Mandala Tea

This sure brings back memories. It basically got me through two or three years of final exams. I stocked up on a ton of it back then and still have a bit left over, but unfortunately either my tastes have changed, my storage wasn’t great (I was just getting into pu’er and didn’t have much of a storage system back then), the water I use now is different (I’ve noticed some differences in flavour of other teas since I moved apartments), or a combination of the above.

It still tastes pretty good. The chocolate/raisiny favours really come out when hot and there’s a light cottony dryness to it, but it’s not as vibrant as I remember it being. It tastes much flatter when cooled down, so maybe it’s best if I wait until after summer to drink this.

Looking through some of my past tea notes, I realise my preferences have gone from light and fruity teas (and many flavoured teas) to light and floral teas (with still some flavoured teas) to darker teas like shu and roasted oolongs and malty blacks (fewer flavoured teas) to predominantly shu (but pickier than before), young and middle aged sheng (can’t really afford anything truly aged since I don’t want to risk anything that precious with my unsettled life and therefore likely unstable long-term storage), dark/roasted oolongs, and black teas. It was only three years ago I thought my tastes would stay relatively stable.

Even now, while I’ve stayed in the last set of shu/sheng/roasted oolong/black preferences for some time, my tastes have changed. I’ve gone from preferring sweet, floral, and delicate shengs to ones with a bit more of a pleasantly bitter edge and some camphor/apricot/smokey notes with a lasting aftertaste. A lot of the shus I enjoyed earlier on in my shu exploration phase leaned towards chocolatey and/or coffeelike— now I prefer ones that are slightly fruity and sweet, and pay more attention to the aftertaste. Even my black tea preferences have shifted a little from Fujian/Assam/SF/Autumn Darjeeling to Yunnan/Taiwan/Assam/less Darjeeling (though the shift in Darjeeling may be due to shifting more funds towards pu’er). I’m pretty sure my oolong preferences have remained relatively unchanged after shifting from green/unroasted to dark/roasted, so I guess I was sort of right there.

Backlog from this morning.

Bumping up the rating because I was having a dark chocolate craving and this really hit the spot. It may become a cupboard staple.

Mmm, definitely quite reminiscent of an unsweetened, rich, dark chocolate.

Not sure if it’s just my mind making things up after reading the description of this tea being made in cotton bags, but I did suddenly think of linens or cloths in the aftertaste. Not in a bad way, of course. More of a comforting, freshly air-dried in sunlight cloth way.

Of course, it’s finals week for me and it could just be the stress getting to me. Man, I can’t wait for this week to be over.

This is a really well balanced ripe pu-erh. It is smooth and well rounded. The first steepings have some sweetness to them that gives way to hints of vegetal and earthy flavors in later steepings.

Floral, nutty, creamy. . .my type of oolong!

oh man, when I said that to my self in my head, I thought of the recent toaster strudel commercials. Please do not read the above in the voice of the creepy little boy from those commercials! lol

Thanks for sharing this tea with me stephanie. i love it! :)

prepared western style (I don’t have any gaiwan)
A strong,malty and lightly smoked tea.
I was just like …oh how many pearls should I use for my mud and decided to go for 5, it was a good choice.
Thanks to justjames for sending me this lovely tea

I was working on a yixing pot full of this tea while I made lunch and later on relaxed watching a live owl cam on youtube. Lots of hooting!
Yum, like I said before, I need to review this tea. Super tasty and creamy, I highly recommend this pu’er!
Well, off to the airport to pick up my dad, who’s flying in from Vancouver for the holidays.

I bought an 1oz of this pu’er with my last Mandala order. I snuck a bit in my travel tumbler on my way onto the cruise and it was fantastic! Super creamy!
Anyways, I wanted a pu’er to drink while I cook and bake for Thanksgiving. I fired up the kettle when I was working on the pumpkin pie (while the turkey was getting put into the BBQ for smoking). I got at least 6 resteeps up to having my yixing pot next to me on the table at dinner. I love how this tea is earthy, yet mellow sweet. The creamyness is my favorite part, it’s like drinking milk!
After dinner, I ordered a whole cake since Mandala’s Black Friday code kicked in. I really want to to a full blog tea review on this pu’er sometime, just yeah, this pu’er is awesome!

Additional notes: I’m finishing up this pu…. I never really loved it the couple times I tried it. But this time around I used more leaves to finish it. I never thought it tasted DARK enough. Reading my older tasting note I said it tasted like “unsweetened chocolate” which reminded me of SPECIAL DARK from a certain chocolate company… so possibly I just figured out the name now that the tea is gone?! I thought the name meant that it was dark in color… and it was special… haha. I don’t know HOW that went over my head, as I love dark chocolate. Maybe it didn’t quite taste like that deep chocolate flavor when I was only using a teaspoon of leaves? The dark chocolate does seem to fade by the second and third steeps though. The leaves are so odd looking for a ripe pu-erh… they look like a fuzzy golden yunnan and it does seem to get a tiny bit astringent like a black tea might. The third steep was smooth enough though, as a black tea certainly wouldn’t be after ten minutes. The 76 rating is accurate, even six years later.
Steep #1 // 1 3/4 teaspoons for a full mug // 12 minutes after boiling // rinse // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 7 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // 10 min
2019 Sipdowns: 47

Thanks Terri Harplady for sending a bit of this to try along with the HH teabox! I used one teaspoon of leaves… these leaves just look chocolatey.

Steep #1 // cooled the water a few minutes // 1 min
This cup looked very pale in color… maybe I wasn’t supposed to let the water cool at all. The flavor wasn’t strong enough for me! I definitely should have steeped longer. I don’t see anything special OR dark with this one. I’ve had some pu-erhs that have been pitch black in color after seconds. The flavor is so mild it is tough to describe…

Steep #2 // cooled after a couple minutes // 3 min
This cup was darker… the color of root beer! The flavor was better too, but still not the strongest pu-erh I’ve had. It would be a nice intro pu-erh for anyone to try. The flavor does have hints of unsweetened chocolate and some cinnamon actually.

Steep #3 // just boiled // 10 min
Hmm… still not super dark. But the flavor is pleasant… hard to discern from the pumpkin bread I had while sipping though. Not dark enough for me! But I can say there was no ‘over steeped leaves’ flavor or anything.

If only I knew the perfect way to steep this one! But I have one more teaspoon to try with….

Love this tea!

The flavor is a nice malty brew with caramel and pecan notes with a silky texture. What I enjoy most about the Flowering Cones is it can take a beating: when I was on my cruise I’d just toss a few in my travel mug and let it infuse away without worry of oversteeping.

I personally prefer a longer steep with this tea, but the short 1 through 5 minute steeps were pretty good and I got quite a bit of tea from two little cones.

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/flowering-cones-black-tea-mandala-tea-oolong-owl-tea-review/ Black Tea Week with Sunset Owl (shhh, he’s missing feet!) I took some cool pictures of this blooming tea, so check it out!

Boo! After yesterdays long steeping run with this pu’er, I put the leftover leaves to cold steep in the fridge overnight. And boo, I must of steeped the flavor right out yesterday as I didn’t get much flavor in my cold steep.

(see previous note for review)

Yes, it’s Oolong Owl Black tea week, but I need some shu pu’er while I do Operation: Clean House for Thanksgiving. Good time to crack open some pu’er samples too!

I found this pu’er to be similar to Yunnan Sourcing’s 2012 Dragon on Jing Mai (my review http://oolongowl.com/2012-dragon-jing-mai-puer-yunnan-sourcing-oolong-owl-tea-review/ ) as it has similar abrasive clay and campy notes in the first few steepings with a gorgeous deep orange red colour. They are also jing mai tea mats, which I didn’t know until sitting down to write this, hoot!

However, I much prefer Mandala’s Year of the Dragon as it is much more mellow, no fermentation weirdness and creamy notes in mid to later steepings. The creamy notes are fantastic and this tea just gets better and better each steeping. I’d say Mandala’s pu’er is more of a cuddly mother dragon one whereas the Yunnan Sourcing one is more of a scary bite first ask questions later dragon!

Another cup that i finished off this morning. I’m still trying to actively get to my sipdown goal by the end of the year, and I am behind. Limiting my purchases as much as possible is helping and i think i have a plan for my puerh which i should be able to work on in July, since i have a LOT of puerh samples that i need to get through.

I’m still crushed by the loss of special dark…it’s really made me less excited about tea lately. First butiki goes away….dragon pearl from mandala go away…now special dark….verdants 2014 harvest were lackluster compared to previous years….2015 so far seems to be a wet year which means buy and then don’t drink for a while… bah.

Another tea from earlier today – 5 cones in 16 oz = delicious malty sweetness in a cup. Love it!

Sip down!

Dear app I hate you changing my tea ratings to 100. This tea, while being wonderful and delicious is not quite 100 for me. Stupid app lol

another great cup of tea this morning while i clean up the kitchen, do a little work and get it ready for my other half to then wake up and cook me breakfast! lol this is pretty much par for course when we have a day off together on the weekend as i’m a morning person and he’s a night owl. So i get up, prepare the kitchen, make coffee and bring it to him in bed…then he gets up and makes my delicious breakfast to go with said coffee :) it’s perfect. Today we’ll be doing that and then i suspect it’ll be an extended bike ride down to high park to check out the cherry blossoms for fun :)

another backlog from yesterday – love these things! Probably the only “blooming” tea i’ve ever enjoyed hahaha largely because it’s a black tea :)