Black Beauty

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 tea from Garret! It is absolutely delicious, & deliciously complex, with a rich sweet dark chocolate quality that so many of us love.

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

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 the one from their site feel free to replace it. :)

I decided to go with one long steep at 4 minutes although you can also do shorter steeps with this one. The tea is a lovely reddish brown. This is very impressive if you like sweeter, mellower teas. The predominate flavors are caramel and chocolate. The tea is medium bodied and has a lovely sweet finish with no astringency present.

A great one to sip on plain as it doesn’t need any additions. I don’t know which is my favorite black tea from Mandala, they’re all yummy!

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 teas.
I’m having problems with this one. It confuses me. I’m having problems calling it, because I don’t know how I feel about it.
I’m having a love/hate relationship. When it’s HOT, it has as odd fruity, white wine, astringent smell to it. Can’t even begin to describe how it tastes – some might say light and bright – I’m calling it a high note/tone. As it cools, it deepens and the cocoa notes, and the starchy feel that I like so well starts to come through. Once this is lukewarm, it’s a really nice black tea, with all the notes that I love about good Chinese blacks….
I hate this when it’s hot, I love it when it’s cooler. I’ve drank it a couple days at work now. Today I tried it with more leaf, cooler water, less steep time. I didn’t think the “wine” taste was as prominent today, but still there…
This just really confuses me. I don’t know how to rate it – how I feel about it depends on what temperature it is.

very nice, very smooth…. i have to play with steeping to maximize its potential. still quite lovely though.

Maybe it’s because I’m an INFP on the Meyer’s-Briggs scale, but my choice of what tea to drink usually comes down to opening the cupboard, twirling the lazy Susan and waiting for something to jump out at me.

When I find myself reaching for the same tea over and over, I figure it should be a staple in my collection. Well, the Black Beauty qualifies. Unlike other people, I find this to be quite dry and clean in the mouth balanced by a nice burnt sugar taste and an almost chai-like spiciness. It’s definitely becoming one of my comfort teas—perfect for these bone-chilling New England days.

I saved this one for last because I was really looking forward to it. It just sounded so good and it smelled so yummy in the bag. And it was really really good but it was kind of weird too.

I don’t know what I was expecting when it came to this tea but I definitely didn’t expect what I got. Dry the tea smells like any other black tea. Maybe a bit roastier. But brewed this tea smells…it’s kind of difficult to describe…but kind of herbaceous. Like basil. Basil in a garden because there is also kind of an earthy smell as well. It smells like my Grandma’s garden….it’s a happy place for me. The taste keeps that basil flavor but adds a chocolaty kick at the end of the sip. It reminds me of my favorite cake ever which happens to be a chocolate basil cake. It sounds weird but it’s pretty much the best thing ever.

I’m still brewing this one so updates will be updating. That makes very little sense but it will happen.

I got a sample of this tea with my first Mandala order. Thanks Garret!

This is not a kind of tea I actively seek out, but a kind I always tend to enjoy. Very smooth and sweet. Lots of nice roasty and cocoa-like flavors without being super heavy. I’m glad I got to try it :)

This is sweet and mellow as straight black teas go, with that trademark Chinese smoothness and caramelized sweet potato thing going on. Something like chocolate and the smallest tinge of smoke too. Very pleasant and easy-going. I can see the resemblance to keemun and how people might prefer this as it’s a little sweeter and smoother than the keemuns I’ve tried so far but still has hints of those smoky intense chocolate notes. It’s a nice tea that doesn’t kick you awake rudely but does the job in a friendly, kinder sort of manner.

Tea swap sample provided by @Amy Oh

This seemed like a nice, mellow, Qimen-like tea. Unfortunately my husband I drank through our 6 steeps too quickly for me to write enough notes. We’re not big Qimen fans, so I’ll refrain from rating this tea. (Not to say it’s bad, because it’s an enjoyable black tea. But I have a bias)

It also reminds me of Tao Tea Leaf’s Mei Zhan. Which keeps the same mellow Qimen theme going on.

100ml gaiwan, 5g, 6 steeps (rinse, 15s, 30s, 45s, 1m, 1m30, 2m)