Mandala Tea

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Recent Tasting Notes

100
drank Milk Oolong by Mandala Tea
37 tasting notes

Still my favorite tea. My current batch is from the fall harvest. There are some unique differences compared to the spring pick. I didn’t realize the time of year could affect the flavor. The fall harvest has more caramel and buttery notes compared to the spring crop. The spring crop is a little more floral.

Flavors: Caramel, Fruit Tree Flowers, Honey, Vanilla, Yams

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 0 min, 15 sec 1 tsp 11 OZ / 325 ML

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100
drank Milk Oolong by Mandala Tea
37 tasting notes

Just another quick note.

I brought this tea to work the other day and I was able to get 8 quality infusions of this tea. It held its delicious flavor throughout the day. I used two teaspoons in a Mandala tea thermos.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 0 min, 15 sec

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100
drank Milk Oolong by Mandala Tea
37 tasting notes

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100
drank Milk Oolong by Mandala Tea
37 tasting notes
Garret

HI Aaron!! So glad we had you into the shop last week! What a pleasure to meet the both of you!!

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76
drank Osmanthus Oolong by Mandala Tea
353 tasting notes

I was a little worried about how this would taste because the smell of the dried tea was so cloyingly sweet. I shouldn’t have worried. The osmanthus was present, and there is an additional oily taste that I’m not used to in oolong, but overall it complements the oolong rather than overpowers is.

It’s not my favorite oolong – it is missing some of the subtleties that I enjoy – but it’s very good.

Preparation
3 min, 0 sec

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93

I’m very particular about jasmine teas, but this one is definitely the best I have ever had.

First, it’s an absolutely beautiful tea. The pearls are exceptional and whole, and they unfurl into beautiful full leaves with no broken or loose particles. I don’t use any kind of infuser for this tea, simply put the pearls into a glass cup or thermos. Watching these pearls unfold and not having to worry about drinking any broken leaf bits makes this tea an aesthetic delight.

However, pretty tea doesn’t necessarily make good tea, but in this case, it lives up to its looks. It’s a very mild jasmine tea, not something so artificially or heavily perfumed that it no longer tastes like tea. Rather, the jasmine compliments the tea itself and is more of a background undercurrent – it’s something you taste in the body of the tea, which makes it feel like more a natural part of the tea, not something that is heavily overlaying it or dominating it.

It resteeps very well. I just pour more hot water into my cup/thermos when it’s nearly empty. I haven’t really tried the usual Western brewing method with this tea, but I imagine it would be very similar. It’s definitely a tea worth trying in a manner that allows you to enjoy the beauty of leaves as you drink it though.

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95

Such a wonderful tea. Opened a fresh bag that arrived from Mandala Teas yesterday, and remembered why I loved this tea. Nice mellow nutty aroma and flavor, with tones of sunshine on green grass. A great tea to sit down and appreciate through two or three steepings.

Flavors: Grain, Grass, Nuts

TeaBrat

yes… I have had this before and it is wonderful!

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95

Another wonderful offering from Mandala Tea. The aroma of the dry leaves has an alluring mix of crisp, green and nutty scents. Steeped for a few minutes, the aroma gets more complex and the flavor is really smooth, crisp and just a touch earthy. Very nice! As others have mentioned, this has some of the qualities found in better grade Longjing (dragon well) teas, but is distinctly different. Looking forward to spending more time with this tea after I place my next order.

Preparation
2 min, 0 sec

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Cold steeped! Leftover leaves from yesterday’s yixing run!

Oh gawd, I wrote that first line of the tea log then a huge moth ran across my desk so I had to run around screaming and throwing stuff at it. I think it’s dead, but i had to use a knitting pattern book to do it. Cry. Darn husband, wish he could work from home so he deal with this kinda stuff. I can’t handle bugs.

Anyways, time to tea! This came out sweet! It’s like cedary woody sweet. Like a fancy honey with woody notes. Maybe not honey, but not maple or agave. Very interesting and very good! I need to cold steep more of my shu pu’er.

Oh gawd, it’s twitching.. /sob

Preparation
Iced
Stephanie

LOL your tea sounds good, but poor moth and poor you! heh

Oolong Owl

When my husband comes home and finds the body, it’ll probably get fed to the turtle.

Stephanie

Yum, tasty moth snack :)

TeaBrat

My cat used to love chasing moths around. :)

tperez

Eek! I had a moth infestation in my room for a few months a while back because I couldn’t figure out where they were coming from. I started out thinking of them like any other bug, but now I’ve got sort of a borderline phobia of the things! :(

Bonnie

More people should cold brew puerh. It’s refreshing…liked what you said about wood and honey or agave. I sometimes think of sugarcane and the fibrous sweetness.

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Hello pu’er!

Working on this pu’er than was in the Here’s Hoping Travelling Teabox – I squeaked out a serving of this pu’er so there’s one more round for the next person.

Not a serious review, I’m moreso sitting back with ma tea turtle and yixing pot have a nice tea session, post angry kitchen cleanup. I hate cleaning the slowcooker!

Very crisp with zero fermentationy flavor. Tastes like the skin of a pecan with lots of woodyness. Later infusions I’m getting some creamy lip feels.
Hey! I don’t need lipbalm – just drink creamy teas, yeah!
There’s an echo of coffee notes end of sip that gives this pu’er some pep. About 5 steepings in, the pu’er is still woody and developing more sweetness like sap.

photo evidence: http://oolongowl.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/IMG_5028.jpg

sadly, I don’t have time to enjoy more steepings today, so I put the leaves in the refrigerator to cold steep.

Preparation
Boiling
Claire

I love this one, it has some great flavor.

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88

Finished this one off over the course of a few days. I’m trying to keep the number of puerh I have in my cupboard down so that I actually drink them. I have a few of mandalas newer ones on their way so thought finishing this one off was a good compromise. I think my rating of this one needs to be dropped just a little once I’m not on my iPad. I still love it, but I prefer the shu fits from mandala to this one.

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88

Delicious cup of strong dark yum this morning. Little one finally put it all together yesterdaya d learned how to crawl forward for once. She’s back to rolling all over the place today but it means we really need to baby proof the house this weekend haha. Using this cup this morning to fortify myself for the long day of chasing kiddo haha. So smooth and delicious.

Kawaii433

I haven’t been in the pu’erh mood for a while now. Glad it keeps forever. Now you make me want to go back to it hehe. I did like this one very much and still have some.

Sil

I find, if I just do a western brew, sometimes it helps get me back in the mood for Puerh.

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88

another pick from this morning. soooo deep and dark and delicious. noms.

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88

so much love for mandala puerh. Western brew of this one because if i don’t have time for gongfu i still want to be drinking them! Had a couple cups of these a few days ago and it was so good to have after such a ling hiatus. At this rate i may have no tea in my cupboard by the end of the year lol

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88

tea from the other day. Realised i really need to get to work on my puerh when i have the chance. Don’t really have the ability to do a gongfu session to just brewed this up as a long western brew to kick the day off. Doesn’t do it justice but better to drink it than not :)

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88

Drinking this one today. Not a lot of time for tea, so i thought this would be great since i can have a little cup, and come back for more throughout the day. I really do love the shou’s that Garret finds…nearly all of them are delicious and right up my alley!

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88

sipdown! Terri is my most awesome tea sister who sent this my way. But i suck. I was drinking this in the morning and apparently i’m a little tired and stressed still because without thinking i picked up the leaves and tossed them out with the other cup of tea i was drinking….there was no way to salvage them and yes…i stared long and hard at the garbage trying to figure out if i could get them out. Sooooo i didn’t get as many steeps out of this one as i wanted to but i DID get enough out of it to know that i really enjoy this one. I have more of this in my cupboard (i think it’s the 2012 version) so i’m looking forward to getting to have more and actually finish steeping it! sorry terri! :(

Garret

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.

K S

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.

Sil

i’m still kicking myself for doing that…

gmathis

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

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This is a really tasty & gentle shu, absolutely free of wierd ammonia or fishy tastes. The early steepings were of sweet semolina, with a nice creamy kind of texture. Then it took on a coarsely ground whole wheat bread kind of layer, followed by a rich well aged peat, then a light aromatic wood like cedar. A lively sensation built up around the edges of my tongue, & although I got sidetracked & steeped some of the rounds much longer than intended, the flavor remained sweet thoughout, with no bitterness ever. Another sipdown!
285

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