Whispering Pines Tea Company

This was my first loose-leaf and Shou Pu-erh tea. The first steep was an extremely dark amber/maroon shade, and with each successive infusion, lessened to a brighter shade of red with a lovely dirty earth(is that even a thing?) aroma. I remember the smell and taste being exactly what I needed at that moment; it hit the spot and gave me the pick-up I was looking for. The flavour was typical of a pu-erh: earthy, musty, strong, bold, and honestly, these flavours by themselves can be overpowering, but in this tea they were very well balanced; not overwhelming at all. My two teaspoons lasted about 13 cups before I gave it up. Overall the tea is delicious and long lasting, making it very economical. I would definitely buy this again.

Tasty! I liked the smokiness. I think next time I’ll steep a little longer to bring out the other notes people tasted. Even though I accidentally did longer than ten minutes on my second steep, it wasn’t bitter (the smokiness was greatly reduced on the second steep, though).

This is pretty tasty.

Brewed 1 heaping tsp in 15 oz of water for 2 1/2 minutes.

The coconut is more of an aftertaste. But the jasmine is lighter than other jasmine teas I’ve had, and it works really well. I imagine the rooibos helps tones is down and helps all the flavors blend together.

It’s very nice.

This Tea is Awesome!! I’m loving the Eucalyptus I don’t think I’ve ever had it in a tea blend before. This Tea is GREAT when you are having sinus issues, it really helped me a lot :) Check out my blog post please
http://toadsteablog.blogspot.com/2013/08/zen-master-blend-and-eucalyptus-by.html

I love the mornings I awake thinking about a certain tea that I want to drink.
On this hot, smoky Sunday morning, I awoke thinking about this tea.
Whenever, I drink this tea, I am reminded of a story I saw long ago, in I believe a National Geographic.
I do not even know if the story took place in Kenya, Or Africa or anywhere even close to where there is a Kenya Sunrise, but the article was about a high-end resort that people stayed at, however, there were giraffes everywhere around the place.
There was one photo where there was a nicely dressed couple sharing breakfast/tea and a giraffe had his head stuck through the window checking out what they were doing.
To my young mind, this was just so incredibly awesome.(and apparently to my 29 year old mind as well, if it still is embedded in my brain)
I remember thinking I wanted to be a fancy lady sipping tea with giraffes.
This tea is different the moment you open the tin, because the leaves are not really leaves at all, but instead they are tiny little round tea shaped balls.
The odor of the dry leaf is lovely, bright and with something rather fruit-like maybe?
I agree with the description where it is rather like your assam-y breakfast teas, bright and encouraging awakening, but it lacks that strong astringent
bitterness that some of those teas can have, both in odor as well as taste.
It brews a beautiful dark red cuppa.
The smell of tea also mimics the dry leaf, bright with just a slight fruit and spice note.
Taste again is a little like assam, malty and such, but brighter and lighter.
It lacks the heaviness that assam can have as well (FYI, I am not dissing on Assam, I love me some assam)
I think this is a prefect summer breakfast tea.
I really enjoy sipping it.
I also think it would be perfectly acceptable to drink with giraffes, you know…in case you have some dropping by later for a visit;)

I was sent an oz of this free with my order. This was a reserve tea that they were giving away as part of a promotion.

I will caveat my review by saying I’m not the world’s biggest black tea fan.

The flavor is very subtle. It starts off tasting like what I’d consider a typical black tea to taste like, and then the nuances start coming out. There is almost a bitter taste that fades into almost sour. It plays on the border between drinkable/undrinkable for me but never quite crosses over the line.

I imagine black tea drinkers would love this one. Unfortunately, that’s not really me.

Calm, relaxing — I am feeling so mellow right now after drinking a cup of this. It’s a bit spearminty (again, I have to question if this is contamination from the other teas in my order but it’s yummy as all get all). I can see myself sinking into a bubble bath while enjoying a cup of this and just blocking out the world. Bliss.

For a while, I was nearly out of all my favorite teas and this was all I had to keep me company for a month or so. I still have some left, believe it or not :D After much experimenting, I’ve decided that it is best brewed for 2min30 seconds. I’ve over steeped it a number of times when I left the room or didn’t hear my timer beep. It isn’t bad for a long steep. The mint compensates for the bitterness that would accompany a straight black tea, but I find that the flavors are in the best balance at a shorter brew time.

Black tea and mint is a favorite blend of mine, but I haven’t tried one with an assam base before. I have some mint leaves that I add to my own teas sometimes, but I’ve always thought assam wouldn’t be a good match. Apparently it is! This is my favorite mint and black blend yet.

I know this is an older verion but I like it, Very tasty and refreshing, I made it as an iced tea today for my company, everybody seemed to enjoy it :)
I’ve enjoyed all versions that I’ve had but this one is really good to me.

Sharing a pot of Manistee Moonrise with Lance tonight, I’m really glad that Lance likes the the teas from Whispering Pines :)

This Tea IMO is a very nice blend; It has just the perfect amount of smokiness without overpowering other flavor or just being to strong itself, I know from exp with other blends the Lapsang-Souchong can mess up a good tea fast by being overly strong however that was not the case with this one, it seems to have just the perfect amount of lapsang in it.
The Spearmint is very bold and delicious in this blend and it actually compliments the smokiness of the Lapsang-Souchong very well and makes for a very nice Tea.
I’m not sure if I’m able to pick up on elderberries,I’m Not even sure that I know what they taste like alone or in a tea lol But there was some very faint slight interesting spicey like fruity notes in this one to me, I can only assume that would be the elderberries but then again i dunno, the spicey fruitiness of it is almost like raisins or something to me But these notes were very faint.
http://toadsteablog.blogspot.com/2013/08/manistee-moonrise-by-whispering-pines.html
http://www.teaadvisor.com/

Just finished off the last of this today. Not many teas remain favorites after several cups. It is a lucky tea that can make it past two cups and still maintain my interest. I really can’t explain it — how it is that I can think that I absolutely love a tea and then the second or third time I have it, I can’t stand it anymore. Does this happen to anyone else or am I really so unusual??

I’m really running low on teas that I like in my cupboard. I still have some 40 teas that I just want to be rid of, half of them are my husbands and he won’t drink them! gah. I need some money!! Im so jealous of all of you who can order tea like every week. what are you sacrificing for it? real food? cable television? lol. Fortunately I have a couple of traveling tea boxes to look forward to. I hope they aren’t too dominated by crazy novelty blends though. Someday, if I can, I’m going to start a non-dessert-tea box. That would be awesome.

My parents were supposed to have been on the road with the Uhaul a few days ago, but it is taking them longer than expected to get all packed up. Most of their house is empty now and the TV is all packed up, so they came to my house to have an evening break and watch some Stargate SG1.

I brewed this tea for my mother and sister, a different tea for myself, and coffee for my father and my husband. As my last note indicates, I brought this tea for them to sample a few nights ago. That time, I brewed it according to the package instructions for 1min30sec. This time, I was too busy serving people to be careful about brewing instructions. I steeped it for 3min. My mother didn’t recognize the tea at first and she let my father sample from her cup. He said it wasn’t bad (he didn’t like it last time and he has never liked any green tea or jasmine tea). So I was thinking, hey, this longer steep time must make a difference and I tried it for myself just now (for 2min30sec). And hey, what do you know, I like it better this way too! It’s much creamier and the pine needle flavor that is supposed to be reserved for second steepings is probably affecting the flavor too, though I don’t recognize it specifically. The jasmine flavor was obviously jasmine in a shorter steep, now it is more of a general sweet flavor that doesn’t give away it’s source without some contemplation.

Never fails to amaze me how a few seemingly trivial parameters can make such a big difference.

I got this tea mostly so that my mother could try it. Of course, I had to sample it myself, but didn’t expect to like it since I don’t like Jasmine. It turns out that it wasn’t as bad as I expected, though I still won’t be purchasing this for myself in the future. The jasmine is subtle, hence why I could enjoy my cup at all. It tastes much like a delicate floral oolong with a creamy vegetal base. I’ve been advised that a second steeping will bring out the pine needle, but I only took a first steeping in a thermos to my parents house (one of the last few times I will be doing this because they are moving this week).

My mother liked it (she loves jasmine), so that is what matters :) She said it is a very calming/relaxing tea.