Whispering Pines Tea Company

Really delicious black tea. Loved the vanilla and chocolate notes in it. When I smell the dry leaves it smells like vanilla. When I smell the brewed tea it smells strongly of chocolate. Goes down really smooth. I taste no astringency. This would be a perfect tea to sip around the fireplace on a cold winter night.

I’m not a huge fan of jasmine, but wowser, is this a good tea! Most jasmine teas overdo it – I feel like I’m being assaulted with the flavor. This one is a solid green tea with jasmine very much present, but not overwhelming. I did six steeps in my gaiwan 20/15/20/30/45/90 at 180° and was not disappointed by any of them, though it was pretty faded by the last go-round. My wife and daughter really like jasmine pearls, so I’ll be interested to see how they react to this one.

Lewis & Clark TTB #15

Deep tarry aroma. The initial taste reminds me of walking in damp woods, but underneath is a rich mix of tar and tobacco and wood. The finish is long, but not overly powerful. As the tea cools, I’m left with mostly just the damp woods.

There is a lot going on here, but it doesn’t seem well-integrated: just a mix of flavors that don’t coordinate all that well. I’m not that fond of the leafy/tarry taste, though some of the other flavors are appealing.

While I’m not excited about the tea, someone whose tastes are different from mine might really like it, since it does have several things going for it.

I received this sample from Cameron B. Thank you for sharing!

I have been in a huge chai mood lately. I have been making a huge mug of it whenever I am home at night. I blame it on the fall. I have been drinking a standard black masala chai. This is nice upgrade. The blend of spice to tea was pretty good, the spices seem to hold up to the addition of milk and the base shines through enough that I know that I am actually drinking tea. The base makes this a think mouthful with the milk that I added. I am really enjoying this mug. I have a few chai’s I have to finish up, but an ounce of this may show up on my next order depending on how long the chai cravings last.

Oooh I love the smokiness. It really does taste like the smell of a campfire, which is somehow an adventurous and yet comforting flavor. The rooibos is not at all overpowering – it just melts into the background, and the aroma of the tea is much stronger than it tastes. I really enjoy this and can see myself drinking it again and again – maybe even having some on barbecue nights!

This tea had a minty scent when I smelled the dry leaf, but upon brewing it it tasted like a smooth – yet pretty normal – black tea with sweet notes. I still like it though! I just didn’t find it to be what the aroma promised.

Thanks to Cheri for sending me two samples of this (I messed up the first one)

This has been steeping in the refrigerator since yesterday and man, is it MINTY! I have to say I wasn’t expecting so much mint and it really overwhelms the other ingredients for me. I do get a bit of the cinnamon and the oolong but mostly I get mint. This is refreshing when it’s cold but I don’t think I will be buying it. I’m glad I got to try it but I don’t think it’s destined to be a favorite.

Thanks again Cheri!

From Lewis & Clark TTB #11

This is lighter than most of the premium Keemuns I usually drink. It’s a nice, elegant tea with mostly smoky flavors, but with hints of chocolate and herbs underneath. Decent finish. Not bad but not exciting.

I am getting this flavor better today than the last time I tasted this tea. My taste buds were just off. However, I still don’t like it as much as I thought I would. Perhaps I just expected too much from a tea called Smores. I get an undercurrent of chocolate and the flavor of marshmallows. I can even taste the cinnamon. I don’t really taste the rooibos in here. I was expecting something more chocolaty but it is good. I am not tasting the sour notes I was getting last time anyway. We underestimate how much our own taste buds effect the taste of our teas. I have bought teas that tasted incredible the first time I drank them, then gone back to them later to find the just bleh, and this one was puerh so it hadn’t gone stale. This time I did enjoy this tea.

I brewed this tea once in an 18oz teapot with 200 degree water and 3 tsp leaf for 3 min.

I am just having an off day with tea. This tea should taste incredible to me but it doesn’t. I believe my taste buds are just off so I will avoid giving this one a rating until they are back to normal. Logic suggests I should taste the chocolate but all I taste is sour.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with 3 tsp leaf and 200 degree water for 5 min.

I got this tea in a small swap with Frolic. Thank you!

I really, really liked it in the first few infusions. And then my love for this tea faded. I followed Brenden’s recommendations.

I do think this is a lovely tea. The vanilla and cedar add something great to a good quality Tieguanyin. But I kind of wish I could taste the Tieguanyin on its own.

I’m really glad I got to try it, and I’ve got enough left for one more mug, but I don’t think I’ll be buying this.

I am at a loss for how to describe this tea. It is spicy and the cinnamon seems to be in the forefront. There is also a sweet background flavor that I presume comes from the Elder Berries. I picked this one tonight because it is another night avoiding caffeine. This tea reminds me of a chai, it is that sort of spicy although it doesn’t have the traditional chai spices. It is good, I just don’t know how to describe it.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with 3 tsp leaf and 205 degree water for 5 min.

Lewis & Clark #2

I need to start this review by stating that I didn’t follow the vendor’s steeping instructions. They call for a tablespoon of tea per cup and pre-packaged the sample into 4.5 gram packets. I decided to follow my usual steeping approach for black tea, which is 1.5 grams for a 6 ounce pot. It seems unfair to compare a pot that is three times as strong as the competition, especially when one of the selling points of the tea is its strength.

The nose was rich and powerful. Earthy notes dominated. The taste was dominated by what I call “forest floor”: a sort of damp woodsy taste, which I’m not overly fond of. I occasionally spotted a hint of fruit or chocolate, but for the most part don’t see all the flavors in the website description. The finish is good, but somewhat short.

I actually saved a bit of this one from MzPriss’ Unflavored Teabox a while back. It’s very high up there in the Steepster ratings. The dark spooky tree branch leaves have a light sweet chocolate flavor. To me, it’s like the Laoshan Black type, which I guess is what Chinese black teas are like… so I really should stop comparing them all to Laoshan Black. I’ve had a few of their kind now. This one is too light of flavor for me, but maybe it was my method of steeping. Though I’m growing to love these types of teas more, they aren’t my favorite yet, and that is okay. I can’t love them all!

this is a generous sample from DeliriumsFrogs – thank you so much.
Omg this is delicious tea.
made western 3g 8oz 205F. Its rich brownie type tea with some longan/plum notes and caramel. Its amazing blend without any flavoring added.

i really like it and it goes straight to my wishlist for Whispering Pines. Thank you Brenden for creating this blend!

http://instagram.com/p/tskwLahwiW/

Loved the smell of the dry leaves on this one. Delicious tea…malty and no bitterness. No astringency either which gets high points from me for that. I’m sipping this, but I don’t know how people got all those different tastes from it? Chocolate…maybe a hint. Bread? I can’t taste it. So delicious though…very smooth and goes down easy. I think I could drink this all day since it is so smooth.

This is excellent sweet puerh with a fair amount of fermentation flavor left. It is thick with notes of cocoa and dates. The fact that it has dates notes is interesting to me as these usually develop in aged ripe puerh but this seems to have them. Perhaps my adding a small amount of sugar brought them out but I think they were there none the less. I think I want to pick up 4 more ounces of this so I have some to age. I don’t know how long this will be in stock.

I brewed this three times in a 12 oz teapot with 9.2g leaf and boiling water. I gave each infusion 30 seconds. I do not use long steeps when I brew this way, I use more of a hybrid method with puerh, using short steeps and a larger, non gongfu, teapot. I find the brewing puerh for 3 minutes is unnecessary unless you are using a much smaller amount of tea when you brew.

This is an excellent, sweet puerh with a fair amount of fermentation flavor left. It is pretty good. We will see if it lasts long enough to age a bit.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with boiling water and 8.4g leaf for 30 sec.

smooth, naturally sweet and delicious, with a heavenly aroma. I also love that I can get a few cups (resteep) out of the same leaves.

Another sipdown, courtesy of *Sil!

Thanks for teasing me with a cup of this delicious tea. I’ll try to get as many resteeps as I can out if it, and then pretend it doesn’t exist since I won’t be making any US order for a while. :P

Damn you, Canadian Dollar!