Mandala Tea Silver Buds Raw 2011

Not that I need another reason to make Mandala my next place to put in a tea order, but this tea has done it. Dexter3657 had generously included this in a swap some time ago – so thank you Dexter3657 for introducing me to Mandala! And thank you Mandala for providing quality tea’s…can’t wait to place my order!

This is a lighter pu’er but not light on flavour. The flavour profile is deliciously smooth, earthy and nutty. I have a silver tip pu’er from another company…not nearly as tasty as this sample.

Rambling for a minute first then will get to the tea. I’ve been trying to get my sample box under control. Sip down all the bits and pieces that I have. Was wanting to continue that tonight, but not in the mood for flavored “candy” tea. This was in that box. Garrett from Mandala generously included a sample of it with my last order. Have I mentioned how AMAZING, AWESOME, INCREDIBLE their customer service is? I’ve dealt with a lot of good, even great online customer service from the various tea companies, and Mandala stands out even from those great experiences. If the rest of the teas I ordered from them are anything like this one, I’m going to be a regular customer for a very long time.

I’ve never drank a plain raw pu’erh before (I know there are several in my cupboard, I just ordered a few to see what I thought and hadn’t gotten around to trying any until tonight).

OMG!!!!!!!!!! I don’t have the words/vocabulary/palate to explain how good this is. I didn’t really have any idea how to go about steeping it western style, it looked like a green tea to me, so I did 80C for 2 minutes. Either I got lucky or this tea could be even better than this (nahhhhhh that’s NOT possible). I like the ripe pu’erhs that I’ve tried. They are earthy, musty, bold, kind of in your face. This has the same flavor profile but is much more delicate and subtle. I LOVE this.
If you are nervous about all the nasty things you’ve heard about pu’erh or if you have tried a shu and couldn’t get past the “dirt” taste, I recommend you find something like this. Great Great tea.

EDIT: I just wanted to add that steeps 2,3, and 4 of this were equally amazing. Not much difference between 1,2,3 steep 4 has lost some of the Pu’erh earthiness and is more mellow, but still good. I’ve had a really good night with this tea.

From the unflavored TTB.

The main reason I signed up for the unflavored TTB was the hope to try a number of pu-erh teas. Up to that point, I had had a few, but none struck me as very good, and I was hoping to taste some of the highly rated Mandala teas. Though I enjoyed some of them, I was mostly disappointed.

There were only two raw pu-erhs in the box. When I expressed great disappointment with wild monk sheng, kimquat suggested that I had made a mistake by brewing it at 200 degrees, and said I should treat it as a green tea. There wasn’t much wild monk left, but I took a small sample of this tea to try later, which turned out to be today.

I absolutely love the tea. I only have 2 grams, so I am doing 1 minute steeps of 3 oz. I also skipped a rinse (though was prepared to do so if the first cup tasted off).

1st steep: Very little nose. Tastes like a white tea but with a deeper, richer finish. Very good. I don’t detect any musty or off flavors at all. By the time I got to the bottom of the cup, the rich flavors were throughout the taste, not just the finish. 2nd steep: While the flavors are similar to the 1st steep, they are much richer and more complex, like comparing an orchestra to a string quartet. Very rich mouth-feel. I’m starting to see what all the fuss is about over pu-erh. This is a great tea.

Subsequent steeps had similar flavors but not the richness or depth of the first two.

from the (Mostly) Unflavored TTB

so a while back, Garret had a huge sale. He tried to convince me that I needed to buy some pu’er from his sale. I thought about it and politely declined. I didn’t need another tea to be addicted to.

Garret, why didn’t you push me harder?!?!?!

So now I’m drinking Mandala tea and loving it. And wishing I weren’t on a tea buying hiatus because I’m in love.

There really wasn’t even enough of this tea – not quite a teaspoonful. The directions say 1T/8oz, and I’m doing <1t/5oz. And still. And still.

smooth
sweet
earthy
complex

yes, it is all this and so much more.

I want to keep drinking this tea for hours. days. weeks.

I’ve really only had a few shengs and jimminy crickits I’ve found a new obsession. (I guess it’s a good thing that I just got a whole bunch of samples in the mail.)

It’s weird. This is a tea I could sit and drink and obsess over all the different flavors and complexities, or I could drink it while doing so many other things and enjoy it without needing to pay attention or analyzing it.

(My husband said it’s okay, but he doesn’t like it as much as the sun dried buds one. And the way he said that it was okay makes me think he wouldn’t drink this again.)

He’s now writing up a grocery list for me. He needs me to go to the store because he wants to make his own bbq sauce for the pulled pork for dinner.

this was my first tea of the day. I knew today was going to be a bad day so i wanted to get it started right. I managed to get in a few steepings of this while getting ready for work and it was enjoyable enough that i may be doing it more in future. I really like this one a bunch. just the hint of the smokiness if super tasty to me.

Another sample from Garret. After the first steeping I was thinking “What is Garret thinking?” I like my pu’er dark and earthy. This didn’t look dark and earthy. After drinking steeping 5 I can tell you what Garret was thinking, it is time to blow open some doors for this guy. This is excellent pu’er, earthy but in a subdued way and the flavor is awesome. I would write more but steeping 6 is demanding to be joyfully made!