Whispering Pines Tea Company

Steeped this for 40 minutes to get extra cold-fighting juiciness out of it. Yum! And holy strong batman.

When I want an excellent herbal without rooibos, this has become my go-to tea, especially when I’m fighting a cold. What more can I say? I love this, and am drinking it yet again this afternoon.

Had yet another cup of this tonight as I’m feeling under the weather, and it’s become my go-to tea, along with Throat Coat and Super Ginger. I’m alternating between the three at this point, sometimes adding Throat Coat in here. Solid, and will need to purchase more sooner than I’d planned for.

Consistently wonderful when I want something spicy to tame winter bugs or just need a bit of heat in my cup. Had a cup last night before bed and will likely have more again today.

I grabbed this today, thinking I wanted to stick with non-caffeinated blends in my attempt to try and get some real sleep tonight. Lots of getting to bed at 2am of late, just to have my youngest wake up at that time, raring to go.

I swear there’s some saffron in this tea, however the ingredient list says differently. All I know is, once I started brewing it I realized this is more for fighting colds than being clear mentally — and I love it.

The smell to this tea is new to me and difficult to describe. Best I can do is a herbal concoction a medicine woman gave me years ago that was filled with medicinal berries and ginger root to help fight off a nasty infection I had at the time. They both smell(ed) unique, healthy and lovely.

Steeped I smell mostly ginger, and drinking this also tastes a lot like ginger, with something sweet in the background. I can feel my eyes watering, and my sinuses clearing, but not from the heat. It does have a bit of bite to it… and I love bite.

All in all, a strangely pleasant cup. This may have surpassed my usual sicko teas – either Super Ginger from DAVIDs or a packaged cold/throat tea available at most grocery stores in Canada. I’ll definitely re-order more to keep on hand for cold/flu season.

Thanks to Brenden at Whispering Pines for this free sample with my order that came in the other day.

Dry and steeped, this smells like something my Dad used to call, “Hot Lemon Drink,” which is what we made each other when sick in my childhood: lemon juice muddled with honey, add some hot water, and voila! Hot Lemon Drink. As I’ve gotten older, I add ginger tea to this mix and whiskey, to make my own Hot Toddy. Usually whips my cold into shape in no time.

This smells so much like that drink, it’s blowing my mind a bit. Syrupy gingerness. I’m so excited to try this!

Again however, I’m worried my proportions are off. My bag says 1 tsp/cup, however on Steepster it says 1/2 tbsp/cup. I went with 1 tsp only because the bag is what I was looking at when I popped it all into the Breville. Well, it tastes lovely, if a tiny bit weak.. and I’m okay with that.

It’s subtly orange sweet with a hint of ginger kick (more ginger flavor than bite), with some tartness thrown in for good measure. I keep on smelling it, amazed at how great it is. Yes, I will definitely be ordering more of this; I will it will now replace my other (generic) ginger tea that I’ve used for years in my Hot Toddy mix. The only thing that’s throwing me a bit is the tartness of the blend, however it’s smoothed out nicely with a touch of sweetener.

Received my Whispering Pines order this morning – a full two weeks before I was expecting it. Awesome! Loved the hand written note and business card from Brenden as well; made me want to jump right in and start trying things.

My daughter was here when I opened the bag, and the first thing she grabbed was this. “Hmmm… Mom? Can we try this?” I had to explain to her this was a sophisticated tea, in that there was zero flavoring. Off she went to do something else. I decided to brew some up.

First up – One tablespoon per cup? Hm. I see on Steepster it says TWO tablespoons per cup. Jeepers, I would have used up my entire 50g with the liter of water I boiled up in the Breville if I’d done that. I decided to stick with what was on my bag (one tablespoon) and see how I fared. I should note that opening this bag was divine – smells just like mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Steeped, I just smell mint, and very faintly. My first sips were complex. There’s little at the start – I struggled to taste anything at all initially – and then the chocolate-covered espresso beans comes through. The mint is also surprisingly subtle, and only comes out a good few seconds after the sip. It’s delicate (surprising for a black) and quite amazing. I love this tea.

I’m scared to add any sort of cream or sugar, however I do want to see how the flavors change, if at all… stay tuned for that, if or when I do. For now, I’m just going to enjoy this 2 cups of bliss.

Thank you Brenden for this tea sample!

Lovely aroma that takes me to the childhood that few people have these days. Bobbing for apples, bales of hay for hayrides. Who does this anymore? Some people do…and I did.

One time when my daughter was a teen we had a party and put cooked oatmeal in the large steel tub with the apples, then food coloring. The girls with long hair had a terrible time getting the oatmeal out!

I baked apple pies and other desserts for the Johnny Appleseed Contest in our town of Paradise, California. I do love apples and cinnamon!

For an Oolong?!? This surprised me! What on earth?!?

My appreciation for creativity without using chemical flavors (cheating) gives Brenden a thumbs up!

As for taste…I thought the flavor was spot on but light. It wasn’t the fault of the cinnamon or apple though, the base tea wasn’t quite the right oolong. It should have been a more buttery/floral oolong which would have tasted like a sun-ripened apple (like a yellow delicious). Mountain apples (not store bought) are quite sweet. I picked the apples I used to win the apple pie contests so I’m just sayin… I think it could have been a sweeter oolong.

That said, I love the idea.

Thank you Brenden for the sample of this tea!

You must read Brenden’s discription of this tea no matter what. It’s charming! A genuine love affair with a place he should live forever! I’m convinced that we can all find our own special place that says “THIS IS HOME”! It has nothing whatever to do with money or power. It’s something in the heart.

I’m happy to have found my ‘Home’ for now. I always say ‘for now’ in case God has other plans for me. My heart happiness is portable.

Brenden has decided to create his tea’s without artifical flavors or the low quality tea’s found in far too many blends. Yeah! I’m a great fan of all the Tea Companies that don’t use artificial ingredients and who don’t compromise on quality!

North Winds: The wonderful Fujian Black Tea (which I bought from Whispering Pines already because it’s so Cocoa-luscious) base is cocoa and milky, not a dark chocolate. I didn’t taste cherry, mentioned in the description Brenden wrote,..but instead tasted sweet tea cookie (like animal cracker).
The tea was creamy, buttery with malted caramel, chocolate filled pastry.

Goodness! How on earth do you discribe how good this tea tasted?

Please try it with cream and sweeten. This type of tea is enhanced a great deal by both (brings the cocoa alive and a richness to dessert level).

I’d suggest having North Winds over the holidays with shortbread or sugar cookies with people who love you .

Thanks Brenden for this tea sample!

A shockingly wonderful surprise arrived in the mail…Chai!
What made this arrival more glorious was that I didn’t pick up my mail until it was 30 degrees out. Old Man Winter was blowing his icy breath across my face. Burr!

I stepped gingerly through a pile of dry leaves and into the house arms loaded with two bags of groceries and the mail. I wondered outloud, “What’s this mail from Whispering Pines?”
No matter how lame it sounds, we all have a ‘happy dance’ even if it’s not a literal dance. I have an internal ‘happy dance’, or ‘victory whoop’ that happened last night when I opened the mail and saw two samples of Chai!

I’ve reviewed Fujian Black Tea, which is the high quality very chocolaty tea base for this Chai. I loved it and ordered some for myself! For Brenden to use this as the base for this Chai was brilliant. (Most people use bland black tea’s for Chai, which I just don’t understand!)

The Fujian Black Tea is so flavorful that it blends with the spices weaving together the malt and spice gently without any harsh edges. It reminds me of eating a spice cookie and sipping a cup of creamy cocoa.

My preferred way of drinking this Chai is with cream and clover honey, not sugar. The honey gives a bakery taste to the tea like graham cracker, and the milk or cream enhances the cocoa-malt flavor and creaminess.

If you want a traditional Chai with more spice Whispering Pines Golden Chai is for you and it’s lovely.
Chocolate Chai is smoother and mellow without much bite from spices. The chocolate is more cocoa than candy bar. Don’t expect a gooey Hershey’s Kiss.

As soon as I began drinking my Chai, the tea warmed me up from head to toe, rapidly chasing Old Man Winter’s frosty chill away. A comforting, satisfying and festive mug of tea!

High marks for this one! Quality blending, Brenden!

Two mugs of Zen Master kicked my sinus headache to the curb; worked better than meds. I’m going to need to buy more.

I’m headed out for a walk with a friend, so I decided to make the last of this sample from Dexter3657 to take with me.

Mmm, cinnamon.

I don’t mind the rooibos, I love the cinnamon, I’ve added brown sugar and milk, things are good.

This is (a lot of) cinnamon with (some) rooibos. It’s actually really nice treated like a chai, as there’s no honey, nor is there any cracker.

So. Cinnamon Rooibos tea? Y. Very nice with some brown sugar and coconut creamer. I’m not sure I’d order online just for this, but I do have rooibos and cinnamon in my cupboard I can play with.

Whoops! Thanks to Dexter3657 for this!

From Considering a new Travelling Tea Box

This has a beautiful golden appearance that suggests quality. The instructions said to use 1/2 tsp, but I used my standard 1.5 grams (though increased the water to 8 oz from my usual 6).

This was an amazing tea. I was initially hesitant at the Yunnan-like damp forest aroma, but there was an underlying note of cocoa, and I didn’t find it off-putting. The flavor is HUGE. I won’t use as much next time, yet the strength was wonderful: a big, complex, mouth-filling tea. The flavor changed subtly in my mouth and as the cup cooled, making it hard to identify specifics, but it retained the forest/cocoa notes in the nose. The finish was also delightful and strong. A great tea.

There is only about 5 grams left in the box, but I’m afraid I’m claiming it.

I should probably give this a 100, but I’ve always been a tough grader.

This is one of my favorites out of our 9 recently launched chai blends! It’s very creamy and has lovely chocolate notes!

Our Chocolate Chai is made with expertly-ground 100% organic spices and our Fujian Black Tea, which has heavy notes of dark chocolate and a clean malty finish! This chai is smooth and energizing, and goes especially well with milk and sugar!

Note: Do not expect to be kicked in the mouth with chocolate flavor! There is no chocolate in this blend. The chocolate flavors in this chai are strong natural notes found in the tea itself. Adding sugar and milk often accentuates these notes. Enjoy!

The Perfect Cup:
Steep 1 tablespoon in 8 ounces of boiling water for 5 minutes.
2nd infusion for 7 minutes.
3rd infusion for 10 minutes.

Ingredients: Black Tea, Organic Ginger, Organic Cardamom, Organic Cinnamon, Organic Cloves

Caffeine Content: Medium-High

http://whisperingpinestea.com/chocolatechai.html

I’m still kind of shocked that no one else has done a tasting note for this one. It’s really good! It’s very smooth and sweet. It reminds me of a caramel and chocolate brownie. Mmmmm :]

Mmm this is a marvelous tea :) so smooth with caramel and chocolate notes.