Mandala Tea

Arrrrrrr, me Hearties!!! ‘Tis a lovely morn, & I’m takin’ a float on me Black Dragon Pearl. She’s a beauty of a ship, & pervides a rich & tasty sip, if I say so me self. Rich, robust, with a bit of malt & chocolate, she makes me want to sing, “Yo ho yo ho the pirate’s life for me”. So bring out your whiskey & rum flavored teas, me Lovelies! Lift up your pinkies, me Bonnie tea brewsters, in a salute to Jolly Roger, whilst we swill down our steepings & savor the day! Top o’ the mornin’ to ya!

Explanation: Yesterday was “International Talk Like a Pirate Day”. Little Terri was very excited to participate & had lined up 3 teas to review, all with a pirate theme & jargon. We spent the day running around, & we both forgot all about it until about 1:00am. She blathered on about it all night, in my head, & so there you have it.

This tea was provided by the lovely Azzrian. I’ve had Black Dragon Pearl from Teavana & have loved it ever since they started carrying it. I tend to use 5 or 6 pearls in 8 oz cup & brew 3 minutes, re-steeping 2 or 3 times. I’m thinking that Mandala’s pearls may be a little stronger than Teavana’s, but, on a pirately day such as this, I’m liking it! Excellent straight, sweetened, & also with the addition of the milk of your choice, it’s a great breakfast tea.

I decided to take this one out today and give it a whirl, I guess I still wanted sheng but something a little less aggressive than the Repave and this certainly fits the bill. This morning I am getting some flowery and clover type notes, with only a hint of bitterness in the finish. I haven’t had this in a while and it seems to be aging nicely in my closet. ;)

If anything it reminds me a bit more of a white puerh than it did in the beginning. Very nice and pleasant overall. :)

After lunch (green salad), tea of the afternoon here…

This is definitely a nice sheng if you’re looking for one you can drink now, and which isn’t too bitter or overpowering. See previous notes for more details.

I’m by no means a sheng expert but this is a really nice raw pu-erh, down to the lovely paper it comes in.

I did a quick rinse and then ended up steeping this for around 45 seconds. I’m getting a very vegetal taste, kind of bold and assertive like a gunpowder tea but with a slightly effervescent or fizzy taste on the tongue. It does have the slight sourness I’ve come to associate with young shengs and also has a woodsy flavor.

My second steep, I meant to steep it for a short period of time but I ended up forgetting about it. It was a little too strong to drink!

My third steep is a little bit better, it’s now starting to get kind of mellow and sweeter but still with the vegetal quality. I think it has a hint of smokiness too. I think this will age really well but don’t know if I will be able to keep it long enough to age!

I notice Garret’s tasting note claims this tea is good for stagnancy and the heart meridian, it definitely seems to be waking me up and helping me to feel calm and entered. I am not a morning person and suffer from sleepiness a lot so this has gotten me right and chipper!

I need to go but will enjoy a few more steeps of it this afternoon. It’s a lovely sheng.

hmm, I doubt I really need any more caffeine today but I just have so much tea & I want to be drinking more of my pu’erhs right now. It’s been a VERY warm day here in the city by the bay… now that the weather has cooled down and I’ve had dinner it seems like a nice shu is in order.

After a quick rinse I brewed this up in the yixing teapot. I haven’t had this in quite some time. It has a fragrance of coffee and fresh earth. It isn’t as sweet as some shus I’ve had, but I don’t think it’s quite as fermented either. I did 2 steeps at around 30 seconds and am getting a very mellow tea that’s got elements of dark mushroom and chocolates. I am perfectly happy letting Mandala pick most of my puerhs for me so I don’t have to guess anymore about which ones are good. Yes I am lazy but all it takes is a few bad ones and money wasted…. this is nice. :)

I haven’t been drinking much puerh lately, but I think that will be changing especially now that the rainy season appears to be upon us here in San Francisco. I don’t tend to drink much shu pu-erh at all when the weather is warm. This shu is delicious, especially after the first steep is gone. Nice flavors of chocolate and fruit are present with a very creamy mouthfeel here in this tea. Great for a mid-afternoon pickup here in the damp.

Loose leaf pu-erhs are a great thing to have around the office…

I got this today from Mandala and couldn’t wait to try it.

First steep for around 45 seconds is earthy with a nice forest floor aroma, slight bit of chocolate, clean and smooth. There’s a bit of sweetness in the finish too. So far I like it!

Second steep also around 45 seconds. Color is a bit darker now and it has a great creamy quality… delicious and luscious for a pu-erh with no muddy flavor, I like this very much.

I think I will let Garret pick all of my pu-erh teas from now on. :)

I am out of these, finally. A sipdown!

I have enjoyed these white tea blooms but it has taken me a long time to finish them off. Normally I am a green tea fan, but I would like to drink more of my white tea supply since they are so high in antioxidants. The trouble is I have so much tea it’s getting hard to sip anything down. I guess there could be worse problems to have ;)

I’ve been feeling frazzled and low today, trying to get my doctor’s office to call me back is like an exercise in frustration (but if you owe them any money , you will never hear the end of it).

I’m reading Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier and somehow this seemed like an appropriate tea to go with book. Beautiful to look at and I’m detecting nice flavors of peach and vanilla in my glass of tea. A quiet moment, almost enough to restore me to sanity. :)

Last caffeinated tea of the day – soon I have to get out in the rain again and go somewhere which I am not really looking forward to. I’m kind of in the mood to stay at home and draw pictures of pigs.

Anyway this tea looks great and tastes good too! See previous notes for more info…

This is my first blooming tea and I have to say I am very happy with this!

I used my Lupicia cooler to brew the bloom since it’s around 12 oz and clear. It was really lovely to watch the hand tied flower open up mine was red). At times it reminded me of a sea creature or an alien. Pretty neat!

So I served this tea to myself in a goblet and it’s a light yellow in color. The aroma is very relaxing and — you guessed it — flowery. The tea is very smooth on your tongue and has a nice sweetness along with a slightly vegetal flavor, I’m picking up a slight flavor like corn. The floral nature reminds me a bit of roses. This is a very lovely brew, both in appearance and taste. I have enjoyed it a lot and will probably get more when these run out. Don’t think I will have the time to resteep this tonight, that’s an experiment for another time.

I broke this one out this morning to contrast with the one I had yesterday. They are both really good but different beasts all together.

The Wild Monk has flavors that are more reminiscent of your usual younger shengs. There is a lot of smoky flavor in this one. The flavor profile is more complex with notes of peach, lemon and smoke. It leaves you with an overall sweetness coating your tongue however. Definitely not as bitter as a lot of young shengs. Has a pleasant, uplifting energy that I am enjoying a lot today. I would definitely check this one out if you’re not adverse to some smoke in your tea.

Maybe I am just a fan of mao cha, I need to get some others to compare with the two I already have :)

I haven’t been drinking much sheng lately and I have no idea why…

Anyway I was in the mood for this today. It’s cold and dreary outside and I felt I needed something uplifting. This is definitely a wild tea… it’s bracing if you steep it at longer temperatures (30 seconds). I’m getting a lot of smoky flavors plus tart lemony ones. This is definitely hitting the spot right now!

I wonder if anyone else has read this article from Tea Guardian that sheng should be used medicinally and not consumed on a daily basis? In Chinese medicine it is used to reduce heat toxins… interesting.

http://teaguardian.com/tea-health/puer-health-sheng-cha-or-shu-cha-1.html#.U_tyQ0hRHFY

I got this tea in my latest order from Mandala – oooh, it’s very nice!

After my monster matcha green smoothie, I decided to steep some of this up in my Yixing teapot especially for shengs. I decided to stick with short steeps of around 30-45 seconds. The tea flavor here is quite nice… there is a little bit of smoke but it also has a sweetish, thick almost lychee like quality. And yes there is a bit of sourness, a slight lemon flavor. It has a slight fizziness on my tongue in the aftertaste. Compared to the other mao cha I have had, this is considerably more mellow.

If you’re a fan of younger sheng pu-erhs you should really check this one out! I don’t have time for a more detailed tasting note today but I’m sure the 1 oz. of this I have will not last for very long.

Backlog… I bought Mandala’s mini-tuocha sampler and this, along with the 2005 Pu Wen Ripe Coin Pu’er is the absolute best of the bunch in my opinion. They’re all tasty, but these ones just seem to be way ahead of the rest in terms of quality and taste.

So how can I describe it? Smooth is the first thing that comes to mind, very smooth. Also very sweet with a pretty intense chocolatey flavor. And, well, these things are huge. Double to TRIPLE the size of most of the other minis. These are very very good, and this sampler has done its job because I’ve found my new favorite mini-tuochas (though nothing will top Verdant’s Cornfields minis in my eyes).

Breaking out the 2007 Xiaguan flame to try it again. According to my tasting notes I got this 3 years ago (from mandala). I remember being so impressed that I went back and bought another cake. My plan for the second cake is to let it age for 20 years so I can drink the first cake in the meantime. :)

This seems to be aging ok in my closet. It seems slightly more mellow than I remember it, however it is still potent. Definitely a smoky aftertaste but sweet also. Xiaguans can be really bitter if you use boiling water and steep them for too long. I usually give mine very short steeps and use water around 200F. Doing that I get a sweetish/honey aftertaste for the most part.

I love the energy this cake gives me, and the aroma is like a smoky forest. Somehow it is meditative and energizing at the same time. This is one sheng that gets me kind of tea drunk. I think I need to get another one of these… ;)

Oh my goodness!

My order arrived today from Mandala, I was so excited I was practically stalking the Mailman! :)

After I opened my box of goodies, this was the thing I was most excited to try. I love the box it comes in and even the paper wrapper! I might need to get another one for aging. Garret- let me know if you are running low, heh!

Anyway after a quick rinse I did a slight taste and was impressed but it was the 2nd steep that made me really happy. I totally agree with Kwinter on the excellence and good value of this. You get a smoky element, at the same time it is vegetal and somewhat sweet with a eucalyptus like flavor. I am very glad I got one of these!

3rd steep – for about 30 seconds. This flavor is so interesting, the sweetness is coming up a bit more and has a bit of a smoky licorice essence. I quite like that…

More to come…

Infusion #4
Just under a minute

The color is a little bit lighter but still very dark…like a medium-strong/strong black tea would be. The aroma is just warming, not really overly earthy.

The flavor is more like a pu-erh, earthy and woodsy but less sweeter than the other infusions. It’s less malty but still fairly bold and well rounded.

It’s slightly smoky and a little black peppery, even.

4th infusion is still great. A VERY AWESOME pu-erh. rating for this infusion is about 94-97-ish.

Still in my overall FAVE pu-erhs that I have experienced to date.

Yup! I will say it! I LOVE this pu-erh!

Infusion #3
30 seconds

Still the same darkness in color. The aroma is a bit more muted this time around. The flavor is still malty, earthy, a little more sweet than the 2nd infusion, and the fruity and raisin type tastes seem to have diminished, too. This seems to be more chewy this infusion which grabs my attention. I was going to stop at this 3rd infusion but I might just have to try a 4th.

Same rating bracket as the last infusion!

(See previous notes for 1st infusion)

2nd infusion…

It smells more earthy and dirt/wood/forest-like.

Still 15 secs for the infusion time.

Still the same color dark DARK Brown.

The taste is a little more earthy but still slightly sweet and woodsy with a hint of smoke and less fruity flavor…what fruit I am picking up this time around resembles raisins, perhaps…moreso the outer skin of the raisin. It’s still VERY nice.

For this infusion I still give it HIGH 90s…right around 95-97 or so.

More infusions to come soon :)

Pu-erh Abuse Warning! The following maybe sensitive for some readers…

First and foremost I want to thank Garret for this lovely-crazy-huge pu-erh phatty cake! (I just like saying that…I think I will say it again!

First and foremost I want to thank Garret for this lovely-crazy-huge pu-erh phatty cake! (There…I said it again!)

I apologize in advance to the pu-erh purists out there for what I am about to say.

I have had a really hard week and today was the ‘cream of the crop’ really. I needed to release some tension. While pondering just how I was going to go about tasting this pu-erh while at work with only my cup and standard hot tea water that I use for nearly all of my daytime tea…I wondered how I was going to proceed.

A few months ago I received a very hard/sturdy mutant-like plastic tool from japan that I cannot find on any website nor do I really know WHAT it is or how I am supposed to use it. Weeeeeeeell, I ‘dug’ the heck out of this phatty cake from center to sides…just enough to get a good amount for tasting. It seemed to work quite well.

Like I said…I know many pu-erh purists are probably cringing right now…but…desperate times call for desperate measures!

I did a rinse – thankfully – because it was TAR brown/black! The aroma was a gentle pu-erh type smell. Not overly loud at all, actually.

For my first infusion…I did a super short one because of the darkness of it. About 15 secs. This worked REALLY REALLY WELL!!!!! So well that I’m rather tickled with myself!

It’s still very dark in color. The aroma is about the same intensity level. The taste is delightful! It’s malty and rich and and velvety. It’s sweet and fairly fruity! This is right up my alley! WOW!

Dare I say I LOVE THIS Pu-erh? I just might…I’m almost there…ALMOST. Regardless this is really great!!! I’m going to do an infusion test. Stay tuned for more infusions and more notes about this one, folks!

Ahhhhhh! YES! First Infusion Score…HIGH upper 90s…between 97 and 100…at this time.

Five steeps in and I’m floating. Feeling the sheng energy within me. I love this stuff. So smooth and sweet, aromatic and smokey and a little fruity. Thick mouthfeel, swish it around in my mouth and then it goes down smooth and warm. Wonderful.

Edit: I just came down from my cloud after stabbing myself with the pu’er pick while breaking off more of the tuo cha, it hurt like hell but it’s nothing a bandage won’t fix. I guess this is what happens when you’re a newbie in dealing with breaking pressed pu’er.