This was another sample with my Mandala order. My initial impressions of this tea weren’t very good. The dry tea kind of smelled fishy to me. I hate fish so I am really sensitive to the smell. It wasn’t intense but it was there and initially it was a turn-off. But I soldiered on and tried the tea anyway.
1st Steep- 1 minute
My first words after taking the first sip were “Holy Crap!”. The tea still keeps a bit of the off smell but the taste is a big ol’shocker. It’s chocolate with a nice cream finish. I spent almost a minute starring at my teacup in shock.
2nd Steep-2 minutes
It still had the “off” smell but this steep was full of chocolate with a bit of nuttiness. I am borderline in love with this tea already.
3rd Steep-3 minutes
This was my favorite steep. It was all Madagascar vanilla bean and whipped cream. Perhaps a bit of a slight peppery bite as well. It was just perfect.
4th Steep-4 minutes
This had a bit of salty/sweet going for it. It still had the vanilla taste but there was a bit of a salty finish to it. Reminded me of salted caramel. So good.
5th Steep-5 minutes
I brewed this final steep at 1am—bad idea but kind of brilliant at the same time. This is probably tied for my favorite steep. It’s much lighter but I am getting a great brown sugar flavor—with no sugar at all in my tea. The salty bite from the last steep also got a bit more intense. So it’s even more like a salted caramel.
I did not want to stop brewing this tea but it was 1am and I had to get up very early. This was quite the lovely tea. It did not give off the best initial impression but once brewed gave off the most lovely of flavors.
Preparation
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I keep hearing good things about this one.
HI and thank you for the review! When I finished this blend, I knew that with its very young age, that some might still pick up on that post-fermentation smell (the mushroomy, briny, some call fishy smell). But one thing is for sure – I am impressed with how quickly that is dissipating and how it is being replaced with a camphor-like quality.
I await the 400 cakes of this that I had pressed. I have went through 2 of the cakes as I had some express shipped and it is already quite different from the loose leaf version of the same leaf. This leaf is going to mature very nicely.
Thanks so much for sticking with it. This is my personal favorite blend so far… it is YOUNG, but for being this young, I’m pretty amazed at the depth of flavor and aroma.
Tea ya!
Bonnie: It is very very good. Especially that 3rd steep.
Garret: I am very very sensitive to the post-fermentation smell but it wasn’t strong at all and I drink my tea from a thermos so I didn’t really notice it. The flavor of the tea was brilliant. I will be buying a cake of Noble Mark as well as Wild Monk with my next order :)
Hi Grace! ooohhh… the Noble Mark cakes should be here soon!!!!! Can’t wait… I drank mine all up already!!!! I’ll post on FB when they arrive. Are you on Mandala Tea fazbukh page? If I remember, I can message you here, too! I’ll get you a sample of another ripe cake I did last year – and did you try the phatty cake yet?
My next order is probably going to be embarrassingly huge. I’m going to end up re-ordering most of the stuff I bought and the samples plus new teas I haven’t tried yet. It may be a while before I can convince myself it’s okay to buy more tea though.
I am on Mandala Tea’s Facebook page. I’m Grace Maria (https://www.facebook.com/grace.maria.35) on FB. I will be checking for the Noble Mark cakes because I kept the leaves from last night and brewed it again today and just kept getting better and better. I think you can message here as well but perhaps you can only message the people you follow or somesuch similar arrangement. I’m such a newb.
I haven’t tried the phatty cake yet. I’m waiting for Thursday. I know I’ll love it so I’m saving it for when my hockey team plays. I tend to drink tea during hockey games for some reason. Probably stress relief lol. My team gives me migraines. But I just had a tea session with the Bu Lang Gong Ting…it was brilliant. My tea note will be a big mess of tea joy.
I would love to try a sample of the ripe cake. I have become obsessed with pu-er and want to try all of it. But I guess that’s normal :)
I know all about the pu’er obsession. Green and black pu’er, I LOVE them. You got some great ripe teas on your last order! I’m so happy to see you getting so excited about your teas… your joy in it reminds me of my own :)
I just may have to get into hockey!
I was completely surprised by how much I loved it. I had heard so many iffy things but I just fell in love with pu-er.
I’m not sure whether to advise you to get into hockey or not. It’s so much joy when your team is playing well and such a stress filled hell when they lose. Safer to stick with tea :)
I keep hearing good things about this one.
HI and thank you for the review! When I finished this blend, I knew that with its very young age, that some might still pick up on that post-fermentation smell (the mushroomy, briny, some call fishy smell). But one thing is for sure – I am impressed with how quickly that is dissipating and how it is being replaced with a camphor-like quality.
I await the 400 cakes of this that I had pressed. I have went through 2 of the cakes as I had some express shipped and it is already quite different from the loose leaf version of the same leaf. This leaf is going to mature very nicely.
Thanks so much for sticking with it. This is my personal favorite blend so far… it is YOUNG, but for being this young, I’m pretty amazed at the depth of flavor and aroma.
Tea ya!
Bonnie: It is very very good. Especially that 3rd steep.
Garret: I am very very sensitive to the post-fermentation smell but it wasn’t strong at all and I drink my tea from a thermos so I didn’t really notice it. The flavor of the tea was brilliant. I will be buying a cake of Noble Mark as well as Wild Monk with my next order :)
Hi Grace! ooohhh… the Noble Mark cakes should be here soon!!!!! Can’t wait… I drank mine all up already!!!! I’ll post on FB when they arrive. Are you on Mandala Tea fazbukh page? If I remember, I can message you here, too! I’ll get you a sample of another ripe cake I did last year – and did you try the phatty cake yet?
My next order is probably going to be embarrassingly huge. I’m going to end up re-ordering most of the stuff I bought and the samples plus new teas I haven’t tried yet. It may be a while before I can convince myself it’s okay to buy more tea though.
I am on Mandala Tea’s Facebook page. I’m Grace Maria (https://www.facebook.com/grace.maria.35) on FB. I will be checking for the Noble Mark cakes because I kept the leaves from last night and brewed it again today and just kept getting better and better. I think you can message here as well but perhaps you can only message the people you follow or somesuch similar arrangement. I’m such a newb.
I haven’t tried the phatty cake yet. I’m waiting for Thursday. I know I’ll love it so I’m saving it for when my hockey team plays. I tend to drink tea during hockey games for some reason. Probably stress relief lol. My team gives me migraines. But I just had a tea session with the Bu Lang Gong Ting…it was brilliant. My tea note will be a big mess of tea joy.
I would love to try a sample of the ripe cake. I have become obsessed with pu-er and want to try all of it. But I guess that’s normal :)
I know all about the pu’er obsession. Green and black pu’er, I LOVE them. You got some great ripe teas on your last order! I’m so happy to see you getting so excited about your teas… your joy in it reminds me of my own :)
I just may have to get into hockey!
I was completely surprised by how much I loved it. I had heard so many iffy things but I just fell in love with pu-er.
I’m not sure whether to advise you to get into hockey or not. It’s so much joy when your team is playing well and such a stress filled hell when they lose. Safer to stick with tea :)