Mandala Tea

This is my tea of the morning, oh this stuff is so good!

Very chocolatey and malty, hoping it will wake me up soon… it’s hitting the spot with our early morning fog. see previous reviews for more details.

I got this tea from Mandala earlier in the week but I’ve been waiting for a quiet time at home to try it. Beautiful hand rolled pearls! I love the artistry that goes into these things.

It’s recommended that you use 2-4 pearls for 8 oz. of water — I have an 18 oz. teapot and put in 7 pearls.

My first steep for 60 seconds yielded an orangish-brown clear liquor and at this point the pearls are mostly unfurled. This is a delightful tea that’s sweet and a touch malty. I am also getting hints of cocoa and brown sugar in the finish. BF says this is another tea that reminds him a bit of miso.

Second steep was for 2 minutes, the color looks quite the same but Mandala says the tea will start to reveal itself over multiple infusions. Here it has gotten a bit more buckwheat grainy, with more malt. I like the depth of the second steep but the first was nice too, hmm. Difficult to say which one is better.

I was going to steep this a third time for 5 minutes but the well-meaning Mr. Tea decided he was going to help me with the dishes and tossed out my leaves. That experiment will have to wait another day.

I liked this one a lot. Another good offering from Mandala and lovely to look at.

After lunch tea – I am really enjoying this on such a nice sunny day that we are having… if you’re a fan of oolongs you might like this. It says some of the same nutty and floral notes but a slight bit more vegetal. I think I will need to try cold brewing it sometime…

I have had two cups of this yellow tea this afternoon and it’s a nice relaxing tea, which is soft, sweet and forgiving. I also discovered this is good when you add two cardamom pods to it (forgive me for not being a purist). I got two great steeps out of it, I like it better when it’s steeped around 5 minutes or so. It never got bitter even with a long steeping time. I upped the rating a few points today.

See previous notes for more info…

New experiment here for me – I’ve only had two other yellow teas, one was from Upton and I wasn’t too keen on it, the other was from the Vital Tea Leaf and was very good. I’ve liked everything I’ve had from Mandala so far so I figured it was worth a shot.

I followed the instructions pretty carefully & used about 1 tsb of leaf in a 10 0z. cup. The tea liquor is a very light yellow (almost clear). I was pleasantly surprised to get a light floral aroma here. This is very pleasant, a bit reminiscent of a dragonwell. Some light nuttiness and a clover like flavor are what impresses me about this, as well as a hint of sweet corn. This tea is a bit light for my personal tastes but I have no doubt it’s a very quality tea. I think this will need to be cold brewed to see what else I can coax out of the gentle character, and perhaps I will use a bit more leaf even next time around!

Anyway this will be very nice to have around when I’m in a mood for something mild. I can see this would also be a nice choice on a day when I’m feeling sick because it’s nice and delicate.

I just got my new order from Mandala Tea. I must admit I was in a panic thinking the bamboo raw pu-erhs would be gone soon. But I also had to get some other stuff. :) Garrett was very nice, shipped my order promptly, included a nice note and samples. Terrific customer service from these people, I can tell you!

First steep: 2 minutes.
This is what the Chinese would call a red tea and my tea liquor is a beautiful, dark reddish color. The flavor coming from this is very molasses-y and chocolate-y and some malt. I was thinking it would be similar to a golden monkey, perhaps. But it is different.

I like the slight astringency to this and it also seems to have a bit more “heft” and depth than some Chinese red teas I have had. I could definitely see craving this in the morning, but it also makes a nice after lunch tea. There is a bit of sweetness in the tea liquor, but it isn’t a precious kind of sweet. It’s more a dark chocolate kind of sweet.

When I first steeped this up I was thinking ho, hum, another sweet Chinese red tea. I like them but they all start tasting the same after a while. Then I crave the richness of something like a Ceylon. This sort of brings both worlds together for me and melds them into a super tasty, happy tea infusion.

Second Steep: Five glorious minutes.
Not as hefty as the first steep but still full of flavor. I am picking up on the slight briskness a little bit more. Still lots of molasses but perhaps a bit of spice as well. Clearly I need to gong fu this one to pick up on more subtle flavor changes. But this has been quite an enjoyable and even a bit surprising afternoon cuppa.

Sometimes I wonder if I give too many teas high ratings? But my ratings are subjective and are based on my enjoyment of the tea. As you may have noticed, I really like tea! :)

So delicious! Definitely one of the better Jasmine Pearl teas I’ve encountered. Sweet, buttery and rich, the jasmine notes are subtle and soft and exotic. No soapy notes here, just gentle floral tones and sweet, fresh flavor.

LOVE!

Decided to break this out today as the after lunch tea. I definitely recommend keeping the steeps short with this one, like 30 seconds or less because it doesn’t really need that much.

Shu is the perfect after lunch tea in my opinion. I wrote a fairly extensive tasting note on this a while back so I won’t repeat the whole thing. Notes of pipe tobacco, earth and a fruity essence. I love this little cake, it’s so cute.

This is such a great shu – I love it! I had some this afternoon to baptize my new teapot. You can see the pictures at my blog post below:
http://sanfrantea.teatra.de/2012/08/13/new-yixing-koi-teapot/

This is such a good pu-erh! I’m doing short steeps of 30 seconds this afternoon with the remainder of my sample. The tea liquor is dark and silky, I am getting all kinds of interesting flavors like chocolate, camphor, & cinnamon. Smooth and gentle, with no funky aromas. Mandala did a great job with this cake they commissioned. I will need to pick one up soon. :)

I’m finally getting around to trying my sample of this today (thanks, G)

I really like the way this dry tea smells! It reminds me a bit of the pu-erhs I’ve been drinking which are flavored with the rice herb. I did give this a quick rinse in boiling water and now it smells earthy and sweet.

Steeping method: gaiwan.

1st steep: 30 seconds. A smooth and dark reddish-brown liquor. A very soil, rich kind of earthy with a definite sweetness bordering a bit on fruity. No off odors or flavors like fishiness are present. A hint of… tobacco perhaps?

2nd Steep: 10 seconds. Believe it or not, 10 seconds was plenty, especially for the way I feel like drinking it today. But it still got very dark! I’m getting a slight smokiness in the aroma here, kind of chewy in the flavor, nice forest floor aroma.

3rd steep: 30 seconds. I am starting to feel some of the invigorating effects of this tea. I did really need it today somehow. Even matching up my socks from the laundry is feeling like a chore. It has a very smooth feel in the mouth, which makes me want to sip on it slowly and linger around with it. Aside from earthy and smoky I feel like I’m getting a bit of raisin here.

It is fairly warm here today, which makes it hard for me to think about drinking more shu so I’m going to save the remainder of these leaves and experiment with cold brewing them.

This is a very nice offering from Mandala’s private pressing, I have enjoyed trying it and may need to get some more in the future. Good job…

Finally decided to rate it today, I like it. A lighter lapsang that has flavorful notes of smoke (duh), honey and also that sweetish/tangy barbeque type of flavor. Very clean and delicious! Would definitely get this one again… see previous notes.

Well I know it is too late for caffeine but I couldn’t resist trying this. I am generally not a huge fan of lapsang because I find the smoky flavor to be totally overwhelming. When I saw this on Mandala’s site being described as subtle I figured I would like that. When I compare my tea to the one in the picture it is a bit lighter so I may need to use a bit more leaf next time… I will hold off on rating this for now but my overall impressions are very good. In aroma and flavor this is like a lapsang lite which has a pleasant and subtle smoky aroma & flavor which is delicious and does not cover up the flavor of the tea underneath. More to come…

Amusingly, it appears that Arison has somehow pulled it off to follow me twice. I’ve checked, they show up twice on my ‘followed by’ list, and I show up twice on their ‘follows’ list.

So far today has been quite rich. I got sung at first thing in the morning and served breakfast of eggs, toast, mushrooms and baked beans. I’ve received a Harry Potter film (DH pt 1) and the Tintin film on blu-ray and I’ve also got the latest Bruce Springsteen cd, which is very good. I wonder if this is all I’ll get because I’m getting a little concerned that the boyfriend is showing me up on the birthday gift giving scale. (And if he sees this, he’ll probably show up in my room saying “It’s not a competition, you know!”) I’ve also got a card from him, and from his parents and his sister. Those latter two are one with cakes and one with kitties. They know me well already, it would seem! :p

So it appeared to me that a Mystery Tea That I’ve Never Had Before was in order. This one came to me from Spoonvonstrup and I’ve been having a plock of a time working out which part of China it comes from. The company didn’t bother mentioning this in their info. All it said was that it was produced by the same people who also produced one of their other teas, so I had a look at that one. Still no clues about region. Hm. I shall have to suss it out for myself then!

The aroma is sweet, chocolate-y and grainy. Normally this automatically makes me think Fujian, but I think this is a trap. It’s not deep enough, particularly on the grain note, for me to be at all certain. Then there’s another thing, which is a tiny, vague note of straw and a wee bit of pepper. Those are Yunnan give-aways, but they’re not quite strong enough to me to be at all certain of Yunnan either. As I very much doubt it’s a mixture of the two, which would be rather bizarre in this particular context, it has to be one or the other.

Perhaps flavour will give us a clue. At first there’s a strong note of brown sugar in this. That molasses-like strength and depth, it’s very strong here. That note is not one I associate with either type. It’s very good, but it doesn’t really help me work this out.

Next I get that note of straw for a second before it turns into something kind of, but not quite, grainy as the cup cools. That’s a Yunnan-y trait. I’ve never come across that straw-y, hay-y note in anything else than Yunnan. A Fujian tea would have been much stronger on the grain note.

But then there’s there cocoa-y note, which I find to be more Fujian-y than anything else. I may have found that in Yunnan teas before, but it’s not one that stands out in my head as an association to that region.

I don’t know what to make of this. I’m beginning to suspect it’s actually out of an entirely third region. It’s time to go and look for some answers. I know black tea pearls are not that uncommon on Steepster, so I have a look at a few others of different brands. Without exception they are all mentioned as Yunnan teas.

I was close then. This is just not one that is very similar to other teas I’ve had from that province. Your average Yunnan black tea, I tend to find to be a mouthful of hay more often than not, and to drink it requires a very specific sort of mood. This one isn’t like that at all. Yes, it has the straw note in it, but it’s much more subdued, and that makes me like this a whole lot better than my usual impression of Yunnans. I especially enjoyed that brown sugar note. That was right up my alley, that was. I loves me some brown sugar!

Thanks to Garret and Krystaleyn I decided I needed to have one of these this morning. It happens to go very well with the vegan chickpea mini quiches I made for brunch. I steeped one toucha in an 8 oz cup with my Finum filter for about 60 seconds and this was perfect for me. Looking forward to more steeps!

Backlogging – I haven’t been drinking too much pu-erh recently, but decided to break this one out today and had 3 steeps of it this afternoon. I like the unique rice flavor of it, it even seems a bit salty. I am loving Mandala for pu-erhs and black tea…

Mandala is quickly becoming one of my favorite places to buy pu-erh from. I’m excited my Mengku gifting raw cake arrived today along with a few other goodies (ok, lots).

Those of you who read my tea log may know my fondness for the green rice scented pu-erhs. I’m kind of curious about what this rice scented herb is (Nuo Mi Xiang), but it smells so good. The aroma reminds me of hot buttered popcorn.

These are an interesting departure from regular shu, but not sweet or flowery which seems like a definite bonus (I’ve had the rose and chrysanthemum varieties before and they never thrilled me). I did one steep for about 45 seconds (regular infuser mug method) and got a medium-light smooth and earthy cup with a definite savory flavor. I liked it but thought it was a little light.

My second steep was for 1.5 or 2 minutes and then I got a dark, smooth and enticing elixir which is reminiscent of a cup of kona coffee. Ah, joy… The rice aroma is still sticking around through this second steep and now the leaves have unfurled a bit more to show some of their beauty. I am fascinated by this stuff, can you tell?

The third steep I left in for around 3 minutes, which resulted in a slightly lighter cup than #2. Here I think the rice aroma/flavor is fading a bit but the shu is emerging as a tasty, mellow champ.

yep, I liked this pretty well!

Finally I decided to break into this cake that I purchased 3 YEARS AGO (after trying a sample) and am just getting around to trying now. What remarkable self restraint I have!

So the rating on this just reflects my personal opinion and not my expertise in pu-erh. I feel like I’m still a noob so don’t make fun of me. ;)

This tea is almost 8 years old and it is showing some signs of darkness as well as a dark gold tea liquor. When I tried to break a piece of the cake off it seemed a bit dry and crumbly, so I wonder if it’s aging well in my apartment. Harumph.

I am doing 5-7 second microsteeps of this. I actually ditched the first two steeps and steeps # 3 & 4 are fairly woodsy and smoky with a definite bitterness in the finish. Strong! You can still taste the sweetness and the green vegetal notes of the tea.

Steeps 5 & 6 are mellowing out. Smoky vegetal notes are retreating and there’s a pleasant apricot flavor I’m picking up with a sour finish. This is a very energizing sheng and I can feel my energy lifting. I have to say young sheng gets me wired like no other tea I have found.

After the 8th steep, this is mellowing out quite a bit and becoming more brothy and fruity with a bitter/sweetness but the energy feeling still remains. Do you know how you feel when you jump into a pool of cold water? It’s kind of like that. Very interesting stuff. Maybe I’ll revisit this again next year. ;)

Thanks to Mandala for sending me a sample of this tea. I wasn’t able to get a better pic from the website so please feel free to update this if you’d like.

After doing my taxes it has turned into a lazy tea drinking day but I am going out soon so might as well have another cup. :)

I decided to steep this in the gaiwan this afternoon which is my favorite method for trying pu-erhs. I did rinse this quickly and then steeped my first infusion for about 30 seconds at 190 F or so. The wet leaf smells slightly smoky and lemony.

My first sip and I’m thinking yum! Slightly woodsy with a hint of smoke. The flavor is slightly astringent but somehow moist at the same time and seems to end on a bit of a sweet note.

Second steep is also good, nice vegetal artichoke-y type notes in the flavor. I did have a gunpowder green earlier today and I’m noticing some similarities between the two especially as I’m picking up some gentle pungency with an almost brothlike thickness. Oddly enough I am not getting much camphor here.

Third steep I went for about 60 seconds or so. I am really enjoying this sheng. It is mildly stimulating and energizing but without the drying bitterness of some others I have had. Like a lot of raw pu-erhs it is slightly sour but delicious.

Fourth steep for 30 seconds or so. I’m getting some delicious and light corn type flavors. If you steep it for less time you don’t get as much sourness. I can’t help but wonder what this will be like as it ages.

I don’t think I can resist this for the price, I am going back to get an entire cake. :)

This is a sipdown for me, I haven’t had this tea in a while… It does remind me a lot of a white tea in flavor but there’s definitely some smoke involved. This is yummy with a bit of coconut sugar as well. There is no 2008 silver bud pu-erh on the site anymore but I would definitely get some of the later versions.

yum yum

I got a sample size of this beeng from Mandala to check out. I’ve only had one other white pu-erh – I find them intriguing and they aren’t too easy to find.

I decided to steep this up in the gaiwan this morning. I did give the leaves a quick rinse with boiling water.

My first infusion is really lovely – it has the sweetness and smoothness of a delicious white tea with a hint of lingering smoke in the background. I am getting nectar like flavors with a bit of apple. Very mild in flavor.

My second steep I accidentally spaced out on the timing. I must have left it for two minutes or more. The flavor is a lot more assertive than I was expecting. It got more smoky and slightly musty but still very easygoing and delicious.

The third steep I used water that was around 180 F for 45 seconds or so, I’m getting a honey like aroma with tiny hints of malt and apple, again. The other reviewer mentioned nutmeg and I agree. This is definitely a non-finicky tea as the description states. Charming and interesting! I think this will age quite nicely. Good job Mandala… I would go for more infusions now but it’s time for work and I may need to revisit this when I am slightly less rushed for time.

I was definitely not sure what to expect from this one because descriptions I have heard of Lao Cha Tou just sound so weird… since these nuggets are formed at the bottom of the pu-erh fermentation pile (while making shu puerh).

I did decide to follow the recommended instructions and I rinsed the nuggets three times. After that I infused my first batch in the gaiwan for about 60 seconds. I have to admit this does smell a little bit like a barnyard but I’m not one of those squeamish types. I got a very dark red liquor that is clear in color, slightly sweet and very earthy.

My second steep was only for around 30 seconds because the color already started getting so dark. I’m picking some some mushroom-y type flavors as well as the sweeter ones mentioned above.

Third steep seems like it starting to mellow out a bit and get slightly more grounded. Imagine shiitake mushrooms cooked with a handful of twigs and a touch of merlot and that’s starting to get close… lol. This is some pretty interesting stuff I must admit. I’m not sure if I would buy anymore but it’s pretty fun to try.

Sipdown! Finishing off the rest of the Morning Sun today and might need to order more soon. :)

It’s cloudy this morning and I did not sleep a wink last night, but must somehow get it together to go to work and toil away on a big, complicated project.

Thanks to Mandala tea, I have my own Morning Sun today. :)

The wise man J. Krishnamurti once said, “One has to be a light to oneself”

Trying to stay positive and keeping on! what else can you do?

Thanks to all my Steepster friends for the supportive thoughts, it really means a lot to me.