Whispering Pines Tea Company

For the past week I have been having themed tea days. Today is Whispering Pines day! I think I will adjust my schedule though, and have more of an event that will go until I have had each of the teas from that collection. The whole point of doing this was to make myself revisit teas in my collection, but I am finding that I don’t get to visit as many as I had planned. So, I’ll start that today.

This was the first pick on Whispering Pines day, and this tea is just. So. Good. I don’t have anything to say about it other than what I have said before, but having it today makes me wonder why it’s not totally gone – it’s so good.

Allow me a tiny first world whine. I only had one cup of tea yesterday!
/whine off

But I saved the leaves in the fridge and resteeped this today. So all is good.

We had fun yesterday, went to that board game tournament and met some new people. It was quite fun/exhausting since we are both pretty introverted. Plus, it was freaking hot outside. By the time we got home we were both so hot and tired that hot tea sounded like torture, so I had a cold Sprecher cream soda instead. Ahhhh.

Today we are going to another board game thing that I found on meet up, and I get to see Stephanie for a quick tea drop (and I get to meet her dog!)

Then it’s supposed to storm so we’ll be home and I will be in my comfy chair.

And tomorrow we are getting a new roof put on.

Tea of the morning. Nom nom nom. We are off to a Ticket to Ride tournament because we are geeks. Have a good Saturday!

I live in what is weather-wise, sort of the armpit of hell. For much of the summer it’s close to 100 degrees with 100% humidity. It’s during those times that the TV warns people not to go outside due to the heat index, and we hear of people dying due to no a/c. I remember some of our Danish family sort of pooh-poohed the weather (how bad can it be?) and then then came here in July. They tried to walk to the end of our street and my brother-in-law almost stroked out because he was so hot. Amateurs!

So today it’s July 15th, and the temperature outside is 66! It’s so unusual, and so wonderful! We have the windows open and I am just thoroughly enjoying it. I don’t even mind so much my weather induced headache.

Oh yeah, tea! My first cup of tea this morning was a sample I was sent to evaluate, and it was a little disappointing. So I really didn’t want to gamble with the second cup, and I’m having this. I think I am getting a little tea spoiled, because I have so many awesome ones here by now and I am turning my nose up at the more pedestrian ones. It’s nice to be moving out of the “must try all the teas” phase though.

Sometimes the teas with Asian names are hard for me to remember. I almost wish there was a subtitle like “sparkle pony” but instead I’m just trying to rewire my brain to remember them as is. I just spent five minutes searching for this under L.

Anyway, because I am a very bad girl, I had a cup of this at 7:30 last night. Then I noticed that it said “high caffeine” on the website and I still thumbed my nose at the world and drank that sucker anyway. Because I can. And damn, it was good.

Weird how it looks like there’s cocoa in there, that dust in the bag, isn’t it? I think it’s magic dust. I’m going with that.

So anyway, I learned that for me, a cup of Elder Grove will still put me to sleep after a cup of high caf tea, so this might be a dangerous new habit.

Good morning, my little tea lovelies!!!

I am drinking this beautiful tea with my breakfast this morning! I was asleep by 10:30pm or so last night and the dogs and Chairman Meow let me sleep til 7:45! Wooo! I am ready to face the day!

Brian and I are going for a hike to pick wineberries which I will use to make wineberry wine, an amazing treat. It turns a beautiful dark fuchsia when done. We are down to only one bottle from last year’s batch. Time to make more!

I love the gentle jolt this tea provides, and it tastes really lovely with toast and butter. Or pancakes. Or french toast. You get the idea…

Have a wonderful day!!!! <3

Sunday morning yums!!!!

I made this in my new banko clay pot that was seasoned for unflavored black teas.

I’m working up some motivation for a hike, and today Brian & I will also be picking wild blueberries and huckleberries along the trail. The plan is to pick enough to make some wild blueberry huckleberry wine. Fingers crossed!!!!! Wheeeeeee!!!!!

Whispering Pines is going to be the death of me, but at least I’ll die a very happy, tea-drunk death.

Method: 1.5 tsp, 8 oz, 203 degrees, 3 minutes, French Press

Dry Leaf and Brewing Aroma: light malts and honey

Flavor: Why, WP, WHY?!?!? Every time I think I’ve found my favorite tea, I end up with another beauty. And then I have to go order some. This was a sample from MzPriss(HoneyBelle) and I was dying to try it after her glowing review.

This tea is just lovely. Really wonderful. It has a very mild, smooth feel. It’s naturally sweet, and very noticeably so. It has a light malt flavor, but then there are these juicy fruits on top of that! I’m really amazed at how good this is. This is going on my list of teas that I want to drink every day.

I had a wonderful evening last night with dinner at the Macaroni Grill and then some RiffTrax Live Sharknado! I woke up in a great mood and this tea just enhanced my morning. I’m starting to think that MzPriss may be a Tea Secret Agent, writing amazing reviews and then sending out samples to make me buy more tea! LOL. And her co-conspirator is TheTeaFairy!!!

In the gaiwan at 170. Quick rinse and a first steep at 1.5 minutes Nice and vegetal but quite mild. Second steep opens up and I’m getting a little of the juiciness with a little stonefruit. Third – the aroma is getting gorgeous and ok – I’m starting to get the white tea thing. There is a hint of grapey-ness that I love and lots of juice. The fourth steep is my favorite so far, more juicy fruit.

This is a revelation! Who knew I liked white tea this much? Clearly I need to spend more time with my gaiwan:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/125488674@N02/14626557522/

But that’s all I have time for this morning. Delicious!

I made this up chai latte style (1/2 cup milk 1/2 water boiled with the chai for a bit).

This was the exact warm creamy spicy decadence I needed for after dinner (Parmesan lemon tilapia, and herb and butter rice with peas and carrots, and salad).

I don’t get much cocoa from the base, but what I do get is perfectly balanced spices that are perfectly supported by the tea base and that stands up beautifully with the milk. This is one of the best chais I’ve ever had.

Oh, this is such a pretty tea!

From the look, I’m guessing this is a blend of beautiful Silver Needles and fuzzy Bai Mu Dan?
(I stand corrected by the Master himself : «This is not a blended tea at all, It’s a single-origin white dried under the moonlight») Good to know, it makes it even more special :-)

White juice at its best.

White teas often get a bad wrap for not being tasty enough.

Having them Gongfu style will make you change your mind. The tastes just explodes this way, as opposed to a mug brew.

This is so juicy.

Notes of melon and cucumber, some peach, sweet peas, and honey.

Right from the start, you get a buttery thickness and a fresh mouthfeel that intensifies afterwards. At fourth steep, I can’t believe how sweet this is.

The wet leaves smell like hay warmed by the son. I know exactly how that smells like, my Grandpa was a farmer.

It might be delicate, but it’s so tasty. Also, it makes a wonderful cold brew.

I love this tea, and I’m hoping it will still be available by the time I place a new order.

It’s a sunny and happy tea :-)

This is another tea I cold brewed last night and took to work. This one I drank on my break. I can’t recall if I’ve had this cold before. I poured it over ice and was rewarded with a jasmine floral forward notes with nutty creamy undertones and enough gentle vegetal notes to support it all. I don’t always crave a jasmine green tea, but when I do, this is my favorite. The perfect amount of floral, and the pine needles add that extra something that makes it so unique.

I must admit, the real reason I added this to my order is because bears are my favorite land animals. Not only are they strong, powerful, and fierce, but they’re also protecting and loving and so darn cute! Watching a little Florida black bear cub run by, it’s little booty bouncin’ in the air, is just about the only good thing about my mom living down a dirt road.

I came home with a severe migraine, probably one of the worst I ever had. Deafing ringing in my ears, lights blinding, explosive pounding at the base of my skull, the whole shebang. My boy friend wanted to take me to the hospital and I told him it wasn’t necessary and popped 5 ibuprofen, wrapped a flimsy pillow around my head from the nose up, and feel into a coma like sleep.

4 hours later, I’m feeling better, minus I slight earache, and I really want to dig in on my first Whispering Pines order, and this sounded like it was too fitting. I don’t think I ever had pins in a tea before, buts it’s very pretty and I must say it definitely works.

This is very smooth and sort of buttery. I also get jasmine, with a almost sharpness from the pine. I also agree with the notes spring rain and soft breeze, there’s something just so pure and refreshing about this tea.

So I was unsure about this tea, since I hadn’t had it since my order, which was a few weeks ago. I left it outside the cupboard with the rest of the “sip down” teas, planning to give it another try and see how I feel about it. So tonight I made a cup with a little bit less water than usual and added sugar and soy milk.

And it’s super yum, and a pretty mild amount of smoke. Totally going in the cupboard with the rest of the keepers! :) I think I would like to try this tea without the smoke and see how it comes out.

YAY WHISPERING PINES ORDER! I was getting upset when I thought it wouldn’t come today, but it turns out the mailman just felt like being FIVE HOURS LATE. Come on, man! But seriously, I wonder what happened there… Anyway, this was definitely the first tea to try! I’ve already tried half of the teas I’ve ordered thanks to Nicole and my badly-timed sample order. This tea is very outdoorsy-looking. There’s bark and fluffy white things in there! Clearly it is mountain man tea. It smells quite smoky, and I was surprised by the amount of cinnamon. There’s cocoa in there too, of course.

The smoke aroma is much milder in the brewed tea. And there’s definitely a burnt sugar element (hello, marshmallow!) along with cocoa and spice. The smoke is quite strong in the taste! It blends very nicely with the cinnamon and in turn it becomes sweeter and less harsh. I immediately pick up on the graham cracker in this, so much that I had to check and make sure there wasn’t a Yunnan tea in here. There’s a nice unsweetened cocoa note that stands in for the chocolate, and I get a light sweetness at the end of the sip that, combined with the smoke, could definitely be a charred marshmallow. The aftertaste is refreshing, cooling pine.

Overall, I do get how this is similar to a s’more. But it’s definitely a s’more with bittersweet chocolate and a charred marshmallow. And it needed a little touch of sugar to really connect for me. I can’t wait to try Pine Peak Keemun and then try to identify which teas are providing which flavors in this (obviously the smoke is from the lapsang, and I would assume the cocoa is the Fujian, but what about the graham cracker?).

My WPT package came in today and the first thing I did was open and smell EVERYTHING. I probably looked like a crazy person, huffing tea. I have a keen sense of smell and I swear I caught a buzz haha. After a moment’s deliberation this is the one I chose to try first.

It is smooth, smooth, silky smooth. It opens with notes of sweet vanilla and evergreen trees. There’s the gentle touch of warm spices, like a lover’s fingers on the back of your hand. It’s light and soothing; perfectly balanced. The texture of the liquid is velvety. After the spice I notice a buttery, honeyed flavor coming from the base tea. (I think the comparison to chocolate-filled croissants is appropriate here.) It’s like flaky, buttery croissants kissed by chocolate malt! It’s not an overwhelming flavor—it melds with everything else very nicely—but it washes over your tongue with honey, malt and baked goodness. Seriously, soooo good. I rushed to make another cup as soon as the first was empty. For me, resteep value is a good indicator of quality chai. (If the second steep of any tea doesn’t compare to the first, it seems a waste.)

Aaaand it’s still as good as the first cup! I’m in HEAVEN! Melting butter, stronger chocolate notes, vanilla and honey, spice still there! I love this! It’s wonderfully balanced. It’s everything I want, everything I need in a chai. This is perfection.

Brenden you are seriously awesome.

Trying out a sample of this, & I want to have more to say about it, but my sipping reverie was interrupted by a client dropping off a harp for restringing, & I lost my train of thought.
I adore both Fujian & Yunnan Blacks, so there isn’t even a chance of this tea NOT being a winner, since it combines the best of both worlds. Toasted honey wheat bread, molasses, chocolate, a lovely thick mouth… sigh…

Sipdown!

This is a nice enough tea. It has that je ne sais quoi herby spice note that reminds me of dill or something similar. I tend to find that flavor a lot in Fujian teas, and it makes this tea lean more toward savory for me. Other flavors include lots of bread and grain and maybe some cocoa and burnt sugar? Overall, tasty but not a reorder for me.

Under 100 once again! With two (three?) swaps incoming, derp. XD

Drinking a Whispering Pines tea this morning in celebration that my order will arrive today. Hooray! GOLDEN ORCHID, I WILL NOM YOU! Anyway, I was curious about this tea since it was described as being very chocolately, and I generally fail at tasting the cocoa in teas… We shall see. The leaves are very thin, dark, and twisty – they remind me of miniature Taiwanese Assam leaves. For some reason they smell like peanuts in the shell to me… There’s cocoa there too. Good sign!

The aroma has raisin and tobacco with an interesting spicy edge. I also get cocoa and honey scents. Hmm, this tea… There is definitely a spice note in here. At first it reminds me of fennel or anise, but there’s also a warming sensation that makes me think of cinnamon later in the sip. Interesting! The main flavor for me is roasty autumn leaves which goes very well with the cocoa notes. Roasty, cocoa-y, spicy… It’s almost like some kind of Mexican hot chocolate without the creaminess, and would probably be exactly that with milk.

I saw that Nicole also got smoke out of this one, and I can see that. The combination of the roasty leaves and the spice could definitely be similar to smokiness. But I really enjoyed that dynamic. ;)

In the past few days I tried this tea both gong fu and western. I think I actually enjoy this more western. It is a great cup on a cold cup. This was the last cup An enjoyable purchase.

Started brewing this Tuesday, I only had about pours of it and then I got distracted so put in the fridge for today. Some teas hold up nicely to the fridge treatment, others don’t. This was to me didn’t loose any flavor. I pulled this out for my cooking tea this afternoon. It is like drinking wine and hot chocolate all in one cup. Dark roasted oolongs and I haven’t been getting along as much lately. I just haven’t been in the mood, so I am glad this one has been enjoyable.

After reading Charissa’s note on this yesterday I pulled it out for the afternoon cup. This is sooo yummy and comforting on a fall day. I am glad I let this be over the summer so that I could enjoy it during the cooler days! Roasty flavor mixed with deep dark chocolate. I left the leaves in the fridge at work hoping to enjoy a few more resteeps tomorrow morning. Roasted tea + already steeped tea equals really low caffeine right? Well at least that is what I am going to tell myself.

Another tea from my recent WP order. Yay! I would normally save this tea for a rainy day or a cold fall/winter day where a blanket and a book are mandatory, but I really want to try all the teas I ordered now so even though it is really warm outside I went ahead with this one. The roasted oolongs are getting to be a favorite of mine. I still don’t understand this. The first cup I had of a dark oolong I dumped out actually, but for some reason I gave it another chance and this type of tea has now becomes one of my favorites. THIS tea was a really nice dark roasted oolong. What stood out to me was the creaminess of it. It seemed so smooth. I had seen that this was formally called something else with chocolate in the name and I would say this was much lighter on the chocolate notes than other dark roasted oolongs I have had. I really enjoyed this one. I can’t wait for the weather to be cold. Once it turns chilly out side I am afraid this tea will not last very long.

Yet another damn good blend from WP, I’ll make this one short because TheTeaFairy and MzPriss did a wonderful job on their reviews and omg I wasn’t even following MzPriss I thought I was, oh well I am now :)
I must quote them both (i hope they don’t mind) TheTea Fairy said in here review “I initially thought this was going to be Golden Orchid on steroids!!! But it’s quite the opposite” I couldn’t agree more!
MzPriss said in her review " This tea is a lady. An elegant lady dripping with class and good taste" I also couldn’t agree more.

This Tea is surely NOT a souped up GO it is more like a relaxed GO and She surely is a Lovely Lady, a very lovely lady. This Tea even smells like a lady to me Golden Orchid smells masculine compared to Elderwood, Port may be more of a GO on steriods perhaps lol.

Thats all I can say, Read the reviews of MzPriss and TheTeaFairy, two different reviews and both perfectly Spot on,Great Job you two And Great Job Brenden too!!!!!!!!!!!