Mandala Tea

ladies and gentlemen..i am a slacker. I’ve been drinking teas lately but not logging them and i’ve barely felt like being in front of my computer when i’ve been home. Rest assured, i’m not gone, not running away…just taking a break but still drinking through my cupboard :)

I finished this one up the other day and while i’m sad to see it go, i’m grateful for a little more space in my cupboard lol This is another delicious offering from Mandala.

not much to saw on this one as i don’t recall enough from the time that i drank it. I didn’t hate it, but i’m not sure if i loved this batch as much as the previous batch. I’ll have to revisit when i can record my thoughts closer to drinking it :)

I feel like this tea is a different tea from the first time I had this tea. Today I am not enjoying this nearly as much. There’s a strange bitterness here that I don’t like. Hmmmm will need to rethink this one.

I’m not sure if my tastebuds are off this morning so i’m going to with leave the rating alone. I’m glad i have enough for another attempt. It’s not a pleasant cup at all this morning, which leads me to believe that i’ve goofed on something because my first drink of this was pretty darn tasty!

Had more of this yesterday – really enjoyed getting to drink a bunch of tea yesterday while “spring” cleaning the entire house. Next few weeks are going to be a bit crazy and we have a friend coming up to visit us at the end of the month so we wanted a good solid cleaning done to make life easier for the time being. This helped me wake up and get going right away :)

Another tea from Terri – so many teas to try and so little time! I had this one earlier today and it was delicious! I have a sneaking suspicion that i’m going to be struggling with keeping my first order with mandala to a smaller size. I suspect that even though I’m enjoying these black teas – i may just force myself to focus on the puerhs from Garret as I already want 2-3 cakes… lesigh

This is a bolder tea that is also sweet and reminds me of some of the keemuns i’ve had but not overly so. There’s very little astringency and mostly it’s just a yummy morning cup for me. I’m glad i have a bit left – even if a sipdown would be great too lol

I just got finished drinking my sample of the Noble Mark loose tea and now I am moving on to the cake sample that Garret sent me. I am kind of curious to see if there are any differences.

1st steep-15 sec
Still a gentleman’s pu’er. It’s not overwhelming even on the first steep. It’s very gentle. Like it’s holding the door open for you. Tee hee. Slightly roasty notes like a cup of blonde roast. Creamy. Almost a pastry type of sweetness. It tastes like a napoleon.

2nd Steep-20 seconds
The pastry aspects really come out. It tastes like walking into an old school bakery smells. It’s like being hit in the face with all those lovely smells of baking. Kind of sweet but in a breadlike kind of way.

3rd Steep-30 seconds
Still sweet and breadlike. A little honey coming through.

4th Steep-35 seconds
Same as before. Sweet like pastry with honey and some new nutty notes. Kind of like baklava.

5th Steep-40 seconds
Still a bit nutty with honey notes.

6th to 12th Steep-Up to 2 minutes
Varying levels of vanilla. Sometimes with nutty notes, sometimes with fruity notes and one very interesting time with a basil note. Tea is losing a bit.

13th Steep-5 minutes
Figs and honey. Almost can’t give up on this tea now because figs!

14th Steep-45 minutes
I forgot it. I don’t even have a good excuse but it didn’t turn out bad at all. Very light even with the long steep time. The figs are gone sadly and replaced by an almost anise like sweetness.

15th Steep-1 hour 30 minutes
I figured why not. It’s very very light. Still sweet but it’s hitting the floral side of fade which means it’s time for me to move on.

I did notice that when I started steeping this one, I was in a terrible mood. Like Eeyore meets Grumpy Cat meets Archie Bunker. Mainly because my team’s superstar decided to bail on a 15 year deal. Once I started sipping Noble Mark, the mood lifted and I was all cheerful again. Could be a coincidence but considering how much of a bad mood I was in. I doubt it.

I really did love this in cake form more than I did loose. I don’t know why. The flavor seemed much deeper and I didn’t mind spending almost 5 days with it at all. I have a feeling this would be one of those teas that taste different every time you steep it.

pulled this one out yesterday along side another puerh from mandala. I needed a treat even though gonfu is stupid hard to do during a pandemic with a 13 month old running around non stop. So no notes on the tea really outside of the fact that i’m not sure i’ll ever have a tea that is like this one. It really is something special.

Yep. I still have some of this and i’m still hoarding it. I pulled some out to try and have a gonfu session throughout today. Sort of a ring in the new year with a tea treat. Not much to say on this one beyond holy hell i forgot just how much i love this.

You know how you can have something and then you don’t have it for a really long time and figure maybe you were just imagining how delicious it was? Or you have something else and think it’s similar to that other thing you haven’t had in forever? Well that was me and special dark…since i’ve been hoarding it and refusing to drink up my supply. I pulled it out today so that i can hopefully spend some time drinking some of my puerh. Oh lordy….this IS as wonderful as i remember it…and those other puerhs that i’ve had are nothing like this one lol I’d forgotten how creamy? this one is…how the brew is just different from other shou that i also love. going to enjoy this one as long as it will have me today! (And give my pot a drink! it’s been sooo thirsty)

Pulled this out for a session today. May end up not drinking anything else as a result but i don’t care. I have missed my beloved. First sips today where exactly what i needed them to be. Now to curl up and read a little while enjoying more of this.

I have been having a rough day today. 3 months left (less a day) before the wedding and i’m starting to stress over things. My other half and i sat down today to finalise all the things we needed to make decisions on, so that helped. All i wanted today though, was to be able to take pause and drink this tea. And so here i am…drinking copious quantities of this, while reading, sitting in the sun and taking a moment for myself. I adore this tea.

Final Count: 116

i spent some serious time with this tea and my tea pot this afternooon. I needed a break from life and sampling teas. My other half and a friend of ours came over to putter with teh bikes so i just wanted some quiet time. Plus i’ve neglected my pot a bit lately so it needed to come out :) Not much more to say on this one besides the fact that i still love it.

I’m starting my overnight with this baby. Mostly because i am trying my very best to take the time to use my pot, enjoy my tea time and relax whenever possible but also because it’s a sipdown. A sad and delicious sipdown. The other plus is that since i’ll be up all night, i can basically drink this straight through until Sunday :) Not much to say about this one that hasn’t already been said before. Will i order this one again? 100% yes.

I have been neglecting my pot for a couple weeks so i pulled it out today to be the unflavoured tea i drinking while i try to get through a few samples from friends today. it’s a deliciously wonderful contrast to the flavoured teas and has been great for giving my little pot a work out today :)

I’ve been doing my best to try and use my little teapot at least once a week. It’s my first tea pot and needs some serious love before it’ll be all awesome sauce. Doing so though, also gives me an excuse to drink special dark every week haha. I am a fan of this puerh – have been since i first tried it way back when. I really enjoy getting to have a few dozen steepings of this and watching the flavours change. Hopefully my little pot will appreciate it!

http://instagram.com/p/va0wIHkyN5/

i need to keep working on using my little pot that i bought, so i figured today would be a good day to have a mini session in the kitchen while i wait on our friends. If nothing else, it’ll give me an excuse to show off my pot to non tea obsessed friends haha.

sad day is sad…. last cup of this yummy ummy puerh…FOR NOW! this will rejoin my cupboard later i’m sure. I had a bit of time this early afternoon to have a few cups of this and it was a nice send off and a great way to clear my head. And now..back to the suck.

i was in need of a kick in the pants this morning. I turned this in to a latte and let it steep for like 20 mins. lol it was good. one more cup of this and then it’s gone… but so many more mandala teas to get through before an order can be placed!

mmmmm western brew mostly just to taste it compared to the bu lang. I’m undecided about which one i like better when steeped western brew for extended periods of time. I am going to miss this one when i’m done – only a cup or so left.

Edit: Mid Day count: 132 (and now to add in keychange’s teas!)

started the morning out with this one…i think tomorrow i’ll do the same but as a latte…just because!

So…i’ve had a long day at work today. I’m still trying to get work done/clean up things today so that MAYBE tomorrow i can work an actual 7.5 hour day. Wouldn’t that be lovely? This was what i had for breakfast, before leaving the house, and i suspect what i will have again tomorrow. I actually really want to try this as a latte, but we need more milk in the house.

Apparently I also need to write this note in my sleep according to Shmiracles lol. But that’s ‘cause she’s silly. No sipdowns tonight i’m afraid since i’m not even having tea tonight. it’s all Rye and Coke ’cause that makes work WAY more relaxing and fun this late in the evening :)