Mandala Tea

Sipdown, 192. My trial with the oriental beauty was so successful that I decided to go ahead and brew up this Yunnan Beauty that Azzrian also sent me. Thanks!

Same method as before; quick rinse, just about a 1 minute steep (this time it might have been closer to 45 seconds). This tea also smells very fruity, but in a slightly darker, more concentrated way. In that, it smells more like dried apricots and prunes than fresh apricots and plums. Including the corresponding extra hit of sweetness that dried fruits have over fresh. This tea is also very delicious and challenging my expectations of dark oolongs. Fruity, sweet and very smooth. I don’t detect any minerally notes in this one, and it almost has a creaminess to it that is quite lovely. I like the darker notes of this in comparison to the traditional oriental beauty I tried earlier. This is a variety of tea that I could see exploring further. Thanks so much for the introduction, Azzrian!

Sipdown, 193. Thanks to Azzrian for this sample!

I decided to use the whole sample in one go, and then realized that I would have a pretty similar water:tea ratio as in their steeping instructions. So I then I thought, why not. I did a 10 second rinse, as instructed, and then meant to do a 30 second steep, but it turned into a minute. Ah well. The tea is definitely not oversteeped. It smells incredibly fruity, like apricots or plums.

Well color me surprised. I have tried a smattering of oriental beauty teas over the years and have never been all that in love with them. Dark oolongs just don’t do it for me so much. But this! This one I am most definitely enjoying. Fruity, sweet, with a hint of minerals but not too much. No roasted/toasted flavor (yay), not too woody or rocky. I’m not in love enough to order more, but I will be less skeptical of oriental beauty oolongs in the future for sure.

PS: I really wish there was a search-your-own-tasting notes function. I would love to search for oriental beauty and see my previous notes, since there are probably some in there that I don’t even remember. 1010 is a lot of tasting notes!

This tea is wild alright – visually It looks like someone raked their tea lawn and put the leaves in a bag. The leaves themselves are actually purple too. How cool is that?

The sparse nature of the wild “lawn clipping” style leaves and deceptively faint aroma of the dry leaf brews a shockingly full bodied cup of tea with a range of taste somewhere between dry, herbaceous chinese green and smokey ripe pu’er. Its quite remarkable, this tea borrows from both sides of the spectrum while standing distinctly on its own. This was my first ever Mao Cha style tea… up to this point I have never tasted anything quite like it.

The energy of Wild Monk is penetrating, as is the flavor if left to brew for too long. I would suggest shorter steepings around a minute. The first few brews tend to be dominated by hay and a well balanced meditative smokiness while the later brews bring a bit of citrus and sweet shellfish to the mix.

Main notes to my palate are:

Hay
Smoke
Malty/Citrus
Shellfish (mild)
Sweet (mild)

While not a daily drinker for me, it is an enjoyable cup of tea and its nice to know I have it when i’m in the mood for something off the path of conventional flavors. Overall i’m rating this tea highly because it is so unique, wonderfully complex and for lack of a a more tactful word, powerful.

Exceptional! This tea is madness and makes me want to hoard it like a crazy person. Since I have purchased Mandala’s Milk Oolong, I have had no less than 4 cups a day, every day… sometimes more. I think about this tea when I’m not near it. I bring it to and from work in my best air-tight container and coddle it as if contained within lie the answers to mankind’s deepest questions… I think I have a problem.

While not my first foray into the world of oolongs, this was my first experience with a milk oolong and I cannot believe how good this tea is. This hurts my manhood to say, but the aroma and taste is pure butter cream frosting with sweet magical notes of milky carmel taffy and a subtle hint of buttered popcorn. Underlying all this buttery goodness is an exceptionally well balanced oolong base with sweet musky vegetal and floral notes that deliver consistent greatness for a seemingly endless amount of steeps. The first time I brewed this tea, I could smell it on myself for a good 30 minutes after I had finished.

The mouth feel is just perfect and somehow not unlike milk, triggered no doubt by a bit of synesthesia. It almost reminds me of sneaking a bowl of some super awesome sugary kid’s cereal at a friends house that I was otherwise forbidden to have as a young child. Yes, this tea elicits an emotive response.

I will generally do a hybrid (read: less-skilled) gong fu style in a brew cup starting with 30 second infusions and adding roughly 15 seconds. I have yet to reach the end of this tea with up to 8 infusions, which for me is a lot as I tend to prefer longer brew times.

As of right now, this is the best tea I have ever tasted. Easy 100, I cannot stop drinking it! Don’t order too much because I’ll probably panic when the supply gets low.

I am busy Steepsters, oh so very busy! Lots and lots of school work and library work. Mostly I wanted to write to say I haven’t forgotten about Steepster or tea, even if it escapes my memory to write tasting notes lately. Rayn and our roommate and I signed the agreement on a new apartment today and I am very excited about it. It’s in a great part of the city and literally right next to Rayn’s older brother (who we are very close to).

I’ve filled my thermos up with Black Pearl the last couple of days and it remains a favorite black comfort tea for me. I’ve always liked drinking tea when it’s still very hot, and this one feels like it’s warming my chest when I take a sip straight from the thermos.

Thanks to Claire for this Sample Tea!

It’s a beautiful Spring-like morning…one of those throw open the window beginnings that lift the spirit. I rummaged past my boots and the ever-ready close-toe shoes of Winter to find ‘SANDALS’!

It’s inspiring to make tea in a Gaiwan on such a day.

I’ve become obsessed with warming my Gaiwan with boiling water, dumping the water out…then putting the tea leaves in to sit with the lid on for a minute.

What comes from this one step of preparation is tea seduction. It is what leads to wanting the tea so much that you can hardly contain yourself.

The next step was actual steeping which was short.

When I smelled the scent of the leaves they were fruity and sweet, but soon changed to the aroma of light curry. Going back to check the scent later, I could still smell the curry resting in the leaves.

The flavor was roasted freestone peach with the tang of guava membrillo. (Another way to discribe it would be the taste of peach leather and plum if you’re not familiar with membrillo?)
Sweet and tangy, luscious and smooth with a dripping honey quality to it.

Ah, the color in my glass cup. I had almost forgotten.
Polished brass flickering in candle-light. It reminded me of looking into a stream on a bright Summer day with the sun reflecting back glints and sparkles of gold.

This was a worthy tea, a Big Red Robe without the cinder taste that some dark roasts have. No burned flavor or smoke, just smooth stone-fruit and juice.

Sample sipdown – FAIL!
Had a sample of this that smelled SOOO good. I thought it’d be a good one to drink now, as I’m highly stressed and milk oolongs always seem to comfort me (they’re just so creamy and delicious!).

Unfortunately I oversteeped it. =(
It smelled nice and creamy, with the vegetal notes poking through here or there. Taste-wise, though, I was just getting bitterness with slight hints of vegetal/earthy oolong.

This is on my list of teas to buy. I think this one would’ve been really awesome.

Leave it to me to mess up a sample serving… sigh

I have been searching for a pu’er to take the place of my coffee in the morning. I have myself down to a couple of sips but I haven’t quite kicked the habit yet. I think this would come pretty close. It has everything I love about coffee without the jittery over-caffeinated feeling afterwards. So when Garret included this as a sample, I was joyful.

1st Steep-30 seconds
Very smoky and so very good. I am a Lapsang fan so the smokier the better. This would be probably a bit easier to take for people that don’t like smoky teas because the smoke is not as in your face as with a Lapsang

2nd Steep-45 seconds
Still smoky with an almost leathery note. I can see this replacing coffee for me…if I had more of them. Goals I have them.

3rd Steep-1 minute
I love how this tea maintains its smoky flavor while gaining complexity. It’s sweet now and smells so good. Kind of reminds me of pipe smoke. I love that smell and it brings back such pleasant memories.

4th Steep-1.30 minutes
The smoke is still there but not as prevalent. Dark chocolate notes are coming through. Probably my favorite steep so far.

5th Steep-2 minutes
Oh Lordy, smells like honey. Not sweet clover honey but something darker. Like leatherwood honey—my favorite. It tastes like it too.

6th Steep-2.30 minutes
It’s lost most of its smoke but now the leatherwood honey has transformed into a clover honey smell and taste. Kind of floral as well. I don’t think I will get much more from this tea—although I am tempted to try—but it ends on a lovely note.

I am borderline in love with this tea. It will be a part of my next Mandala order. Thanks to Garret for the sample.

Inspired by the “Mistakes you made with tea” discussion, after duly noting that most of distinguished participants confessed to oversteeping as the biggest mistake, I resolved to steep shorter and first experiment with what looks like a decent tea.
Oh, short steep – but 30 seconds?!! Seriously? Do I trust Garret enough? OK, he is a fellow runner, he can’t be too bad…:)
I would not dare to assign any rating numbers to anything I am so unfamiliar with – but – pleased to say – it does taste good! The package says “roasty, and full-bodied” – maybe next steeps will taste that to me, after Garret allows at least a 2-minute steep… the first I perceive as more jasminy.
30 seconds? Who would have thought?

I have to admit that I was a bit frightened of this tea. I’ve had them in my cart to buy every time I ordered with Mandala and I’ve gotten spooked each time. So I am very happy that Garret included a sample with my last order.

I did the recommended 3 rinses on this one.

1st Steep-30 seconds
Perhaps a bit too earthy for me on the first steep. I didn’t hate the taste though. It was very earthy but there was a nice sweetness to it. I’m interested to see how this mellows.

2nd Steep-45 seconds
I get what people mean when they say a tea smells “barnyard.” Because this one kind of does. I didn’t find it at all unpleasant though. It actually brought back lovely childhood memories. The taste was very smoky. Kind of like a sweeter Lapsang.

3rd Steep-1 minute
It still smells a bit musty but it’s fading to a nice leathery note. The taste, however, is fantastic. Naturally sweet with a brown sugar, raisin note. There is also a wine-like tang that I find very appealing even though I hate wine. I don’t know quite what to make of this tea but all the feelings I have are positive.

4th Steep-1.30 minutes
It’s mellowing out in a very nice way. It’s a bit roasty and nutty like coffee with a nice chocolaty flavor. Kind of like Nutella on whole wheat toast.

5th Steep-2 minutes
Very light but still a bit roasty and nutty. It doesn’t seem to be weakening very much at all.

6th Steep-10 minutes
I always manage to forget about the last steep. This is very light with a very surprising floral note. After the roasty toasty of the previous steep, the floral note is very shocking and a great note to finish on.

This tea started out so bold and finished so gently. I liked it a lot. Perhaps not an everyday tea but when I need a good kick in the pants, I would definitely reach for this one first.

P.S. I don’t think I will ever see my team win again.

Thank you Claire for this sample Pu’er!

Claire sent me a nice sample of this Mandala Tuocha (for anybody who hasn’t anyone to ask how to pronounce tea words it’s two-oh-cha). The tea was black/brown like bakers chocolate and pretty darn hard but not dusty smelling.

My ritual is the same each time I prepare Pu’er.
4oz. Gaiwan, S.S.filter, fairness pitcher (or small 4oz. cup if I’m alone), filtered boiling water and pick.

Because this was a hard Pu’er I rinsed it twice, taking the rinse water and washing my hands in the liquor, also washing around my face to make sure there was no scent of anything other than the tea.

Pet Peeve which most can/will ignore-
Don’t brush your teeth, put on perfumes, lip gloss or eat strong food before writing reviews. People do it, and I can’t understand how you can drink a mint tea, eat curry and write about a delicate oolong or 5 different types of tea right after each other…Pumpkin, Chai and Oolong? Tastebuds get confused.

I’m less rigid about steeping Pu’er and timing than most people.
Something in me wants to let the tea tell me what to do as I go along and adjust to the voice I hear.

My usual practice with a Shou is to steep 20-30 seconds and see what happens, then change timing if needed.

The liquor was the color of rootbeer and sparkling clear throughout.

1. At 25 seconds, the feel was slightly dry and light with the flavor of pecan and cedar. Not well developed.

2. I added 5 seconds and the tea was creamy but still light. there was slightly sweet raisin nut bread and cedar on the finish.

3. 5 more seconds and the creaminess was almost gone. The tea was refreshing and lite but without much flavor.

4. I added 5 seconds again which increased astringency and cedar on the finish.

5. 1 minute. The Pu’er was lighter than I had anticipated through all but the first two steeps. I thought that increasing the time to a minute might deepen the flavor, but it didn’t change very much.
There was a creamy texture and a mild current or raisin taste and slight cedar finish, which had been there before. This was smooth and delightful but again, very easy and light.

What was this Pu’er teaching through these steepings?

I thought about this for awhile.

It’s more common for me to drink Shou Pu’er that’s heavy with cedar flavor and often too sweet. Other Pu’er’s have a tang that can really tweek your taste buds. It’s something of an acquired taste that I like, but not everyone else might like tea quite as strong as I do.

I’d call this 2005 Xiaguan Crane an ‘intro to cedar Pu’er’, because it’s extremely light, mellow, creamy and gently sweet. There isn’t a whole cedar tree in the mouth to scare a person away!

I have a little left that I’ll share with Eric at the tea shop and steep much longer. I’m wondering how a longer steep in the beginning will taste.

Let the Pu’er guide the journey!

BTW, my newest addition to my blog is a memory of a trip to Ancash, Peru years ago in the Andes. www.teaandincense.com

I have been drinking tea for a while but I never had a straight oolong tea and I have only had 1 or 2 flavored ones. Oolong could very well become another tea obsession because this was amazing. And by amazing, I mean that I want to hoard it like a crazy person.

1st Steep-15 seconds
A bit grassy but with a strong almost brown butter type of sweet nuttiness. Also a bit of coconut. So good.

2nd Steep-18 seconds
Oh my word is this tea amazing. Tasted like a toffee candy. Sweet and buttery. There is also a nice peachy note that I love.

3rd Steep-20 seconds
It tastes like peaches and cream. I am kind of flummoxed as to how this tea can get any better. And I’m not usually a fan of lighter teas.

4th Steep-40 seconds
It reminds me of vanilla buttercream. Pure sweet vanilla with a nice buttery bite. There is still that note of fruitiness but it’s faded. It’s almost lemony. Come to think about it, I always add lemon zest to my vanilla buttercream so it makes sense. The tea gods make sense.

5th Steep-1 minute
Starting to smell like jasmine tea which has never been one of my favorites but it works for me here. But the taste is like heavy cream with a bit of a floral finish.

6th Steep-1.20 minutes
The floral note is really taking over in the scent and taste. There is still a buttery note but it’s fading.

7th Steep-1.40 minutes
I couldn’t resist saving this tea for the morning because I loved it too much to throw away. I had this right after I drank my morning coffee. It was a lovely contrast to the bitter roast of the coffee. Reminded me of a jasmine green tea. Very floral. Very calming. Lovely.

I really was expecting to be all “meh” about this one because I am not a fan of lighter teas. I like my tea dark and roasty. But this was just lovely. It was creamy and fruity and I even liked the floral notes. So my first oolong was a success. I would be interested in trying a more roasty one.

P.S. Team is now on a 5 game losing streak.

I brewed western style, a few minutes, 5 grams or so for a cup. It was wonderful, no astringency, thick and earthy. A very well done blend. I would highly recommend. Didn’t get much out of a second steep.

Garret was nice enough to send me some of this shu with my last order. I saved for a day I know would be stressful—and it was. My team lost…again…I mean, scored against 8 seconds into the game…it was bad. Otherwise, I was just having terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I ended up drinking this tea for two days straight because I ended up falling asleep after my 2nd steep.

1st Steep-30 seconds
Very hayish with a sweet finish. Almost fruity. Reminded me of dates. Which I love almost as much as figs.

2nd Steep-45 seconds
Still a bit hayish but its taking on more of a smoky type flavor. There are also some nice dark chocolate notes. The fruity note is still there making this steep taste kind of like a Fruit and Nut candy bar.

3rd Steep-1 minute
Takes on an interesting berry note with some vegetal undertones. Not grassy but more basil or mint. Definitely not what I was expecting based on previous steeps but very good. There is still a bit of the sort of smokey earthiness but it’s very much in the background.

4th Steep-1.30 minutes
This steep is all berry with a creamy vanilla finish. Very sweet. I almost miss the herbaceous note.

5th Steep-2 minutes
Vanilla and brown sugar with a bit of the berry flavor. Not much though. The flavor is starting to lighten up but I really did like this steep.

6th Steep-10 minutes
I always manage to forget the last steep. It hasn’t burned me yet or destroyed good tea so I guess it’s okay. This final steep has taken on a very vegetal flavor much like green tea. A bit grassy and a bit sweet on the finish.

I really liked this one a lot. It might not become a staple—-or it may if I end up buying a cake. It did give me that shiny happy people feeling. I know it was the tea because I usually mope after my team loses and I was all cheerful this time. It was also pretty tasty.

This one sounded so promising, I just had to try it! Used my gaiwan, increasing by 15 sec with each steep.

Wash: I took a sip of it, and yum! Nice and sweet, with a strong honey smell. Can’t wait to get brewing.

1st steep: Buttery, strong honey like scent.
Taste: Sweet, slightly vegetal. Notes of a wine-like flavor are present. Honey notes are also present. There is also a slight buttery note, and the mouthfeel is smooth.

2nd steep: This brew smells very sweet, slightly like honey, and has a stronger wine like scent to it.
Taste: Sweet, honey taste in front, followed by the wine like (barley?) taste. Ends with a nice sweet note, mixed with a little vegetal oolong taste. I’m also picking up some fruitiness. It’s almost like what a mango flavored honey tastes like. Interesting. Buttery note I picked up previously wasn’t detected this time around, but I don’t miss it! This steep was exceptional!

3rd Steep: Smells more like a wine, with very light honey notes.
Taste: This one is less sweet. Tastes more like a dry wine. Has a bit of a drying effect on the mouth, too. The slight sweetness of the cup comes at the end of the sip. Fruitiness is absent in this cup, as well, but it’s nice in its own way. Still think the second steep is going to be my favorite.

4th Steep: Surprise! The sweet smell is back! Honey and wine.
Taste: This brew is sweeter than the last, but still not as sweet as the 2nd. It’s also slightly buttery again. Very smooth, not drying anymore. The wine taste is very laid back in this brew, and what I can only describe as a “typical oolong tea” taste has entered the picture. Slightly earthy, and delicious. Interesting steep.

5th Steep: Sweet and the most wine-like smelling brew. Nice honey-ish notes, too.
Taste: Reprise of the 2nd steep! Well, almost. The wine taste is a little stronger in this one, but the honey taste and the slight fruitiness is back. There’s also a lingering sweetness at the end of the sip! Yum!

I feel like this tea could probably go a few more steeps, but I think I need a break. It’s kind of late, and if I don’t stop now I probably won’t sleep. ;)

Overall, a very, very nice oolong. A new favorite, that’s for sure. Thanks Azzrian for bringing this one to my attention! And thanks Mandala for having this one in stock!

I really enjoy drinking sheng, and then following it up with shu. It almost seems like the sheng is the savory meal, & the shu is the dessert. In fact, I’ve noticed that if I don’t drink shu after my sheng, I feel like I’m missing something, and if I don’t drink sheng before my shu, I don’t seem to experience the sweetness & subtleties of the shu as much.

So I knew I wanted some of both today. I started with a sample I got from the David’s choice (Verdant) box: Haixin Tang ‘07 Stone Pressed Sheng. It’s a nicely aged tea, very mild & sweet. I enjoyed it while I was teaching & gratefully I get to sample it one more time.

Then I moved on to Yong De, which I’m still drinking now. I absolutely love the contrast between Sheng & Shu, & really, this IS like dessert. It has a vanilla wafer cookie profile, at least to my tastes. It’s nicely bold, & now I’m thinking Vanilla wafers dipped in espresso. Of course, it doesn’t really taste like coffee, but it has a nice depth to it, reminiscent of coffee. I love it.

I have tried many pu’ers but not many tuochas. This one was my first and they were great. I’m very glad I bought 4oz of these lovely little tuos.

1st Steep-30 seconds
Very hayish with a molasses finish. Starts out very bold and strong. Could replace coffee for me…I’ve been actively searching for a replacement for a while.

2nd Steep-45 seconds
Might lighter. Still earthy but more roasty. Like coffee but without the bitter finish. The tea still finishes on a sweet note.

3rd Steep-1 minute
This steep was very smooth and had the flavor of a nice chocolate bar…a good one. There is also a salty bite to it at the end.

4th Steep-1.30 minutes
This was my favorite steep out of all of them. Strange because usually it’s the 3rd. This one reminded me of butterscotch which I love.

5th Steep-2 minutes
This steep confused me a bit—-in a good way. It was a weird combination of all of the previous steeps. It was a bit roasty with a buttery note. There was also a slight chocolate finish.

6th Steep-7 minutes
I forgot I was steeping while I ran an errand. It didn’t seem to impact the flavor at all. Honey and vanilla. Getting much lighter even with the long steep.

7th Steep-20 minutes
I was watching a hockey game (not my team) and got distracted because that team was playing well while mine just doesn’t so I let this steep for the first period…bad me. But the tea was so light I really didn’t notice. It had a nice chamomile-like flavor with nice floral notes.

I really did like these tuochas a lot. I don’t think any pu’er will come close to my Mandala Phatty Cake but this comes close. These Not-So-Mini Tuochas would make a great morning cuppa. If I was courageous, which I’m not, I would replace my morning cup of coffee with this tea.

Notes to come. First, I want to try this one again.

Dry Leaf: Has a light osmanthus fragrance with a light sweet smell almost like a fruit aroma.
Wet Leaf: This is were the osmanthus fragrance is more noticeable and you get what appears a fruit aroma in the background.
Liquor: Is a bright, clear golden yellow color.
Taste: I got a osmanthus flavor with a light fruit like a berry of some sort. The broth was smooth but also felt full-bodied in the mouth. There was a nice sweet after taste to this tea too.
Vessel: 100ml (3 oz.) gaiwan and 5 grams of leaf for 5 steeping’s. FYI: I followed Garret’s tea instructions. Just a side note to all.
Overall Opinion: I give this tea a 90. The tea was good. I enjoyed it. I think if you enjoy lighter oolongs or even Tie Guan Yin you will enjoy this tea as well.

Thank you to Claire for this sample!

I was eyeing the reviews on Noble Mark. What a clever name (these Mandala tea’s have the best names…Phatty Cake, Wild Monk are favorites)!

The other day I tasted this Pu’er with Eric at the tea shop, and then I had some again today.
Both sessions tasted about the same. A quick rinse and 10-20 second steep each produced a very light tasting tea.

This was one of the lightest pu’er’s I’ve ever had and the silkiest.

There’s a difference between buttery and silky. Buttery tea’s coat the mouth and lips while silky tea’s glide through the mouth in such a smooth way that you almost can’t feel the tea at all.

I tasted slight cedar and italian latte foam mixed together as a light, warm, tea gelato.

Etherial tea…..

Dreamers should drink this before dreaming, and lovers in the afternoon when the weather is warm.

I’m a Winter thick Pu-erh drinker, a mug of brew and cedarwood. Somwhat of an ancient Library or Cathedral in a cup.

To each their own, and I admit this is an appealing tea. I can envision it’s popular, comfortable use. Applause to Noble Mark.

I came into this tea with very high expectations based on the other reviews here. I expected it to be an Experience. And it was. A great one. There were so many flavors in this tea that my mind is racing to process them all.

1st Steep-30 seconds
There is a little bit of the mushroomy smell but I find it pleasant here. The tea tasted nothing like what the smell would indicate at all. It tasted like an amaretti cookie or Amaretto without the alcohol bite. It was much lighter than I would expect from a first steep.

2nd Steep-45 seconds
The tea is still very nutty but there is almost a berry finish. I’m leaning towards strawberry. Quite lovely.

3rd Steep-1 minute
The 3rd steep is now one that I look forward to because it’s always the best and this one was no exception. This one tasted like Tahitian vanilla bean. Very sweet and a bit floral.

4th steep-1.30 minutes
A cross between cinnamon bark and honey. In a way this steep kind of reminded me of baklava—-my one true sweet weakness.

5th Steep-2 minutes
The berries have returned. They are still strawberries but they are so much stronger and bring with them an almost whipped cream sort of finish. A perfect finish to a perfect tea experience.

This one lived up to my every expectation and more. It also gave me that happy buzzy feeling that only happens when you have a really great tea. Not really tea drunk just happy and shiny thinking nice things about the world and the people in it.

And thanks to Garret for hockey theming my latest order and for the Year of the Dragon pu’er. I’m saving it for Thursday when my team plays…to cheer me up because they are slumping terribly.

Thank you to Claire for this sample of Mandala Black Pearl Tea!

I used to get my Black Pearl Tea from China until I found a similar tea with the same taste at my local tea shop (with no shipping cost).

Today, I was going to a shop in Old Town to refill my bottle of vanilla-orange vinegar (I use the vinegar when baking cranberry bread and in Swedish pancake batter along with cardamom), I thought I’d walk around the corner through the melting snow from Sunday’s storm… to my tea shop.
I’d ask Preston to do a side-by-side comparison between their Black Pearl Tea and the Mandala sample.

Preston was glad to accommodate my request because the shop wasn’t busy at the time.
He warmed 2 Gaiwans, 2 small porcelain teapots and several small tasting cups.

First we tasted the Mandala Tea…which was surprisingly smoky.
I was expecting a cocoa sweet, malty tea…but instead the tea was very much like a lightly smoked tea, very smooth and so thick that it coated the inside of my whole mouth.

Next, we tasted the Tea House Black Pearls, which were sweet and cocoa-malty.
This was the type of Black Pearl I’ve tasted from several vendors…all very good.
I had expected a similar flavor from the Mandala Pearls…but they didn’t taste the same.

The flavor comparison of the two were so dissimilar, that they seemed like different tea’s. One smoky-buttery and the other cocoa-malty.

Mandala’s Black Pearls would be enjoyed by people love the tease of subtle smokiness…a thick, rich buttery coating in the mouth and an ultra- smooth finish.

I wonder if brewing by another method might not be as successful as using a Gaiwan. I’ll have to see.

NOTE…For those who use lots of Black Pearls when they brew, I wouldn’t do that with these Pearls. We used 3 in a Gaiwan and that was enough! They unfurl rapidly.

For me, the flavor was refined and very enjoyable.

6th Steep-2.30 minutes
Still has the fig taste. But much lighter. Not as sweet or syrupy but very mellow. Also has a bit of a whole wheat bread taste.

7th Steep-3 minutes
Whole wheat bread. Very nutty and naturally sweet. I do miss the fig though.

8th Steep-4 minutes
Getting a lot of milk chocolate notes. Never have I had a pu-er where the chocolate shows up in the later steeps. Not that I am all that experienced with pu-er but still.

9th Steep5 minutes
Still chocolaty with a nutty note. Not hazelnut. Maybe pistachio. The flavor is starting to fade quite a bit. But after 2 days and 9 (soon to be 10) steeps, it perfectly acceptable.

10th Steep-6 minutes
Vanilla and floral notes. Very pleasant. I am almost regretting putting myself on a 10 steep limit.

I think this one will be a staple. I got so many lovely flavors out of it. I could drink this everyday and never get bored.

It’s been an exhausting week Steepsters! I’m very glad to say my body recovered from the hit-by-a-car fiasco, but then it promptly adopted a cold. Here’s hoping the next two weeks are much better.

This shu makes me so happy. The flavor is rich, woodsy, and sweet. I got 1oz of it in my last Mandala order and definitely need to snag a cake. I wish I could pick up more flavors in this but my review will have to suffice to say this one is a keeper (and a drinker).