Whispering Pines Tea Company

A big thanks goes out to my SororiTea Sister Azzrian for sending me some of this tea. It’s my first Whispering Pines tea, so I’m excited!

I can’t say that I’m a huge fan of Elderberries, the truth is, as far as I know, I’ve only had them in tea. But, I have liked the teas I’ve had with Elderberries in them … and I like this one really well also.

The elderberry together with the rosehip creates a rather tart flavor, and the white tea is delicately sweet, but not enough to offset the tartness of this cup … I don’t feel the need to pucker after a sip, but, it is … just there. You know? Right on the verge. I like the way the flavors play together here… There is a dry astringency that lends itself well to the overall cup, giving it a very clean, crisp taste. It’s very enjoyable, very REFRESHING. Nice.

Another one from Rachel, thank you for sharing this with me!

I forgot what was in this tea, just by looking at it, I thought it was an herbal tea. I saw some pieces of green tea in there, but the needles far outweigh the green tea. As soon as I opened the bag I smelled a pine forest. Needles crushing underfoot, pine cones scattered across the ground, I could smell the pine sap dripping down the trees. It was beautifully crisp and quiet, like an early morning sunrise before the world wakes up.

What a lovely tea. The bancha gives a nice soft buttery taste. The pine needles aren’t strong in taste at all, they are light and crisp. I feel like there is a little hint of jasmine in here, more feeling than taste. Thank you Rachel for sharing this with me, it is lovely!

Ooh, this is nice! I love anything mint, so this was bound to be good. I can taste the mint, the cinnamon, and the oolong. No one flavor overpowers the others. The oolong type is not specified. Looking at it it is a roasted oolong, smelling it and tasting it makes me thinks it is Big Red Robe. It has a definite mineral/river stone quality to it.

It reminds me of being out in the woods, but not in the way that a puerh would, it’s not earthy, just fresh and crisp. Is there a pine note in here or am I just imagining it? I don’t know, I don’t see anything mentioning pine notes, but I can taste it, might be the mint playing with me. Either way this is a nice tea.

Thank you Rachel for sharing this with me!

This was a wonderful sample from Rachel!

This is a very nicely done blend. It’s lightly vegetal with notes of chestnut and wafts of jasmine. The jasmine is not strong at all, it’s delicate and very well done. This tea really does resemble its name, a light rain in a field with wild flowers with a creek flowing through it. Beautiful tea, thank you for sharing this one with me Rachel!

TY to Whispering Pines Tea Company for having a weekly drawing – and woot, I won tea!
http://whisperingpinestea.com/drawing.php let’s go tea peeps, enter!

DRY: very spicy smell! Clovey!

STEEPED: Black tea brown colour, smells kinda smokey with a hint of sweet.

TASTE: Very earthy and woodsy, full of flavor and slight smokey. The cloves are present but not overpowering, and a hint of citrus at the end. Interesting, the tea is smooth and the flavors mix well. No bitterness or astringency.

I tried this tea with a bit of honey and a splash of soy milk and it turned out very well – honey with this tea is very tasty!

COMMENTS: I’m thinking latte with this one.. or next time my Dad visits he’ll ask for this tea every morning until I’m out. The spice level is nice, the black tea base is interesting – I was really worried this was going to be bitter, but it wasn’t.

This is the first white tea I’ve tried, and I must say I LOVE it! It has a smooth, buttery taste and a lovely earthy “tea” smell (obviously lol!) to it.
This is SUCH a beautiful tea and I highly recommend it. 95/100 all the way!
Going to go back to enjoying my mug of it now! :)
-TeaGinner

This blend smells amazing before it’s brewed. So much so that I’d consider buying it just to take a whiff of now and then. It has a delightful coconut-floral-grassy aroma. In that order. It yields a dark golden infusion that smells strongly of coconut but tastes like a pure jasmine tea. The taste of the tea was both vegetal and grassy

If you steer clear of jasmine teas because the floral taste is too strong, you might like this one. It’s the most subdued floral jasmine tea I’ve tried. It was a nice change to taste more of the green tea than with typical jasmine teas.

Although a pleasant cup, I would love to taste more coconut flavor. That said, I’ll take a great jasmine tea that smells of coconut over one that does not.

Oh! What a lovely combo of green teas this has! I totally agree with the product description saying that the green tea has a buttery texture to it, too! Very nice.

The Lemongrass is perfectly assisting the green teas, here! I wouldn’t change the ratio at all!

This is smooth and flavorful. It’s very delicious.

I’d also agree with the hint of pine needle taste – moreso – as it cools at room temp for a bit and more towards the end of the sip.

Another winner – NOT to be passed up – from Whispering Pines – YUM!

Mm, BLISS.
That’s all I can say about this tea, it’s fantastic! The scent of Eucalyptus overwhelms you (in a GOOD way) and floats you off onto a distant, blissful planet. This tea wasn’t for waking up for me personally, it’s for relaxing. Even though this tea has Yerba Mate, this tea relaxes me and allows all of those pleasant ‘feel good feelings’ to go through me while I sit and relax. I may be a little weird though, because caffeine has the opposite effect on me then it does on other people. Caffeine makes me relaxed and SLEEPY! So that could be why this tea relaxes me. Nonetheless, this tea is very good and I’d recommend it!

I’ve had this sample for a while but evidently I forgot to post a tasting note for it until now…

This blend is definitely unique! It’s a bit smoky and also kind of… minty? tingly? Interesting element which I guess is from the mate. I think the elderberry also provides a nice fruity note here. There’s some black tea but it seems to be on the lighter side which is definitely nice. I am enjoying it this morning, not sure I will need any more but it’s definitely a good blend and will wake me up! :)

Steepster ate my note…. :(
Anyways.. this was delicious and makes me want to go camping.

MMmmm I haven’t had this one in a really long time. And it’s making me crave camping. I just can’t explain the flavor of this tea except for it’s like waking up in the mountains after a rainstorm. The air is crisp and cool with subtle aromas of wet pine trees.

Mmm I will love this blend forever. See previous notes :)

I haven’t had this one in a while so I made a pot of it. It was very refreshing since I’ve had a lot of flavored teas recently. The subtle flavor of pine is just lovely with the buttery green tea.

When I saw that this tea had pine needles in it, it gained my interest. I did think that this was going to have a stronger pine needle taste to it but it’s actually quite mellow. The flavor is kind of buttery and has a crisp, outdoors thing going on. This tea reminds me of sitting in my tent waiting for the rain to stop then going outside into the crisp, cool, fresh air.

Thank-you to Whispering Pines for this Pu’erh sample!

Sunday afternoon I was ready for my second session on a live Google+ video chat with my new ‘teageek’ group. Our discussion was set for a Liu An Basket-aged heicha tea (which I had never heard of before).

One by one members joined in from Canada, Australia, Seattle, California, New York, Oregon and Eric (Happy Luckys) and I in Colorado. (There are others in other locations who come and go). It’s so much fun!

The reason I’ve been mentioning this group is that so many people have said, "I wish I had a place like Happy Lucky’s to go and drink tea!

“Bonnie is so fortunate to have a tea pub in her town!”

True, True.

So why couldn’t a few Steepsters get together now and then to drink tea on a google+ video chat?
It’s so easy to do! Pick a common tea, discuss it and enjoy each other’s company! Think about it!

Back to this tea!

I didn’t have one of the basket tea’s to taste for the meeting so I began about an hour earlier with some Imperial Shou to get myself in
a proper fine state of mind.

I had been reading about several methods that two very different
experts use to prepare Pu-erh . One is more geared to hospitality and ritual, going to great lengths to preserve multiple steeping’s over a long time period.
The second method is faster, poking the leaves during steeping to release more flavor, and keeping the steep time at about 30 seconds.

I chose the second method.

I used a 4oz. Gaiwan and I understand that this Pu-erh is from the Menghai factory.

1. The wet leaves had the scent of sweet leather, mushrooms and vanilla and the liquor was golden brown.
This first cup tasted smooth and sweet with no earthiness. There was a little cedar flavor but not much. I felt a mulch, fuzz texture and sensed that this was going to be a special tea.

2. I picked at the Toucha while it was steeping then poured the tea through a strainer. The wet leaves smelled like black cherry,
and liquor looked like very dark drippings from a pot-roast.

I was stunned at how exquisite the taste was. The mouth-feel was smooth and silky like a placid lake. The flavor was close to a pot of creamy bitter hardly sweet chocolate still warm on a spoon, being licked off and melting in my mouth.

There was a very light cedar flavor at the finish but not much.

It was the silkiness that impressed me so much.

3. The leaves were now completely disintegrated from the little Tuocha and they looked black, holding a light leather aroma.
The liquor was still deep espresso brown.

I can’t remember ever tasting a Pu-erh that tasted like CAKE but this one did! How? I dunno! This was good! How interesting and continuing to be very smooth!

(I noticed that the water had been a little cooler, and maybe it had been a factor. I don’t know.) This was so delicious that I was impressed. Most Toucha’s are just not this complex!

Because of the cake taste, I added a little sweetening to the last of my cup which made the tea very caramel, creme brulee tasting.
A nice little dessert flavor.

I went one more steep, still finding the leaves full bodied, rich and smooth. Filling my cup again, which I took to my desk for my ‘teageek’ discussion group.

My vote on this Pu-erh is a big thumbs up! Whispering Pines picked up a fine quality Toucha!

First, some background:
My first try with this sample was yesterday, and I shared it with the s.o. – who had also never tried a lapsang souchong before. He commented that it tasted, of course, like a campfire. And like scotch.

(Storm prep 101= acquire booze… achievement unlocked)

10:37 am, Alleged Storm Day:
Someone MIGHT have dribbled the teensiest bit of Ardbeg into my second steeping. That same someone might have also added one little brown fancy sugar cube and curled up in her pj’s with a view of the storm. Can’t say for sure. I can say that the first steeping tasted like two very different things; that super primal manmakefirecookbuffalo smell that I find unbelievably sexy, and the house I like to pretend I grew up in. Weird. My grandma’s place is full of antiques, many of them salvaged from her grandmother’s house after the old place had a lightning strike. Camelback steamer trunks, dolls and framed daguerreotypes smell like fire for good reason anyway though.

This. Is. Beautiful.

Okay, I’m drinking the 2nd steeping of this tea. Oh. My. Goodness!

I was delighted to find that the leaves retained so much of the smoky aroma and taste after the first steeping. This time around I tasted more of the black tea than before but less of the smoky flavor. It was a different experience altogether with slightly sweet and nutty notes. Yum! After each sip there was a pleasant tingling on my tongue. I’ve only experienced a “tingling” aftertaste with a couple of teas now and I love it.

*According to the Whispering Pines website, the tea should brew for 6 minutes on the second steeping. I brewed it for 5 minutes – oops! No matter, it was still a great cuppa.

Wow. This is an amazing black tea. Here we go…

As soon as I opened this package, I was transported to a campfire in the woods on a cold night. (Yes, I’ve been known to camp on cold nights…brr!) The tea leaves give off a subtly smoky aroma, like the charred ashes of a dying fire.

Although I love that smell, I wasn’t sure if I’d like to taste it in a tea. Sure enough, I do! The smoky flavor of the tea is delightful. It really warmed me up inside, making it perfect for cold weather days. I thought the tea was a touch bitter, which is something I come to expect and enjoy in most black teas. It leaves a smoky aftertaste. I’ll be ordering this smooth, rich blend again.

I can smell and taste a hint of coconut, it’s like being on a beach lol but with a Warm drink lol very calming and nice, I put my fave meadow foam hunny in and it’s just a wonderful vacation in my mouth :) My husband tried a sip of this too and liked it he is having a harder time finding the coconut but i think he needs to drink more then one sip!

:( I tried this one after my massive lack of success with DT’s Cherry Cola tonight, and unfortunately, don’t like this one much better. The aroma is fairly light and mild, with a bit of a familiar and slightly unpleasant aroma. I feel like it’s an aroma I’ve associated with a black tea in the past, but I can’t for the life of me remember which. The unpleasant-ish aroma follows into the flavour – I’m left with quite a light blend, where I can taste a touch of sweetness that’s unfortunately coming off as something a bit rotten, alongside a pleasant black base. I wonder now if it’s the rooibos causing this…

Anyhow, I was certainly hoping for a whole lot more than I got from this blend :( Although there was a lot of orange peel, that’s certainly not a dominant flavour in the blend (in fact, I can’t even really taste it). I can only catch the barest hint of smokiness; given that this is a “campfire blend” I would have expected more. There is a creamy, pleasant aftertaste, which I wish had more impact upon the rest of the blend, but that’s its only redeeming factor (though, I say that as this tea grows on me a little… I’m trying to give it a chance by drinking the whole cup, which does seem to be improving my opinion of it, but not enough to ever re-purchase.)

Anyhow, I do wish I had better things to say about this blend, but it’s fairly bland (I used 2 tsp for ~10 oz. water, and it got a full 5 minute infusion in boiling water) and has a bit of an odd flavour (although I’m wondering if cross-contamination from other samples from Whispering Pines could be a partial cause of this). Oh well!

ETA: Although I just burnt my tongue on a different tea…. grumbles, the re-steep of this one is fairly decent. Half the water, 6-minute infusion at boiling. I’m tasting light spice, perhaps a hint of citrus, and none of yesterday’s wierdness. I will try this one again soon and hopefully it will be better then! Perhaps let it air out a touch.

Mmmm :) not much to say about it. It’s the classic blend of green tea and mint. I’ve been craving it for some time now so I’m happy my order arrived quickly! Very refreshing! :)

I love these little things so much. Everyday I’ve been taking two to work. On my break I pop them in my tea thermos and re-steep them every time my mug is empty :] They last for quite a while and keep a good flavor with them. The most steeps I’ve gotten is 3 or 4 and then the flavor starts to water down. Mmmm :]

The description was right! This does brew up very dark. I thought it would be a little bit stronger but it’s just right! It’s very smooth and earthy with hints of something I just can’t put my finger on. It has a sweeter finish as it begins to cool.
This tea makes me think of horses. Like, horseback riding or hanging out in the stables. If I were to go horseback riding I would definitely take a tumbler full of this wonderful pu-erh. It just fits :]