15 Tasting Notes

75

This reminds me a bit of Autumn Song, with the base flavor, but instead of lemon notes there is wood (cedar in particular, I think), nuts, and a cozy warm feeling when drinking.
The base is smooth and mellow and there is no bitterness, dryness, or astringency here.
This would be a good daily drinker, as the taste is not overpowering, and it would be perfect on a chilly night.
The woody flavor was much stronger in the first steep, almost like a ripe pu er but with a bit more mellowness, but at the second steep it calmed down a bit and blended nicely to a balanced cup.

I did one 15 second rinse, then 45 seconds, then 1 minute.
This actually made me very sleepy! Some pu er (like Heart of the Old Tree) makes me jittery and very awake, but this is a very calm tea and I’m ready to hop off to bed, or I’d do more steeps.
I will have to play with this more over the weekend.

Over all pleasant, and I’d recommend it to those who want something they can drink every day.

Flavors: Cedar, Nutty, Smooth, Wood

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 45 sec 3 g 7 OZ / 200 ML

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80

I got a sample of this and planned to get a cake but they were out! Oops!
Oh well, I’ll enjoy the remaining amount of sample I have while waiting for my tea order to come in.

Dry leaf: Smells like a mix between fresh hay (slightly sweet, sunny, warm) and a little bit of smoke.

Buttery, hay, and that light light smoke scent again.
Very thick tasting butter taste on first sip, with a bit of astringency at the edges of my tongue.
A sweet mellow scent on the exhale, mixed with apricot, and the taste of dried apricot clings lightly to the tongue until fading after a few seconds.

The apricot and thick feeling is stronger on the second infusion, and there is a little bit of sweetness this time. Mmmm, I love this tea. Although, at this rate, all the raw pu ers I taste over two years old are a favorite!

Flavors: Apricot, Butter, Dried Fruit, Grass, Hay, Sweet

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 0 min, 30 sec 3 g 2 OZ / 60 ML

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85
drank Milk Oolong by Mandala Tea
15 tasting notes

This is an oolong with added aroma of buttery, milky, caramel. The taste is quite strong, and lasts through several steeps. I’ve steeped this up to five times currently, and it started out strong and then the added flavor faded away to reveal the oolong behind it. At the fifth steep the taste reminded me a bit of genmaicha with its sweet, toasted, rice crispy flavor.

The leaf quality is pretty fantastic, with nearly whole leaves that puff up and expand from tightly rolled balls to big slightly mottled leaves over the course of your steeps.

I went for pretty loose qualifications for steeping as I was drinking it mostly at work, and wasn’t paying a huge amount of attention.
It was something like 25 – 30 – 45 – 1m – 2m

I’m not a huge fan of dessert teas (which this definitely is) but it doesn’t taste artificial (it probably isn’t, actually) nor is the sweet taste overpowering.
Over all I wouldn’t drink this tea with cake, or cookies, but I would drink it in place of dessert!
I would recommend this to anyone who loves caramel and butterscotch and who’s looking for a high quality flavored tea.

Bonus! A picture of the leaf :)
http://i.imgur.com/wNgev4H.jpg

Flavors: Butter, Butterscotch, Milk, Roasted, Toasted Rice

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 0 min, 15 sec 3 g 10 OZ / 295 ML

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93
drank Autumn Song by Mandala Tea
15 tasting notes

This is the first pu er cake I bought. Once I brewed it up and tasted it, I knew I had to have it!

Dry leaf: A sweet, grassy, hay or alfalfa like scent.

Brewed cup: Golden yellow. There is a sweet lemon taste throughout all infusions. I will post a more detailed review when I next drink it, for right now this is just a placeholder.

Flavors: Grass, Lemon

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 0 min, 15 sec 3 g 6 OZ / 177 ML
Garret

So happy you are enjoying this. It is nearly an every day drinker for me! Thanks for writing up your review. Grateful, Garret

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Bio

I only started truly getting into pu er as of mid June of 2016, and tea as a whole at the beginning of 2016.

I started out with Mandala Tea, and I keep going back as often as I can, although I’ve now expanded to also include Yunnan Sourcing, and White2Tea with Verdant Tea on the list of places to try next.

I am a beginner at reviewing but I am trying to improve, so don’t be surprised if I miss some subtler tastes or have trouble naming a scent or flavor that comes through.

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