Well my nearly year-long tea buying hiatus has ended. I know what you’re thinking … how did he do it? Easy. I stayed away from the friendly enablers here on Steepster for much of it. Also traveling a lot for work helped.
I bought samples of the current shengs from Mandala, and this one was first into the gaiwan.
I started with a flash rinse, a 5 minute pause and a 15 second opening steep. This first steep was unusual for me. I got a numbing sensation on the top of my tongue like when you eat a dish heavy in cloves, tingling in the back of my throat, and a lively mouth feel in a citrus-spice way but which was really neither. I was unable to put my finger on any definite notes.
Subsequent steeps were more conventional. Medium bodied, with a rotating array of spicy, tart, sweet and fruity notes taking center stage. The aroma was primarily tart stone fruits, with some apricot in the later steeps. I got a calming energy that was good for focusing on work.
I pushed this tea pretty hard in terms of timing, ranging from 10 seconds to 3 minutes over 15 steeps, and the 7 grams of leaf filled my 100ml gaiwan to the brim. I never got any smokey notes, which is good since I don’t tolerate those well. The sample was a single chunk pried from a cake. It had loose compression and I was able to tease individual leaves out of it without too much trouble.
I’m going to have to try this again with shorter steep times to see if more complex notes emerge.
Overall quite enjoyable and a possible candidate for buying a cake to age a few years.
Flavors: Citrus, Spicy, Sweet, Tart
Preparation
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I really enjoy this one :)
I also was on a long tea buying hiatus, trying to just drink up what I already have, and recently placed my first significant tea order in months, basically all the 2015 YS blacks, because I didn’t have any of them yet!
Funny, the 2015 YS blacks are what broke my will power as well. I placed the Mandala order a couple of days later.
I think I’m allowed to order off one website per month…lol…
Hiatus what is that????
mrmo — It’s nothing you need to worry about, unless your stacks of tea storage boxes qualifies you for an episode of Hoarders. Even then, don’t worry unless you think the episode might be especially memorable.
It probably would be! LOL
kieblera5 — I’m in the middle of a second session where I’m not pushing the tea so hard in terms of timing, and I’m really enjoying it a whole lot more! I’m going to have to upgrade my rating.
I really enjoy this one :)
I also was on a long tea buying hiatus, trying to just drink up what I already have, and recently placed my first significant tea order in months, basically all the 2015 YS blacks, because I didn’t have any of them yet!
Funny, the 2015 YS blacks are what broke my will power as well. I placed the Mandala order a couple of days later.
I think I’m allowed to order off one website per month…lol…
Hiatus what is that????
mrmo — It’s nothing you need to worry about, unless your stacks of tea storage boxes qualifies you for an episode of Hoarders. Even then, don’t worry unless you think the episode might be especially memorable.
It probably would be! LOL
kieblera5 — I’m in the middle of a second session where I’m not pushing the tea so hard in terms of timing, and I’m really enjoying it a whole lot more! I’m going to have to upgrade my rating.