Mandala Tea 2011 Wild Mountain Green Raw Pu'er

I work with Garret and Sarah at Mandala Tea so I won’t be doing a rating – just personal reflections and a “check-in” on this young sheng.

Method: 7g in gaiwan, boiling water, rinse followed by two infusions of 30 seconds, then five 1 minute infusions and one 5 minute infusion.

After the rinse I poked around in the material and noticed a number of dark reddish leaves and a nice grape-like scent. All infusions brewed up a relatively deep amber/yellow color. It’s a perilous term, but what I think of as a pleasant “sour” in tea is present. It seems to refresh, awaken my tongue and mouth. No smokey smell or flavor, which allows me to enjoy some subtle grape and mineral action as the sourness fades. This stuff feels velvety as I sip.

There is great Qi with this high altitude wild picked stuff. I’m accustomed to it from the Mandala Wild Monk and it is strong with this cake, too. Long after I drink a cup, there is a coolness in my mouth as I draw in breath and my chest feels opened. The sweetness that lingers long after the last cup is just a bonus.

Vegetal, floral bitterness and some fruity earthiness; tingly astringency with lingering sweetness. Later steeps become creamy sweet throughout.

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While I have never ordered from Mandela, I take everyone’s word about how good their teas are. This tea produces a smell similar to the yellow pu’erh cake I have; which is intense. On my tenth steep right now as I write this and I think I have a grasp on my feels for this tea. The first few steeps were a bit stronger and bitter but then I started to flash steep instead of using my 10s steeps for sheng. This helped out a lot. Unfortunately, it just isn’t as smooth as I would like it to be. What makes this appealing is that I do want to keep steeping it. I will continue to steep this tonight and be thankful that this sheng isn’t another that loses my interest after steep 6 or 7.

A nice smooth sheng. I really enjoyed this one opposed to some other shengs that I’ve tried recently. It has a great build up of buttery, vegetal notes.

This is a fantastic tea. It has a touch of bitterness coupled with some sweet grassy notes. it is aging nicely, I’d say.

This was my very first raw pu’er. I needed something to soothe an aching stomach and even though I didn’t necessarily want to fuss with the gaiwan and steep times, I managed. For the tea.

So, 4 g. (half my sample) in my little Midori and a 15 second rinse, then a first steep of 15 seconds. I didn’t get much smell from the dry leaf, maybe just a vague earth scent . The taste is surprisingly tangy, and also buttery and green. It reminds me strongly of a green oolong, actually. The exception is a small fermentation taste as well. It’s not fishy EXACTLY – I’m thinking its what happens with age to the fish notes in less aged pu’er. Fascinating! And towards the end of this steep I’m also getting notes of florality. So far I’m liking this a lot more than any pu’er I’ve had before!

Steep two: 30 seconds. The leaf has become more earthy in scent. This steeping is much more fruity and astringent. It reminds me of the taste/texture of grape skin, actually. Sweet but also very drying on the tongue. The note of fermentation is gone from this steep.

Steep three: 45 seconds. More buttery and florality has returned to the tea, and the fruity astringence is gone. This pu’er changes very dramatically from one steep to the next. I’m glad that the astringence is gone though – I was worried I’d done the impossible and over-steeped a pu’er! I’m still amazed at how very oolong-y this all is.

Steep four: 1 minute. Nothing remarkably different about the flavor profile here. Still a light green tea and pleasurable to drink but I didn’t notice anything from the other few steepings. I’m keeping this around to finish up with dinner tonight because there’s a lot of life left in these leaves, so I’ll be back later to update this!

I will say that I think this pu’er may have shown me the light. It’s done wonders for helping my stomach feel better, too….

Second one to try from the sheng sampler. Method: gongfu with gaiwan. 10 second rinse. Steeping times: 10, 10, 15, 15, 20, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120.

It was difficult to make the dry leaf aroma, though it pretty much smells buttery. The wet leaf aroma changes as the leaves cooled and as the session went on: dried grass, cooking herbs, grilled vegetables, and apricot and grapes.

Overall, the broth is clear, full-bodied, a little thick, and bright. A livening effect on the body. Later, an alcohol kind of buzzed sensation.

Infusions one and two are light in flavor, not quite there. Buttery and vegetal, with a tart aftertaste. These invoke a mental scene of dark earth after a light rain, of water droplets slowly dripping from the very tea tree this pu’erh was processed.

The third infusion tastes of sweet grass and hay, and the aftertaste is more citrus-like. Tingly on the tongue. The fourth infusion has indescribable notes – this is probably the camphor, which I’ve never tasted. Infusions 5-9 come back to the sweet grass and tartness. The texture is more smooth.

Lastly, the tenth infusion has the same notes only lighter in taste. Buttery, with a creamy texture.

Another great sheng!!!

I steeped this semi-western, which is my habit when making sheng at work. Steep #1 was a little on the weak side, but steep #2 was GREAT! Lovely huigan, and bright grassy flavor. Just enough light sweetness and pleasant bitterness to make it interesting. The name of this one is really apt. It really reminds me of a green/sheng hybrid.

So glad I got the Mandala raw sampler :)

I was going to bust this open tomorrow, but when MzP said it was her fave sheng, I decided I couldn’t wait!!!

Method: 3.5 g, 3 oz, rinse, 10-15-20, 205 degrees, ru kiln gaiwan

Aroma: apricot, plum!, spinach, a little floral

Flavor: This is buttery and sweet, smooth and a little fruity. It tastes a teensy bit vegetal, too. This has a light bitterness on the end of the sip. Not too much. It has a pleasant aftertaste. This tastes a little brothy on some sips, sweeter on others. I’m into it. Shengs are totally my jam. :p

I haven’t been having many shengs lately because there’s so many infusions with them and I’ve been trying to cut down on my caffeine. Then someone here mentioned that the first few infusions are usually not the best anyway; to take a few sips and throw it out. I tried that this morning with this tea. Although I felt terrible throwing away good tea because infusions 1-4 were still good, I tried that. At infususion 5 it really was better! So mellow, lighter, silky mouth feel, buttery. And the best part? My lungs were all congested this morning and it’s really cleared them out. I think I need to buy a cake of this and have it daily.

Also enjoying the calm energy from this tea.