Mandala "Wild Monk" Tea - Mao Cha

Such an amazing blend of citrus-flavored green pu-erh leaves-beautiful to look at as they unfurl in my SamaDoyo glass mug, but even better to drink. No trace of bitterness with a thirst-quenching snap! Love it!

So, from someone almost entirely new to pu’er, I’m a fan. And I can see why people become so devoted. We’re getting a lot of ‘light’ and ‘fresh’ type reviews from the pu’er devotee crowd, and that’s absolutely right, but from the ‘newer to pu’er’ perspective, it still has that pu’er funk in a way that leaves you wanting more. This is a bugger since I’m consciously putting off my anticipated future plunge into pu’er, and I can already feel the cravings coming on. For now, the plan is just to keep this one in stock as long as possible, since it’s hard to imagine being any happier with a single pu’er on hand.

This was delicious. I’m so glad I got a sample of this with my last order because I doubt I would have ordered it for myself. The flavor is subtle and it’s hard to tease apart the different flavors. It’s a little sweet, a little smoky, and perfectly smooth going down.

I’ll have to make another mug of this when I’m not in a hurry in the morning and just in need of a caffeine fix. This is a tea to be savored.

This is the first raw pu’erh I’ve tried, and I think I’ll try some more. I haven’t been terribly impressed with the aged ones.

This tea is wild alright – visually It looks like someone raked their tea lawn and put the leaves in a bag. The leaves themselves are actually purple too. How cool is that?

The sparse nature of the wild “lawn clipping” style leaves and deceptively faint aroma of the dry leaf brews a shockingly full bodied cup of tea with a range of taste somewhere between dry, herbaceous chinese green and smokey ripe pu’er. Its quite remarkable, this tea borrows from both sides of the spectrum while standing distinctly on its own. This was my first ever Mao Cha style tea… up to this point I have never tasted anything quite like it.

The energy of Wild Monk is penetrating, as is the flavor if left to brew for too long. I would suggest shorter steepings around a minute. The first few brews tend to be dominated by hay and a well balanced meditative smokiness while the later brews bring a bit of citrus and sweet shellfish to the mix.

Main notes to my palate are:

Hay
Smoke
Malty/Citrus
Shellfish (mild)
Sweet (mild)

While not a daily drinker for me, it is an enjoyable cup of tea and its nice to know I have it when i’m in the mood for something off the path of conventional flavors. Overall i’m rating this tea highly because it is so unique, wonderfully complex and for lack of a a more tactful word, powerful.

This was my first pu-erh and I was blown away. I loved the smoky sweetness of this tea. Each re-steep was a little less smoky and a little sweeter- and each cup was delicious. At work today all I could think about was getting home to have a cup of Wild Monk. Yay- it’s Friday and I have all weekend to drink tea. I think I’m hooked…..

I decided to pick this tea up on a whim while I was in the store last week. They had this prepared as a sample, and I was really delighted by the sample. Honestly as much as I enjoyed the sample I had no idea how fun this tea would be to prepare at home. I put about 4g of tea in my gaiwan and for this particular tasting I used a lower temp water around 175 degrees. For the first steep I went with 20 seconds and added about 10 seconds per subsequent infusion. The first few infusions the smoky flavor was the most obvious note, but later infusions were more mild and surprisingly sweet. There was even an almost floral purfumey taste coming out that almost reminds me of an oolong. I’m currently on the eighth infusion and I could definitely get a few more. I’m really glad I decided to pick this up!

I’m not usually a fan of the smokey sheng puerhs, but this one is amazing! After a quick rinse in my yixing teapot this tea was ready to go. I had multiple short steepings each one more complex than the last. My first steepings were more of the smokey flavor but after the third it mellowed out and left me with the most amazing subtle lemon aftertaste. I really enjoyed my free sample and will be ordering more very soon!

I’m treating this tea more delicately, this morning’s session with my mother was much better. The steep time and temp were both lower resulting in a smoother and nuanced experience. These leaves really have legs too so the infusions go on and on.

Got this in a puerh starter-package from LP quite a while ago. Used the whole 4.5g in a 100mL gaiwan. Aroma was kind of bitter vegetal with a hint of smoke – not enough to worry me or anything though.

First steep I got some vegetal bitterness and spiciness with apricot and slight wisp of smoke in the aftertaste. Next steep, the vegetal flavor reminded me more specifically of asparagus and the apricot afteraste got a little sweeter – same otherwise. Over the next couple steeps, the bitterness mostly left, and the fruitiness came to the fore with a light smoky aftertaste. The next 5 steeps or so were pretty consistent, with a distinct peach flavor followed by the same smoky aftertaste. The tea had pretty decent body to it. For these steeps it seriously tasted almost exactly like that Arizona Peach tea you can get in a can, but without the crazy sugar levels.

I got about a dozen good steeps off of this tea, and I did go decently light on the leaf. Not sure if it’s the same as the Wild Monk cakes currently available on Mandala’s site, but when I finally get around to making an order with them, I’ll be sure to at least get some more to try. This was pretty good.

I didn’t get much body feeling from this tea. The early steeps gave a slight buzzing feeling on the tongue, but other than that, no noticeable qi or anything for me. Possibly due to lighter leaf, but this one might just not possess those qualities.

Wishlist tea from dexter and my last puerh for today. I’ve been sipping on this one all afternoon – i prefer wild monk cake form, but it was nice to revisit this one over the afternoon. Steeped at cool temps for short infusions, a mild tea, with just a little sweetness to it. There’s some smokey notes, but not as strong with the cake. a slight bitterness in later steepings but overall very enjoyable. thanks dexter!

Final Count: 124 (since i doubt i’ll get more sipdowns in tonight if i have more tea.)