Rama Lama Bulang 2015

I’ve been called to the kitchen window today. It’s a large window with a view northwest toward the Pacific, into the mouth of winter storm creation. The first call was upon waking, then many more while cooking breakfast. Again while cooking lunch. More times throughout the day than I care to admit. I am restless. I know the clouds are moving quickly because the wind is tossing around the climbing rose arbor, shaking it to its roots, threatening to topple the entire structure and what I imagine following as the setting free of a thousand ruffled-edge flowers in a cloud of silken yellow confetti — poof.
Such a show would be stunning against the backdrop of this ominous sky. So many shades of grey, each one a pocket of guesses. It is undeniably spring.

Ah, here comes a surprise afternoon shower.

Listen: BICEP | GLUE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7ZxRs45tTg

Much love to all.

I am glad other reviewers had such a positive experience with this tea. Personally, of the four shu I have tried from Mandala thus far (this one, Noble Mark 2011, Phatty Cake II 2013, and Temple Stairs 2014), Temple Stairs is hands down my favorite and one I would want to have on hand for its depth and complexity. This Rama Lama Bulang would rank last among those four for me. This is primarily due to what I tasted as a definite upfront bitter burntness and initial funk that hung around for a few steeps. It does mellow out soon enough, and there is some nice smooth texture. There is more to its flavor profile than I can competently describe, so I would say this tea remains somehwhat of a mystery to me, and I would point readers to the other very positive reviews of this tea. The material itself is small, and it brews fast. My reccommendations would be: air it out for a few weeks first, rinse it three times, and flash steep it for a few rounds until it mellows out. This was a free sample from Mandala, thanks!

I’m not a big Puerh fan but I’m hooked on this! For those new to this type of tea, there is the right amount of smooth earth flavor and a hint of black tea darkness.

From the Pu TTB

A really nice and mild young shou with notes of ripe fruit, mineral, mint/spice and cane syrup. Mandala always has top notch shou and this might be my favorite that I’ve tried from them

this is the best youngest shou puerh i have ever had!:

when i smell the leaves dry, they smell musty.

when i smell the leaves wet, they smell like earth.

whe i smell the brewed tea, i smell mellow/smooth earth.

when i taste the brewed tea, i taste mellow/smooth earth and sweetness.

the color of the brewed tea is a chocolate brown color.

i rate this a 100 because its just lovely!

many thanks to sherri for this amazing sample.

http://shopmandalatea.com/2015-rama-lama-bulang.html

I was surprised that I had to put this one in the catalog. There was a 2014 in the catalog. I hadn’t known that there had been a 2014 version of this or did a person put it in the catalog with the wrong year? In any case this is an excellent tea. It is somewhat bittersweet at the start, thick with fermentation flavor. The fermentation taste was clean to me though, no fishy taste that I noticed. I would venture to say that there were some chocolate notes to this tea and some fruity notes in later steeps. I gave this tea ten steeps and I’d say it took about five steeps for the fermentation taste not to be a factor. This was an excellent tea.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 9.8g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 454 sec, and 1 min. The tea was still quite dark in the tenth steep. I would definitely go a few more steeps.