Whispering Pines Tea Company

While I’m sad to see the last of this cup, I really am thankful that MissB was able to send me some. I’d never tried anything from Whispering Pines, but the samples she gave me were all very good. Too bad I am overspent on tea orders but maybe in April I’ll be able to place an order?

This is such a nice gentle and refreshing tea. Maybe I’ll turn into a sleeping bear afterwards, caffeine or no. :P

Another successful sample from MissB! Well, as successful as I can get with my nose stuff up again. I wouldn’t mind being a sleeping bear myself and just skipping the rest of winter!

From what I can taste of this, this tea is a nice refreshing green with a bit of buttery vegetal notes. There’s also more to it – like pine needles. I’ll have to resteep it!

Also I’ll try the last of it later when I can fully appreciate the nuances.

This is really the perfect chocolate mint tea. It really is.

To be honest, I wasn’t too enthused about this tea that MissB gave me a sample of, but that was stupid of me. This tea is amazing and so great. It tastes lime like mint chocolate, with dark rich chocolate, yet there is only mint added in.

That’s either magic or expert blending! Thank you so much!

(I wish I could wax poetic about this one, but I can barely keep my eyes open! )

ETA: SIPDOWN 167!

This was one of the many teas MissB sent my way, and I am quite happy that she did. I’d never tried any Whispering Pines, and this tea is quite nice. Thank you!

It’s got that chocolate malt flavour that you find in Verdant’s Laoshan Black, and it has a little bit of astringency at the end of the sip; but it’s astringent in a good way – not bitter. It seems to have a touch of honey in there too, or at least I imagine it.

Oh, and the chocolate notes linger long after each sip – just the way I like my chocolate….

I absolutely love Brendan’s North Winds and this is it with Vanilla in the mix, what a wonderful creation.
Notes of Smooth Chocolate and Creamy Vanilla are just OMG so good, If you are a fan of North Winds you will prolly like this one alot too.
The Vanilla in this one is just amazing, it is the perfect compliment to the dark chocolate and malty notes that this tea carries, it makes for a very smooth creamy sweet delight.
Brenden mentions an Ice Cream shop on Mackinac Island in his description on this one, tho I have never been in that particular shop, I have to say that he hit the mark with that statement.
When you walk into an Ice Cream Shop and you get a whiff of the Vanilla ice cream they are making in the back combined with the sweet scents that you get from the other ice creams and candies, you can very easily compare that to the aromas that you get from this one. That is a very comforting and welcoming aroma that just makes you feel good.
The taste OMG totally matches the aroma, what you smell is what you actually taste and that is a wonderful thing that don’t happen often enough.
As I’m writing this I’m sipping and trying to think of more write but alls i can think is “oh Vanilla, you are so good to me”
It’s amazing how good the Vanilla in this tea is, this is no nasty vanilla flavoring that leaves a funky film in your mouth, it is real and clean and creamy sweet goodness that you only get from real Vanilla Beans.
I can’t say enough good things about this one, it is delicious to me just like Brenden’s other blends I just can’t get enough.

Oh Yeah, after the tea is steeped out the Vanilla keeps going, very interesting and very good :)

I’ll be order lots of this one for as long as it is available :)

This tea is very different from the last time that I had it. The first main difference was that as soon as it started steeping, it smelled very smoky, almost tobacco-like, which I did not detect at all last time. The seaweed flavor that I remember from last time was still there, but only came after an initial smoky taste. Both times, though, I’m confused about where the “dark chocolate” is supposed to be in this tea. I’m lowering my rating because of the smokiness, but this is definitely unlike any other oolong that I’ve ever had. Thanks bluebelle for letting me try this!

Edit: Oh, and this is a sipdown (121)!

Thank you bluebelle for a sample of this oolong! This tea confuses me, but in an exciting kind of way. It’s definitely unlike other oolongs that I’ve had (& I’ve been drinking a lot of them lately). First off, it has that nice, roasted taste with a bit of nuttiness in there as well. What confuses me is the “dark chocolate” part. I’m not detecting any chocolate-y notes, but I’m rather getting a roasted seaweed taste from it. I actually quite enjoy it, but I do not think it is aptly named.

Thank you Shadowfall for selling a bit of this one! I felt like I needed a bit of (any) keemun in my collection. I really like this one!

Steep #1 // a few minutes after boiling // 4 min
I steeped a teaspoon and half. The dry leaves have the fragrance of dry grass. The steep color is a dark copper. The flavor is very nice: a bit of that dry grass, maltiness at the top of the cup, hints of dark chocolate but not as much as Teavivre’s keemun. ISlight briskness that is perfect for the morning (golden sunrise?) t doesn’t seem that smoky to me, and I thought keemun was generally supposed to be smoky, just not as much as lapsang souchong. Though I haven’t had too much experience with keemun. It’s just really a perfect cup and was gone in no time.

Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 min
This cup was a tad bit less amazing than the first cup, but still really really good. If I made a purchase at Whispering Pines, I’d definitely order some of this one… but it looks like it isn’t on the site (I swear I saw it a week ago). It seems like WP’s plain teas are as nice as their creative blends!

Parting is such sweet sorrow…I may have yacked about this before already, Hell I dunno if so then here it goes again lol

Sometimes I get a little sad when I get to the bottom of a bag of tea that I really really like because that means that this is my Last Cup for a little while, It’s like having to say good bye to a good friend whos been hanging around but now has to go home, you feel sorrow cuz they leave but it’s still sweet because you know you’ll see them again one day.
Same with some teas for, I’m sorry it is gone but Sweet! now I can buy some more!

I also get Happy too because, Sometimes your sweet friend may leave something behind when they leave, a parting gift so to speak, and thats always Sweet!
This Tea left behind for me today a most Awesome parting gift, as I removed the last bit of the leafe from the bag I noticed all the crumbs and dust in the bottom and stuck to the sides and I got really exited because I know what that meant, it meant that I was about to have an Kick Ass cup of Tea!

Surely somebody else knows what I’m talking about, I know we want big pretty tea leaves to make or tea with instead a little ground up tea shavings and crumbs that make up some bagged teas But this left behind stuff from the loose tea bag IMO is So Not like that found in some tea bags at all.
It’s the little hairs and dust and crumbs that come off of the teas naturally and settle to the bottom instead of intentionally ground up tore up tea for tea bags.
To me it’s is one of the perks to drinking loose tea, an extra added bonus to look forward to in the end, and it makes a really nice cup of Tea.
Honestly sometimes the cup you get from the dust is even better than all the previous cups of tea that you had from that same bag of tea, like the tea has a mind of its own and saves the Best for Last just for you.

Some of you that may know me on FB already know that I’m a weirdo and I get some crazy ideas sometimes lol
Well I aint gonna lie I got a crazy Idea once when drinking this tea dust and I thought perhaps I can just take some of this tea and stick in the coffee grinder and powder it down and drink it as I do the dust, So I did just that and it was a bad idea it didn’t work at all, it was not that great(even prepared as a matcha).
I decided that it didnt work because it grinder was to hot, i dunno but it sounded good to me lol
So I tried again, this time I used a mortar and pestle, It was pretty good but NOT quite the same.
I reached the coclusion that I don’t this can be done on purpose, You just have to wait and collect the dust that happens on its own, or it just wont be the same.

These are Very Special cups of Tea to me and I really hope somebody else besides me uses the dust in the bottom of their bags of tea also because if not then I may just be a tea fiend and a lot crazier than I think.

Here is a photo, I hope the link works
http://instagram.com/p/us7JI_EwOo/

One of My Favs, I decided to try it a little different this time around, For some reason I figured that it would be yummy if I made it into a tea latte with the steamed frothy milk and all but i was wrong lol
it quite tasty and all but it wasnt what i was expecting, i tasted none of the yummy fujian blak notes that i love so well, it was just a simple tea latte, not bad but I will not do it with my Fujian Black again.
This tea is perfect naked it needs nothing at all to dress it up.
I will try this with my other favorite tea just to see how it goes :)

My Comfort Tea,My comfy chair and Runescape, Good Times!!
I love this tea so much, it makes me feel happy.

Up late sipping this yummy chocolaty goodness watching “Dominique is Dead”

This is my #1 comfort tea for a while now,I have many favorites but this one has been on top for sometime.
I think the other reviews did well to describe this one, it is very dark and chocolatey and malty and just plain delicious. I currently drink it daily because i’m hooked on it and just can not get enough.
Sometimes I put a little Imperial Gold Buds(also from WP) in the steep with it just because I like the way they taste together.
I usually don’t drink a favorite tea on the daily I will sit on them and have them from time to time if I really like it because I wouldn’t want to tire of the taste but this one I will never tire of, I crave it and need it daily. Damn Good Tea, I also love all the WP blends that use this tea :)

Oh So I lied I will review my Kombucha, it IS after all a Whispering Pines Tea :)
So put some Chaga and Reishi mushroom tea in my North Winds Kombucha this morning and it was pretty good.
I can already taste the malty, cocoa sweetness of the North Winds in my kombucha and the brew itself has the perfect tangy sweet slightly sour bite that i’ve tweaked to my personal taste which is i’d have to say is just slightly a bit more sour than a kombucha that you’d buy at the store, very good imo :)
Now with the added mushroom juice it’s about as tangy as a store bought kombucha with awesome woody, earthy,mushroomy notes that really tastes like something from the forest, something magical even, I love it!! It makes me feel good and happy too.

I’ve been making my Kombucha with only North Winds and it is tasting really great.
I’m not gonna review my own Kombucha or anything But I will say that it is Awesome because I use an Awesome black tea to make it with :)
I can taste some of the notes of North Winds in my finished Kombucha, I get some of the malty, cocoa notes still and some of the fruityness still.

We love this tea, it really is one of Brenden’s Masterpieces! A wonderful rich smooth tea blend that will leave you wanting more.
This one is made with Brenden’s Fujian Black and Yunnan Dian Hong, so simple yet so complex in flavor. This tea is rich and bold, but smooth and creamy with notes of caramel and dark chocolate, it is also malty with fruity hints of stone fruit kinda plum like fruitiness. Most delicious tea that we will reorder again and again.
I’m currently waiting on my next WP to arrive because I’m excited for another one of Brenden’s new blends called Golden Orchid which is this Tea with the addition of Organic Vanilla beans, Sounds so good.
I highly recommend this tea, delicious!!

As many of you know, Campfire Blend has gone through TONS of versions (107 counting this one), and each version has been tweaked a little bit to match the memory it was inspired by. So far, they have all been slightly drying, a tad harsh, and had a little hint of citrus. This has been the hardest memory for me to match — a wolf howl and a campfire aren’t exactly easy to create in a cup. =)

Lapsang souchong is a necessity as the base tea in this blend. We have tested tea after tea and finally came to the ideal lapsang for this blend. The new version will be shipping with a very good, high grade lapsang with the perfect smoke and sweetness balance.

The orange peel was always necessary in the tea before. We needed a lingering sweetness that was from more than just the tea. My only issue with the orange peel was that, despite doing its job…it didn’t exactly fit the memory. The discovery of roasted cedar leaves opened a whole new world of possibilities. In the new version of campfire, the orange peel was replaced by caramelly-sweet cedar leaves, slow roasted for 12 hours at WPTC headquarters. Looking back on the memory, cedar trees were present in the forest as well as the fire.

Another change we decided to make was to remove the peppercorn, which seeming contributed nothing much at all to the blend. This opened up the space for something to darken the blend even more and round out the depth of the lapsang, pull the earthyness of the rooibos, and generally complete the blend – roasted chicory root.

The final product is much cleaner, smoother, deeper, and more complex than previous versions. It is so much closer to perfection, so very reminiscent of my memory…but hey, who doesn’t want to leave a challenge for the future? :)

The Inspiration
It was late autumn in the upper peninsula of Northern Michigan. I had the campfire going steady with pinewood and maple leaves. A slight breeze off of the lake brought me closer to the embers while the call of a Barred Owl and crickets echoed through the empty lakeshore. The wind pushed the smoke towards the full moon. The smoky haze in the air played like the moonlight across the water, giving life to an empty sky. Then, as if rehearsed a hundred times, the entire landscape went silent. All I could hear was the crackling of the fire and my own steady breath. The wind had stopped, the owl and crickets wouldn’t dare make a sound. Even the haunting call of a loon was cut short, echoing across the silvery glasslike waters for what felt like forever. There was only the popping of a fire and the lonely breath of a woodsman. At that moment, sending chills down my spine not even the hottest fire could have warmed, the cry of a lone wolf sang out from the pine forest behind me. The silence was broken and, moments later, the orchestra of nature began singing once again.

Campfire Blend uses the finest lapsang souchong as the base, cradling the embers of rooibos, roasted chicory, cloves, and wildcrafted roasted cedar leaves to create a taste and aroma unlike anything you could ever imagine…except for maybe the whisper of an ancient campfire and the cry of a lone wolf on a cool Autumn night.

Notes
Pinewood Campfire
Sweet, Warm Cedar
Autumn Air
Earth
Honey

http://whisperingpinestea.com/campfire.html

I keep on forgetting that there’s maté in here; I need to write it on the bag. It would be perfect without the maté, to be frank…. I’d much prefer it actually (only because I find maté gives me too much of a matein, aka caffeine in maté, rush).

Oddly , I’m smelling (what seems like?) cigarette ashes. I get little else in the smell department, while in the flavor department it’s sweet and very maté-like, with something else in there that rounds it all out, saffron perhaps? It’s the kind of thing I’m drawn to when feeling under the weather — oh wow, yes, that’s why I grabbed it today. ;)

Ooh, it’s been a while since I’ve grabbed a maté. I got a lot of heat/spice out of this initially (love!) which mellowed out with a touch of sweetener. I also get something buttery sweet like licorice (zero in here), and then some coolness from the mint. Biggest note is the maté, although it’s subdued to me. Quite enjoying this cup.

EDIT: Super annoying that, in my attempts to help Steepster flesh out their new database details, I can’t.. who puts in only partial flavors, or partial ingredients? Nuh-uh. Please Steepster, give us the ability to add these things, because the options right now are so incredibly limited. I’ve emailed at least hundreds of additions now, and just want to get cracking to get these pages looking right. Use us, the free laborers that you have! We want to help. Truly.

I’m confused as to why I’d migrate my review over to a ‘newer’ version of this tea, as this is still the ‘older’ version that I have. And so, I’m keeping my cupboard and notes here.

Shared this with a friend visiting, and we’ve had a lot of tea together over the past few days. His first reaction? “Yummmmm….” I too felt the same way. It’s aged well, it’s a bit smokey (but only a touch) with some brighter fruit notes, and then the chocolate richness of like laoshan black, yet, a bit more full bodied.

How have I avoided this one so long?! This is a beautiful, multifaceted, inspiring tea. I’m looking forward to the re-steeps!

The first sips were most definitely dark chocolate, then a bit of malt and sugarcane. Sugarcane? That’s a first for me. Like of all of Brenden’s creations, I also get something very campfire/outdoorsy in this, almost oaky, or smokey, or both. Fruit? Something light and sweet in there too in the background, although it’s a new flavor for me so I struggle to place it. All in all, this is exquisite. Too bad it took me opening the bag to share with others for me to try it!

So I was feeling the need for mint and chocolate yesterday afternoon, as I often do. Usually it’s mint or spice I search for at some point in the day.

I had tried this one before and was ok with it.. actually looks like I enjoyed it.

Yesterday I just found this ok. Lost much of the mint and found the black base to overpower the other flavors. Hmmm… not sure I’d go searching for this one unless I wanted a really rich dark black with a nip of mint that you have to search for. Knocking my rating down for this a bit.