Mang Fei Mountain "Mandala Mushroom" Raw Pu-erh Tea Tuo

Powerful stuff

I’ve not had my mushroom of this tea for very long and as I write it’s almost finished. This is significant because I have Sheng Pu erh cakes here that have lasted since 2018. The tea is burley to my eye and is reasonably tightly compressed. I’ve never really developed a technique to peel layers off a mushroom. My mushroom of this tea had quite a long stem in the middle and that was a good place to start. In the first few steeps the soup is quite dark and very strong. There is quite a bit of good bitterness that lasts until the fifth infusion. Following that, the bitterness drops away almost completely and the soup becomes much softer and sweeter. I’ve had eight infusions in order to write this review. But they remain quite dark in colour. My instinct is that it could be pushed to about ten infusions or even more. It has an aged feel, but mostly I think this tea would appeal to people who like young, strong, big in the mouth sheng Pu erh. It’s not for everyone, but I’ve loved it. At the same time I’ve been finishing off my cake of 2004 Tai Lian ‘Yi Wu Zhen Shan’ Raw Pu erh which is the complete opposite to the Mandala mushroom as a much older tea which has settled into a soft, full of flavour tea that’s unchallenging and has virtually no bitterness. It’s an interesting contrast, but each tea has its place.