Noble Mark Ripe Pu'er Blend 2011

Awesome…. that’s exactly how I feel about some of my favorite teas. Nice to know they are there, but you just don’t get around to “calling” them as often as you should.
You introduced me to this one, and I still LOVE it – thank you.

I went for the shou sale and got a lot of sheng to go with it! looking forward to my order from Mandala!

YES! I just packaged up your order, my dear and shipped it out! John, you should see yours soon, too! I’ve got a few new pressings in the works that I am quite excited about. It’ll be a few months before we see them (they have to be pressed, dried, sit for a while before shipping to US) but I look forward to sharing them with y’all when they finally land stateside!

Thank you each so much for spreading the word of our humble company. It truly means so very much. We are proud to have friends like you.

Grateful,
Garret

Dexter: A part of me thinks it’s my tendency towards hoarding. If I don’t drink it, I know its there but yeah buy more so I can hoard that too. It’s a vicious cycle. I am so happy that I could introduce you to Noble Mark. Although it doesn’t take much convincing with this one.

mrmopar: I have to load up on sheng one of these days. I am stocked up on shu for the next decade or so but I haven’t found a sheng that I love that much. Aside from Wild Monk that is.

Garret: I can’t wait for the new blends. I kind of fell of the wagon with coffee but now I am all teaified again.

I keep thinking I should start a business called, “Terri’s Tea Library”. I could invite people over for tea, take a love donation, offer to sell them a bit at a reasonable price. OR Do a local subscription thing, where they have a small container that I fill once a month with the tea of their choice. I already do that with a couple of my harp students, I gave them a little tin for HoliDaze, & they can bring it & refill it. It only holds a couple of T worth, but that’s enough to try something out.

Anyway, I’d never really make a real profit, but maybe it could be a non-profit thing. The catch is I’d get to deduct all of my tea & teaware purchases when I do my taxes!! :")

Grace I agree about the shouQ Sheng is where my next direction is. I am trying to get some good stuff now to age in the pumidor. We will discuss some shengs in the future, you should join our discussion on puerh of the day.
Garret I am jumping for joy. I should have my box from you tomorrow!
Terri, can I join you in this venture or have you seen my cupboard lately! ACK!!

This will be my breakfast tea this morning. I haven’t tried it yet but am looking forward to it.

I thought the same thing.

This has been the tea I’ve been having before every workout or run each morning for going on two months. I sometimes veer from the recommended brewing on the package and do a longer first steep… I’ll do the two boiling rinses of 5 or 10 seconds and then steep it for 5 minutes or so to get a bold and strong cup. Then I steep it again for 10 or 15 minutes and drink that during my workout. I’m a bit obsessed with it obviously because I have several hundred teas in our pu’er vault.

I look forward to seeing what you think when you brew it long and strong.

When it comes to making recommended steeping instructions on our packages, it’s tricky, because we have many customers who want mellow tea. So we use the recommendation as simply a place to start.

Joy to you both!!

:D Thanks Garret! It’s all a divine experiment, right? :)
Enjoy the day!

Terri, I think both of us should just look in the mirror before brewing tea, huh! You, Garret and I would get along just fine.

Savor the moment, right?

you both should get a really nice mirror, park yourselves in front of it and see all the beauty reflected in it. that’s what I think! tea optional for this exercise, but encouraged :)

Oh, tea would definitely be a part of THAT experience! :)
I think the three of us should someday get together, brew up something awesome, & sit & smile at ourselves in the mirror, kind of like an episode of The Californians (SNL), only without the drama, LOL :D

Oh, but if we were all together, we would need no reflective surface as we would be a mirror for one another with smiles, joy and laughter ensuing. Unless you count the surface of the poured tea as being reflective, that is :)

You’re awesome!

Too funny that this review happened just now, my friend! I am drinking the same tea. The loose leaf version. I’m really happy that you enjoy this one. It’s one of my all-time fave loose teas. I’ve been sipping and comparing it to the Temple Stairs blend that I did this year. The Noble Mark, with it’s age, has a slightly more well-rounded flavor, but this Temple Stairs, with a little more aging will most certainly be a rival. I just wrote the description for the Temple Stairs and put it on the site: http://shopmandalatea.com/ripe-pu-er/loose/temple-stairs-ripe-pu-er-2013-loose.html

I can’t remember if I got you some of it on your last order for a sample or not. I hope I did.

New shu from Mandala?! Oh, I’m in trouble now.
(:

Oh boy, I hope that’s a good frowny face :) Pretty excited about it. So much so that I pressed 500 of the 100 gram cakes and 10,000 5gram mini-tuochas. Gonna be one mighty fine mini-tuo. Can hardly wait to get them shipped. They were pressed at the pu’er factory last week Now they just need to finish drying before getting on a boat and headed to us. Then you!

I have never tried the Temple Stairs! Sounds good!!

I shared this tea with my oldest son on his 28th birthday. It was his first puerh! I even got the grand kids to try but not with as much enthusiasm as us “adults”. A very good one for us to share on that day.

Oh, I love the imagery of “an ancient Library… in a cup”!

Ancient library in a cup? Don’t mind if I do! :)

Yay!! I thought you would appreciate this!!! I am so pumped about my connection with this producer! I just secured this year production of the same leaves from them and will have 440 lbs of this tea for loose leaf and also our cake pressings!! They know what I want and I want to keep it coming!!! Thank you for the review!

That’s a lot of tea! haha, I’m always happy to review a good product. How soon til the cakes come? I might just have to get one

Hello, my friend! I have 5 kg’s of the cakes arriving in 3 weeks (or so) and the remaining 300 cakes in around 8 weeks!! I’ll hold one for you :)

I can’t wait for my sample to come!!! This sounds awesome!
You might have to hold one of those cakes for me too…just saying!

Well, I decided to give in and place order to make sure I get a cake of the Yong De. Maybe sometime I’ll get a Noble Mark cake, but I think I’ve reached my tea buying limit for now :P

Mr Perez, my friend, your order has been received and will ship out to you tomorrow!! Thank you… can’t wait to see what you think of the new stuff. Wishing you all kinds of joy!

Thanks so much Garret!

It was his birthday today, correct?!?!!?!?!?!

Well today was an early celebration. his birthday is tomorrow but we celebrated today due to his work schedule. So yes its today (just early). Thanks for the great tea to share with him Garret!!!

I’m obsessed with the Noble Mark right now. I swear, I’m gonna drink it all. Luckily, I have biz partners who will do an intervention for me should I need it. They can’t have me drinking away the profit :) Thanks so much for sharing the tea drinking pics today, John! Awesome!!

You got to save me a cake when you get them in! Glad you got to meet the family through the pics. GREAT TEA!

I just had some of the cake yesterday. It was pressed on 10/25. Already, the flavors of the cake are deepening and getting more complex. Typically, the loose ripe tea is better than the cake for a while, but once the cake ages a bit, wow! So much more complexity develops and at about 2 to 3 years after the pressing, I fall in love. With the tea, that is. And who knows what else?

Saw the pictures! Great to share with your son!

Thanks Bonnie it was his first pu!

Always exciting for us addicts to share our addiction!

At first I thought omg, 6 cups! And then I realized I had 6 cups myself, 2 of 3 different teas. You’re fine. 6 cups is nothing. I am yet to drink 4 cups of the same tea, let alone 6. This must be some tea!

It changes with every steep, I can’t explain the differences, but it changes. The first steep and the sixth steep are not the same tea. You’ll have to let one of the pu’erh experts explain, I just know I liked all of it. :))

Dex! I am so excited that you are digging this blend. In my personal stash I have many tons of ripe pu’er but since creating this blend, I have had this tea every day. I am so excited by it. The cakes that I had pressed of this same leaf are now up on the site as well and they are really beginning to open up since the steaming and pressing. Did a 2 hour sesh with an yixing pot and I’m happy to see the cake doing so well. Over the next 2 to 3 years, this cake will really develop in complexity. Thanks for your review, my friend! I really appreciate you taking the time to do so. A friend, indeed!

Garret: Thank you for your comments. This is what I’m talking about when I say amazing customer service. You obviously care about what your customers think of your products. You’re not just reading reviews, you are thanking people for them. Not everyone does that.
My Mandala wish list seems to be growing!!! I hadn’t seen the Noble Mark cakes, so of course I had to go and take a look. I still don’t see the Special Dark on the website (http://steepster.com/teas/mandala-tea/37380-special-dark). Once it comes up, I will be placing another order!!!

Dexter6357 Garret is great and I have a lot of tea from him in my stash.. except for that star of menghai he had but I think he is out now. The Noble Mark was special enough for me to share with my oldest son on his last birthday. Ack special , dark… on the shopping list now.

Thanks, guys! Such kind words!

The Special Dark – such a small quantity in right now. Working on securing more if my yong de supplier can score me more. If you want to get some, just email me. I have close to kg left and don’t have it onsite. We could just take care of your order over email and then you can paypal and we’ll ship it off. [email protected]

Awesome, I’m so excited. I sent you email with my order. Thank you so much!!!!

Personally I rinse all pu’erh. Typically I would just cover the leave with 95C water, and dump it off after 10 – 15 seconds. Replace with fresh water and steep your desired length of time.

Yeah, now I’m reading the boards and rinsing seems standard. Whoops! Otherwise, I’m really enjoying it. (:

Good advice on the rinse!! In China, with ripe tea, we do 2 rinses of ripe tea, 5 to 10 seconds.

Rinses away dust, primes the leaf, gets the pot good and hot. The more highly processed the tea is, the hotter the temp required. If we pour boiling water into a cold pot over cold leaf, the temp drops 50 or more degrees just like that! So the rinse enables the water to really draw out the flavors.

Insofar as a fishy smell… a younger tea such as this, sometimes has a post-fermentation smell. But… the more skillfully processed ripe teas will lose that smell (and it’s more of a briny, mushroomy smell, rather than truly fishy) within a year or two. However, a less skillfully ripened tea may never lose that smell and it can sometimes be overpowering for more sensitive people.

I just finished the 2013 blend of these same leaves from the same producer. Exciting!

Thank you for writing up the review. Play with your tea :) What you have here in the noble mark is a really well processed blend of leaves, with plenty of room for improvement over the next few years. This tea was also fully tested for contaminants (we are doing this with our private label teas, even though it is costing us more to do so) and sprays and testing perfectly. Only thing in this is TEA! Enjoy. May the best of health be yours, my friends!

Thanks a lot for the advice! Yeah, I’ll definitely rinse from now on. Looking forward to trying the rest of my haul from you guys. (:

I’m confused – I know it doesn’t take much some days. I ALWAYS preheat my steeping vessel. Doesn’t matter what I’m drinking, I put hot water into the pot/mug/infuser and let it sit for a few seconds. This warms up the vessel so that you don’t loose what temp for steeping. Am I the only one who does this?
This sounds like you use the rinse not only to open the leaves but also to warm up the vessel?
I should be using BOILING water for blacks/pu’erh. I use hot water, just under boiling or so, but never true boiling water.
Maybe I just have some strange ideas………..

Preheating the vessel is just great. I do that all the time. I pour hot water into the vessel, let it get good and hot, pour it off then place the dry leaf in. I let the heat transfer into the leaf and then smell away. I love bringing all of the senses into the experience!

The rinse of the leaf will really heat things up and prime the leaf to give up its full flavor.

Pu’ers, particularly ripe teas, like a FULL boil. Some will use lower water temps on raw pu’ers, and that is personal preference. Hell, it’s all personal preference, really, but the more processed the leaf the higher the water temp it takes to coax the flavors from it.

It’s fun!!!

Also… smelling the leaf after the rinse is another great thing to do.

But above all, have fun with it all. Tea is a blast. Tea is so many things. Hip, meditative, joyful, delicious, sweet, fun to share, healthy, hydrating, cool, hot, sexy and groovy!

Thanks Garret!! Appreciate the insight. I LOVE Noble Mark, but usually steep about 95C. Will try at full boil, is it possible to be any better ?!?!

Crazy thing about this Noble Mark for me: Since I completed the blend and had all the leaves shipped to me, this has been my first tea of the day for over 6 months! And now the Noble Mark cake (pressed on 10/25/2012 is really starting to open up and build in complexity! So excited about this blend! Glad you enjoyed it.

Sil your post is both hilarious and sad at the same time. I so picture myself in the same situation. Only here could you tell this story and be understood.

i’m still kicking myself for doing that…

I’ve contemplated the same issue with dry leaves scattered all over my floor … after all, they do call some of ’em “sweepings…”