Whispering Pines Tea Company

This tea is not out yet, i just found out tonight. I’ve had a sample for a little while now but was sitting on it for god knows what reason. Well whatever the reason was, it was a good one cause i don’t think I could have had a better session than tonight with it. It was the perfect timing.

Granted I love pretty much all types of oolong, I drink it everyday. I seek quality though. Don’t want to drink anything generic.

So I was pretty excited to try this one cause Big Red Robe is a highly praised oolong. And I like BRR a lot usually.

Just the smell of the dry leaf is divine: baked goods, roasted chestnut and almond, sweet and velvety. However, the first thing I get in steep one is a strong floral mouthfeel. The tea is just waking up.

Then, it’s a party in the mouth. Honey, almond, and the unthinkable…toasted coconut. That nice almost milky sweetness you get from coconut flakes toasted in the oven. This is all very subjective of course, it doesn’t make this tea anywhere near a flavoured coconut oolong. It’s just reminiscent of it.

It’s complex but so easy to drink. Nice rock minerals develop, and it remains very sweet.

It gets very juicy and refreshing, like a bright citrusy and oaky white wine.

Thank you Brenden for this generous sample. This is fancy oolong. I’m happy I got to try it, and I love that I had plenty to make a very satisfying gongfu session!

Pic’s session:

http://instagram.com/p/reDT6zwh0W/

After midnight, Lance is in bed sleeping and I’m awake in the tearoom, my favorite room. Tomorrow is an off day for us so I can stay up late as I want and with Tea in my mug, a furbaby at my feet and a notebook full of eBooks on my lap, I’m all set to read and sip for a while tonight.

With all the lights off except for my reading lamp and the radio off everything is nice
and quite, there no sounds at all in the tearoom except for rhythmic tick-tock of the
clock on the wall and the spontaneous snoring of the doggy, I can hear the sounds of
The crickets and the frogs outside.

A perfect atmosphere for sipping and reading, I’m sipping on Rivendell so I probably should have downloaded a LOTR book but I’m still reading Piers Anthony “If I Pay Thee Not In Gold”.
I think I’m going love this tea, it smells pretty good and I took a few tasty sips already,
it’s going to be nice for reading and relaxing.

I’m going read a bit and sip my tea and soak in some of this peace and quiet with out typing up tasting notes just yet, I will do it a proper review soon but for now I’m just going enjoy this.

Good night Steepster folks :)

This was my first experience with shu. Holy Monkeys. I’ve tried one sheng too and it seems like I am way more of a fan of shu (shou? Is there a difference? This is the level of knowledge I’m starting with). First, I followed this handy dandy guide written by Brenden of Whispering Pines and it worked for me really well.
www.lifethroughthepines.blogspot.com/2014/07/gongfu-style-for-medium-shu.html

I have to be honest, when I first smelled this tea I was very apprehensive. It does smell a little barnyard-y when you brew it, but kind of a pleasant barnyard smell that reminds me of horses. I was slightly taken aback by my first sip just because I had never tasted anything even remotely like it before. However, the more I sipped the more I adjusted and the more I liked it. To me this tea is just LEATHER in a major way, which happens to be one of my favorite scents. There’s also a somewhat mossy note in there. There’s a lightly sweet finish with the cooling effect of camphor. That sounds like a weird combination. It IS a weird combination, but I freaking like it. The later infusions became smoother and sweeter and I legitimately felt high….not that I’d know anything about that of course 0:-). It definitely gave me a heady, buzzed feeling. There was happiness and giggles (by myself, like a crazy person). It felt too fun to be legal haha

I also sipped on this tea today while I was crocheting a cute monster beanie for my nephew’s first birthday. And I finished it, woot!
As a PSA, I thought I’d mention that this tea is perfect for sipping while crafting because the more it cools, the better it tastes!
For details, see my previous review :)

This tea is so totally second breakfast it’s not even funny. As soon as I tasted it, I was like “yep, Shire!”. The Shire magic comes from thin, wiry, and dark leaves that are medium length. When brewed, they smell almost like a yunnan black to me and they yield a pretty, cedar-y colored liquor.
At first steep, the flavors were huge helpings of malt and bread with cocoa. The tea is on the fuller-bodied side of the spectrum but definitely lighter than traditional breakfast blend. However, I recommend that you let your tea cool some (if you can!). Once the tea starts cooling, delicious flavors start emerging from their hobbit holes :). First came honey, bringing its friend butter along! Always a welcome addition in my book. Once it cooled a little more, a wildflower infused breeze joined in at the end. Just lovely. The tea was almost room temperature by the time I got to the last sip or two and all of a sudden BAM cherries popped out right in the middle of the sip. I wish I had more left at that point! This tea totally reflects hobbits: quiet and unassuming with a charming homespun quality up front , but revealing surprising depth upon closer examination.

In honor of Brendens new shipping policy, I’m having a cup of this.

Confession time. I’ve had this before and was left feeling… Uninspired. I didn’t write a note because based on the cult following that GO has, I was expecting to want to get this tattooed on my chest and to name my first born after it. When I didn’t feel the need to do either of those, my first thought was I did something wrong. So I gave it some time, and vowed to try again.

Determined to get the best cup, I used about 1-1.5 tablespoons, and steeped for just under 2 minutes, in a sort of gongfu style. I don’t know if the change of style had an effect, but taking a sip, I think I finally understand what the issue was: I had it a month ago when I first decided to try black teas, and one my palate wasn’t as refined, and two I wasn’t fond of malt yet at that point (now I totally dig it). The front of the sip is lots of malt and cocoa, and a thick mouth feel that together reminds me of good dark fudge. Mmm. The mid sip is smooth creamy vanilla with the fudge, and a dark cherry note also comes out. Like I’m eating cherries and then eating decadent fudge.

There’s little vanilla bean seeds at the bottom of my cup. Is it weird that I find them cute? I don’t know how I missed the cocoa the first time I tried this, it’s so prevalent.

OH
MY
GOODNESS!!!!!!

100 tasty tea points for this one on steepster lol

Thank you TeaTiff for sending some of this one! This tea basically inspired a swap. :D Well, the first cup of this was the last tea brewed by my old kettle, the second steep I had to heat the water with the microwave. Ick. Though I don’t have much money right now, I can’t go without my tea and I already knew which kettle I was buying possibly even years before this one broke. I’m getting a Bodum Bistro 34 ounce electric kettle. Hopefully this one works as long as the other one did!

On to the tea… I’m not sure if maybe the kettle died halfway through boiling because the first steep was pretty light. I used a teaspoon and a half and I DID wait eight minutes for the water to cool… maybe it was my fault. Though the flavor that was there is everything that I think a keemun is. Still so so light! With the second steep, I made sure to use boiled (microwave) water and I also added the teaspoon or so left of my sample to the leaves. It seemed like a ton of leaves but after a six minute steep, the flavor is great. It reminds me of an older harvest of Teavivre’s Premium Hao Ya which I thought of as my favorite keemun…. I just worry about the amount of leaves that must be used to get to that flavor. But I was actually surprised that there wasn’t an oversteeped flavor with six minutes. I think it is what the first steep should have been. Again, could have been the last death throes of my kettle. I certainly won’t be drinking my favorite or highest quality teas when I don’t know what I’m doing with this microwaved water! Sipdowns of some not-favorites will be happening! Hurry up and get here tea kettle!
Steep #1 // 8 min after boiling // 4 min steep (1 1/2 tsp of leaves)
Steep #2 // just boiled // 6 min (1 more tsp added)

OMG y’all. This tea is GOOD. No, GREAT. No, DELECTABLE! I was blown away despite the fact I was already expecting amazing things from Whispering Pines, obviously.

The leaves are dark green and tightly rolled, interspersed with cedar. So pretty! See?
http://instagram.com/p/rYOQWDqmzS/
Don’t fault the tea for my lack of instagramming skills. I’ve had an account for like 2 days.

The smell of the dry leaves is divine! I could not stop sticking my face in the bag for another whiff. It smells like a berry, but not one that is actually a real berry, wrapped in cream and vanilla. It brews up a light yellow green. The first steep tasted of sweet fictional berry (this is not a bad thing- trust me) and these berries come to you on a cushion of vanilla, cream, and butter. This is followed by a rush of pure, slightly mineral, spring water. This is what Rivendell water would taste like! The sip finishes with buttery toffee rolling in on a smooth, silky mouthfeel.

This tea has a lot to give, and I went for a second and third steep. I stopped because it was late and I need to sleep tonight. The 2nd infusion brought a more intense creamy vanilla berry element that replaced the buttery toffee finish. The third infusion had more cedar coming through, just peeking past the creamy berry goodness and a stronger pure mineral water finish.

This tea is my new precious. It’s a must buy!

These tea leaves smell incredible. Sadly, I found the taste of the brew was extremely weak. I followed the directions of brewing 1/2 tbsp @ 212F for 5mins. I even tried it the second time with extra tea and more brew time. Still, watery tasting. Perhaps I got a bad batch or something? I may give this another try in the future, but for now I cannot recommend it.

Je t’aime Cocoa Amore! (I know I know I’m mixing my French and Italian)

The smell of juicy sweet plump cherries wafts up from this tea upon opening the bag followed by rich sweet chocolate.

I drank this after several steeps of GO and was nervous about expanding into the full world of Vanilla Dreams? What if I’d built it up in my mind? What if GO was a one off fluke and I just bought all this tea that wouldn’t live up to the promise Golden Orchid made me?

But my Amore, she did not disappoint. In fact… * gasp * I may indeed like her even better than GO. She is even more intense and passionate. Like a sexy flamenco dancer dressed in vibrant red.

I drank 4 infusions of CA and though it morphed and evolved it never got weak. Those luscious chocolate cherries. I had my last cup over 4 hours ago and it’s flavor is fresh in my mind. In all her desserty glory it never forgets that she is first and for most a tea. The chocolate and cherry rises organically from the tea, enhancing it not masking it.

I’m already in bed, ready to go to sleep but I want to go make another cup of this so badly. It’s going to take a lot of self restraint to stay in bed and not wander into the kitchen in the middle of the night.

Wow. Just wow.

Thank you steepster for introducing me to so many amazing teas.

Thanks Cameron B for letting me try the non-rooibos version of this tea.

I actually drank this one yesterday but was too lazy to log it at the time. SO MUCH BETTER WITHOUT THE ROOIBOS! Very yummy actually :D

I sometimes sweeten teas when I’m at home, so I tried it that way. Very s’mores a licious. heh. I actually quite enjoyed the smokey element.

Ohhhhh, that explains it. I finally tried this one over the weekend. I didn’t know what it was but that something in the blend didn’t agree with me. It is icky icky rooibos! My archnemesis!!! Sorry Marzipan and thanks for the sample. I’ve got a couple of cups left, if anyone would like them.

Thanks Cameron B for the sample. The wet leaf of this smells similar to the smell I get from puerhs (pond water, but I’m starting to think that what I think of as pond water, y’all call wet earth, and I can accept that). There’s also a cocoa note hidden in there.

I’m almost positive that this is my first Keemun. I’m very happy to report that I didn’t detect any smoke. I did sweeten it so that might have contributed to it, but either way I’m not a smoke fan so I’m glad I don’t taste any. What I get is chocolate and bread and malt. I just can’t get over how much I like black teas. I thought I hated them, but I was so wrong. Never judge a book by its cover, and never judge a tea genre on its cheap bagged tea dust. I don’t know if it’s just because black teas are still “new” to me, but I think they’re becoming my favorite tea.

As you may know by now, I love taking tea and nature photos. I’m just a casual photographer with no special skills, but I like to capture life’s unexpected blissful moments. One morning this week, I checked out my window and this is what I saw:

http://instagram.com/p/rHsiYJQh_C/

The beauty in this world…simple pleasures, big rewards…such as this tea.

It’s delicate and yet so powerful. When you drink it, you are taken by its beauty.

I brewed it Laoshan Style, in a tall glass. This is reminiscent of my beloved Sleeping Bear of course, the jasmine part.

It’s fresh and floral, but not overly perfumed. The name is just right…for being in the rain and by the river quite often in my neck of the woods, I can appreciate that.

It’s so sweet and a little nutty. It’s not very grassy or herbaceous for a green tea, a thing that might appeal to non green tea lovers.

The perfect afternoon companion, while Steepstering and reading a book…

So this is the second sample I got from Whispering Pines. The last one I had I kinda messed up on the measure so I figured I’d actually measure 1 1/2 tsp (1/2 tbsp) out so then I can have two regular mugs. Well, unfortunately the sample I got had barely 2 tsp in it so I just ended up making the whole sample again anyway. /sigh/ Oh well.
Taste wise I get fruity and kinda smoky, which is very nice. I also get a edge of bitterness which is probly from me using 2 ish tsp for my 12oz mug, but who knows.
I definitely like it better after adding a bit of truvia which tones down the bitterness.
In the end I might order some of this one day or if it’s on sale and I’m putting in an order anyway, but I don’t really feel the need to place an immediate order and hoard all. XD

Wowzers! This tea sure was delicious! This is hands down the best black tea that I’ve had up to this point. It just makes me feel all warm and cozy on the inside. Like many others state about this tea, it reminded me of baked bread and sweet potatoes. A year ago I would have been disconcerted if someone told me that their tea tasted like bread and potatoes. Now I’m like “mmmm bread-tea om nom nom”

I definitely plan on attaining more of the delicious nectars that are Whispering Pine teas!

Due to the fact that I generally don’t get home any earlier than about 7pm (11pm some days), I was in dire need of some non-caffeinated tea to drink before sleeping. This was my first tea from Whispering Pines, and I generally don’t drink blends. So this was unknown territory for me! Fortunately, it was a highly awesome experience! This tea was minty and sweet, but not overwhelming. It was comforting and refreshing! After enjoying this tea, I had no issues sleeping. I also credit this tea for curing my sour stomach which I had had all day, which immediately disappeared after drinking my cup. YAY MAGICAL TEA!!!

Hello Steepster, I am hoping to have more of a presence on here as I start to get back into tea, I went through my stash today and purged and made a list of teas that I need to either finish off or throw out due to them being far too ancient lol, so I am going to be on here hopefully updating my cupboard and logging tea. I was cataloging all my tea today until my tablet shut off haha so now it’s charging so I can’t access the document I was making lol. Ah well. Hoping to get my cupboard down to a much more manageable level before 2017, and with our upcoming trip to Japan, I need space for some Japanese teas haha, nothing too crazy but I’m definitely buying some when I am there!

Anyways, in the meantime I am having a cup of Second Breakfast in an attempt to finish off the bag, as I’ve been hoarding it for a long time. Amazingly this tea is still absolutely delicious, and I can see why I was hoarding it lol. Malty, bready, everything I like in a black tea! One day I might re-stock this if it is offered! Not quite a sipdown yet, probably 1 or 2 more cups left. See previous notes on this tea!

I am finally having a cup of this tea after craving it for a few days! :D so bready, malty, fruity, with mild honey notes. A perfect after-breakfast tea haha I love having this tea as an actual second breakfast! Enjoying this on this sunny autumn day while listening to a 60’s French Pop playlist on Songza :)

I plan to try a few of my Teavivre samples today and hopefully get the reviews up, and clean, and maybe read my book. But I’m off to a slow start after a night of going to sushi with friends then having them all over for tea and listening to classical music lol. Ah, I remember the days we would actually party on Fridays..last night 3 people fell asleep on the couch before midnight due to tea drinking and the soothing music LOL. I guess that’s what happens when you get older. :P anyways, see previous notes on this tea!