250 gram Mandala Wild Mountain Green Raw-2011

Thank you Garret for your generosity in sending me this sample. It’s always
difficult for me to review raw puerhs because I know often times they can
benefit from aging and will improve over time.

1st steep – 2 minutes: This tea is certainly ready to drink now which is great
for a raw pu-erh. It’s a lot more delicate and a bit sweet compared to other
shengs I have had. I’m picking up on a light camphor note and the orchid, yum! Clean and delicious with only a tiny hint of a sour quality (common with young
shengs). It will be very interesting to see what age does to this cake but I
don’t know if I’d want to wait 10 years to drink this. hee hee!

2nd steep – 60 seconds. This cup is a bit lighter due to the shorter steeping
time. Compared to the Mengku gifting raw it is quite delicate and light. I can
almost taste the pristine mountain air in each cup. Interesting that this is a
high altitude tea since it reminds me ever so slightly of an oolong. It’s even a
bit… buttery? I kid you not. how delicious.

3rd steep – 90 seconds. Flavor is still going strong. I really like the fact that this tea isn’t really bitter like some shengs I have tried. Now that the leaves have opened up I’m getting more vegetal notes with this one.

It’s so good and really a great value for the cake. I am getting one as soon as the tea budget allows, which will probably be next month if I am good.

Rating is based on my personal enjoyment factor which is very high!

Garret kindly sent me a sample of this in my Mandala Tea order!

I don’t have much experience with sheng, but this shows signs of good aging, I think. The liquid is slightly sweet and grassy, with the tiniest hint of sour. I’m picking up a bit of a floral note in here as well, like a subdued oolong. I tend to get this interesting back of the throat scratchy feeling with some puerhs too, and while it feels a bit odd, I’ve come to associate it with good puerhs since it’s occurred with most good ones that I’ve had. I’m getting the throat feeling with this one! I also have lots of energy right now after 2 cups (about 8oz).

Thanks again for the sample Garret, and I’m hoping I have the funds to pick up one of these cakes up in the future! :)

This was generously included as a sample in my Mandala order.

Today’s turning out to be a floral kind of day. I’m pleasantly surprised how heavy on the orchids this one is turning out to be. Besides flowers, there is a strong note of richly buttered grass. The finish is sour, with an increasingly sweet aftertaste. This combination of flavours creates one interesting cup.

I did a long rinse and some 30 second steeps in my tiny glass pot, using about 200F water. Puerh preparation techniques are currently a work in progress.

EDIT: After a 30 second rinse, I did a casual western mug steep for 1min and it came out incredibly rich and syrupy sweet.

Quick Notes Thanks again to Amy Oh for sharing with me :)
Dry Leaf- slightly sweet and grassy (hard to smell sample sizes)
Wet Leaf- Bittersweet, floral, fruity(apricot?)

Gong Fu Done at work using a Fuguang (which makes it harder to smell the wet leaf, but makes a great out of the house gong fu method).

1st 30 seconds – Sweet and delicate in the front with floral, vegetal, green/grass notes as it washes down. The taste becomes slightly savory before turning sweet and fruity again. Slightly refreshing.

2nd 40 seconds – Floral bitterness in the front with more apparent grassiness and slightly vegetal taste that slowly becomes sweeter and mellow with somewhat fruity hints while still maintaining its grassy notes.

Final Notes
At first I thought there was not aftertaste to it but I was wrong. The after taste linger quite a bit, but it starts very subtle (mostly sweet), but as the sweetness subsides you can appreciate a more floral and grassy taste.

I recived this as a sample, and it seems Mandala knows my tastes, this came out very smooth, with just a touch of bitterness at the end, and now I need to order a full cake. With most puers Iv come to expect a very strong and almost musty taste but these are so smooth and unlike any I have had before its once again clear that alot of thought and care went into this product.

Strong sheng with some bitterness to it that bites back as I sip away.

This proves, once again, that sheng should be drank when they are ancient (at least by me that is)

The leaf looks mid-grade and not in the high range, but then again I only had a sample that was broken off of a cake.

Tobacco aroma, like every other sheng pu’er I’ve encountered. One short rinse, then short steeps (10 secs) @190. There must be something about pu’er that just isn’t for me. When I read reviews and folks are describing all these interesting and different flavors, and all I ever get is tobacco, it’s depressing. But on the upside, there are an infinite number of varieties of tea out there for me to explore.

tastes like greens, Veggies, flowers, and black

this tea reminds me of lettuce

when I smell the dry leaves, I don’t smell anything.

when I smell the leaves wet, I smell a smell that smells like boiled lettuce :)

when I smell the brewed tea, it smells like boiled lettuce and flowers

when I taste it, it tastes like boiled lettuce and flowers

many thanks to mr. mopar for sending me this sample :)

Another tea from the raw sampler. This one was much more enjoyable up front, but too mild for me in the later steepings. I did a 10-second rinse and then steeped 10/10/15/15/25/25/35/45sec/1:30/2:30/5min. In the early steeps, I enjoyed mild camphor, fruity, and even a bit buttery notes. There was a bite to a couple of these steeps. After the bite receded, I was left with a mild sweetness, but nothing too exciting. I think I like Heart of the Old Tree better. Not bad, and certainly, the first steeps were good, but not memorable to me.