Whispering Pines Tea Company

Chocola-TEA covered cherry recipe:

1 strong cup of Fujian Black
1 cup of fresh and crunchy cherries

Take a sip, bite into a cherry. Mmmmmm.

Oh yeah! This is making my morning.

Eating homemade parmesan kale chips, tv-binging on old X-Files in the middle of the night. Yes, I know, it’s dated…but I can’t help it, it’s my “comfort” tv show.

Tea pairing: Fujian Black….because…I just got my new Whispering Pines order, yay for me!

As usual, excellent personalized service and quick shipping to Canada, thank you Brenden :-)

I love the rustic packaging he uses for his tea, there’s something homey about it.

I hesitated between having The Sleeping Bear or this one tonight. I figured I was probably going to have to put more effort in reviewing The Bear so I opted for something I’m already very familiar with. (Also, someone really made me crave chocolate tonight!!!)

Fujian blacks are among my favourites, the main reason being…chocolate. As you may know by now, I do love my chocolate.

This one has lots of it. The aroma is half of the pleasure, it smells like chocolate croissant! Oh yeah! Chocolate and sweet honey notes, medium bodied with malt. So smooth, with no astringency at all.

I knew it would be chocolaty cause I’ve had Mint Chocolate Chip and I believe this Fujian is the black base in it.

I like that this is not overly complex. I wanted dark rich chocolate and that’s what I got! I don’t get a gazillion notes, and sometimes, that’s all a girl wants…

A fabulous Fujian…

Now back to Mulder and Scully!

We are up a little late tonight for a dialysis night but thats ok we are enjoying some really good tea(it don’t keep us up anymore it actually relaxes us before bed lol). This particular Imperial Gold Buds are one of if not The very best Dian Hong i’ve ever had, thanks to Tommy the Toad I’ve had lots and lots of Yunnan black teas puers and dian hongs I do not like the Puer but I do love the dian hongs.
We’ve had some really dark colored dian hongs and some really pretty golden colored ones like this one and lots in between with black and gold leaves.
This is probably the most beautiful looking and pleasant tasting, the leaves look absolutely stunning totally golden and fluffy soft looking with millions of little furs all over, just beautiful.
Brendens Bi Luo Chun(another yunnan black) is also just as pretty and almost as tasty BTW but not as Imperial Gold Buds ;)
The flavor of this Imperial Gold Buds Tea is very bold and malty, notes of cocoa, creamy vanilla and honey with an earthy sweetness and a slight hint of floral.
This is easy one of our top 5 teas, one that we have bought often but drink sparingly as to not ruin the experience by spoiling the taste buds with it too often, it has a nice happy energy and I look forward to buying even more soon, 100 taste points from me!
I do recommend this tea :)

Malty with chocolate, caramel notes and a fruity sweetness. We hope to get more of this when it is available again.
I’ve enjoyed drinking warm in the evening times and I’ve had it as an Iced and It is a really nice and brisk. I love it.

I decided I wanted to try one of my WP teas, but I chose not to drink Campfire Blend because I wasn’t craving smoke. Well… whoops? Should have gone for Manistee Blend or North Winds.

So this is fairly smoky, with a little bit of sweetness. And cocoa! I’m enjoying it but I’m not going to rate it as it’s not what I was craing. It’d be better as an evening tea.

Finished off the last of my sample from Courtney this morning.
It is a very nice tea, fruity and bright and crisp somehow. Somewhat malty, though not to the extreme that I prefer. And I’m not getting any chocolate notes.

I enjoyed what I had but I’m not crazy enough over it to order more, I don’t think.

Glad to have one to cross off my list!
Thanks again, Courtney :)

This is my 400th tasting note so I wanted to make it a good one!

I brewed up some of this for breakfast, about 3 min at boiling.

Very tasty! Flavorful, malty, fruity…no chocolate notes for me though.

I enjoyed the cup a lot and would consider it for a future order. It’s no Golden Orchid, mind you. I may have to drink the rest side by side with North Winds and Fujian Black to compare, then maybe I would have more to say.

In my memory, these tasty black teas all sort of become one. Except Verdant’s Laoshan Black. And WP’s Golden Orchid, but that’s flavored with vanilla so it doesn’t count as a straight black.

Also except anything Golden Monkey. Those are on a whole other level.

I tried a resteep of this one but the flavor just wasn’t really there for me.

I’m sorry, this is a crappy 400th tasting note. I liked the tea.

Thanks a bunch for sharing, Courtney!!

This tea came as part of the grab bag of awesomeness that I got from Miss B. I was excited to try a Whispering PInes tea since there are so many WP fangirls on Steepster! When I opened up the pouch, omg it smelled like smoke. I’m not really a fan of smoky teas but I thought I’d try it anyway. Taste-wise, the smoke really dominates so this tea is not really for me. Underneath the smoke, I feel like this tea is pleasant and roasty but I can’t really tell because the smoke just lingers and takes over. I have two more WP blends that I’m excited to try though:-)

I wish I was better about identifying flavors in tea. I like this now a lot. I get NO smoke (which is a good thing). Sweet, yes. Maybe like raw honey. It’s sweet but sort of earthy sweet. Sweet potato maybe. Sorry I’m not better at that part, but I can decisively say that it is good, and thank you for the sample of it on my last order!

It is raining and my head hurts (usually happens when the weather changes) so I took off work early to have some tea in my comfy chair and watch more of The West Wing (on season 5 now).

This is the last sample I chose from Whispering Pines. I was feeling brave today! What I mean is, the smell of this tea is very intimidating and I was nervous to try it the first time I opened it to take a whiff. It’s like sniffing a campfire. There is such an extreme smoke aroma to the dry tea, along with a hint of pine and herbs. It’s very lovely to look at – a mix of black tea leaves, cloves, a little bit of rooibos, and these lovely straw-colored dried stalks that I can only assume are cedar leaves. I brewed 1.5 tsp for 5 minutes.

The brewed tea also smelled very smoky, although less so than the dry leaf. There was also an aroma of black tea, cedar, and a little bit of clove. I was getting more and more excited to try this unique tea. I was surprised to find that I really enjoy this tea – it is quite smoky but in a lovely way. At the beginning of the sip I get mostly smoke and earth. In the middle it transformed into woody cedar and pine notes, and at the end of the sip I caught hints of clove and a light cooling sensation from the pine. There is definitely a lingering smokiness that stays on the palate long after drinking. It doesn’t sound that pleasant, but it is. Two thumbs up for such a unique and tasty blend! I really can’t wait to try their S’mores tea, I was sad that it wasn’t on the sample list. Soon! :)

Method: 1.5 tsp, 208 degrees, 8 oz, 5 min, French Press

Dry Aroma: The elderberries are center stage. I don’t even smell any cinnamon, which surprised me.

Brewing Aroma: Now there’s the cinnamon, but the elderberries are gone

Flavor: Cinnamon is the most obvious flavor. I don’t taste the elderberries outright, but the tea has a light fruity flavor and a sweetness that I suspect could be from the berries. I didn’t add anything to this one, and it was still quite sweet. I just wish I had realized it was not caffeinated when I picked it this AM. :)

This is the second sample I ordered from Whispering Pines. After seeing how popular and well-liked it is around these parts, I thought I’d see what all the fuss is about. The dry leaf is a mixture of black and golden leaves. I know there’s vanilla bean in here but I think it’s camouflaged among the black leaves. It smells just like hot chocolate mix to me! Very creamy milk chocolate with vanilla sweetness akin to marshmallows. Oh, and I steeped 1.5 tsp for 3 minutes.

The brewed tea smells delicious! Like deep, sultry vanilla mixed with dark cocoa and notes of caramel sweetness. I can see why everyone loves this tea! There is a very present cocoa taste that hits me first when I take a sip. The vanilla is there but more subdued than I expected (I read in a recent note that the presence of chocolate can cause us to not notice vanilla as much, maybe this is the case). I also taste warm freshly baked bread (maybe a sweet, rich bread like brioche or challah). I never really knew what “malty” meant in tea descriptions, but I think I can taste it in this tea, especially in the aftertaste – sort of a rich almost sourness but in a pleasant way, like yeast dough or dark beer. I would describe it as foamy. :P I drank the second half of this cup with a wee bit of sugar and I thought it helped the vanilla immensely (sorry all you purists). I’m not really sure I’m qualified to rate this tea but it was super delicious, so too bad! Aww, it’s all gone…

I actually had this one last night, but I completely forgot to log it this morning as I had planned to. I made sure to include this in my recent order, since the last time I had it, for some reason it didn’t come out very well for me. And it’s so darn inexpensive! So anyway, I really wanted to try it at once, but I saved it for the evening since it’s caffeine free. I overleafed a bit on purpose (2 teaspoons instead of 1/2 tablespoon) just to make sure the flavor was strong this time.

I definitely love this tea! The aroma and taste are both spicy and sweet and darkly fruity. I love the way the elderberries end up tasting – dark and syrupy but still sweet and berry-like. The spice is perfect! I can definitely taste the cinnamon and I get a clove-like flavor even though there are no cloves. I have no idea what holy basil is, so maybe it’s the cause of that. Overall, the flavor of this tea reminds me of a nice mulled apple cider with a deeper fruity flavor. Delicious, and a definite must-have from now on! I can’t wait to sip this in the colder months.

This was one of the samples that I ordered from Whispering Pines. It smells totally amazing – like cinnamon and berry and baked apples. Yummy! I did the recommended 1.5 tsp for 5 minutes.

I actually made this twice. My first try was last night, and I thought the tea came out very weak for my tastes. So I put off writing anything about it until I tried it again today. So I made it again in the same way (the sample was just enough for two cups) hoping it would come out differently. However, it still tastes very weak to me. Reading through the other reviews of this tea, I can’t help but feel like I somehow did something wrong. I wanted to love this tea so much, I really love the smell of it. I think I’ll have to buy some in the future and try it again, just to see if this was a fluke…

5:20am on my first day of christmas break, sitting in front of an open window…enjoying the temperature difference between inside and outside when the wind blows….really, is there anything better than winter?? The fragrance of this mug of tea keeps meeting my nose at random moments, and even before I’ve taken a sip I know exactly what to expect. The fujian notes lead the way into winter this morning, with deep velvety cocoa, dark molasses and a slight cannabis note….followed by the yam and apricot, baked grain and raisin of the Dian Hong. I’m thinking that what I pick up in some teas as cannabis others think as rye, but either way, this is a whole cup of warmth for this winter morning, when the holiday lays in wait and savoring every moment is the one thing you want to do. What do I have planned for my holiday? Selective hibernation, quiet contemplation of long shadows and mindfulness. It all begins, very deliciously here, with this cup.

ps. I used to get samples with my orders from Whispering Pines but haven’t gotten any in my last 3 orders….anyone else?

ok, i like this tea. i LIKE this tea. I didn’t want to like it, because it seems to be trending on Steepster right now (june 2014) and I didn’t want to get on the bandwagon, as I am one who bucks trends. Hard. I am also honest. This is a great tea.

This tea is what would happen if Bailin Gong Fu and Yunnan Gold Tips had a baby. A tea born to rule the universe of my mouth. AND I ONLY GOT A SAMPLE!!! It is malty, it is the best chocolate note I’ve had in a tea yet. (I added milk and the tea held up to the milk wonderfully…perhaps even bringing more roundness to the chocolate note) Bailin Gong Fu is a bit intense for me at times, and Yunnan Gold Tips is a bit understated for the mornings where I want a good cup of breakfast tea. Here… Here in my cup right now is something I feel was created just for me.

I am originally from Michigan, you know. :)

This is brilliant. Light notes of honey and sweet chocolate. I’ll definitely be ordering more when I’m out.

Ooh, this one is very interesting. It’s honey and fruit with a subtle undercurrent of smoked wood. The smell of the dry leaf and tea liquor was very heavy on the smoke, so it’s much lighter than I expected it to be! Delicate even. It’s smooth without a trace of bitterness. The finish is woodsy with a residual sweetness. The more I sip, the sweeter it seems to become. The smokiness recedes into the background a bit.

In the second cup, the smokiness is dialed back even more. The woodsy notes are stronger and the tea has gained a savory quality that reminds me of lightly roasted nuts. It’s smooth and silky and the sweetness is still very present.

I don’t think I could drink this every day but it’s quite nice. Something that’s suited for quiet, cool autumn nights.

SSTTB: Pick #11

So, there are two mint Chais in The Box and both smell pretty good so I’m taking advantage of my day off to do a side by side comparrison of the two. So the other one I’m drinking is Rishi’s Vanilla Mint Chai. I prepared both the same way; same amount of leaf, same steep time, same water temp and I’m pretty well just alternating between cups of them.

And I have to say, they’re really NOTHING alike. This one definitely seems more like a Chai to me; it’s smooth and has much more noticeable spice flavours in it like cloves and ginger, which both very much stick out to me. The cloves, which I love, balance off the ginger for me, which I hate. I would have said I tasted fennel too, but I don’t see that in the ingredients list. Odd. The mint in this one is also much crisper and I feel like it suits the Chai element really well. Everything just kinda “pops”.

And then, as a whole there’s something very very familiar and weird about this one. It took me a long ass motherfucking time to place what – but as one component, without breaking down the flavours, this reminds me EXACTLY of the Halva that the East Indian Convenience Store near me in Regina (my old city) used to sell. And it’s so weird to me that that happens to be the flavour that this one reminds me of because the Halva that they sold there was like this sweet, very nutty melt in your mouth buttery kind of pastry – but with an almost “cotton candy” like feel to it. It’s kinda hard to explain, I think, if you haven’t had it before.

It’s delicious though – and now I’m feeling really nostalgic? And why the ever loving fuck does a MINT CHAI remind me of sweet nutty pastry? My tastebuds are confused, but on board with this.

Oh, here’s a link for people who have no idea what I’m talking about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halva#India

Brenden included this as a sample in my last order. :D I threw half of the leaves in a mason jar with 8oz of water, letting them steep for around 14-15 hours.

Man this is seriously good. Mint is the first flavor I notice. It’s very green, crisp, and slightly sweet. Next is the oolong—which strangely enough, tastes like chocolate to me? Am I the only one? It makes me think of Andes mints. (I would eat them obsessively when I was younger!) It’s a very light chocolate flavor but it’s definitely there. It also has a slight mineral taste that wuyi oolongs tend to have. I don’t notice much in the way of cinnamon; there’s just a hint of it at the end of each sip. Absolutely no bitterness in this cup. I wish I had let it steep longer, actually. It’s very clean, fresh, and minty-sweet. The oolong leaves a nice roasty/chocolate flavor in my mouth.

Oh, this tea. It takes me for a swim in a cool mountain spring on a hot, hot summer day.

Thanks so much for putting this in with my order. (:

OK, I admit it. I loveblack teas from Yunnan.
I also love pretty much every black bi luo I’ve ever had, & this one is no exception.
Deliciously honey malted, with an almost creamy mouth, it’s naturally sweet, pastry, yumminess.
Thanks to TeaFairy for my first sample from whispering pines.

This morning’s project was S’mores with S’mores tea! I think it was a huge success!

I used 1 tbsp of tea per cup, 208 degrees, and steeped longer this time (5 min). I added about 1/2 tbsp of cacao nibs to the steep also, because why not?

I used salted chocolate for the actual s’mores, and since I am not camping and don’t have a gas stove, I toasted the marshmallows in the oven. Broil on high, ONE min per side. Seriously, time it.

I melted the chocolate on a graham cracker for about a min in the micro. That was too long. 30 secs should do it. It may not look completely melted, but it continues to melt after it comes out. Don’t ask me how I know.

The tea and s’mores are amazing together. Salty sweet chocolate smokey creamy goodness.

I had some extra marshmallows, so I threw one in each cup of tea. They weren’t melting fast, so I just put the marshmallow in my mouth and drank the tea. Yumz.

Here are pics of the operation:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/124304184@N02/14500425813/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/124304184@N02/14479086634/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/124304184@N02/14500425323/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/124304184@N02/14293852837/