The Whistling Kettle

Sample sipdown! Got this one in my last sample package from The Whistling Kettle.

Dry, the tea smells like Mango and Pear, with a bit of earthiness from the Pu-erh.

Once brewed, the tea smells more like strawberry pu-erh with a slight pear undertone. The mango has disappeared, it seems.

Taste: I’m getting mostly strawberry/pu-erh here too. I think the white tea has slightly mellowed out the pu-erh, but it’s not detectable. It’s a tad tart, mildly sweet, and mostly earthy/woodsy. There is a little of the pear taste on the finish of the sip, but I wish it had been more detectable throughout. I find it odd that there is no mango taste here.
As the tea cools down, the fruity taste emerges more and the earthiness tones down. The flavors work alright here, but I don’t see anything really WOW about them. I think there is some room for improvement for this blend.

Overall, this is decent. I don’t think I’d buy it and keep it around, but I was happy I got to try it.

I broke out my cast iron tea pot for this afternoon tea blend…I mean I have all this GREAT tea ware that I never use. I figured it was time to stop waiting for a special reason to use this stuff! If you know me (or have read my reviews here on green teas) you know greens and I don’t typically get along AT ALL. I can never get them right. Usually I end up with a bitter brew which leaves me unhappy and the tea wasted. So I thought I’d try my hand at mixing two greens together!

I mixed the Pinhead Gunpowder with TWK’s Organic Sencha. I used a teaspoon of each tea and set my kettle for green tea temp. This will sound weird but the smell of the dry leaves just smelled green. When steeped there was more of that vegetal smell of spinach and kale, which I love. The taste? Well, it was awesome! I’m really loving these two teas together. Though I wish I’d added in some peppermint leaf to it. An added bonus is that the cast iron pot kept my tea warm without keeping it too warm and therefore BITTER. This mix is a win/win in my book.

Of all the green teas I’ve tried there are a few I actually do enjoy. Gunpowder is one of them. I happened to take a quick inventory before we hit up the Whistling Kettle yesterday and noticed I didn’t have any (I sometimes make up my own Moroccan Mint tea). So I made a note to ask our server about their Gunpowder tea and they only had this one, but she assured me it was good.

Side note…the folks at WK won’t try to sell you something they won’t try themselves. I love that about them! So I picked up a bag of it. I steeped it for two maybe two and a half minutes and wow, very silky and very smooth! I’ve had a gunpowder or two that have been super bitter (even when times right), but this just might be green tea perfection (well next to my favorite green from Verdant – Jinshan). I suspect this will go fast and I will have to pick up more very soon. Oh darn!

Enjoying this one again this morning as the wind whips around outside. Perfect way to warm up and kick off the rest of my day. A nice blend of maple and taffy that now makes me wish I’d made waffles or pancakes this morning!

Drank this at The Whistling Kettle this afternoon with lunch and fell in love. I tried it without cream and sugar to start. But this tea was WAY better with a little cream and rock sugar. The maple and taffy flavors just popped with the additions. I walked out of there with 4oz. :)

This was also my tea of the evening to enjoy while watching the season finale of Downton Abbey. I won’t say more about the episode. But I will say I enjoyed sipping this through the first hour.

I headed to The Whistling Kettle this afternoon for lunch with some friends and well I can never leave there without picking up a few new to me teas. This was one of them. I was looking for a nice light black tea for the afternoon and I think I found one. There are others, but this is really nice and light. In fact I may brew a pot for the Downton finale tonight!

I am amazed at how much my taste in tea has changed in the last few months. I really enjoy green tea so much. I never thought I liked them. Sometimes quality of tea matters.

This was in a $2 sample pack I got from the Whistling Kettle. Of the six samples they sent, 4 were green. All have been great!

This is my first sencha as far as I know. It’s crisp and grassy. Yum.

Bought a sample size of this one, mostly for my sister who absolutely adores Pu-erh. I’m hit or miss when it comes to them, so I’m wondering how this one will go down. I do have one from Upton that I find particularly good, but it’s not flavored. When I think Pu-erh, I don’t think fruit, so I’m a little hesitant. It definately smells like Pu-erh (dirt, earth), but there is a sweet scent coming through as well. It’s not a bad scent, for sure.
Now for the taste. Interesting. So it’s definately got that typical Pu-erh taste, but I’m also picking up a few extra flavors. The raspberry is there, mixed in with the dirt/earth taste. It makes it a bit sweeter. I also taste the crispness/zest of the orange. The white tea also adds an interesting profile, adding a bit of lightness. It’s also got a bit of a creamy dimension, which is nice. It’s definately not a dense Pu-erh. I’d say it’s light to medium bodied brew. It’s pretty good. My sister is pretty into it, so all in all I’m counting this one as a win. Would (I imagine) be great for Pu-erh beginners or those who are wary of them.

Yum. This one smells absolutely wonderful, like raspberry with a hint of champagne. Brewed, the champagne becomes a little more apparent. The taste is much the same; the champagne and raspberry are both present, with the champagne maybe a tad bit stronger. The after taste is also mostly champagne, but I actually really like that. The white tea base gives it a bit of an earthy tone. This tea is smooth and mellow, with a bit of sweetness from the raspberry and champagne. Overall, a very satisfying cuppa. I’m a fan.

Oh my goodness! I don’t think I’ve ever liked a green flavored tea so much before.
The dry leaf smells absolutely amazing. Like, if it was a freshner spray, I’d be first in line to buy it. Anyway, it smells just as you’d expect. The lemon and the honeydew scent blend together in a heavenly way, and the sweet, earthy scent of the green tea meshes nicely.
Ok, now down to business. Brewed this one for 2 minutes, give or take, and it smells great. Very citrusy. This tea, unlike many melon flavored teas I have tried before, doesn’t contain that overpowering funky melon taste. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some melon, but if that’s all I taste in a tea, it kinda throws me off. Anyway, in this tea, the melon is balanced out by a nice citrusy/lemon taste. The green tea base is perfect for this cup, as it’s smooth and sweet, with just a hint of earthiness to it. The grassiness of the tea doesn’t overpower the other flavors. Anyway, I find this a light, refreshing cuppa. Having it tonight after working a long, stressful shift, and it’s definately making me feel more relaxed. I wish this was still available, but unfortunately it seems I got the last sample of it. Hopefully it’s back next year.

Helpful hint for this tea (if it’s ever available again): Drink it when it cools down a bit for a better flavor profile.

Fuller-bodied than many green teas. A 3-min infusion was smooth w/o bitterness. 4 minutes worked well for 2nd infusion. I enjoy multiple cups of this tea after waking up to Keemun Panda #1.

An excellent black breakfast tea – full-bodied & smooth. I look forward to waking up! Accurately described by The Whistling Kettle. I ordered samples of 6 black teas from TWK: Kambaa, KP#1, Kenya Black Natural, Irish Breakfast, Mokalbari East Assam, & Scottish Breakfast. The KP#1 was clearly the most enjoyable tea of this group.

Made some of this today, as I’m coming down with a bit of a cold. Figured since this oolong is smooth and has wonderful honey hints already in it, adding honey wouldn’t make it taste strange and I could try to sooth my sore throat. It’s doing wonders right now. And of course, as I’ve stated before, it tastes wonderful. I only added a little honey, as I don’t like my tea super sweet, but this oolong can handle it. Yum.

This oolong is so yummy! I tried this the first time in store, and fell in love with the flavors instantly. Needless to say I bought a batch for myself that day. This tea is nutty, earthy, and has a slight note of honey in it. All these flavors meld together to create one tastey, smooth brew. Multiple steepings are just as good as the original. Worth the money, for sure.
I’ll write more later about this tea.

The aroma and creamy taste are wonderful. My wife truly enjoys it. However, I can’t get past the astringency. I don’t find it as smooth as the Rishi EG. It’s a Ceylon based EG.

So excited to have caught the flash special at Whistling Kettle on this last week. I only have about enough for 2 more cups. Need to refill :) My love of green tea has grown with this, hojicha and genmaicha. All 3 will always be in my tea cupboard!

Tomorrow, I’m going to my favorite little tea spot for a free class on making your own tea journal. So cool! http://www.facebook.com/events/334497076655599/

I think I just found another staple for my tea cabinet!

Smokey, crisp and delightful :)

I had forgotten how much I love this tea, all silky and creamy and vanilla-y goodness. This is one I might have to make my brother pick up for me when I run out because it is easily the best vanilla oolong I’ve ever had. I’m dying to get my hands on my incoming Strawberry Oolong from Teavivre and mix it with this tea, see how they play together.

I only did one steep, but the leaves have been used for coldbrewing tomorrow’s tea. Mmmm, I can’t wait.

I’m on my third steep and the flavor is still going strong! I am mightily impressed with this tea, mightily impressed. Also, I adore my color-changing DavidsTea perfect mug, because I like my teas lukewarm, so by the time my pink trees have faded back to black, I know it’s cool enough to drink! Huzzah! It has been a lovely tea day. I started the first steep at 2 minutes and added a minute for each additional steep, but if I go for four, I might go for 6 minutes instead of 5.

So after we all got together and decided to do a cheap Christmas this year (my brother dealing with a big move this past year, and we had the cruise coming up and down to one income), my sweetheart of a brother not only decided to give us six months of The Whistling Kettle’s tea of the month club, he also sent us two tins of tea, Vanilla Silk Oolong and Orange Ginger Oolong. I’ve already had two cups of this beauty this morning. It’s lighter and creamier than its DavidsTea counterpart. I daresay I like this one better! I’m about to go resteep the leaves for a third time, we’re definitely going to get a lot of use from these leaves. They’d fill up a gaiwan beautifully. The leaves in the tin are whole, not crushed or broken down and I just wanted to watch them uncurl. This was a great gift indeed and the taste is just as it promises, vanilla creaminess with some silky smoothness and a hint of citrus to keep it from becoming too rich. Yum.