Black Beauty

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Chocolate, Drying, Mineral, Dark Bittersweet, Dark Chocolate, Butter, Nutty, Yeast, Bread, Cocoa, Malt, Muscatel, Roasted, Smooth, Stonefruit, Fruity, Red Wine, Caramel, Burnt Sugar, Milk, Apricot, Honey, Jam, Floral, Grain, Herbaceous, Sweet, Tannin, Earth
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Jason
Average preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 4 g 8 oz / 247 ml

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84 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Ironically, & purely by coincidence (although there are no coincidences), I drank this one the last time I woke up ridiculously early. Anyway, this one is, without a doubt, my favorite black...” Read full tasting note
  • “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...” Read full tasting note
    85
  • “This is a lovely tea from Mandala that I’ve had for a little while but haven’t had the chance to post a review on. I was also having problems grabbing the larger photo for this so if anyone can get...” Read full tasting note
    93
  • “Thank you ifjuly for sending me such a generous sample of this. Anyone who follows me knows that I am a HUGE Mandala fan, they also know that I “call them as I see them” when it comes to logging...” Read full tasting note

From Mandala Tea

Black Beauty is a very fitting name for this wonderful tea! If you are a fan of Keemun style black teas, you will want to try this one. Most of our customers and myself, now prefer this over the Keemun black. It is wonderfully sweet, almost chocolatey and little to no astringency present!

The tea liquor is clear and longer steepings will give it a slightly red hue.

About Mandala Tea View company

Company description not available.

84 Tasting Notes

90
3986 tasting notes

This sample came from Dexter! She was kind enough to send me two of Mandala’s black teas that I’ve been curious about for a while now. This one has very dark brown leaves that are thin and somewhat twisty. Some of them look more like oxidized oolong leaves than black tea.

So I confess, I let this cup cool far too much while I was catching up on the late night/morning activity on Steepster (and checking whether T2 has cheaper US shipping now that there’s a store in the US). But it’s still super tasty even through it’s basically room temperature now! It’s rich and savory, almost like a meal in a cup. It’s difficult for me to describe without saying something that other people will find unappetizing, like smoked meat… There’s also a bit of a roasty note here and a strong sense of bread and grains. Very yummy and satisfying in the morning!

Flavors: Bread, Floral, Grain, Honey, Malt, Roasted

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
greenteafairy

Oh wow, I didn’t realize T2 had opened up here! I’m going to have to check the new shop out soon.

Cameron B.

I still need to go to NYC! :P

Cheri

Okay, I feel stupid, but T2?

Cameron B.

http://www.t2tea.com/

It’s an Australian company that has some tasty-sounding teas, but the international shipping is $15 or something.

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85
76 tasting notes

It has been a while since I’ve had an unflavored black tea and this is a tasty one to come back to. Although I probably shouldn’t be drinking this right before going to bed..

It smells like any other black tea but it’s flavors are much deeper. It has an underlying sweetness and chocolate to it with a nice mouth feel. Not too bitter. I highly enjoyed this and I’m going to resteep those leaves in the morning for my commute.

Preparation
4 min, 0 sec
Terri HarpLady

This really is a lovely tea :)

Megan

Had it again this morning! Soo good.

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68
737 tasting notes

Hm…this one is interesting. Not sure how I feel about it. Not a favorite, but it’s interesting.
Cocoa, chocolate, and earth are the main things I’m tasting.
Really strong.
I just have no idea how to feel about this one. xD Feeling a little stumped from it…but it’s interesting. Glad I got to try it. Maybe I’ll figure out what I think when I re-steep it.
Thanks for the sample, Sarsonator! :D

Flavors: Chocolate, Cocoa, Earth

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84 tasting notes

Sweet and toasty with a fruity spiciness; a bit like rye bread and jam. Also notes of cocoa with a wee hint of earthiness.
Very delicious, with a lovely resteep.

Note: I did resteep some of this the other day, probably a third time when I knew it would be weak but just wanted something nice and warm anyway, and although it was weaker as expected, there was a bit of a licorice/fennel-type note which I hadn’t tasted before – still pleasant, and made an interesting and comforting cup that I enjoyed.

Hoping to get a chance to try my pu’er sampler soon. :)

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
Terri HarpLady

One of the teas I drank today, rich & sweet :)

caile

Yes, you had some good teas today! :)

ashmanra

That sounds amazing!

Terri HarpLady

I’m pretty sure this is my favorite black tea from Mandala :)

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94
278 tasting notes

So this tea went down in the following way:

TTF posted about it this AM, so I made one cup made with a one minute steep time. Then I made two more cups (2 and 4 min steeps), and put them in a travel mug.

Then I promptly left the travel mug at home when I left to go hiking with Brian. We hiked and picked wineberries. We filled all of our containers and the shrubberies were still completely full. It was glorious! Here’s a small portion of our haul:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/124304184@N02/14781160523/

We saw some turks cap lillies:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/124304184@N02/14781161023
and some beautiful streams:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/124304184@N02/14574608300

When we finally arrived home, I reheated the two cups of tea. Normally I don’t like to do this, but I also hate wasting tea. Anyways, it’s still delicious. What an interesting tea! It’s very obviously sweet, and no additives are required. Perfect for a little pick me up before our friends arrive for Sunday TV night. It’s also a perfect compliment to the lovely thunderstorm currently raging through the city.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 1 min, 0 sec 3 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
mj

Nice pictures! That stream is gorgeous! And now I know what a wineberry looks like heh. Enjoy your Sunday TV night :)

SarsyPie

Yeah, they pretty much look like shiny raspberries, but they have their own flavor. Thanks! I hope we don’t lose power!

mrmopar

Wine berries make some good jelly. 2 gallons in the freezer already. Our season is about over though.

MzPriss

I want wineberries.

SarsyPie

Oh wow! 2 gallons!!! We got closer to 1 gallon. Gotta bring more containers next year!!!

Do you guys have those in TX, MzP?

MzPriss

I don’t think so. I’ve never heard of them before. But they are so pretty and luscious looking.

SarsyPie

I guess they’re a northeast thing. Originally from China, though.

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79
181 tasting notes

TTTTB

This is a rather standard black, albeit one that tastes rather delightful. It comes across as smooth and woodsy nuanced…takes sweetener well and holds up to multiple steeps without issue.

It’s comfortable and tasty and I’d happily drink it again…but I’m not sure if I’ll go out of my way to buy it.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 15 sec 1 tsp 10 OZ / 295 ML

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90
371 tasting notes

From the Teeny Tiny TTB.

Dry leaf: Inch to half inch-sized black leaves, slightly twisted and curled.
Dry leaf aroma: Chocolate, raisins.
Wet leaf aroma: Malt, chocolate.
Liquor: Golden, medium-bodied, clear, flavorful, malty, with hints of chocolate, honey, freshly baked bread.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 1 min, 0 sec 6 g 8 OZ / 236 ML

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437 tasting notes

JustJames gifted me a bit of this tea during our swap around Christmas and I am finally getting to it now. It is a lovely tea thanks James !

The dry leaves are long and loosely twisted cables that smell like a lighter grade dark chocolate with hints of Logan and a touch of cinnamon, scents that translate well into the flavour.

I steeped this tea as recommended for short steeps and used 1 TSP/200ml/95°C and steeping time starting at 1 min increasing by 1 min per steep.

The colour of the liquor is a bright reddish tinged golden brown.

Like Terry mentioned today the flavour remains fairly consistent through the steeps . The top note is of longan followed by cinnamon, chocolate, a hint of malt and honey.
The taste is a good balance between cocoa and fruit, there is a slightly buttery creamy tone that blend them together. A faint hint of cinnamon and malt binds everything underneath. As it cools the cocoa scent and taste intensifies. The tea is slightly sweetened by a honey like tone and a faint peppery note mixes with cocoa and honey in the aftertaste. It has a buttery, smooth texture. In resteeps the fruity tone is more apparent, but is softened from the sharper tones of longan.

This was a pretty enjoyable tea with chocolate tones that were easy to obtain, especially as the tea cools. Thanks again James!

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70
48 tasting notes

For a chinese black tea, I do prefer the Keemun. This tea is from Yunnan which gives it a distinct taste because of the soil, its like a south American coffee beans vs African coffee beans. I would say this tea is better in terms of quality and probably safer but its not the same taste as of a keemun.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 6 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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95
359 tasting notes

Holy sweet mother of god. This is good.

I drank it for the first time 3 months ago thanks to a sample from Dexter. I knew I wanted to order it, but always got so mesmerized by Garret’s pu’erh and oolong selection, I’d always forget to add it to the cart.

MzPriss’s Dark Beauty cocktail helped me remember this time. I finally got my supply of it. Obviously, I did not order enough, but that’s another story. (Garret, you know what this means, don’t you?)

It truly feels like a leafhopper bitten tea, except that it’s not. It’s like a mix of mellow “bready” Yunnan an sweet fruity Oriental Beauty oolong.

It may be smooth and silky like honey in the mouth but it’s got lots character, it’s a little boozy and feisty, I like that. Fiona Apple’s lyrics comes to mind “slow like honey, heavy with mood”…I think it’s just the perfect way to describe it!

I’m so upping my rating on this tea. It’s spectacular.
SarsyPie

Wow… I am headed to the kitchen to brew this now!

Garret

I really do enjoy this tea. It works well at a variety of water temps. I had an oolong fan sit down with me at the sampling bar early last week and I brewed some of this up at around 195F. Delicious. I’d say anywhere between there and 208F gives a great cup (or 8) of this tea.

TheTeaFairy

Oh, I so wish I could be sitting at your sampling bar right now Garret :-)

SarsyPie

Yeah, me too! Tea party!

TheTeaFairy

Oh yes, a real tea party!! Sars, didn’t you like this tea? Why did I ever think 2oz was going to be enough? I already drank half of my supply, sigh….

SarsyPie

Yes, dearest. I like it very much. I only got a little to try, so I will need more soon also :)

Spencer

After searching through a horde of comments and posts, I cannot seem to find the recipe/proportions for the Dark Beauty cocktail. Can you remind me of them?

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