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This sample came to me from Christina.
The brew time was 1.5 min but I increased to 5 min (like the Harney & Sons one). This buckwheat tea is a lighter colour than the Harney & Son’s tea. Brewed , it’s a tasty buckwheat wheat tea. A lighter roast and not quite as nutty and roasty as the Harney & Sons.

Thanks Christina for sending this sample. I’m really enjoying comparing some of the buckwheat teas.

Oh I love this tea! I was wondering how one buckwheat tea can taste different from the next and I guess they can. I tried the buckwheat from Wang and found it okay but weak. This tea is not. It’s rich , full , roasty. It kinda reminds me a bit of coffee in some ways. Of course it’s just a bonus that’s it so healthy and caffeine free too. I could enjoy this anytime. Already been looking at what it would cost to order from Harney & Sons.

Thank-you Dexter3657 for this great sample!

Oh this tea is delish! It kinda reminds me of a lemon flavoured green a local tea maker made and I had a few years ago ( and one I really missed having in my cabinet). I don’t think the lemon is too strong at all. It’s got a sweet lemony grassy flavour with just a tiny little bit of mint coming through. I would definitely order more of this tea.

This sample was from Dexter3657. I had this yesterday and really enjoyed it. Very roasty toasty flavour and the caffeine was light compared to other genmaichas I’ve had. Probably because there’s a good amount of rice compared to sencha in the mix. I don’t know if this is the right tea I’m leaving my review under. It certainly seems to fit the description but there’s no previous reviews on it….

WAs looking forward to the genmaicha in this but even in the dry leaf I didn’t see hardly any toasted rice. Brewed up it has a nice fruity flavour. A pleasant cup of tea but where’s the bamboo and genmaicha flavour? The red peppercorns gave it a little bit of a spicy note that I liked. Overall, not a bad tea but it doesn’t get a really high rating (so far) because I didn’t taste any genmaicha. Someone else commented here that depending on what’s in your sample and you put in your cup, it could change slightly each time you have it. There’s hope then that i may taste the genmaicha next time I try this tea.

These little cakes are great for convenience . This time kept the steep time only 10 sec with near boiling water. It was barely enough time for the leaves to break apart in the cake (even though I had poured hot water over it previously and discarded). I’m glad I kept it short. The sticky rice flavouring was very sweet in the first infusion. It didn’t get bitter though and was smooth with a slight astringent taste. Along with the sticky rice I get the earthiness of the pu’er which comes across as a mushroom taste.
2nd infusion – 12 sec. Ahhh, this one is better. The sticky rice flavouring has toned down a lot . It is nicely balanced now.

I couldn’t wait to have this pu-er but I think I butchered the poor cake getting my tea off. Wonder if there’s a better way to do that…
This is one of the most unique and unusual teas I’ve had so far. For the first infusion I used boiling (or near boiling) for 30 sec. It was still pretty strong. I would for next time use 195F instead of boiling and steep for 10 or 15 sec. I still enjoyed the cup with that sweet smokey taste. No bitterness. For other infusions I played around with the temperature (one at 185, one at 195) and using 15 min steeps. The smokey sweet flavour was still there in all the steeps. This tea was a very unusual taste for me compared to my favourite greens , whites & oolongs.
Again I felt that rush of energy without the jitters. This time I didn’t feel the clearing of the head and thoughts ( or maybe just a little bit). This would make such a good morning tea when headed to work but I couldn’t waste the leaves with only one infusion .

This tea smelled so lovely this morning I had to try it out. The name fit too since it is a nice spring morning today. I am enjoying this tea. It’s a bit antrigent with light fruity strawberry notes. The fruity flavouring is done nicely, not too strong. So subtle – it blends perfectly.
Thanks Christina for this sample. I can see why it was one of your favourites.

Just wanted to add that as this tea cools the strawberry notes really come out. I bet this makes an awesome iced tea.

This morning I wanted a Mandala tea and I wanted it to be a raw pu-erh. I’m really excited to try some of my teas I got from Mandala but I chose this one from Dexter3657 because I got her package first. First off I got the brew time wrong. I used boiling water, rinsed the leaves and then let them steep for 2 min. Later I now see that’s quite a long steep since most are seconds. Should have checked her first! It was still a good cup though and and drank the whole thing. Not getting some of the notes and flavours others here are getting probably because I just haven’t had much experience with pu-erhs. I did find it mellow. It didn’t have the astringent grassy flavour green teas normally do. I will maybe spend more time over this when I make it again to savour the different flavours and notes. I did a 2nd infusion at 30 sec and found it seemed to have some lighter (floral) notes coming out in it. I made a 3rd infusion and took it in my Timolino for the day but the Timolino just didn’t do anything good for the tea. So that was my tasting experience. Not bad but the most AMAZING thing was how I felt. Going to work, I felt soooo energized but not jittery. I was clear headed. All the cobwebs that have been there lately (WEEKS!) seemed to clear away. I’ve been periodically stressed and a little down and for the day I was upbeat, cheerful, focused. Man, I felt like that guy in the movie who took the little magic pill (Limitless). I knew what I had to do and I did it. lol
Thank you Dexter3657 for this fine sample and thank-you Mandala for such a fine tea. Now I’m wondering if all raw pu-erhs have this same effect or is it just this one?
PS: Not rating this tea yet only because I want to spent a bit more time with it to get the rating just right.