250 gram Mandala Wild Mountain Green Raw-2011

Got my sampler today! I greatly enjoyed the 2012 Wild Monk maocha that I tried a while back (the leaves in my profile pic came from it) and I’m excited to try the new batch as well as the other offerings.

Dry leaves: Medium-small leaves have a peppery aroma, light brown-green color.

The first steep is very pale and clear. Mild taste with a nice round mouthfeel. Bready rye flavor balanced out by tastes of olive oil, fresh camphor, and a slight nectarine sweetness. Little astringency, bitterness is nearly non-existent.

Second and third steeps reveal more sweetness and tastes of glutinous rice, honeysuckle, and minerals. Cha qi becomes evident in later steeps, and I would consider this tea pretty strong in it. The tea provided me with eleven infusions, and I might have been able to squeeze out one more.

The spent leaves are very attractive. Medium-small size with a few budsets, but mostly single leaves. The leaves are delicate but have nice thick veins and a rounded tip.

Overall this is a nice clean tea with good stamina, but a bit too mild for my tastes. Very similar to Yunnan Sourcings Ailao shengs.

This is an excellent tea that is just a step behind the 2014 Wild Monk in quality. It was most enjoyable. I steeped it six times in a 140 ml Yioxing teapot with boiling water and 5g of leaf. I gave it one rinse and steeped it for 10 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 30 sec. 30 sec, and 1 min. There was only a hint of bitterness in some of the early infusions and it was fairly smooth throughout. At one point I noticed a note that I would describe as a plum note. I had hoped for something as good as the Wild Monk but not quite. Still, it was one of the best raw puerhs I have had.

Steeped for 2 days. Started with 195F just to be safe. I’m just trying shengs and really dont like excessive bitterness. This one is very mellow and smooth. Smells of roasted green peppers. i think i should increase the temp to see how it will turn out. Ready(i think)

Having a Mandala Tea’s ’Wild Mountain" green sheng from 2011. I started this out with 11 grams that I broke off the chunk of tea I have. I separated it into smaller pieces. There are lots of whole leaf in this one with whole stems with the leaves attached. I brewed this in the yixing after a 10 second rinse. It started a golden color on the first brew after a 10 second steep.. This is nice and sweet on the first brew with hints of camphor, flowers and white grapes. I started the second infusion with a 10 second steep it comes out with more depth to it. The color is the same with the camphor touch and a slight pleasant bitternes that will coat and numb the tip of the tongue. I usually will only have one cup of sheng this late at night but this is the second cup and it leaves me wanting more. This is a very nice sheng, leaves appear to be a smaller “gongting” size about half the size of my smallest finger. The depth and complexity are nice and I may have to get a whole cake of this to age. Very enjoyable. Garret, Garret where do you find these great teas at