Whispering Pines Tea Company

Big mug of this while reading this week’s course material for my sommelier class that started today; this one’s “From Bush To Cup” and focusing on growing conditions of tea and processing methods/processes. This week much of the focus was on soil…

Not gonna lie, it was fairly boring.

Tea was great though; soft with a rich, thick mouthfeel. Just a hint vegetal with notes that reminded me of cucumber skin but also corn silk, hay, malt, heavy cream, wood, rosemary, and some other herbaceous qualities. It’s very easy to get lost in this tea. That doesn’t exactly make for the best studying conditions either when all you’re thinking about is the tea.

The music I was listening to was mostly background so reading/studying wasn’t silent, but this is what was playing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZjosn2u1gA

Bam, just when you thought you were figuring out my taste in music I go and throw in some country! I am from the prairies though; it’d be blasphemous if I didn’t like at least a little country.

This is a queued tasting note.

So stoked that I don’t have to hoard this one anymore, since I picked up three ounces of it during Black Friday! I can pretty well indulge in this whenever it floats my boat because there’s now no shortage of it in the house! Yummy notes of cedar and pine, corn silk, cream, malt, and herbs. Often it tastes like rosemary, but today it’s just nondescript herbaceous undertones.

Prior to this cup I had finished a way too sweet mug of DAVIDsTEA’s Caramel Corn and this was the perfect redeeming cuppa! Plenty flavourful without being bogged down by unnecessary sweetness…

Made this one yesterday evening; my mom was fascinated by the look of the dry leaf (it is cool looking, isn’t it?) but I wouldn’t share any of the steeped up tea with her. Besides, I know she oftens finds white tea far too subtle so it would have been a sip wasted regardless.

The mouthfeel of the liquor was superb; it was thick and creamy and could have easily made a good stock/base for a light soup. In a way, it did kind of feel like I was drinking some sort of delicate soup: there were notes of cedar, pine, rosemary, hay, honeysuckle, and cream which are all things that could contribute positively to a nice ‘Yabao Broth’. I’ll stick with drinking this as a tea though; the last time I tried to switch things up with this blend didn’t work in my favour.

I’m thinking of the dreaded Yabao + Honey combo that flopped like an overweight middle aged dad from the highboard of the community pool. Can’t you just picture the kids, slathered in sunscreen, cringing? 10/10 Bellyflop. Send that shit into America’s Funniest Home Videos so other overweight middle aged Dads can cringe at it too.

This is a queued tasting note.

I think adding a little honey to my mug of this might have been a bad idea; while it certainly didn’t taste bad the flavor profile was dramatically changed and I don’t think necessarily for the better. There was still a bit of a corn silk/hay flavor but for the most part I couldn’t help but think of Honey Shreddies the entire time I was drinking it…

http://www.jygrocerydelivery.com/shop/bmz_cache/9/99f31f41ee94294161202d9a6c58b6ac.image.150×217.png

I would have described it as mealy; but I just did a thorough google search to make sure that was the term I was thinking of and I don’t know if it is; all of the sites I’ve found describe it as a dry (almost sawdust like) texture but obviously that’s not what I mean ‘cause the liquor wasn’t really a dry texture. I think I was thinking more…

Bland and starchy?

So, I got Chef Darcy laid using the power of tea!

Chef Darcy is the guy who comes in and teaches cooking classes at work; basically he’s there five days a week and he just picks things he wants to cook and then teaches how to make them totally fresh and from scratch. Everything he cooks with comes from the store, and so in that way he’s kind of advertising the products for us. As an example, he did a Lobster Alfredo and he start with killing your lobster – no prepackaged stuff in his classes! I do the art for the whiteboard out front advertising the class, when I have time during my shift that is – and when whatever he’s doing is something I can put together a picture for.

When Tea Ave. sent me a second sample set I tried to think of who I knew in person who would actually appreciate it, take the time to learn how to use the equipment properly, and then use and enjoy it. I was torn between my friend Robyn and Darcy – but I bombarded Robyn with tea not too long ago, so I gave the second set to Darcy along with a sample of this tea because I’d been talking about it and he’d expressed a lot of interest in it. Well, the set went over well because he and his girlfriend took the time to learn how to use everything and then did tastings of all three teas together! And, she thought it was a really romantic and sweet activity and, well…

TEA; GETTING PEOPLE LAID SINCE… WELL PROBABLY SINCE A LONG TIME.

When I portioned out a sample of this one for Darcy, I left the bag out for myself too so I could come back from work and enjoy a pot of it – which I did. I’ve only had this one a few times now, but I’m very much enjoying it and of the WP teas I got on Cyber Monday it’s the only one I know with absolute certainty I’d want to order again (it’s also the most affordable of the ones I purchased; which is a super happy coincidence)!

My jot notes from the pot:

- Cream! SO MUCH CREAM!
- Silky/smooth thicker mouthfeel
- Corn and hay notes
- Corn is like a sweeter Peaches & Cream corn!
- Peaches & Cream Creamed Corn? Is that a thing?
- Creamed honey notes too; especially in the aftertaste
- More herbaceous the longer it steeped
- A little pine? I’m still not sure if that’s really the right word for what I’m tasting…
- But given it’s meant to be pine wood and not needles, it’s probably the right word

And, now that I’ve recently had that Dian Yin Zhen from Nannuoshan I’m recollecting a note that was very present in both cups; though struggling to identify what that note is because, skimming through tasting notes I’ve done for both respective teas, I haven’t really used the same flavour descriptors. Maybe it’s the pine? I didn’t mention tasting pine with the Nannuoshan blend because I only tasted it a few times and so fleetingly, it was a little hard to pick out from the other flavours. But, it’s the only thing that the two really have in common…

So; very comparable pine notes I guess?

Anywho, bumping my rating up.

One of two bedtime “Mini Cups” of tea. I packed this with because it’s new to me, and I’ve been fascinated by it since first seeing it – and now that it’s actually in my possession I think it smells really lovely dry; and I needed to try it sooner rather than later. This trip to Regina seemed like the quickest way to sample it.

I’d really like to write a longer, more thorough review but I’m super tired and it’s late, and I know my little sister’s gonna wake me up as soon as she can tomorrow morning. So I’ll be briefer than I want to be.

I was planning a shorter steep time, but my little sister’s Dad stopped by to drop some stuff off for her that she left as his place before heading to Mom’s for the weekend – and I ended up talking to him for nearly eight minutes while my tea sat in the kitchen steeping. I hadn’t seen him in over a year, and it was good catching up. We maybe have a weird relationship because he and my Mom got divorced when I was about… 13? But for nearly all my early childhood memories he was as much “my Dad” as my actual Dad was, sometimes more so. But after he and my Mom got divorced I no longer saw him on a regular basis – just whenever B (I’m gonna not reveal my sister’s name – not that I don’t in general trust Steepster people, I am after all very open about my name and life and such, but she’s really young/underage) was around.

But the point is; this is quite a forgiving tea just like is claimed in the tea description. It got very, very close to a ten minute steep albeit at a lower temperature, and it’s not bitter or astringent at all. In fact, it’s very sweet! I get incredibly prominent honey notes and a rich silky mouthfeel, as well at light notes of hay, oats, and rosemary. More of a sweet rosemary than a savory rosemary, though. I’m also drawing comparisons to the Corn Silk tea I tried not too long ago; I am definitely experiencing a sort of “corn chip” like flavour to this, but I don’t see anyone else has observed crazy that so I feel a little crazy admitting it.

I’ve been wondering lately if the way I view “pine” as a flavour is different than how others do; because when I think of “Pine notes” I think of the sort of pine flavour that’s so strong and common with Juniper berries; crisp, clean, a little woody? There’s no way I’m tasting that here; and I’m disappointed because this is the second WP blend I bought on BF described with “pine” as a flavour, and I’m just not getting it.

I loved this though! Despite seemingly absent pine notes and relatively different observations than others. Maybe my prolonged steep time messed with the flavours present? Or the balance of flavours?

And hey; despite trying to be concise in my wording this ended up long winded afterall. Darn!

So tasty! I drank this tonight, mostly to combat the effect a sheng had on me earlier, but also because I love this Shou! The savory, salty, creamy mushroom notes blend so seamlessly with the Shou. Yum yum yum. My tummy thanks you!

This tea is awesome! Enjoyed a great session with it again today…my second time! We were watching Game of Thrones. ;) This tea was a great accompaniment! I love the creamy mushroom flavor and mouthfeel! This is a really a special tea to savor.

Okay all, Mirkwood is finally in my tea cupboard! Woo! I’ve wanted some ever since the teaplets went on and on and on about it! ;)

The dry leaf is pretty cool. Lots of dried morels in there. Smells good.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/97273956@N03/16164830670/

I brewed it up gong fu-style because that’s how I like my shou. Right away, I could tell this was going to be more savory, like soup. It tastes slightly salty, like a broth. You can still taste the earthiness of the puerh but the broth flavor blends in over the top. I also noticed spicy notes that appear at the end of the sip. The liquor is smooth and clear with absolutely no funk. The texture/mouthfeel of the tea includes a mushroom creaminess, or slime, whatever you want to call it! In a good way! Ha!

I looked up morels, as I’ve never had one, and supposedly they have a nutty taste. I can see that.

Overall, this is like drinking a super refined and deliciously smooth and clear mushroom broth, but better. It’s really good. Really freaking good.

This tea is absolutely incredible, as is every other tea that I have had from Whispering Pines Tea Co.(Golden Orchid, North Winds, and Ailaoshan). I used the recommended tea brewing instructions( 1 Tablespoon, 190degree water, 2minutes) and the first thing that I noticed was the very intoxicating, sweet, caramel, toasted coconut smell. The toasted coconut note really comes out for in the smell of the tea which is the best way to describe the teas smell in my opinion. After all of that smelling my mouth was watering and yearning to taste the sweet nectar from this tea, I knew it was going to be amazing. On the first sip I immediately noticed a very very sweet taste which I have never before noticed in an oolong, much different than the sweetness from leaf hopper bitten oolongs that I know and love. This better, and a lot more intense, imagine a fruit crossed with a flower if that makes sense and you are left with a not overly strong sweet taste. Its very hard to explainable. As soon as the tea hits the tongue it can be described as very floral but then you are hit with the sweetness and once swallowed the taste of the teas sweetness lingers, leaving you wanting another sip of the tea. As of right now this is the best oolong(possibly the best tea in general) that I have ever had. It is an experience that everyone needs to try. Also to let everyone know Whispering Pines Teas are completely handcrafted by one person and the quality of everything that Brenden makes is incomparable to anything else I have tried(Verdant, Butiki, Wild Monk, many NATC winners, and numerous others) Nothing has been better than anything by Whispering Pines Tea Co.

What delicious wizardry is this?!

Thank you so much to beelicious for the generous sample of this tea!

I’ve been curious to try something from Whispering Pines ever since I joined Steepster and started reading all of the rave reviews. I even visited the website a few times, but I could never quite bring myself to order. I’m the kind of person who clips coupons and buys most of my wardrobe at thrift stores, after all…could this tea really be amazing enough to justify the high price tag?

Apparently, yes! Setting aside how adorable the dry leaf is, this is quite possibly the best straight black tea I’ve ever tasted. It is incredibly rich and full-bodied with a dense, malty flavor that’s delicious all by itself but I’m sure would also be amazing with milk. It has just a hint of sweetness to it and no bitterness or astringency at all that I noticed. And, on top of all that, it re-steeps beautifully with almost no reduction in flavor. I brewed this Western-style and got SEVEN delicious infusions before I was ready to move on (and I probably could have done more if I wasn’t anxious to try a different tea.)

Next time Whispering Pines has a sale, I think I’m going to have to break down and place an order…

Dry leaf smells like raisins and maple candy
Wet leaf smells a bit smoky, which I did not expect. There’s also an interesting apricoty scent if I stuff my nose in the gaiwan for a big huff.

I’ve been interested in this one for awhile, and it didn’t disappoint. It feels very soft when sipped. Kind of hard to describe. It’s definitely better on short steeps, IMO.

Next time, I will try it with some maple syrup in there because it seems like it would fit.

If you want to make your house smell amazing, as well as drink great tea, just leave the bag of dried leaves and shrooms open. My whole nook smells like candy. CANDY NOOK!

Packaging for this tea is great looking. Smooth Taste, not overly earthy as with some Pu-erh’s. The tea opened up to a very balanced flavor after a few steepings. Definitely look forward to continuing to steep this tea.

Bought this as part of my most recent WP order… it was one I just added on a whim because I wasn’t sure if Keemun was my thing. I’ve had some before that was a bit too smoky for my personal tastes.

The Hobbit in me made sure I ordered it to try, despite my initial reservations.

Am I the owner of a very refined pallet? No, I am not. However, I really enjoyed this tea. I could tell upon first sniff that it was going to be one of those juicy sort of fruity black teas, and I was totally right.

I enjoyed this as my “Second Breakfast” today, it was very satisfying. I had coffee first thing in the morning, and I had brought this to work to make sure I could try it asap. I wasn’t disappointed. It had bready notes and a slight maltiness to compliment all the juicy mouth watering flavor.

I wouldn’t call it a chocolatey tea, personally, but that’s ok by me, because I wouldn’t want a chocolatey tea for breakfast anyway.

Not regretting my inner Hobbit’s decision to order this tea :)

Sad, sad sipdown. (101)
This tea is amaze.
Expensive, but amaze.
It’s 17.25/oz USD, which means that it’s a little over $21 CDN PER OZ. /0\

It was a great tea, but I don’t think I can ever justify buying more of it, unless my financial situation changes!

I was saving this for when I’m actually sick, but… couldn’t wait, apparently. :) I was craving something with ginger, because my stomach is a bit off. And I just found out the nurse I had as a roommate last week did in fact have influenza, so I figure my immune system can use all the help it can get! The dry tisane is colourful and cool-looking, with the all the elderberries and safflower petals. Brewed it smells… kind of medicinal, but not in an artificial way. The flavour is actually really nice – lots of flavour ane warmth from the ginger, which I was hoping for, but also some sweetness and acidity from the berries, and just a hint of eucalyptus in the aroma. I’m planning to try for another infusion, and add honey to that one, though it’s perfectly pleasant to drink with nothing added. And it’s probably placebo effect, but my stomach feels better already. :)

Update: yeah, it’s really yummy with a generous spoonful of honey added. :)

I was going to review this tea a few days ago but never got around to it. Today, though I have time to sit down and think about what I need to say about this tea. If you are in a hurry and do not wish to read on, here is the abridged version; this tea is a marvel.

I opened the packaged and stuck my gigantic nose in; cherries, chocolate and vanilla strike me as the most dominant scents. I first brewed it according to the instructions provided, but then decided that this needed to be enjoyed gong-fu style. This way you really do get to appreciate the fine quality of this tea. Each subsequent infusion provides your palette with a new experience. It’s a taste teeter-totter where the cherry and the chocolate compete for first and second place on your tongue. The first few infusions you get chocolate, nice decadent dark chocolate, and then cherry. But as you get into the second, third and fourth infusion the cherry starts to dominate. I am starting to think that the cherry flavour is actually from the Tahitian vanilla beans. Though this tea has now informed my brain what flavour I was tasting in the wild mountain black. It was cherry! Anyway Brendan has really, really shown himself to be an adept tea blender. Picking very good ingredients, and then blending these guilefully in such a way to produce such complexity of flavour. It’s a wonderful thing. And something we aspire towards. Though on the flip side, it’s really hard to fuck things up when your ingredients are epic to begin with. So I don’t know if I’m impressed by the ability to source ingredients, to blend, or to conceptualize then implement.

The only down side to this tea is that it is expensive. But like a fine single malt scotch, teas such as these should be savoured. I know as well as anyone how expensive some of these teas can get. Not to mention that vanilla is the second most expensive spice in the world, with Tahitian vanilla being some of the more expensive varieties. I don’t think this tea can be achieved at a lower cost though. It would be difficult. But with amount of infusions you can get from this tea, and the enjoyment one receives from consuming such a work, it’s worth it!

Today our order from Whispering pine arrived. So we stopped everything we were doing because we just had to try those teas immediately. We originally discovered this company when we came up with what we at the time thought was the original idea of chopping vanilla beans into chocolatey flavoured Chinese black tea. We wanted to see if anyone else had done this. How naive we were. Anyway, as soon as I open the bag I’m struck by the sweet sweet smell of milk chocolate. Delicious, delicious chocolate. The scent of chocolate is very strong, and the vanilla is very heady. You can really tell that WP has used very good quality materials to build this tea. I followed the instructions stamped upon the front of the package. The smell was strongly chocolate, the taste was chocolate and vanilla. This tea does not disappoint at all. It has lived up to its hype. Cocoa amore is even better. I’ll review that one tomorrow. But this tea, I’m currently drinking gong-fu style, is good for multiple infusions, with little degradation in the flavour.

This was a yummy treat! It definitely has rich chocolate flavor without being sweet or cloying. To my palate, it was not overly complex, but it was still delicious and I will enjoy it immensely.

Sipdown (133)!

Happy to have this one out of my cupboard.

Finished this one off iced which was definitely not the best style of preparation for my personal tastes because it brought out both the natural smoke notes of the tea and, more importantly, a lot of raisin-notes.

I wont be repurchasing this one; I’m 100% sure on that. However that’s just because I’ve learned, through this tea and others, that I’m just not a big lover of Keemun in general. I do think this is probably the best I’ve tried so far though; and I did find at least one prep method that produced a really good brew for me; cold brewing! But why stock something you’re not a big fan of?

New tattoo has started the itchy phase of healing…

Someone shoot me; this is gonna be a bitch. In an attempt to keep from scratching at my very itchy leg I’m drinking tea while scratching pretty well everything else I can. It’s sort of working. Kind of. Maybe not so much…

I’m nearly done this; this’ll be my penultimate cup of it. I made it with a little bit of milk and hot and I’m actually finding it quite nice. For whatever reason the raisin notes I normally dislike aren’t that apparent and the creamyness of the milk with the natural malt and smokey notes of the keemun are really pleasant. The finish reminds me of a darker rye. Delicious!

Even better than this being my second last cup, I was finally able to move the last little bit into a sample bag and clean the tin out to put something else in it! I’ve got so many weird assorted bags of black tea in my cupboard right now that I want to move into tins, and I finally got to kind of do that! One step closer to a more organized cupboard.

I cold brewed this one for work today. Like I’ve mentioned it’s been a bit of a drizzly, dreary day with lots of rain and for whatever reason that made this so, so much better; in general I think it makes all cups of tea just a bit better. And in all honesty, I’m not even entirely sure of what the tea tasted like; I think like cocoa, raisin, and maybe a bit of smoke? I totally wasn’t paying attention to the flavour – I was just really, really enjoying the way I felt while drinking it and the atmosphere around me.

If you haven’t clued in, I really really love the rain. My favourite smell out of all smells is petrichor (the smell of the earth after it rains) and there’s something immensely pleasant and comforting about the sound of rain hitting the ground. It makes me feel so insanely at home and at ease. I wish I could drink all my tea during a heavy rainfall…

Non tea related, I got a haircut!

The last time I had a haircut was just shy of two years ago; and I had it cut down to a few inches long. In those two years it’s grown to roughly boob length? It’s been driving me crazy for a weeks and weeks though; I kept finding hairs in really weird spots and I was going through more shampoo/conditioner than I ever have before. I just HATED it…

So, I shaved it all off tonight. Literally, all of it. My head is so shaved down now that I just feel skin. Basically I took a pair of scissors and cut it down to about a few choppy, uneven inches long and then I had Tre buzz it all down with his razor/clipper. At one point my landlord walked downstairs to use the laundry room, saw this mid shave and just halted mid stride with a look of terror/panic on his face. After it was all buzzed I just took a razor and some shaving cream and got it as clean and close to the scalp as I could. It definitely looks and feels really different. Makes me look like a total bad ass. I can’t wait to accessorize with giant earrings.

My coworkers are gonna flip tomorrow though.

Cold Brew!

I cold brewed this one 100% to burn through the leaf quicker, because I thought I’d done enough experimentation to know pretty definitively that Keemun in general is not for me. Nothing against this tea in particular though.

But actually, I thought that this cold brew was an overwhelming improvement upon the hot version of this one; it’s like raisin infused rye bread and still has the smokey aspects that it did hot. Overall, it’s also a lot sweeter. I don’t know why this works so much better for me cold than it did hot though; it’s essentially just a redistribution of the same flavor notes. It was a nice discovery though! Now when I make this one cold brewed it’ll be 50% to burn through leaf faster and 50% for the taste.