Whispering Pines Tea Company

I brewed this tea on Friday for an afternoon meeting that I knew would drag on and on…I steeped two cups for the meeting and steeped it a third time once I got back to my office.

I am not normally a fan of mint-flavored things, but my husband loves this one, so I took a sample to work to give it a shot. I’m glad I did! This tea is LOVELY.

1st steep – Heavy on the mint, light on the chocolate/expresso flavor. Not my favorite steep, just because the flavors were SO strong…but still highly enjoyable
2nd steep – Flavor party in my mouth! The mint calmed down and the chocolate/expresso flavor picked up to blend together for a lovely cup of mint-chocolate goodness. This was my favorite steep.
3rd steep- Just a slightly more subtle version of the 2nd steep. All the flavors were still joining the party, but the had relaxed somewhat.

I didn’t try for a fourth, just because I had reached my mint limit for the day, but I think I probably could have had a decent cup of tea if I had tried!

In my latest WP order, Brenden slipped in a sample of this tea.
Apparently, it has been reformulated since my last order.
Sometimes, even though I am what folks around here call a " young gal", I channel my inner old person and grumble a little when something has been messed with.
“What was wrong with it before?” I mumble in my best crotchety voice.
But, Brenden is usually spot on when it comes to tea, so I didn’t get too crotchety just yet.
The first difference I noticed was the dry leaf had a definite sweetness to it.
There was still the smoky-ness, of course, but there was a new little honeyed sweetness.
Now, the other Campfire Blend had a sweetness too, more like a tobacco and plum note, this teas sweetness is more honey and floral.
Which I think compliments the smoky notes well.
I had my old tin out and have been smelling both
Right away, when I smell the old blend, I think of camping out in the autumn.
With this new blend?
Well, its camping out in the summertime.
You are in the woods on a warm summer’s eve and got a nice big toasty campfire going and somewhere upwind is some wild honeysuckle blooming.
The whole tea feels a little brighter and well balanced.
Smoky, sweet, a little spice.
Was there anything wrong with the old blend.
No.
But, this new blend is very nice and certainly worth a re-try if you have not as of yet.
I would happily keep this in my tea cupboard and drink it regularly.
Its very good at soothing crotchety throats as well;)

This was a sample I rec’d from my first Whispering Pines order, and the only pure tea in the batch! I got sucked in by all the interesting blends, and can’t wait to try them out! Thank you for letting me try this!

But this is such a beautiful Yunnan tea. I had to drink it first. I love the golden and black leaves – it’s so pretty. And this tea is really wonderful. I was surprised that it only has a few reviews, but the when I looked it up on the site I saw it was $11.75/oz. I guess that might explain it. It does taste quite fancy though.

I get cocoa and honey, and a little malt. It’s rich and complex and not at all bitter, even though I steeped it for 5 minutes by mistake! Like a lot of the Yunnan teas I’ve had, this one is quite smooth too. I get a little bit of fruitiness at the end of each sip, but I can’t quite place my finger on it!

I wanted to try another of my Whispering Pines teas but I am going to re-steep this first!
(175) The other half is going to Sil so she can try it too!

I wish I could remember how this compares to other Dian Hong teas, but I do know this one is great.

This is truly an excellent tea, the shear amount of flavor contained in this simple blend of two teas is remarkable! Kudos to Whispering Pines for bringing these two teas together to make some very special! I’m generally wary of blends, and it seemed unrealistic to expect so many different notes from straight black tea, but this meeting between two great black teas in inspired. Whispering Pines does a much better job describing the rich and complex flavor of this tea than I ever could, just let me add that they are dead on!

This was one of my tea samples from Whispering Pines, so far my husband and I have loved every one of the samples we have tried, but I am sad to say, this one is just not for me. I am not going to assign a rating, because I feel like it is probably an amazing tea. It’s just not the tea for me.

Kudos to Whispering Pines for nailing the scent and taste though. It smells and tastes exactly like a campfire. If that sounds appealing to you then let me know and I would happy to send it along in a swap.

This is a wonderful tea, so smooth and fresh i feel as though I visited the fields in Anxi where it was grown! It starts off quite strong but mellows out as you move through the cup allowing you to explore the complex flavor. Buttery is a great way to describe it, I went through several steeps without realizing it because it was just so smooth. Successive steeps also mellow the flavor a bit, but it stays strong through at least 4 steeps in my experience. Kudos to Whispering Teas for providing so much info about the tea that helps give a little context as to what’s behind the cup, for me the story of the tea is a very important part of the overall experience! This is definitely going to become a regular for me!

So, after my last blood test came back with more positive than negative, my doctor (who literally has the largest cup of coffee on his desk constantly that it could be considered a bucket) finally gave me the green light on drinking tea and eating fairly normal food again.
I started back into the tea world drinking genmaicha.
It just appealed to me.
While I was out of the tea world, I drank lukewarm water(and pretended it was tea) and ate pretty much only liquids, wore my husbands sweat shirts and binge watched Primeval and crocheted a weird blanket without a pattern, and wore lots of loud perfumes. (Don’t worry, People I trade tea with, the tea and perfumes are kept on complete opposite ends of the house and never “visit” eachother;)
I think the loud perfumes made me feel somehow more brave.
So, anyway, now that I can drink tea again I made a small tea purchase and bought some of this from Whispering Pines.

The dry leaf smells nutty and almost a bit chocolately.
The tea itself smells just slightly nutty then all I get is a nice green tea aroma.
I am not getting that big, bold popcorny, ricecake odor that most of the genmaicha’s I have tried have.
It smells more muted, gentler. Not so roasty toasty.
The taste is much like the smell, a gentler genmaicha.
The green tea itself is really the star with this tea and not so much the rice.
Its there, just more in the background.
That being said, the green tea used here, is very nice quality, I believe.
No bitterness at all, a very nice bright green tea.
If you don’t like popcorn theater notes mixed with your green tea, or want to start into genmaicha gently then this is the tea for you.
If you like a major popcorn and ricecake taste to your genmaicha than this tea might leave you wanting.

I am coming back to add to my original review of this tea. After my original note, I decided to go for a fourth and fifth steep based on the recommendation from Whispering Pines website, and am I ever glad I did!

Surprisingly little flavor was lost in the 4th and 5th steep! I thoroughly enjoyed them! I was slightly tempted to try for a 6th just to see if I could, but I wanted to leave the tea on a high note for the day.

Highly recommend!

This tea is LOVELY. I have been drinking it all day, I am on my fourth steep, and I am still in love with it. Each steep has been slightly different, but highly enjoyable.

The first steep was very spicy…almost like hot apple cider, but the apple flavor was more pie-like, as opposed to fruity. This was my least-favorite steep…the remaining steeps were absolutely lovely.

Second and third steeps were my favorite. The flavors came together for a delicious cup of apple-smoothness. The “Pie” flavor was milder with each steep, which I enjoyed.

I look forward to enjoying this when the weather is cooler. This blend is currently out of stock, so I hope Whispering Pines restocks it in the fall.

This is my first tea from Whispering Pines. They nailed the name of this tea. It reminds you of everything lovely about the Fall. It’s weird to be drinking it in the Spring. Haha.

If you love cloves, this is your tea. The taste of the cloves is overpowering for the first few sips, but then it mellows quite nicely. I actually enjoyed this cup more and more as it cooled.

It’s almost like an apple cider, without the apples. Which sounds odd, but it works.

My husband had the second steep and he enjoyed it. This tea calls for 1tbsp per cup. So be careful when measuring.

I drank this so quickly that I didn’t even have the time to really notice the individual tastes. I’ll need to try this again soon. Very smooth and enjoyable!

This is one of the most complex tea’s I’ve had the pleasure of tasting. Trying to put into words what a cup is like is trying to describe a day in the woods, so many elements come together to make that memory it’s not easy to tease out highlights. If you’ve read Whispering Pines description you know they were aiming for that sort of experience, and they certainly have achieved it here. It’s a spicy tea. The cloves are a bit heavy at the front, but once your pallet grows accustomed to such a strong flavor in a white tea you begin to find the other notes that round out the experience. The cedar is particularly interesting as I don’t think I’ve ever tasted cedar before, only smelled it. Here the cedar does a good job of grounding the tea and bringing you back around to the white tea base. I find the cinnamon gets lost in the cloves, but as you move through the cup that clears up.

While not something I’d drink daily, this is definitely a tea I want to keep in my cupboard for cold nights and warm memories!

I was skeptical about this tea, mint tea’s are often very loud and obnoxious about their minty’ness, but against all odds I love it! A mint chocolate chip tea without any chocolate? Yes, emphatically yes. The balance between the flavors in this is is remarkable, the mint never shouts, the chocolate is always there but never overly sweet, and the black tea itself comes through which is a nice treat in a dessert tea.

If you find it a tad too minty I found the second steep to a little subtler with a tad more chocolate coming through, not sure if I’d go to a third one but I’m thinking about it :)

I’m starting today with the newly redesigned Autumn Foxtrot, waiting on spring teas to arrive…exciting! :)

Also, HAPPY EARTH DAY! Did you know that Whispering Pines Tea Company plants a tree for every ounce of tea we sell? Well, today we are doubling that amount for the sake of our Earth!

Today only, every ounce of tea sold will plant TWO trees!

Read more about our project here: http://whisperingpinestea.com/a-tree-for-a-tea

I spent a lot of time redesigning this tea…as the memory that inspired it is one of my favorites. Read the story below :)

It was a misty evening in the autumn of 2007, just after a light fall rain. Flocks of cedar waxwings flew by the entrance to my favorite forest in Glen Arbor, Michigan. As I entered the forest, a warm breeze blew from the depths of the woods, allowing me to catch the indescribable aroma of moist earth layered with fallen berries and leaves, trampled down upon by the resident deer, bobcat and foxes. As I walked on the trail, catching glimpses of the setting sun through the pine, cedar, oak, and ash tree canopy, I spotted some movement behind one of the fallen, decomposing trees. I crouched down and snuck up behind the tree. When I slowly poked my head out, I stood ten feet from the most beautiful red fox I had ever seen. The fox playfully trotted away and hid behind another tree. We played hide and seek like this for a good five or ten minutes before the fox spotted some dinner and took off.

Autumn Foxtrot begins with the warm and sweet aroma of wet moss, cedar leaves, and old campfire wood. At first taste you can note a thick honey sweetness with lingering blackberry notes, remniscent of the moss-covered logs beneath wild berry bushes on the forest floor. An aftertaste of cooling cedar leaves lingers on with the damp forest notes of aged pu’er, perfectly embodying the humid forest after an autumn rain. In the second infusion you will find deeper wood and berry notes with warm lingering clove and smooth, fresh mineral notes comparable to cool mountain spring water. Infusion number three is filled with pure sweet cedar woven into an unbelievably smooth body, with stronger clove and berry notes playing in the background. This beautiful blend is an etereal manifestation of humid, deep autumn forests and the wildlife that resides beneath the canopy.

Note that the loose puerh in this blend was harvested in 2007, the same year as the memory that inspired it!

The aroma is really good and comforting cuz it smells like Sugar/Honey Smacks cereal, mmmmm memories :)
The flavor is really nice its nutty, toasty and sweet with a slight citrus note to it, taste like a good genmaicha to me.
Check out my Blog post on this tea :)
http://toadsteablog.blogspot.com/2014/04/genmaicha-by-whispering-pines.html

My tea-taster appears to be back to normal. After my first cup yesterday everything was just tasting bitter and bad. I gave up on tea for the rest of the day. This tea surprised me a little. It is assam-y in all the good ways. The aroma is very malty. On tasting, it is not quite as malty as the smell led me to believe, but it is there and this also has a nice sweetness to it. Very easy to drink. I was expecting it to be a little more “brisk” than I normally like, but it walks right up to the edge of that and stays politely on the yummy side with little astringency. I think of it as bright. This would be a perfect afternoon tea.

This was another North Winds morning. Fudgy and perfect. I’m blazing through my most recent order of this and will likely have to re-stock on Monday. The Hobbit convinced me to gong fu this one and wow – it’s really good.

It is still ass-freezing cold here in Central Texas. I don’t know how y’all who live where it’s cold a LOT stand it. I am enjoying a cup of the re-formulated North Winds. I have to say, The Haiku Hobbit knows what he’s doing. I love this even more than “old” NW and I loved that a lot. Chocolatey-bready sweet goodness for me to nom on.

Just read Brenden’s note about getting to go home to Michigan and it inspired me to make a big ole cup of this. I thought it was gonna be a sipdown, but it looks like I have one more big cup left to enjoy. I love this tea MUCH!

So Brenden, in your honor, here’s some Johnny Horton: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkrfvjrr1Yk

Oh yeah – this tea. What a luscious blend. There is light cocoa and a little malt and a bit of a bright sweetness that is very pleasing. Nice and round with a tiny bit of tingle on the tip of my tongue at the end. This is a bright and happy morning tea to be up with ridiculously early for Easter. It’s smooth and has an entirely different groove from a lot of the black teas I love most. This blend reminds me Sam Cooke – but not Sam Cooke alone – specifically the blend of Sam Cooke’s voice with Lou Rawls on this song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRGRKMWEe-c&feature=kp

I really like this tea and dealing with Brenden is a pleasure.

This makes an awesome iced tea. That is all.