Whispering Pines Tea Company

This is a tea that benefits from a little exta leaf and a slightly stronger steeping time than i use with tea, but once i discovered this i really do like it.

Just what I needed right now. A nice accomplishment a smoky tea that manages to be light and refreshing as well!

Usually I write my reviews while sipping my tea. Since I finished my sample of this one yesterday morning, this isn’t going to be much of a review. I just wanted to note to myself that I really enjoyed this tea and remind myself to order it again. I think it was the lemon and orange that made this so wonderful. After every sip, I sighed, “Ahhhhhh.” (I did find it funny/odd that the tea looked very green when I poured it out. I don’t know why it had that appearance.)

Sad day… I finished this off at work today :( I’ll miss it!

Having a pot of this for breakfast! I love the rich flavors of this tea. It’s deep and has lovely dark chocolate notes.

OH MY the aroma of this tea is amazing. Deep coco and coffee notes. The flavor is pretty amazing itself. It has those deep dark chocolate notes and it kind of has a coffee-ish flavor to it. I really like this ooolong :]

I’m happy I ordered this one! It’s such a unique tea. When it’s hot all I’m getting is the smokiness. I thought eh… But then my mom called.. and my tea got lukewarm.. I took a sip and fell in love. All of the flavors come out. It starts out smokey and then turns sweet and earthy and then turns minty and clean. Gaaahh Whispering Pine’s teas always make me crave camping, hiking, and all that jazz.

Phew, first day of work is over! I needed something refreshing and relaxing tonight, as it hit 30 degrees C here today! In May! What is up weather haha!

Dry, this smells very minty, I was wondering which of the teas was the minty one and this is it. Mmm it’s a nice refreshing scent. I steeped for a min and a half with approx. 180 degree water. The steeped smell is also minty, reminding me a bit of Della Terra’s Jasmint actually.

The taste is perfect for tonight! The green and jasmine is perfect, not overpowering or cloying at all! The mint is refreshing and compliments the rest of the flavors wonderfully. I prefer this much more than Jasmint, though both are jasmine and mint blends. This one doesn’t have that grassy taste, it has a more mellow, clean green tea flavor than grassy.

Overall, this is a very tasty blend. I will hopefully have time for another infusion tonight, as this is hitting the spot and also fits the nice rain clouds that have shown up and will hopefully open up a bit to cool it down here. I am quite enjoying trying the Whispering Pines teas, so far they are all very refreshing and lovely! Oh, and they also have very nice names haha, that is part of the reason I had to order this one :D

This is a really nice blend that offers the calming impact (for me a sophoric)of Jasmine with the cleansing and refreshing impact of mint blended so both are muted to create something that is deeper and sweeter and fresher, over a creamy slightly smoky sweet green tea with hints of spinach which creates a nice mouth feel and adds depth. The tea has a really nice body and the flavours blend nicely. The second steep still has a nice creamy body with the jasmine a little more prominent but the flavours still compliment and blend nicely. The scent of the dry tea at first reminds me a little bit of graveyard blend which is ironic as their is no licorice root either in the blend or the flavour. Their is a mix of green teas including some with really beautiful long twisted blades and the tea brews to a light saffron colour. I’m off to enjoy a third steeping.

At the first couple of sips, I was ho-hum about this tea, but by the time I got to the end of the cup, I was loving it. The spearmint comes through on a nice subtle level and mixes well with the rooibos, hibiscus, and elderberries. I found a longer steeping time (7 1/2 minutes) better than 5 min.
Would I purchase this again? I would say . . . 50/50.

I really loved this tea. Perhaps it is the cinnamon. (Yes, it must be the cinnamon!) Add that to wonderful rooibos and I’m sold. I found a longer steep time slightly better. With my usual dash of sugar – Yummy. (I will buy more of this.)

This is the second straight Keemum I’ve tried. The first I tried (Zen teas) was a little picky if over leafed or steeped too long it was very smoky but when you got it right it had a nice body and an interesting mix of flavours but it isn’t something I drink on a regular basis.

This one is quite nice. It is very sweet and refreshing and the smoke takes a back seat. I brewed this tea in a western style according to the instructions on Whispering Pines website. 1 tsp per cup for 3 minutes at boiling water. It brews up to a maple colour hinting at copper. The tea smells of smoke, mint, sweet caramelized potato and plum hinting into cherry with a hint of lemon.

At first sip it tastes of caramelized burnt sugar and sweet potato, opening into a fresh smoky and slightly minty flavour, underneath a slightly sour sweet plum taste with a hint of artichoke. The tea is pretty refreshing and might make a nice ice tea. Later sips reveal floral notes of rose as a top note. It is a fairly smooth tea with little astringency and a thin to medium body. There is an aftertaste of burnt sugar/ dark honey, with sour stone fruit notes. This tea is a nice mix of sweet and sour and refreshing. The mint might be the result of contamination from a tea it was shipped with or might be how I detect the pine notes this tea is supposed to have, but it actually is a nice addition to the tea if it is. This is a nice everyday tea.

Been cold brewing all of the teas I was kinda meh about when tried hot, letting them sit overnight in the fridge in my Takeya Flash Chill pitcher, and setting aside a little mason jar of simple syrup with mint from the deck herb garden for my husband (you don’t want to know how sweet he makes his tea given he’s a southerner, ha). So far this has definitely been the winner in terms of having the biggest gap between how I felt about it hot and how we feel about it cold—it is so delicious iced! There’s more flavor (that was what disappointed me about it hot; the taste wasn’t bad, just too weak), and it’s thirst-quenching, but also a smoky, mysterious element that makes one think of campfires, appropriate for iced tea. Really great. Husband loves it too.

I’m gonna keep the score for the hot tea so I don’t confuse myself when I look at my rating logs, but I’m definitely making a note for myself on a “favorites iced” list.

Not much has changed from my first tasting note’s opinion on this. It’s still a nice solid black tea to drink. Kinda reminds me of the black dragon pearls I get from Adagio, but without the resteepability. (I think I just made a new word there. Lol!)
I get a cedar-y, malty smell from the brew. And a nicely malty taste from the sip. I’ll finish this off, maybe consider reordering if there’s a good deal on it. /shrug/

2nd steep as per website’s instructions – 5 min/208* – Pretty much tasted like a watered down cup of the first brew. I’m not sure it’s really worth the effort. Maybe if I was making a batch of tea to chill I might, but otherwise I think I’d rather just dump the leaves and brew a fresh batch.

Nice solid tasting black tea is the best I can think of right now. Lol. I’m not really picking up anything special here, but it might just be that my palate isn’t really that refined yet. Though I do get a bit of astringency at the end.
Followed company’s instruction for second steeping. Not much different from the first aside from it tasting a bit weaker. Ah well. But this is definitely one I’ll likely keep around.

Good Morning, Steepster!
I am starting my day with this tea.
When the tea is brewing I get hints of chocolate and tobacco.
First taste is brisk then a spicy, earth tone comes out.
Notes of avocado, perhaps?
I seem to enjoy this tea on days that I am not rushing out the door.
Since, it gets the job done of waking you up, but not in quite a bracing manner as an Assam.
A great tea to sip while catching up with letter writing.
Have a beautiful Thursday, friends!

Backlog:

Thank you TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea. I really liked this Oolong blend. I like the contrast between cinnamon and mint, although the cinnamon definitely was more subdued than the minty taste.

Here’s my full-length review of this tea: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/02/07/blackmint-oolong-blend-from-whispering-pines-tea-company/

thanks so much for sending a bit of this one to try, Kasumi no Chajin! Whispering Pines seems like such a nice creative little tea company. This is my first tea to try from them. It certainly is a unique blend! A smokey black tea with lemongrass, spearmint, and elderberries. I’m not exactly sure if I’ve had elderberries before, and I couldn’t detect any of those. But I love smokey teas! This one is clearly authentic, and doesn’t have that weird fake smoke flavor that I’ve found in other teas. (It seems odd that teas would need a fake smoke flavor anyway.. it’s smoke. Cavemen knew about it.) But I really love that it is combined with lemongrass and spearmint! I don’t mean to discourage anyone from trying this one, but it reminded me of the dentist’s office, and I don’t think it is just the spearmint. Hmm. Very odd blend but it works well!

Finishing off the last of a sample of this I had laying around. I’m still digging it but I feel like I can taste the rooibos more this time which is slightly unpleasant since I don’t like it that much.

I think this sample was also from Emilie I love me some jasmine and I love me some coconut, so I was super excited to try this! It is very light and bright and I’m mainly tasting the jasmine here. I may not have known there was coconut in this without seeing it in the name. Its pretty good though :)

So far in my life, I haven’t liked oolongs very much, but I also haven’t tried very many at all either. Certainly none from such an esteemed company as Whispering Pines. This trade is from Alphakitty. She sent it to me back in January and I’m just now getting around to tasting it. I love to do trades, but I have a bad track record for actually drinking the traded teas in a timely fashion. My bad. If anyone is irritated by that that has traded with me, I can put your trade on the top of the pile. Otherwise I’ll just go on picking an envelope at random a couple of times a week.

Back to the tea, this is not as scary a tea as I thought it would be. In anticipation of not liking it, I couldn’t make myself drink it until now and it’s cooled off completely but I think I like it this way. I’m always really torn between how I like a tea most, hot or room temperature. I rarely drink iced tea, even in the summer. This tea, however, is strongly mint and that’s nicely refreshing at the cooler temperature. I can taste the oolong, oh yes, but I can’t really pick out any specifics to the flavour except that I probably wouldn’t like it plain but it’s just fine with the mint. I don’t pick up really any cinnamon which is strange because usually I’m so sensitive to it. Well, it’s a bit ‘warming’ despite not actually being warm so that might be the cinnamon talking. All in all, not bad. I’ve got another cup of the tea waiting for me (I made a pot) but I don’t think I’ll be steeping this again.

This is another older tea that I’ve had for a while. It still smells great, smoky and foresty, but unfortunately it seems to have lost a lot of its flavor at this point. I still get a weak smoky flavor but that’s about it. I definitely need to go through my stash and clean out some of my older teas and refresh my stash, since I believe a significant number of my teas are on the older side.

Any time I drink a Whispering Pines tea, I feel like I should be wandering through a forest. I’m sure its at least partially the name and vibe that the tea company has. But I know its also the wonderful and unique ingredients and flavors in all of their teas. This one is no different.

It is smoky, as some others have mentioned, but in a very gentle way. I feel like that’s the word I would use to describe this whole tea: gentle. I’m having difficulty saying what individual flavors I got out of this, I will need to try it again and pay close attention.

On the bag, this tea recommends a 4 minute steep, and on here a 5 minute steep is recommended. A lot of people seemed to have success with a five minute steep, so I went with that. It smells really good, very naturey and campfirey. I really like smokey teas, and this one is good. It’s very smokey at the beginning of the sip, with the mint coming in at the end. I’m not really getting much of a berry flavor, I think it might be mixing in with the smokey flavor to make it nice and earthy. I wonder how this would do as a cold steeped. Maybe the berry flavors can come out more

This one was next in my day of tea. I’m sending the rest of it out soon in a trade, so I wanted one last cup, even though I apparently never logged the others.

I have to agree with some of the other reviews I’ve seen that say there isn’t a strong coconut flavor here. It smells very creamy and coconutty, and while the creamy smell is there in the flavor as well, the coconut is difficult to find. The spices are nice, and the chai flavor is good. I feel that adding milk might help bring out that coconut flavor, even though this is creamy enough that milk probably isn’t needed. Unfortunately, there’s never milk in my dorm room, since my roommate doesn’t drink milk at all and I only like it in teas. We can never use it fast enough, so it’s pointless. Also, our fridge is tiny.