Mandala Tea
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This one is going to take some thought and experimentation. Started the morning with 4 pearls to a 16 oz cup—maybe one more next time. First sip of the first steep and I wasn’t getting much flavor, just a thick, rich texture. As it cools, however, we’re getting something smoky, cedar-y, and a little sweet.
Good morning, Terriharplady and thanks for the chance to try this. Taking a couple days off work (too many weeks in overdrive) to tend to house/home, kith/kin, paperwork/piddling…so there may be a little time to think on this one some more.
Very good Pu Erh. Lovely color and taste. Id like the aroma a bit stronger however, and a bit more full bodied liquor. Nice, smooth, silky pu erh, just not my favorite one ;) If you are new into pu erhs this would be a great one to start with. For me ill try steeping it longer next time to get a stronger aroma and flavor.
Hi! Garret here. Thanks for this, too! I don’t know if you had the cake version of this or the loose-leaf. This tea, due to its oxidation level, will change quite a bit over the next few years and I’m pumped to see where it will go. The cake is already developing whole new complexities since it was pressed (pressed 10/25/2012). I don’t know if you’ve checked out a couple of recent reviews of this, but I like what people are saying about its gentle nature. And with a little more leaf and longer steeping, you will likely get the body from it that you are looking for. Thanks, again!!
Wow! I’m in love.
I was very curious about this one. When my order came this was the first tea I opened, and let me tell you it was worth the wait. It smells milky, sweet, with some grassy notes and I want to say cotton candy or toffee. Its fantastic! I was so excited to try it that I forgot to rinse it first. In any case the first steeping was a bit more grassy, almost with a hint of seaweed in the after taste, yet still milky and sweet. The second steeping is a bit darker in color, and so much smoother, now I taste to toffee and cotton candy. This tea is really a must try, I’m only on my second steeping an I’m sold. Yum!
Preparation
Thank you for writing up the review, my friend! I appreciate hearing what people have to say about the various teas we are bringing from China and Taiwan. The tea that you have is from the spring crop and I quite like it. The autumn crop will be a while, but once we get it, I’m sure we will find like with the other autumn milk tea crops, it will be more aromatic and a bit sweeter, too. Interesting, isn’t it, that this happens from season to season, year to year? So much joy to be found in tea!
This Big Red Robe is on the lighter side of roasted flavour, and while it is delicious, I think I prefer a heavier roast. This is a very good tea if you don’t like a heavy dark roast.
Even though I prefer a heavier roast, I am appreciating this tea for it’s lighter notes. It brews to a dark golden colour. The taste is light and a bit mineral, with a floral and fruity hint in the aftertaste.
I’m on the third steep and I’m sure I can get a few more steeps out of the leaves.
Thank you Dexter3657 for providing me with a sample of this tea.
Memo to self – scribbles prefers darker roasts oolongs (I have the dark roast of this specific tea – I haven’t tried it, but once I do…..)
I haven’t tried the light roast, but I’m with scribbles. The Dark roast version of this is awesome. :)
I might have a sample of the dark, but if not am definitely going to order it.
If not let me know and I can send you some – try before you buy.
Thank you!!
It has been a while since I last tasted Noble Mark, but had a sample sent along with my last order from Mandala Tea and had a chance to enjoy this once again. Such a great tea to sit down with and enjoy multiple steepings. Not overpowering, just a wonderful balanced taste that changes in a subtle way with each brew and sip. Very important to give it a quick rinse first, and I brew at about 180 to 190 degrees F.
Flavors: Bamboo, Bread, Earth
Preparation
Warm and rainy afternoon today, so I have been having a nice session with a sample of 2011 Noble Mark Ripe Blend send by Garret with my last order from Mandala Tea. A very smooth and silky pu’erh with none of the harsh edges. Very much what one reviewer here on Steepster called a “gentleman shu” — with a tad of elegance and only a hint of earthiness below the surface.
Rich, balanced flavor with hints of cedar coming into later steepings. A really exceptional blend to introduce newcomers to pu’erh without scaring them away.
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Brother, I am so glad that you tried and liked this tea! This has been my first tea of the day, every day, for over 6 months. I just don’t want to stop drinking it! And I guess I don’t have to! We had 320 250gram cakes pressed and 150 pounds of it in loose leaf. Just secured the same ratio of the various leaves from the same processor of this years ripened tea, too. It’ll be interesting to see how it differs. Thanks for writing it up!!
Hi Garret. Such a great tea! I will be putting together a new order soon, and this one is on the list… Shared a few of your teas with Alex Zorach who runs RateTea.com, and we have discussed several through Google+. He might be contacting you for samples since he really has been loving those I shared. One day I am going to have to come drink tea with you, :)
Other people have already written comprehensive reviews about this tea that are worth reading, but a quick note I’d like to add is that it’s very easy to get into. Even people who don’t know the first thing about tea love it. If you’re interested in getting people into trying different kinds of teas, this might be a good starting point.
Preparation
thanks much to jamie at mandala for this great sample.
i would say that green teas are the ones i am least familiar with so really this was an excellent sample to send.
to me this is a complicated simple tea, lol. very mild smelling, quite beautiful to look at— as though jamie had it pressed just before shipping it off! the flavour is where it becomes far more complex.
steeps very light. a nice natural sweetness. i found no cling with this tea…. not from caffeine or from any aspect of the taste profile. it left my tongue clear. there is a taste coming from the green side of nature that is neither grassy, nor vegetal nor floral… honestly, i think the closest approximation may be comparing it to the scent of fresh bamboo. there is the merest suggested marine note…. like the smell of warm dried nori, but not overpowering and absolutely not fishy.
very nice! i’ll take your challenge jamie, i’ll go green with mandala.
very nice indeed.
and thanks, did my first test at school today and i’m fairly certain i aced it! i won’t be trying any of the other teas from my mandala order until all of my other teas have been halved….. but samples don’t count, do they? this was better than cake =0)i’ll be getting into my mandala treats right around midterms as i see it!
Preparation
This was my final tea of the day, from the Here’s Hoping TTB.
The first steeping was really creamy, that was the one thing that stood out to me. I didn’t take any notes, as I was teaching during this time, but the flavor was wood & sweetness, like maybe raisins. There was more to it than that, but that’s all I can think of for now. I love the box it comes in, which I noticed from the picture. This was a small sample, 5G, & although I tend to go a little heavier with my Shu puerhs, it was very nice, & a sipdown for the HHTTB!
Only 3 pearls needed for one gaiwan, now that’s called efficiency. Steep time can go up to 10 minutes. Very enjoyable drink.
Preparation
I have found all of Mandala’s teas to be superb.
At Mandala Tea we had gone through a couple of different sources for organic dragon jasmine pearls. Each time, I wasn’t all that excited, though we sold alot of them because they were better than anything people had experienced before. When I locked in on this source, even I was pumped. And we’ve been acquiring our jasmine pearls from them for 4 years now. I keep trying other ones, but they leave me wanting good tea flavor or are overpowering in their jasmine (likely because of being sprayed with oils rather than authentically scented. So glad that you enjoyed these, Peter! Thank you for the review and thank you, too, John!
Words cannot describe how incredibly surprised I am by this tea. My expectations were set pretty high from what others have said about this milk oolong, but oh my goodness that first sip was just magical. Broke my tea buying hiatus with this order (plus orders from TeaVivre and Verdant), but I think the deliciousness of this makes up for almost all of it.
Yum!
this was included in my first mandala order by jamie, thanks so much!
i kept trying to place my order but the checkout system refused to acknowledge me as canadian! lol. i wound up calling and talking to jamie who said he’d sort it out for me which he did while including some lovely samples as well.
lately i’ve had some odd experiences with puerh…. off beat sweetness or an overpowering mossy taste leaving the sense of having been whacked in the tongue by something good tasting but somehow fluffy; a heavy feather pillow to mouth. that is not the case with this puerh.
it steeps up to be very light, very mild smelling: hints of grass and a baseline earth tone. natural sweetness!!! this puerh has also given me insight as to what i appreciate in a puerh… a mild astringency to cut through the fuzz. the good tasting fluff is still present in this puerh, but it is balanced with a very clever astringency that is neither bitter nor acrid— just the tiniest bit sharp.
excellent. i can imagine buddhist monks drinking this to boost clarity, lol. i just had the most awesomely ridiculous image: a room at some immense altitude of orange garbed monks, all sitting cross legged and speaking the mantra in one great voice, ‘teaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.’
very nice. a savvy sample indeed, jamie! next time i’ll buy…
Preparation
So very happy you enjoyed this tea! It was one of those teas that I tasted in China, surrounded by samples of all kinds of other mao cha, that would not refuse to let me go. So I bought it all, knowing that I wanted to press a bunch of cakes of it as well and it became Wild Monk. What you tasted is the 2012 crop. Soon the 2013 crop will arrive and I look forward to seeing where it will take me.
I’ll make sure to let Jamie know to read your review! Thank you so much for taking the time to write down your thoughts, my friend! I am grateful!
this blend is your baby? very nice! i’m picky about the blends i rate this highly…. i even had it naked, lol. i usually have my teas sugared and creamed!
just so you know garret, i’ve been stockpiling the last few weeks because i am officially back at school and have to be careful about spending. i chose to allocate some of my budget to your company’s brilliant rep! i cannot wait to try the black pearls! they’ve been on my list for months.
Welcome to the wonderful world of Mandala pu’erh. The Wild Monk sheng pressed cake is really good too. Did you get some Noble Mark? All their pu’erh blends are fantastic, but Noble Mark is AMAZING. Let me know if you would like to try some…
jamie included a sample of that as well!
Awwww isn’t Jamie wonderful. Hope you enjoy it. :))
This was a sample sent to me from Dexter3657 – thank you!
Holy leaf expansion!
This is the first time that I have tried an oolong with a hint of floral in it. Took me by surprise, I was expecting the usual mineral taste from this one. The floral note is not so overpowering that it detracts from the enjoyment of this tea.
I’m only on the first steep and am looking forward to the different flavour profiles. So far I’m enjoying what I’m sipping.
Round 2! I resteeped the leaves from last night’s go at Special Dark.
This time I added some honey and a splash of soymilk.
SOO CREAMY! Rich, chocolately with a interesting caramel note along with some woodsy nuttyness thickness.
I think I prefer short steeps of Special Dark, though adding milk and sweetner was pretty yummy – I could see myself doing it again.
Preparation
That’s it…I’m gonna have to make a Mandala order as soon as I have the cash! :P
I’m thinking the same thing!
So great! This is the tea we’ve been brewing up at the sampling bar all day!! Yum! So happy you’re diggin’ it!! I just secured 20 more pounds of it from the producer, but that’s it. All gone after that unless a miracle transpires and he finds more in his tea factory!
Uh oh. Limited supply always gets me, I know I’m ordering more with my next order!
I saw Terri Harplady steeped Special Dark for like 7 minutes and I totally needed to try it! I tasted it at 5 minutes and WHOA THAT IS FREAKING DARK! Rich, burnt chocolate with almost a nutty finish – it’s comparable to coffee like in intensity. It’s so strong, flavorful and addictive, I have to sip it very slowly. I made my cup while I was finishing up making dinner (Pioneer woman’s pork roast with apple and caramelized onions and some risotto on the side) and I’m still working on it after I’ve finished eating dinner!
My roommate, the one I’ve converted to tea for sludgy coffee, would dig this tea. I might have him try it – he’d love it sooo much!
Preparation
Good stuff! This is how I make puerh lattes…really strong!
oh man..i can’t believe it’s never occurred to me to make a puerh latte…
The 7 minute steep is my favorite way to drink Special Dark. It’s a kick in the face but so yummy. I shall have to try it in latte form. I never thought of trying that before.
Even though I sometimes like to do short steepings, I really love doing a long strong one too. I don’t usually go 7 minutes. I think I got that idea from Grace :)
Sweetening puerh or adding milk can increase the caramel notes…You begin to know which ones are going to be best for lattes after awhile. A real Fall and Winter treat!
Not latte’s! CHA-tte’s! That’s what we call here at Mandala Tea :) So tasty!!!!!! And if you are adding something other than whole milk and using thinner products like almond or rice milk, I like blending in some really nice coconut milk to thicken up the mouthfeel a bit. I just use a stick blender. Awesomeness, children!
On the rare occasion that I make a Chatte (I’ll use that from now on Garret, thank you), I use canned coconut milk, but for some some reason I never though of whipping it up with my immersion blender! Now I want to make a chatte!
YES – to coconut milk!! I use that in my post-workout smoothies! So delishus. And the coconut oil/fat is so beneficial to the body. And incredible oil that I use for darned near everything – cooking, skin care, tea. I could drink coconut milk til the cows come home!
Yup, me too Garret! I also make Keifir from it :)
That is an excellent idea! I used to make so much kefir when I had access to raw, grass-fed milk… Do you use kefir “grains” or some other culturing method?
I use Kefir grains. They have to go into real milk every couple of days, but my sons can drink the milk kefir, so it works out ok. I’ll have extra Kefir grains soon, so if you want some, let me know!
I used to do coffee tastings and recommendations for specialty grade coffees (can I say coffee here? :) ), and although I drank my coffee black, there were some origins that benefited from a bit of sugar or cream.For example, a bit of sugar would bring out the complex fruitiness of Ethiopians and Kenyans, and just a dash of cream would bring up the chocolate notes in a great Kona or Guatemalan.
I have a sample of this that Garret sent along with an order and I need to try it asap. As a almost former coffee drinker, I will probably do 2 rinses and then a 5 minute steep. From what I read, it sounds like I’m in for a treat.
COME TO THE SPECIAL DARK PU’ER SIDE!
If I could describe this tea in a few key words it be: rich, decadent, and addictive. The flavor is strong and rich cocoa that gets better and sweeter each steeping. Early steepings the tea is so rich that I had to drink it in slow sips, savoring it. Later steepings I’m guzzling this tea like crazy and wanting more.
I feel I could have this Special Dark Pu’er and Milk Oolong (also from Mandala tea) and be set on dessert teas.
Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/2013/09/03/special-dark-ripe-loose-leaf-puer-2006-from-mandala-tea-tea-review/
Owl interns?
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Great review. I really, really need to find an afternoon to devote to this tea. I keep overlooking it because I want to try it when I have a lot of time to spend with it. LOL Milk Oolong is also on that list….
Special dark does need an afternoon. I spent a couple hours working on the tea, totally worth it though.
Yeah Baby!
I got this as a sample with my last purchase, along with a lovely note. I’ll definitely be getting more of this. It’s a bit like their milk oolong, but more toasty.
I received this a while back from Garret at Mandala with an order. This tea is the exact tea you should give a first time puerh drinker. This tea has the smoothness and creaminess noted in earlier tastings and a bit of a surprise to me. This tea is made with jingmai material that usually has a citrus twang to it. This is absent of any of that. I think if you wanted a good puerh to sit back in the chair and relax this is a good one. It has a good depth of flavor with no off or earthy taste to it. It has no drying of the tongue like some shou does and leaves a light cocoa vanilla taste. A well made tea in my book.
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My friend! Thank you for the review of this tea. I’m excited to hear that you enjoyed it. It has really changed since its pressing. It will open up even further in the next year, too. The Noble Mark cake is also opening up and that is amazing stuff.
I am just nailing down the supply of this years 4 leaves for the new Noble Mark blend! Though, I will likely change up the blend a bit and rename it :) Nothing stays the same in the world of tea, that’s for sure :) Though the Phatty Cake II is dang close with just the tweak of adding the larger grade 3 leaf!
Wishing you joy,
Garret
Garret, you always have some of the finest teas out there! I think this is due to a lot of diligence and painstaking process to get things “right”. It is this kind of attention that keeps your customers for life! Hey on day we got to have a cup and take a spin in that old mopar thing I got!
Count me in for the spin in the mopar thang! I will always have a great love for things mopar – I know I told you about the 74 Charger, but I also had a sweet 74 Duster, 318, yellow with a black vinyl top. Golly, that was fun, too! But my first love will always be the Charger. Dang, I miss that car sometimes.
And thanks for the nice words about the teas. Man, you have no idea how that makes my day come even more alive. Life is cracklin’ with possibilities!
Correction: ’72 Duster!
I bet if you still had the vin number it would be VL29G2B.
YOu’re gonna have to explain that one to me, sir!
VL=duster, 29=2 door sport coupe, G=318 engine, 2=production year(1972). B= Hamtramck assembly plant Michigan.
I LOVED this tea.
I hoarded this tea.
I drank the last of it at work today.
It had to be done, can’t keep it forever.
I will miss this, but am happy to have fond memories of it.
i hoarded this as well….finished mine so long agooooo..miss them :(
I keep buying pearls from other sources but I haven’t found any that are as good as these… :((
i think? it was teavivre that was my second choice….but still no comparison to mandala’s if that makes sense
I hope he will be able to get a hold of them again?
Teavivre is my second choice too – but was looking at the ones at What-cha – has anyone tried them?
yes. the what-cha ones are tasty…but again very different from mandala or teavivre
So in keeping with my new rules, I’m drinking an OLD tea today. This is by far the oldest tea (other than pu’erh cakes – which don’t count) in my cupboard. I’ve been hoarding it, but really it’s just getting stale.
So tonight, I’m lighting a candle and snuggling in for an evening with an amazing and special tea. I will miss you when you are gone, but this tea will always hold a special place in my heart.
http://instagram.com/p/vKFM4WuE2z/?modal=true
I quite like this one from other vendors, and I hope this will be tasty too! The last one I tried had more of a malty flavor than smoky.
i have this one waiting for me to finish off some other teas… i think terri was responsible for me wanting this one, lol.
Thanks for writing up the review! We have exactly 4 ounces left of this tea after a gentleman bought up a ton of them today! We are unable to buy this tea as the producer did not make them this year. We are hoping that they will make them next year as our customers love them. We did just get in a shipment of blossoming black tea (they are cone shaped) from a producer I visited last April in China. They are quite nice. We just put them up on the site under black tea.
“Sculptured” tea is absolutely fascinating, isn’t it? Little pearls, rolled curls…
hmmmm….blossoming black, you say? :)
glad i got mine! i can feel myself going into hoarding mode now, lol.