Mandala Noble Mark Ripe Cake - 2012

I shouldn’t have had this today as I was not in the frame of mind to pay attention. Despite that though, I made it to four steeps.
What I can tell you is that this is delicious. Like the molasses version of red velvet cake. Smooth and sweet shaded by a mineral note and an even more potent sugary aftertaste.
Each steep was progressively sweeter and more mineraly.
Other than that I can’t really give any specifics. There wasn’t any real definition between cups which makes me think that this one could go on forever in a gaiwan. Great because, well yum, but I can see myself getting frustrated because if one cup just melds into the next, I won’t notice the differences as much. Like a frog in slowly boiled water.
Geeze, I’m feeling morbid today.

Went on a bit of a tea/teaware shopping spree last night. Ohhhhh Mandala – I love Mandala Tea, and was spending the evening trying to put together an order – it’s tough when there are so many awesome choices.
Anyway I was drinking the amazing Noble Mark while I was shopping. I love this tea. I don’t drink it often enough and I don’t write enough tasting notes about it. I was using my little yixing shou pot and stopped counting at 9 steeps – but I’m quite sure I got to at least 15. It just keeps getting smoother and more mellow as you go. It starts really nice and doesn’t go through any icky stages. Maybe not as “complex” as some like – but you know what your going to get with this one. It’s always good – it can handle some “oops I let that steep too long”. One of my all time favorite teas.
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I hate it when reviews disappear. I pulled this one out to be my puerh for today after reading misslena’s tasting note on special dark. :) I haven’t had this one in a long while so i figured it was time to work on my sample of this, especially if i place a mandala order for special dark! I’ll be drinking this most of today and that suits me just fine. My little turtle needs more tea love and this is a great tea. I’d say it’s a toss up on any given day whether i’ll love this or special dark most :)

My second to try from the ripe pu’er sampler.

Rinse, rest, rinse again quickly and steep 20 – 30 seconds. Several steeps over a couple days.

Brews a dark, deep brown color.
Tastes very rich and smooth, with milk chocolate, nuts, and some woodiness. Quite tasty and satisfying.

I seemed to enjoy this more the year of the dragon sample I had the other day – not sure why, but I think this had a sweeter aroma.

Lewis and Clarke TTB

I’m excited to try another Mandala puerh, I’ve loved the ones I’ve tried so far.
So my Yixing that I have that I seasoned for green oolongs, doesn’t get much use since I’m not much into green oolongs any more. And I figured since I only used it a handful of times, and I drink puerh a lot more and puerh is a lot stronger than green oolongs, that I can just casually switch it puerh. So that’s what I did.

I did 2 15 second rinses, and then 30,45,60,75,120,120,150 boiling water, 7g/8oz, sweetened

I collected the rinses, and took a sip. It was actually tasty, and I ended up drinking them.
The first steep is wet earth and mushroom and bread and milk chocolate, in the best way possible.
The second steep is like the first with a little more milk chocolate.
Third and forth steep are creamy, nutty, earthy and ’shroom-y.
5th-7th steeps being back some of that milky cocoa.

This baby can still keep going, and I’ll be coming back to him later

This is a complex and tasty tea. It does have, at least in the first infusions, notes of cocoa and molasses. It is somewhat earthy but does not have overpowering fermentation flavor. There is a slight bitterness to this tea that slightly overpowers the sweetness. It is complex. Sugar brings out a nice depth of flavor in this tea.

This is one of my favorite ripe pu-erh’s! WOW! Extremely complex for a shou, and well balanced. There are initial overtones of earth and spice, with smoothness coming on the sides of the tongue and some sweetness as you finish the drink. The spice characteristic is unique to this tea, which I have not tasted in very many other pu-erh’s, and I enjoy it very much. I have retired this tea for now, storing one cake whole and another broken up to speed up aging. This tea should get even better with a couple more years of aging. I can’t wait to see what this tea brings as the years go by! I plan to sample every 4-6 months until I feel it’s fully ready. In the mean time, I bought some of the loose leaf variety for consumption now which I am eagerly awaiting from Mandala Tea. :) I really should buy a couple more cakes before it’s gone forever! Excellent, excellent tea!

Preliminary review

I got this sample from a friend. : – )

I estimate I used 4-5 grams, and I didn’t quite fill the gaiwan with water. I completed 6 Steeps starting at near boiling then moved to boiling water; rinse/30/60/90/120/150/~ 300; Stevia added; 150ml gaiwan.

Noteworthy: as I was looking at the wet leaf in my gaiwan after the first steeping, I noticed the little bit of tea liquor left behind had a consistency or viscosity I had never seen before: it was like it was silky, rich, and/or oily? Whatever it was, I believe it indicated there is more (complexity) to the liquor than what I have seen in the shus I have been drinking.

I don’t consider myself to be very skilled at nailing down flavors, so sometimes I look at the reviews of others to see if their notes strike a cord with me; as I have a hard time with describing the flavors of cooked pu-erh tea, I decide to do that this time, and from at least one review (MissB) I saw the flavor descriptors ‘cocoa’ & ‘earthy’; I definitely get those flavor notes (perhaps even ‘malty’). Furthermore, there were no off, musty, or odd flavors in my cup. The color is clear and rich, and what comes to mind is the color of mulch. I looked at the wet leaves, but nothing interesting to note other than the pieces are as big or bigger than any other shu I have had, and they were a very dark brown color.

I usually try to test the steeping staying power on the last steeping, and the length tends to be somewhere between 5 – 10 minutes; on this final steeping at approximately 6 minutes it still had flavor (although I used less water) and it had no bitterness what-so-ever.

Definitely one of the best shus I have tried. I have plenty of the dry tea left to do another session sometime.

My gongfu is… well less than optimal, so I decided to try and brew this Western style today, because it was calling to me. I looked at other, similar teas for ideas, and then just decided to go for it. Will update as I steep progressively.

Steep 1: 1 minute, 1 TB, 200F, 12 oz.
Thick yet light brew, rich, malty, mineral, earthy. Mineral more apparent at the end of the cup than anything.

Steep 2: 3 minutes, 200F, 12 oz.
Thick, dark like inky purple chocolate, smells earthy and chocolately, tastes more earthy and like minerals. Something sweet in the distance too, something that I fail to place, but it is quite lovely whatever it is.

Steep 3: 3 minutes, 1TB, 212F, 12 oz.
Increased the steeping temperature from Garret’s recommendation. This is a much smoother cup, almost silky in texture, and barely any mineral taste. Almost like a dark chocolate coffee.

Thank you Mandala and Garret for this great sample!

I got a sample of this with my recent Mandala order. Thanks Garret!

Man, this is super good smooth shu. I have been drinking on it all day :) Basically, this embodies everything I like about shu!

I sort of wish I had ordered some of this instead of the Bu Lang Gong Ting now!