Whispering Pines Tea Company

A full-bodied black tea with notes of sweet fruit, dark chocolate, and malt!
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Michigan is full of wondrous little towns known for the things they have perfected and small spots of nature that will take your breath away. This tea is inspired by the entire northern area of Michigan, from Traverse City to the Les Cheneaux Islands.

Traverse City is in the northern lower peninsula of the state. They are widely known for their amazing cherries, which are sold alongside other fruits from roadside stands during the summer months. You can get anything cherry here, and it will spoil you for cherries forever. I’ll never be able to eat cherries elsewhere! =)

Heading northward from the cherry capitol of the world and over the longest suspension bridge in the northern hemisphere brings you to Mackinac Island. This island is full of little shops, cafes, and bakeries, and they are very well known for their fudge. Any flavor of fudge you can imagine can be found on this island, but you can never go wrong with a piece of dark chocolate fudge as Autumn is closing in!

As the north winds bring you higher and the first snow begins to fall, the Les Cheneaux Islands and surrounding area of the upper peninsula will send chills down your spine. The wind picks up, the lake begins to freeze, and a snowstorm will keep you indoors with a hefty cup of black tea as company. Looking outside at the winter wonderland, you can’t help but notice that you are in the most beautiful place in the world.

North Winds is the essence of northern Michigan. Fruity sweet notes bring you to Traverse City while heavy dark chocolate notes allow you to have that Mackinac Island fudge desert without having to take the ferry. These smooth, decadent notes combine into a heavy bodied tea with a medium-malty background that makes for a perfect breakfast tea — but you’ll want to drink this all day long!

Please note: You can get at least 5 full-bodied infusions out of this tea!

Thank you Brenden for the surprise in my mailbox of this sample tea!

The last time I had some tea from Whispering Pines was…well…in the beginning of the company during the short phase where most of the tea’s (if not all) were smoky. There was a lot of feedback from Steepster folks that Brenden listened to (this is what makes a great tea vendor by the way) and now there is a wide variety of tea’s to choose from on his Whispering Pines Website.

I’ll have to admit though, that I hadn’t looked at the website for a long, long time (over a year).

Brenden noticed my lack of attention to his company (he being a regular Steepster hawk), and sent me a couple of tea samples (smart man).

Kudo’s that this Fujian isn’t smoky! It arrived not contaminated with smoke from the other tea’s that Whispering Pines is known for…the outdoorsy tea’s!

I’m not going to play games with a long review. I’ll get right to the point and then explain.

If you love tea’s like chocolaty Laoshan Black or Fujian Black Pearls this is the tea for you!

Brenden doesn’t lie when he discribes his tea as chocolate. It doesn’t taste like barley or bread, just chocolate tea with a hint of malt. Medium thickness, rich and smooth with a gentle fading of the flavor lingering softly in the mouth.

Delicious dessert tea!

This is the only truly chocolaty black tea that I’ve tasted other than Verdant’s and companies that carry Fujian Black Pearls (which are maltier).

If this was a stock, I’d buy it! Winner!

Hope you don’t mind but I’m attaching another little musical piece by my granddaughter with my photo’s. http://youtu.be/bOKtmS5L9BQ
We’re collaborators.

Added note Oct. 4th I just discovered a talent that Brenden from Whispering Pines has… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUYSjbD0kW4&feature=share&list=UUIhSZ7loxDZ7166OavqfrhA

COOL

I could’ve sworn I tried this before. I guess I just didn’t remember to write a note for it.
It’s got a nice scent to the brew. Kinda malty. Mild woody taste. Also vaguely sweet & kinda fruity maybe?
Overall this is pretty unremarkable to me. I enjoyed trying it, and I’ll finish what I have, but I’ll probly not be ordering any more.

A sample of this came with my order from Whispering Pines. At first I wanted to have this as my morning tea, but I got distracted by a random sencha I came across in my tea box and brewed that up instead. Then the very blah morning turned into a very blah afternoon, so I thought it would be the perfect afternoon tea. As I was steeping this, one of my friends (and his flatmates) stopped by for a quick visit, since I’d been planning on giving them a box of various teas to try out (a few of them are tea drinkers). We chatted for a bit, and when they left I suddenly realised that I was starving, so I thought I’d cook up an early dinner.

Well, as it turns out, that ‘quick dinner’ turned into ‘cook enough food for the next two or three days’. So on the plus side, yay, I have lots of food now, but oh no, I realised that I’d oversteeped my tea by a few hours.

So I rushed back to my room, which smelled like a warm apple pie, and took the strainer out of my mug. Since the tea base is an oolong, I had hope that it would still be drinkable. It still smelled great, after all!

I took a sip and was totally wowed by the flavour! With a tiny bit of sugar, it would basically be the liquid form of a freshly baked apple pie. It still tasted amazing plain, though, with a hint of sweetness. The apple and cinnamon flavours were perfectly balanced. The cinnamon actually tasted sweeter than what I was expecting. Or at least I think it was the cinnamon. It may have been the apple.

I’m so glad I got to try this out, even if I oversteeped it by a lot! I think I still have enough of the sample for another cup. Hopefully I won’t be so distracted then!

Having a cup of this tonight, so good. Smoky yet sweet and spicy. A very sweet citrus aftertaste tonight too! I’m at my bfs parents this weekend and they have a fireplace, and this just seemed appropriate to sip by the fire. My kitten is here too, he’s had a holiday here all week while work has been done on the apartment, so he’s sleeping in his cat tower and my bfs parents cat is sleeping beside me, making me sneeze lol. Man I love cats. Nice to relax tonight finally, tgif!! See previous notes on this tea :)

I’m giving this tea the chance to make me like smoky teas haha, so far I’ve only had DavidsTea’s LS and it was just too much for me. So here we go with this one! The dry smell is nicely smoky, not overpowering, but definitely a lapsang blend. There’s a faint hint of spices as well. I steeped to Whispering Pines recommendations, 5 minutes with boiling water. The resulting liquor is dark, deep red, and smells primarily of smoky pine but with a sweetness and a spiciness.

As for the flavor…yes! This is more like how a smoky tea should be! It’s quite tasty! I get a lovely smoked pine note of course, but there is some body to this tea, I think from the rooibos. That also probably adds to the slightly woody flavor. The spices are definitely in there as well, and a hint of the citrusy orange melds in too. As it cools, it seems like the flavors meld together even better. I can actually tell this is a blend with LS, it doesn’t overpower. And none of that sickly aftertaste of cigarettes in this one!

Overall, I am quite impressed with this tea. It is making me see that I might be able to like smoky blends after all :) very happy I picked up an oz of this to try!

Just wanted to say, Whispering Pines Tea’s customer service is great! There was a minor issue with my order that was quickly resolved by Brenden, who also sent me an additional sample of this new tea. Thanks, Brenden!

I managed to get three steeps out of this tea and took brief notes of it.

Steep 1: The mint is pretty strong, but I can still taste the chocolatey goodness from the Fujian Black. Tastes really similar to the ice cream flavour. Yum!

Steep 2: The black tea base is becoming more prominent now, with the mint starting to fade into the background. Sort of like a minty hot chocolate, I’d say.

Steep 3: This really reminds me of a chocolate mint now. More dark chocolate with a subtle hint of mint.

Sipdown! I had a bit over a tablespoon left in my sample pack but not quite enough to split into 2 cups I don’t think, so I overleafed this cup by a bit and steeped for only 4 mins instead of 5 to compensate. Mmm I do enjoy this tea, minty and fresh, but there is a strong pine note today, a bit smoky, a bit citrusy. This cup is a bit harsher in the aftertaste, most definitely due to my overleafing, but it mellows into a good, slightly smoky flavor. I’m thinking I will put some of this in my next Whispering pines order for sure, minty black teas done like this are definitely my thing. See previous notes!

Thank goodness for tea.

Tea is the one saving grace of this week. It’s been such a miserable week that I want to end, especially yesterday, and today someone was smiling on me…both my Whispering Pines order and my Verdant order arrived! Talk about a much needed good surprise! I feel much better already :)

So then I had to decide between 8 new teas which one I should have! Gah, what a tough decision! They all looked and smelled sooo good, from both orders! I finally decided on this one, which was a free sample from WP, and Thank you so much Brenden as this one was super close to making it into my order! Also thanks for the hand written note! I love that both my orders tonight contained a hand written note, makes the tea ordering experience so much more like it’s specifically for me :) It was the tea for tonight because it’s a wonderful harvest moon outside, so yes, I had to have Manistee Moonrise! My sample actually labels it as ‘Manistee Moonrise Spirit Blend’, if that makes a difference :)

So the dry smell is lovely! Smoky, with a hint of sweetness and mint! I actually checked the ingredients before brewing to see what was smelling so darn good! I did the recommended steep of 5 minutes with boiling water. The steeped smell is just so intriguing. It has a sweetness and the lemongrass is also there making a bright citrus note, and a smokiness and lastly the mint. Such a crazy combo of scents that work together quite well!

The flavor is delicious. Man I totally should have thrown some of this into my order. I was thinking it might be a bit too smoky, but this is just right in this blend. I definitely get the hint of campfire with a wonderful sweetness and freshness, and of course, the mint aftertaste. A mild mint though, not overpowering, and the base is very nice too, a perfect amount of body for the tea and not a hint of bitterness!

Overall, this is a really good tea! I have enough in my sample for one more cup, so I might be hoarding this one! So happy this is making my week slightly turn around, sometimes it’s the little things that just change everything. I’ll end as I started, with thank goodness for tea :)

ETA – This resteeps quite nicely at 6 mins. The smoky black tea flavor is more pronounced, but still nice and mellow. No more cups tonight because I need to sleep at some point lol, but I’m so exhausted from this week I don’t think that will be a problem.

I had some of this last night to help out a headache (not a migraine, thankfully). The brew is an extremely pale yellow. As to the taste – I know there’s no mint in this, but it totally tastes minty to me. That might be because I store it next to the Whisper of the Woods tea :-) Pine plus mint is actually a lovely and refreshing taste. The underlying tea is oh so slightly buttery and quite smooth. This blend becomes even more refreshing as it cools. Very reminiscent of walking through the woods in that seasonal sweet spot where summer has ended but fall hasn’t truly set in (so, pretty much right now).

This is an Awesome Lapsang!
It has changed some since the last time I posted here :)
Wonderful smoke flavor with mesquite hints, a slightly sweet note and absolutely smooth with no bitter or astringent at all.
Super nice one the Best Lapsang that we’ve had (we’ve had lots)
Great morning, afternoon or anytime slow sipping tea :)

:) Super good

Very dark and roasted, but not at all bitter. I can sort of detect a bit of cocoa, but honestly, all that my mind can register right now is roasted coffee minus the acidic bitterness of actual coffee. Rich and satisfying. Perfect for a coffee lover!

This one is much better cold brewed, I knew it would make a great iced tea, it is sweet and strong and bold and brisk with a touch of spice that reflects the dry leafe aroma. Delicious, I up my rating on this one after cold brew. Awesome good refreshing tea :)

This one is pretty damn good, very smooth with citrus notes, it is quite bold without being too strong, just right.
The dry leafe aroma was like cloves to me but no clove taste at all and after the first steep the clove aroma is gone.
I think this would be a wonderful afternoon tea and I bet it will make a great iced tea also, Next time it gets cold brewed :)

Mmmmmm here it is, after many many many hours of blending and testing! :)

Dark chocolate notes with a light minty aftertaste, and all done with 100% natural tea and herbs — no additives, no fake!

Enjoy!~

http://whisperingpinestea.com/mintchocolatechipblack.html

Backlog:

I was actually a little surprised at how much I enjoyed this given that there is hibiscus in it … I’m not a fan of the hibiscus. But, it’s done lightly enough so that it doesn’t overpower the cup, and actually it accentuates the elderberries in a really favorable way.

Not bad, everything is nicely balanced. This tisane has a lot going “against” it for me … given that it’s not only a rooibos blend but also a hibiscus blend … but I still quite enjoyed it given all these components … I expected I’d hate it. But I didn’t. So, Kudos to Whispering Pines! Well Done!

Here’s my full-length review of it: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/04/20/ancient-forest-rooibos-blend-from-whispering-pines-tea-co/

Hmmm, whoops! I brewed this like a black, because it definitely looked like one. Luckily, it seems to have fared ok. This pretty much tastes like a jasmine green to me… nothing overly special, although there’s perhaps a bit of additional flavour and body compared to typical jasmine greens, and it may be a bit less floral. Not a huge fan of it, though, but I’ll finish off my sample, which is definitely over a year old.

travelling teabox!

So i’m fairly certain that “coocblanco” is this tea but on the off chance it’s not, that’s the name on the tea. I didn’t have high hopes for this one since i’m not a fan of coconut. But since i’ve only had one tea from whispering pines, i wanted to try another.

the dry aroma is pretty coconutty but there’s a sweetness or something hiding in the background. Steeped, there’s less of a coconut taste to this…almost like a fruityness here? Not sure. Overall, not what i want or expected, but still a half decent cup of tea regardless :)

This is AMAZING. I am in utter love with this tea and will definitely have to make this a staple of my tea cupboard. WOW.

This is a dark oolong, and the flavor is nice and heavy, tasting faintly like coffee, but not overly so – which is good because I HATE the taste of coffee. The flavor starts off subtle, and then gets darker and reminds me of roasted coffee beans. And then turns slightly bitter just before I swallow. SO GOOD.

Oh my goodness. This is a perfect, perfect breakfast tea. It’s bold, malty, and has a flavor that I just can’t put my finger on. It almost reminds me of brown rice with a touch of butter and salt. There is a sweet fruit like flavor that reminds me of an apple. It’s such an interesting tea and I love it.