m not struggling at the height of tea-drinking season.

Anyways, this one is really red. Red is good. Red is warm. Red is Christmas. I’m drinking this in a festive red cup too. Lots of red happening.

I’ll write a more thoughtful note later.

(2017 harvest)

Steeping it grampa style in a 40 oz hydroflask. 8g is a good size for it. This is going to become a library tea for those long study sessions.

Edited to add: after several hours of grampa-style steeping, I found that the tuo cha hadn’t even fully opened up. there’s still a clump of leaf in the bottom of the flask! Moar steeping tomorrrow!

This one is right up my alley. Tastes like a brownie w/ some cherry notes.

This is an interesting tea with tobacco notes.

Amazing tea

Slurped back a mug of this one yesterday when I got home, more so because I know shou often makes me feel sleepy and relaxed and less because I was craving the notes of this specific pu’erh or anything like that.

While it was steeping, I pulled out a carton of raspberries from the fridge to rinse so that I could munch of some fruit alongside my tea – but the inside of nearly every one was rotten! Damn it! I ordered them with my groceries less than two days ago; and I swear they looked fine when they arrived!? So, I had to toss ‘em out and feel the disappointment of not getting yummy raspberries alongside my cup of pu’erh…

The tea itself was fine; a little on the “grungier side” as far as shou goes, but warm and earthy with a little bit of that woody quality that I love so much. Reminded me more of decaying, wet/damp wood though. It did the trick though; I brought the mug over to my bedside table and sure enough after a couple of hearty glugs, and with a warm blanket draped over me I was passed out before I even had time to think about it.

Sipping on this one now, as I nibble on brunch and slowly get ready for work.

I got this one as my free ounce of “hand picked for me based on my order” tea from my Small Business Saturday order; it’s a good enough pick. I mean, I ordered three things and they were all pretty all over the place so I’m guessing it wasn’t easy to totally narrow down the “perfect” recommendation for me. It’s something I might have ordered for myself at some point, but not a “I must try it” sort of tea either.

I’m doing it Western right now ‘cause I need to be leaving for work quite soon; less than half an hour to go and I should still probably cram in a shower for good measure. I don’t think I smell, but it IS a small workplace so it’d be the thoughtful thing to do.

I’m not overly impressed by this one to be completely honest. I mean, it’s very very smooth and super removed from being anything even close to fishy so in that regard it’s lovely. However, none of the flavour notes are really exciting, bold or vibrant – in fact, it’s a little ‘flat’/dull all around. Main notes are soft earth, nuts, cereal/oat, maybe some mushroom like stuff? Mushroom is a hard one for me; I’m allergic (though MUCH LESS so that I used to be) so I haven’t had a lot of exposure to it – it’s challenging for me to identify within tea and I rely a lot on what others tell me it tastes like/comparison of similar flavours between blends generally described as mushroom like. Then the whole cup has this quality as if it’s been very finely dusted with cocoa powder.

It’s really NOT bad – I’m just not feeling it.

Definitely one of the best if not the best greens that I have had, and I’m more into oolongs and black teas.

Starts off nutty and has transformed into a fruity tea.

This is the 2017 version.