Mandala Tea

Since I woke up insanely early this morning, I got all experimenty and tried lots of things with extremely mixed results. Then I decided it was time to just go to my happy place. And it is a happy place indeed.

Enjoying a great big fat 7-minute-steeped cup of this and wishing I had a great big fat chocolate croissant to go with it.

A LONG hot steep of my beloved Special Dark is assisting with my recovery from that fuzzy-headed-not-quite-a-hangover feeling brought on by one too many lemon drops last night. I’m starting to feel a little more human.

Yes, again! I woke up ridiculously early (in fact, it is still ridiculously early) and headed out to my deck for a bunch of sun salutations. In the dark.It is already 64 lovely degrees and will get into the low 80s later. Right this minute, I love Texas weather. Ask me again in mid-July though. Today will be a very indulgent day for me. I SHOULD clean my house. Instead I’m doing yoga and going for a thai massage with a friend and trying a new restaurant later.

I got a whole bunch of new tea in the last week and I had every intention of trying something different this morning. And yet. Here I am sipping on a huge steamy mug of deep, dark, chocolately awesomeness with my dogs curled up in the bed. Because this is my indulgent day and THIS is what I wanted. I steeped for 7 minutes and even put in a little half and half a wee spoon of local creamed honey.

Special Dark reminds me very much of my yin yoga practice – long deep holds that you relax into. Yin is the black side of the coin. It is soft and slow and surrender.

I have an insanely stressful job and this is helping me hit the re-set button. This tea is all bottom. Like J-Lo, Kim Kardashian kinda bottom. Big, round and and full. This tea is Barry White singing Love Serenade – its alll about the little bit of naughty slow jam: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj1QRbhEmlU

MMMMM breakfast tea. mmmmmmmmm

Just steeped my first cup of Special Dark. I’m groggy from approximately zero hours of sleep (its South By Southwest y’all!) and normally I would put in all sorts of chocolatey, depth, complexity, etc notes. I’m exhausted. This tea was freaking awesome so I’m gonna leave this note at holy shit! This is GOOD tea and go have another cup.

Finished this one today as well. Sad to see it go, but i know it’ll be back. Smooth, dark and delicious.

Trying to drink some puerh today while i can. I’ve only got one more session with this one, so that’s sad. But this is a great “intermission” for the morning when i have a chance to run to the kitchen to make a quick steep lol. I’m enjoying the couple of steeps that i’ve had so far, and will continue this for a while. I’ll have to put this on the reorder list whenever i get a chance to pick up some more puerh from Mandala….got a ways to go before then though.

Another puerh i’ve been drinking this morning and another one that i love for different reasons than special dark. This one is more bold and dark. smooth and delicious but not as creamy as special dark. I love the way this one just holds up even if you over steep it or brew western

been drinking this all day – only way i’ll get through some of my puerh! Really enjoying revisiting this one. Smooth, dark, bold…also pairs perfectly with golden oreos! haha

I figured with no water today for some indeterminate amount of time, a puerh was in order since i don’t need to rinse brew baskets and such in order to move on to a new tea. this is another one i love. Just a deep, rich, smooth, sweet brew full of goodness.

At some point i need to get cracking on my puerh, so i pulled this one out today. Trying to figure out which of my options i might enjoy drinking western brew at work in an effort to try and dig in to some of the abundance of puerh i have. I really have missed my mandala teas – i’m glad they’re working on getting back in to things. love the creaminess of this one, even if it’s not special dark :)

Soooo my morning has been sort of awesome. I know it’s friday but i woke up early, and actually felt rested even though i went to bed late again. My other half didn’t have work today so he was still in bed, snoring away. I managed to get up and make myself a bagel and creamcheese while boiling water. Why is this morning awesome? It’s been quiet in the apartment – even as far as the neighbours go. I’m working from home today :) It’s raining in Toronto, so i’ve been able to sit, relax and listen to the rain while having tea, including a number of rounds of this one, which i start with. And slowly, steepster has woken up….folks have started to get online with work…but there’s a calmness to everything. Friday is finally here and it’s time to keep it slow. Only thing i’m missing, is the smell of rain….rain here smells different than out west. But life is good. My weekend is shaping up to be a good one and i’ve got my health, tea friends, friends here….a wedding to plan, travelling to be had, a job and my best friend to share it all with. life is just good. Sure work sucks the life out of me…but at the end of the day… i’ve got so much to be thankful for, that it hard seems worth the blip.

Happy friday everyone! Last one in March :)

(oh…and this tea? i love it…there are days when I think i might like this even more than special dark. There’s just something delightful about all of Mandala’s puerhs that i’ve tried. This one is the perfect accompaniment to this morning’s symphony)

Dexter inspired me. I’m sure i’ve had this before but i guess i forgot to log it? I’m too lazy to deal with a gaiwan today so i just made this up as a western brew and let it steep. for ages. sooo good! i’m almost tempted to add a splash of milk or maple syrup to this but i’ll opt for passing on that this time,. Instead i’m just enjoying this bold cup of delicious.

I just drank my last bit of this fine tea. I didn’t really want it hot for some reason so I decided to make it iced. I’ve never really tried that with a sheng before but it turned out perfectly. I took it on a run with me and the minty, slightly smoky kick was just what I needed. Managed to run to the library and then run home with an overstuffed bag of books—they were having a book sale and I am weak. I blame Wild Monk not for my book hoarding but for the energy to run home with a 10+lb bag of books.

Had a nice session with this over a couple of nights. I really didn’t take down notes as I just enjoyed it for what it was. A simple tea . Brewed simply and enjoyed greatly. In times of controversy about sources and ages this is still a well sourced one. Hand picked and processed in good order as testament of the spent leaves.
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I ordered this loose maocha and a cake on the last Mandala order I got. I have put the cake away but I wanted to sample it in its current state. This tea has an assorted size of leak in it. By volume it is heavier than lots of other puerhs I have tried. I was surpised at how little it actually to to get 9 grams. Might be the thick burly leaf in it.
I got down to business with this one in the yixing. I gave a flash rinse and opened the to to smell the aroma of the wet leaf. This is spicy almost like that little burn wasabi or hot mustard can give in the aroma department.
I steeped this for only about 5 seconds before pouring.
This tea has so many notes it is crazy! You have buttery, pine, sweet, bitter ,floral.
It is velvety but strong, floral with some bitter, citrus y and lots of flavors. You will get the tongue numbing with this one!
This is a rock on dead on fine sheng. I really look forward to this one when it ages.

I need Sheng! This and Wild Monk are my default shengs and there is a reason for that. Hot damn this is wonderful!

I put 7 grams in my awesome red gaiwan, 212 water, rinse followed by two infusions of 30 seconds, then five 1 minute infusions

1st steep green and shengy with that little bit of pucker and the tinest hint of grape

2nd getting the green floral with a slight bitterness and a touch of camphor

3rd Oh hello darling – Ive missed you! Opening up into that sublime deliciousness

4th There’s the grapey lovliness I adore so much with this tea

5th – 7th Still the grapes with a stronger camphor note and the most pleasant bitterness ever. I’ve got the tongue tingle, the chi buzz, the warm feeling all through my body and THIS
is the way to start a Sunday morning y’all. I will likely sip on this alllllll day!
Garret – I appreciate you for many reasons – this sheng is most definitely one of them :)

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OMG I forgot a song! How about the Zydeco Boogaloo? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZHnu_mgQBs

This came to me as a sample with my recent Mandala order. It is my very first sheng. I posted about this tea on the pu-erh discussion and I mentioned that I think those who say pu-erh newbies should avoid shengs at first are kinda full of it. This one is very accessible. First steep is a little grassy and vegetal. Second there was slight bitterness (not in a bad way), more depth and little bit of butteriness and as it cools slightly, a little grape taste. VERY nice grapey aftertaste. Third steep very grapey aroma – fruity/floral with a little astringent buzz on my tongue. Number 4, still very pronouced grape aroma and more pronouced grape flavor. I REALLY like this. There is still a slight astringency but it is mellowing. The color is a paler green-gold and the aftertaste is less pronounced. Fifth steeping – it is thinning out now, with a bit of hay taste and more astringency. Aftertaste is similar to the fourth steep with a little bite. Sixth steep, aroma is less grapey. On first sip, all of the flavors have really mellowed. The astringency is dialed back with just a wee bit on my tongue and still a little muscat kind of grape but subdued. I’m going to stop here. This tea is beautiful. Love it. Nice qi buzz.

Having this cold today. I steeped up a tiny pot of it to use in a picture yesterday. But my acid reflux flare up had already had it’s fill of tea for the day and while I wanted the golden little coils in the photo I didn’t want to waste the tea. So I let it steep about 5 minutes all told and then put it in a cup in the fridge.

Cold it has a more pronounced hay flavor. Also more of the fruity notes come out. Tasty.