Whispering Pines Tea Company

Great! Nice, smooth and soothing with a long-lasting session.

this good i love it

Creamy, woody and sweet. It’s the perfect way to spend this afternoon working from home. Sometimes I get a little dark mulch, sometimes a little raisin. Sometimes, I get a little cocoa.

I first had this about one year ago, and it blew me away from the start. The burst of a very vibrant, sweet-ish scent I could sit and inhale for an hour, and the combination of malty and honeyed flavors (to my taste buds – I am a fairly novice tea drinker) made this an instant favorite, and the one I choose when wanting to kill a good amount of time relaxing with a cuppa.

Over the next year, I tried many other Yunnans and blacks, thinking that I might find something comparable to the Golden Snail. So far, nothing even comes close. This tea is otherworldly, smooth and so layered. Stands up to repeated steeps, too.

Along with Earl Gold and Imperial Gold Buds, this tea has solidified Whispering Pines as my ultimate go-to for spectacular teas. Brenden is on to something really special, and I am happy to be able to experience it. Peerless.

Nice tea with a slightly different profile from the typical.
Nose; light floral, honey, sweet potato, slight koh ( incense ).
Palate; more delicate than most, sweet potato, butter, slight umami, almost a dancong sweetness and a light mineral character.

Smooth and sweet daily drinker, this light ripe would be a good introduction to shou.

The nose on this was what really got my attention, as it made me think of the aromas of a ramen restaurant with the vibrant umami aroma of nori (seaweed). The body seemed more medium while the lower-grade Ontario was full-bodied. Definitely a good-quality shou puerh, but I’ll need to come back to it and pay a bit more attention to the flavors.

Very vibrant caramel/chocolate/dark fruit flavor and thick coating mouthfeel in the first four infusions, and the sweetness and richness hung on better than most tippy black teas in the later infusions, though there was quite a contrast between the third, fourth, and fifth steepings where it got woodier and a little thinner

For me this rich tea sample was notable for its red wine, cocoa, mushroom and clean mineral notes.

It is also quite warming. The memory of this tea grew on me, I may order a cake.

Edit: Several months later I did buy a cake.

I had a 14g sample and used half in a 170 ml gaiwan, which in hindsight was too large, especially for my usual flash steeps.

The result of not following the instructions was that I couldn’t get a sense of the tea which was tasting like hongcha.

After three steeps I put the rest of the 14g into the pot, ah that was the ticket.

Clean soup, smooth, nutty, bittersweet chocolate and brown sugar.

Made for an enjoyable long session on a chilly morning.

Wow! This was a delight to the senses! So many flavours without any conflict, in a single cup. In the three cups I partook of this tea, I absolutely loved the hints of dark chocolate and the mix of fruits.

I came upon this tea during a visit to a friend who has just returned from Spain, for a work assignment. Interesting that he got the tea from a flatmate there who found this tea too complex for his taste. My Indian palate, is not averse to complexities. I exchanged whatever was left of my friend’s tea for all my organic Nilgiri coffee stash.

Although I won’t say that I regret it, for the tea was quite a happy surprise, I could have retained half my coffee stash. I have just two cups’ worth left. I hope tomorrow will be a more exciting day with this tea.

P.S. – I realised that my earlier reviews were not very detailed. I have tried to amend that with this review.

Okay, I’m finally back on Steepster after a nearly week-long absence. It’s not that I haven’t been drinking tea during this time, I just haven’t been posting reviews. Specifically, I have been working my way through larger amounts of several teas I have had for some time, one of which was this Yunnan black tea.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a very quick rinse to open the tea up, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 205 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 14 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted pleasant aromas of chocolate, malt, and wood. After the rinse, I detected aromas of brown sugar, toast, honey, sweet potato, and molasses as well. The first infusion produced a similar aroma with hints of butter, fruit, and vanilla bean. In the mouth, I picked up on gentle notes of dark chocolate, molasses, butter, wood, toast, malt, and brown sugar underscored by subtle hints of earth, honey, sweet potato, and fruit. Subsequent infusions brought out impressions of vanilla bean, baked bread, apricot, orange, maple syrup, honey, smoke, raisin, sweet potato, moist earth, and plum. The later infusions were smooth, offering hints of minerals, bread, toast, smoke, and malt underpinned by a slight honey and fruit sweetness.

I found this to be an extremely nice Yunnan black tea. It was a little more mellow than anticipated, but it had a tremendous amount to offer. It was definitely on par with the other Chinese black teas I have tried from Whispering Pines Tea Company. Of those I have tried so far, this one might be my favorite.

First steep at 190 F with 1 tsp of leaves for ~2 min. The dry leaves smell strongly of lilac, as if you’d buried your head in a lilac bush in the middle of a springtime garden. After steeping, they remain half-opened, again the strong scent of lilac. The brew is the palest shade of jade and the scent is lightly floral. The floral taste comes mostly in the aftertaste to me. There is no hint of bitterness at all, although the taste is so light I think perhaps I didn’t steep it long enough or use enough leaves.

Second steep of ~3 min. Leaves have opened more fully, showing off their beautiful vibrant green color. They look mostly complete, with very little broken leaves and some missing just a bit around the edges. The color of the brew is a darker shade of jade now, although the taste remains light. Still not as much floral or creaminess as I was hoping.

Third steep of ~4 min. Leaves look as if they are fully opened, although I no longer smell the lilacs from them. The shade of the brew is perhaps a touch lighter than the second brew, and less aromatic too. It does taste creamier though than the previous two brews, although less floral as well.

Here’s Hoping TTB

The dry leaf of this tea is so pretty! Long, fuzzy pale green buds that give off a faint aroma of new-mown hay. The liquor steeps up to a clear light yellow-green color without much of a scent. The flavor is light and sweet and slightly fruity. This definitely seems to be a quality tea, but it’s also a reminder that white tea just isn’t my favorite. I prefer a more robust flavor.

Forgot to save my previous note on this, so this will be just a short and quick review.

I prepare this tea mainly gongfu style, but I have also done it western

With gongfu, early steeps contain a very fruity apricot taste (specifically dried apricot). But subsequent infusions adopts a heavier wood-like taste with malt and dried apricot background. I haven’t seen how it tasted following the end-stage infusions, so can’t give much of a comment on that.

I did prepare this western style once quite a while ago, and I do have to say that western style is the recommended way to approach this tea. It had a very complex yet harmonic taste, consisting of fruits (with apricot as main), honey, general sweetness, light wood, chocolate, and a maltyness around it. I believe gongfu style doesn’t allow the blend of leaves to steep sufficiently enough to have the combined flavour from all of them, but instead prefers the faster steeping leaves over the others.

Not a bad tea, but not recommended if you prefer tea gongfu style.

One last session for the evening before I call it a night, embrace the sweet comfort of bed and mentally prepare myself for the nightmare that will be working retail on Boxing Day. I pulled this one a few days ago to drink, but just getting around to it now – it’s been in my cupboard for a while now and though I have tried it, it’s been a long time and I think it was only Western style that I first had it?

Started off with a rinse; the aroma is lovely! Stewed fruits, earth, molasses, petrichor…

Steep One: 12 Seconds
- I’ve been experimenting a little with my steep times for Gong Fu lately
- But haven’t settled into a generic “pattern” I’m sure happy with yet…
- This is ok; but oddly salty…
- I find myself thinking of red earth, clay, and jerky; or at least what jerky smells like
- Or cured meat!? Tough(ish) for me to place
- Longtime vegetarian, after all…

Steep Two: 12 Seconds
- Smells sweeter/less of umami and meats??
- More woody, with the same mix of red earth and clay
- Still a LITTLE BIT salty but not the same way it was
- Lingering finish is a bit more cooked fruit/stewed fruit and sweet earth

Steep Three: 18 Seconds
- Much, much better now in the overwhelming salt/meat flavour department
- Talking to Slack people about it; and I think it just didn’t air out as well as it could have
- Now it feels more well rounded, with a lot of sweet wood and earth notes
- Kind of a sweet, vanilla/nut undertone creeping in now
- Also still cooked/stewed fruits in the finish: prune/raisin

Steep Four: 25 Seconds
- Steeped leaf smells lovely; sandalwood and damp earth! Very peaceful…
- Yeah; totally a much better/cleaner flavour now!
- A mix of wood, red earth, raisin, petrichor, stewed fruit, resin, and walnut skins
- Kind of a creamy mouthfeel

Steep Five: 30 Seconds
- Best steep yet; mostly wood, petrichor, cream, vanilla, and walnut
- With sweet cooked fruit/raisin undertones
- Really nice finish! A slight, haunting linger of vanilla and wood then short fade out

Steep Six: 30 Seconds
- Much of the same as last infusion but with a stronger vanilla/cream thing going on
- REALLY digging this pairing of vanilla and strong wet wood notes though
- It’s good shit

Steep Seven: 40 Seconds (Give or take a bit; lost count near the end)
- Definitely seeing a decline in the robustness/dark hue of the liquor colour
- But I’m really enjoying the flavours as this one begins to die off
- Silkier, with soft notes of wood, earth, vanilla, walnut, and dates now
- Kind of brown sugar-y as well?
- REALLY clean finish

Steep Eight: 1 Minute
- Same as prior infusion, just a touch milder/more watery

Steep Nine: 1 Minute
- Still a light coppery colour to the liquor but like 90% of the flavour has faded now
- Mostly a very vanilla/wood sort of thing with light earth undertones
- And a bit of a caramel sweetness to the end
- It’s sort of a sad overall flavour though; very weak/watery

Steep Ten: Two Minutes
- Just a shadow of what this was
- I think this is as good as any a time to cut the session off
- There’s still SOME flavour left, but it’s quite late now
- And I should definitely be policing my caffeine/liquid intake

Overall thoughts? This wound up being a nice session with some really good overall flavours in the middle of the infusions. Plus, as the flavour notes did die out near the end they did so in a really lovely way which highlighted some of my favourite flavours I got to experience drinking this tea. I don’t know what was up with the first few infusions which reminded me so sharply of salted meats – probably just some weird funk from my not allowing this to air out long enough/well enough. It did sit for A LONG TIME air tight, and only in the last few weeks have I let it air out more openly.

Still good overall; nice end to the evening. Fingers crossed the caffeine doesn’t wind up biting me in the ass though…

I’ll write a more proper tasting note when I drink this Gong Fu, but for now here are some jot notes from the Western styled mug of this that I happily slurped on whilst watching Jungle Book:

- Thick mouthfeel, smooth profile
- Earthy, wet wood, walnut, dark wood, cocoa, brown sugar, camphor
- Just slightly roasty
- Full bodied; clean finish

PS. I totally recommend watching the new live action Jungle Book. I thought it was really well done, and I loved pretty much all of it – except Christopher Walken kind of creeped me out a lot as King Louie. Which I suppose is the point. I don’t know; that ONE aspect didn’t work for me.

I really don’t like this tea. It’s malty, but super tannic. I thought I just oversteeped it, so I tried a second cup with a shorter brew time. I don’t enjoy breakfast teas (too brisk for me), so I’m not surprised. I generally avoid African and Indian varietals because I find them too strong and fairly boring. Undertones of grain and coffee, no sweetness of “baked bread” as others have found. Maybe it was my sample, but it tasted like any grocery store English breakfast. Very underwhelming for such a high rated tea.