This is the 3rd black pearl style tea I’ve tried. This is my favorite. I used 7 pearls in 16oz of just under boiling water.
First steep about 2.5 minutes – Nice dark rich, a little malty, just a hint of chocolate. I especially like how it feels on the tongue. It’s nice and thick, it feels substantial. I actually liked this steep more as it cooled, more of the richness kept coming out the cooler it got.
Second steep about 3.5 min – Not quite as dark, barely any chocolate, more of a sweetness to it. As this steep cooled, I was getting some fruitiness. Am I crazy, it’s possible, but that’s what I thought. Still really nice mouth feel.
Third steep about 5 minutes – A little astringency – not much just a hint. Still totally drinkable but not as complex as the first two steeps.
I think I liked the second steep the best. Some other tasting notes mentioned pepper or spice – I didn’t get any of that. Love how the pearls just unfurl, so beautiful to watch. Next time I’m going to add one more pearl and a little shorter steep time on the first infusion.
I was drinking another black pearl last night and really enjoyed it. I like this one better.
Thanks Mandala for another awesome tea experience.
People who liked this
Comments
aw! happy for you… bummed for me. lol.
okay, you know what? i’m just going to rifle through your cupboard and add the whole thing (that doesn’t have rooiboos) and add it all to my shopping list!!!
LOL why is everyone so anti rooibos? Rifle away…. Anything Mandala would be way up on my list of recommendations. If you see anything you just HAVE to have, I’m sure we could work something out.
I’m so glad you followed me! (and that I’m following you). I think we have similar tastes in tea: strong, thick, rich black teas, and not a fan of teas that taste weak or too subtle. I think I’ll rifle through your cupboard to add things to my list as well! (I’m fairly new to the world of loose-leaf, myself)
I’ve been trying to add to your discussion under Darjeeling but for some reason it isn’t letting me so I’ll try here. As you enjoy the Jin Ping Gong Fu you might want to investigate some more of the unsmoked Wuyi Blacks. Unsmoked Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong is a Wuyi Bohea tea that is sometimes classified as an unsmoked Lapsang Souchong. I found an interesting discussion here
I recently sampled a really nice unsmoked Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong from an aliexpress dealer it was buttery like an oolong and tasted of caramel and cocoa.
I think it was this one
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Gift-new-arrival-Lapsang-Souchong-Super-Wuyi-Black-Tea-100g-free-shipping-Hand-made-weight-loss/1001877203.html
The sample wasn’t well marked but he is sending me this one and samples of the others. I’ll let you know. He often has really great sales ( I got it for 50% off) and I’ve liked all the blacks I’ve tried from his so far.
Another option may be this tea from Camelia Sinensis
http://camellia-sinensis.com/en/tea/black/xiao-zhong
Keychange – Welcome to the wonderful world of tea. My cupboard is pretty eclectic. My tastes have changed rapidly since I’ve discovered Steepster and found that there is more to tea than Davids or Teavana. I’ve gone through the “I need to try everything” phase, and have discovered my love of pu’erh, dark oolongs, and am now getting into blacks. Not everything in my cupboard fits perfectly to my tastes, I’ve bought some not for me teas. There are a lot of awesome people here. You’ve jumped right in, if you continue to do that, I’m sure you will find lots of people with similar tastes who will help nudge you in different directions. Exploring the world of tea is a fun journey, enjoy yours. I’m still pretty new too, but if you have questions, I’ll try and help any way that I can.
If you can recall the difference, what did you like better about this black pearl tea than the one previous? Or is it just overall and not specific?
Thank you! I’ve actually started my journey through david’s/teavana (actually that’s a lie—I haven’t made it to teavana yet), although I’ve already placed a butiki order, and have a few teas I’ve yet to sample from art of tea. I, too, would like to eventually generate a “can’t live without” collection, and although the journey will be fun, I suspect it’ll also be expensive!
Caile The other Teavivre version of this is a really nice tea. I don’t want to say anything negative about it. I just found the Mandala version was MORE. It was very similar in flavors, but I thought this had more flavor, it was a bit darker, a bit more complex, a bit more changes between steeps. Both are really good teas but I like this one better.
yyz Thanks for the input. I am really open to getting all the help I can. I actually have some Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong that was described as a “new” lapsang souchong – I haven’t tried it yet but was expecting it to be smokey. As I stated in the comments on the other note, I’m having difficulties learning the language. I find it really confusing. Need to learn more. I still have so many of MY teas to try. I will look at the sites you’ve suggested tonight (I’m at work right now). Thanks so much for your input. :))
keychange Yes to the expensive. Watch for the sales, most of the big vendors post in the forum when they are having sales, sign up for newsletters (unless that will just make you binge buy with every sale you see). Swapping is also great, lets you move on something you might not care for and get to try something else for the cost of postage. Unless you KNOW you like a tea, buy small amounts. That’s really all the advice I have. I’m a binge buyer, I go on spells where I place 4 orders in a week, then am good for a bit – repeat.
The only imput I’m gonna add is, “Yum Yum!”
I love this one too. :D
yyz, I was having problems posting comments too and for me anyway it seems like you can only post when the log is on your dashboard feed and the comment box is already up, if that makes any sense. Kinda strange.
yyz re this article.
http://blog.yayateahouse.co.nz/2013/04/09/wuyi-black-teas-lapsang-souchong-zheng-shan-xiao-zhong-cha-jin-jun-mei-anyone-confused/
This actually makes me feel a lot better. If the experts can’t agree on how to label/name/type teas how is someone just getting started suppose to understand this. Thank you for pointing it out to me. I also took a look at their web site (and the other two you mentioned) so many interesting teas out there. This is why I need to learn more to cull the list of possibilities. Can’t be buying every interesting sounding tea out there. Need to narrow the search. LOL
So true… I’m glad you found the article interesting.
I’ve found these sites helpful when trying to find our about new Chinese teas and their flavour profiles as well.
http://www.viconyteas.com/directory/index.html
http://www.viconyteas.com/speciality-tea.html
aw! happy for you… bummed for me. lol.
okay, you know what? i’m just going to rifle through your cupboard and add the whole thing (that doesn’t have rooiboos) and add it all to my shopping list!!!
LOL why is everyone so anti rooibos? Rifle away…. Anything Mandala would be way up on my list of recommendations. If you see anything you just HAVE to have, I’m sure we could work something out.
I’m so glad you followed me! (and that I’m following you). I think we have similar tastes in tea: strong, thick, rich black teas, and not a fan of teas that taste weak or too subtle. I think I’ll rifle through your cupboard to add things to my list as well! (I’m fairly new to the world of loose-leaf, myself)
I’ve been trying to add to your discussion under Darjeeling but for some reason it isn’t letting me so I’ll try here. As you enjoy the Jin Ping Gong Fu you might want to investigate some more of the unsmoked Wuyi Blacks. Unsmoked Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong is a Wuyi Bohea tea that is sometimes classified as an unsmoked Lapsang Souchong. I found an interesting discussion here
http://blog.yayateahouse.co.nz/2013/04/09/wuyi-black-teas-lapsang-souchong-zheng-shan-xiao-zhong-cha-jin-jun-mei-anyone-confused/
I recently sampled a really nice unsmoked Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong from an aliexpress dealer it was buttery like an oolong and tasted of caramel and cocoa.
I think it was this one
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Gift-new-arrival-Lapsang-Souchong-Super-Wuyi-Black-Tea-100g-free-shipping-Hand-made-weight-loss/1001877203.html
The sample wasn’t well marked but he is sending me this one and samples of the others. I’ll let you know. He often has really great sales ( I got it for 50% off) and I’ve liked all the blacks I’ve tried from his so far.
Another option may be this tea from Camelia Sinensis
http://camellia-sinensis.com/en/tea/black/xiao-zhong
Keychange – Welcome to the wonderful world of tea. My cupboard is pretty eclectic. My tastes have changed rapidly since I’ve discovered Steepster and found that there is more to tea than Davids or Teavana. I’ve gone through the “I need to try everything” phase, and have discovered my love of pu’erh, dark oolongs, and am now getting into blacks. Not everything in my cupboard fits perfectly to my tastes, I’ve bought some not for me teas. There are a lot of awesome people here. You’ve jumped right in, if you continue to do that, I’m sure you will find lots of people with similar tastes who will help nudge you in different directions. Exploring the world of tea is a fun journey, enjoy yours. I’m still pretty new too, but if you have questions, I’ll try and help any way that I can.
If you can recall the difference, what did you like better about this black pearl tea than the one previous? Or is it just overall and not specific?
Thank you! I’ve actually started my journey through david’s/teavana (actually that’s a lie—I haven’t made it to teavana yet), although I’ve already placed a butiki order, and have a few teas I’ve yet to sample from art of tea. I, too, would like to eventually generate a “can’t live without” collection, and although the journey will be fun, I suspect it’ll also be expensive!
Caile The other Teavivre version of this is a really nice tea. I don’t want to say anything negative about it. I just found the Mandala version was MORE. It was very similar in flavors, but I thought this had more flavor, it was a bit darker, a bit more complex, a bit more changes between steeps. Both are really good teas but I like this one better.
yyz Thanks for the input. I am really open to getting all the help I can. I actually have some Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong that was described as a “new” lapsang souchong – I haven’t tried it yet but was expecting it to be smokey. As I stated in the comments on the other note, I’m having difficulties learning the language. I find it really confusing. Need to learn more. I still have so many of MY teas to try. I will look at the sites you’ve suggested tonight (I’m at work right now). Thanks so much for your input. :))
keychange Yes to the expensive. Watch for the sales, most of the big vendors post in the forum when they are having sales, sign up for newsletters (unless that will just make you binge buy with every sale you see). Swapping is also great, lets you move on something you might not care for and get to try something else for the cost of postage. Unless you KNOW you like a tea, buy small amounts. That’s really all the advice I have. I’m a binge buyer, I go on spells where I place 4 orders in a week, then am good for a bit – repeat.
The only imput I’m gonna add is, “Yum Yum!”
I love this one too. :D
yyz, I was having problems posting comments too and for me anyway it seems like you can only post when the log is on your dashboard feed and the comment box is already up, if that makes any sense. Kinda strange.
yyz re this article.
http://blog.yayateahouse.co.nz/2013/04/09/wuyi-black-teas-lapsang-souchong-zheng-shan-xiao-zhong-cha-jin-jun-mei-anyone-confused/
This actually makes me feel a lot better. If the experts can’t agree on how to label/name/type teas how is someone just getting started suppose to understand this. Thank you for pointing it out to me. I also took a look at their web site (and the other two you mentioned) so many interesting teas out there. This is why I need to learn more to cull the list of possibilities. Can’t be buying every interesting sounding tea out there. Need to narrow the search. LOL
So true… I’m glad you found the article interesting.
I’ve found these sites helpful when trying to find our about new Chinese teas and their flavour profiles as well.
http://www.viconyteas.com/directory/index.html
http://www.viconyteas.com/speciality-tea.html
http://www.jiangtea.com/