Whispering Pines Tea Company

nope. still don’t like this tea even with the newer version. The ingredients just don’t seem to blend well for me, and it becomes mostly a lapsang tea….which i like, but then what’s the need for everything else in it :)

meh. not terrible, not enough to make me want more, glad i tried it. still hate steepster.

noms. Back for a cup, i still love this blend. It reminds me of parks department from bellocq but i’m not sure if that’s a reality or just my memory playing tricks on me. I’d pick this one up again in a heart beat from WP except that it drives me INSANE that any time i go to place an order there are maybe 2 teas in stock that i want, and if i have to pay shipping, it essentially means the teas are 5$ more – and that’s hard to justify. Just once i’d love to be able to place an order with all the teas in stock.

…and that ends this tea in my cupboard for now… I’ll be picking up more of this though as i REALLY like it in the cooler weather. Something about the blend of the needles and the berries just works for me. I also like getting a few steepings out of the brew without it going tasteless.

Final Count: 74 (which is great since i have about 15 teas incoming through swaps and a couple orders….though i’m not likely to see the bulk of them until the end of november. )

backlog from last night :) I’m almost done this one, so it appears that i likely should have ordered 3-4 ounces lol I really like this one as an evening tea, especially when it’s cold outside. it reminds me of being up north in the winter. so tasty.

started my morning off with this one even though it’s a herbal. Because it was what i wanted, and i figure i can resteep it tonight when i get home.

ok so THIS is what i wanted sleeping bear to be (minus the elderberries). I’ve had this one before via samples, but there’s something to be said about a brand new unsealed package. This was good through several steeps this morning – i’ll likely need to order more when this is finished up. :)

again… stupid steepster.

this tea was tasty, and surprisingly so as i didn’t expect to enjoy it. thanks terr i for the samples! since i’m not sure how long i’ll actually be able to do anything in steepster!

dear steepster. I’m so fed up with you. really hard to track what i thought about new teas if you’re always down, unusable. I could write it down on paper, and transfer it later but that’s twice the work, and at that point i might as well just switch over to paper. But then, what’s the point? since half the fun is the interaction with the people. reading notes, being able to respond to them….looking up new teas, adding teas to my cupboard etc. 85% of the time, none of that works.

frustratedly yours,

Sil

This tea is exquisite. I’ve had it several times since I first received it in the mail a few weeks ago. And I keep returning to it, which is pretty astonishing, considering the amount of teas in my cupboard. The black tea in Golden Orchid is rich and smooth and chocolatey. Even the aftertaste reminds me of cocoa powder. Add the indulgence of sweet vanilla on top of that (and not vanilla flavoring, but hand-cut vanilla beans!) and this tea is practically a dessert. Actually, it’s better than dessert, because it’s tea! It lives up to the hype of the reviews here, which is probably the highest compliment I can give.

I mostly tasted spice and a hint of cocoa. I would love to be able to find the graham cracker that is supposed to be in here. I’ll work on finding that next time and wait to rate it because I also think I oversteeped this just a tad. I prefer Golden Orchid so far from my tastings of Whispering Pines. This was another sample from Ost from when I ordered from her :)

This is such a cozy tea! I love the base blend, December, and this blend has cinnamon and marshmallow root added to it. I’ve been on the lookout for a tea that tastes like s’mores for a while. This blend really does remind me of making s’mores around a campfire—not just the dessert, but the whole experience of it, with the smoke and the toasty warmth of the flames and the cool night air. The aroma is spicy and smoky, with hints of rich chocolate beneath it. The taste is even more complex; the cinnamon is certainly prominent, but I also taste cocoa and the smoke of the fire. The marshmallow root adds a subtle sweetness. The taste changes a lot depending on how I sip it, so I notice different notes each time.

Drinking a cup of this tea really is like an experience. It makes me feel bundling up in a coat and scarf and heading into the woods (which would be kind of odd, since I live in a desert where it’s eighty-plus degrees out right now). I have to admit, I think I actually prefer December to S’mores!… Just because I love December’s rich cocoa notes so much, and they’re a bit overshadowed by the cinnamon here. But this is a lovely tea that I will enjoy drinking, especially once the weather starts to cool down. It lived up to my hopes, for a blend that could make me nostalgic for the whole s’more-making experience. I’d recommend it to anyone searching for the same.

I ordered December as part of my first purchase from Whispering Pines Tea Company. And wow, I’m impressed! I enjoy smoky teas, as well as teas with chocolate notes. This blend has both, and as I might have expected, it’s delicious.

In the bag, the dry leaves have a strong smoky scent. When steeped, the smoke gets softer, with just a hint of sweetness behind it. Judging by the aroma, I thought the tea would taste smoky, with hints of chocolate. But I was wrong! When sipped, December is almost all chocolate notes, coupled with the smooth malty flavor of a high-quality black tea. The chocolate note is definitely dark chocolate, and the smoke is still there, but it’s mostly a subtle aftertaste. This tea holds up well to resteeping. On the second cup, I still get strong notes of chocolate, along with a little smoke. The third cup is lighter, with an almost mineral taste and hints of cocoa.

For the past year, I’ve been searching for a light smoky tea that doesn’t taste like a campfire. (I kind of like that ashy flavor, but I have to be in the right mood for it!) With December, I’ve found the perfect smoky blend for me. It’s a black tea, first and foremost: malty and smooth as silk. And while it doesn’t have any added chocolate flavoring, it has surprisingly strong cocoa notes. Basically, it’s a blend for tea lovers who are also chocolate lovers. The subtle smokiness makes it perfect for fall, too! I’m sure I’ll be forced to restock, on the unhappy day when I run out. (And thank you, fellow Steepster users, for alerting me to Whispering Pines Tea Company, and introducing me to this amazing blend.)

This was tasty with a lot of fermentation flavor to it. I only had one of these and either I wasn’t using enough tea ( I used the whole thing) or it is a fairly weak tea. I only got four good steeps out of it no matter how much time I gave it. I steeped it in all about seven times. The four times where I got tea of relatively good strength were good. The last three were weak. I would probably have noticed some nice notes to the first four steeps but I admit I was not paying attention as I was watching Haven.

I brewed this in a 130ml Yixing teapot with boiling water and one mini tuocha, about 3g. I steeped it for 15 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 30 sec, 1 min, 5 min, and 10 min.

This sample came from mj. Another vanilla dreams tea to try! Now, I’m not generally a fan of green oolong, but I still wanted to try this one since vanilla is my favorite flavor. The oolong pellets are a dark green/yellow and medium in size. There are also roasted cedar leaves mixed in. Dry scent is very sweet with pear and floral notes, and a smidge of vanilla. I steeped it for 3 minutes in 190 degree water.

Brewed aroma kind of reminded me of a wet dog… HAH. Once I got past that it was strong floral and pears. Hmm… I’m kind of underwhelmed by this one based on the amount of hype it’s gotten and its high rating. It mostly just tastes like the usual green oolong to me – very lightly vegetal, mineral notes, peach, floral, etc. I don’t really pick up on a ton of vanilla, maybe a little bit. The cedar leaves give it a nice roasty aftertaste. So overall, it’s good, but I don’t love it.

My first tea of the day, and the last of samples (mj) sent me. The dry leaves smell pretty foresty. After I brew, I get some more floral scents. There is a tangy, and kinda creamy flavour. Not really what I was excepting, but good on a rainy afternoon.

I recently purchased a set of samples from Whispering Pines which included North Wind and this one. I wanted to compare the base tea to the vanilla version. I have to say, this tea is pretty fantastic with vanilla beans added. You can’t go wrong with vanilla. Not getting the decadent fudge people are describing but it is good.

I feel inspired to add vanilla beans to all my teas. I had requested a pound of beans for a birthday 2 years ago and I still haven’t used them all even though I made a half gallon of vanilla extract. I’ve cut down on dessert foods lately so I guess tea is the best place for these beans now. It doesn’t take much vanilla bean to flavor a tea. I could probably do a bean or two for a pound worth of North Wind. :D Or add some to Laoshan Black. :D Plus cocoa nibs. :D Or I could play around with WP’s Fujian Black since it’s a tasty cheaper tea that would take well to vanilla and cocoa.

Smell this tea before you brew it because it’s amazing. The aroma is what sets up your palette’s expectations. The actual taste is not quite as amazing as it smells, but is still pretty good. It has a smooth, general good black tea feel to it, with nothing that jumps out and surprises you. Good for drinking when you don’t know what kind of tea you feel like and just want something good. Add sugar to make it a wonderful dessert tea and bring out the amazing vanilla taste.