Whispering Pines Tea Company

My favorite mug ever! Note that there are only 10 Winter Edition Woodland Mugs left! Once these are gone, they are gone forever! They are also 10% off right now :)

http://whisperingpinestea.com/woodland-mug.html

These Woodland mugs are great, I use mine everyday.
This mug is the perfect size to use with Whispering Pines “Infuser set with dish” and they feel really comfy in your hands when filled with your favorite hot tea.
Lance and I both have one of these little guys(Lance keeps his at work) they are the perfect size for a nice cup of tea and they look cool too.
Only 22 of them made so if you love Whispering Pines Teas You best go and order ya one before they are gone, you’ll love it.

An error of mine (well, PayPal’s) found me getting my stash of this three months after ordering it, and having completely forgotten that I even grabbed it. So, I wanted to really check out some of these teas ASAP, as I realized they’re mostly new, with few reviews posted. Since I’ve been on a huge chai kick of late, I thought this was a fun place to start.

1/2 tb per cup? Hm. Well, I brewed this with 4 tsp in 12oz, which is 1.25 tb… I guess on par with the recommendations. It makes for a very, VERY strong brew. Fine with me, because I kinda like it. Very chai-like, however the first and most present note is the mint, which both cools the throat and the tea’s heat/spice. It’s almost like having one of those icy hot candies in your mouth, with both the heat and the cool present at the same time – but with a chai background instead of chocolate.

With cream added, the mint almost completely disappears, and this becomes a mild chai with a hint of something tart and almost… drying. I get the mint feel and faint flavor if I open my mouth to inhale through it after, but otherwise (for me) the mint goes poof bye-bye.

Interesting, unusual tea. I have a feeling I’ll go through this small size quickly because of the quantity needed, and to see if I have a different experience next time.

This was just ok – or maybe a bit less than ok – what’s less than ok – mediocre?
Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it, not unhappy to see it finished.

Thank you for the sample, MissB!

This tea is a hibiscusy mess. I knew it would be going in (and it’s only a mess because it’s not my favourite flavour). The ginger shines through in flavour and heat. The orange is discernible. I suppose the elderberries add sweetness, but I needed honey. Wow, did I ever.

I looked up the tea on their website rather than flipping the package over for steeping instructions. 1/2 tbsp for 5 min, OK I can do that. I had just over 1 tbsp in the bag for a big 16 oz mug. And then after I added the water and put down the packet, I noticed it said “1 tsp per cup”. So yeah. Let that be a lesson or something.

If you like hibiscus and ginger, this could be for you. It would be fantastic iced, for sure. I might do that with the second steep. Sadly it’s just not for me. The ginger is amazing, but the hibiscus is just too much for me without a spoonful of honey, and I’m trying to avoid that. :)

Sipdown!
Definitely reminiscent of sitting around a campfire in the middle of the woods. This tea doesn’t just capture the smokiness of the fire, but also the smell of the outdoors. I usually associate red rooibos as tasting ‘woodlike’, but that works really well in this tea!

This was definitely the winner by a mile in my casual sampling last night of most of the WP blends I ordered. S’mores was kind of odd, not bad but bracingly evocative of things far removed from s’mores (though I can see how a particular mysterious earthy funkiness in it sort of evokes the grain in graham crackers); Mint Chocolate Chip was alright but I’ve other Grasshopper-y teas I like more (with the bonus they’re tisanes so I can drink them late at night, which is when I always crave that sort of thing), not quite as thickly flavored rich and sweet and treat-y as I’d hoped; I’m reserving judgment on Peppermint Chai because I get a strong sense it needs the proper stovetop milk-n’-20-minutes-stirring treatment to do it justice, not the mere whizzed latte deal I did. Nothing undrinkable and everything was at least interesting/compelling/unique. So that’s good!

But this one! So so good. I wish I could give more detail but late night, yadda yadda, hopefully I do a more detailed note soon. It is a great balance of rich satisfying chocolate (that that’s just the Assam is a bit startling frankly, ‘cause it is REALLY chocolatey) and tempering yet invigorating, palate-awakening mint. The two don’t clash at all; they meld so smoothly and deliciously, like an Andes mint but better. Definitely putting this on the “perennial staples shop list”, yum.

Finally got my WP order yesterday, whew. I’m dumb and have been real willy nilly about paying attention to what has caffeine and what doesn’t and planning to drink it accordingly throughout the day, so somehow I managed to stick this in the One Touch for first thing morning tea and proceed to drink all the most intriguing seeming black tea blends after dinner last night, whoops. But somehow it worked out! I think it’s the gentle return of spring we’re experiencing right now (or our usual initial psych out at least); it’s helping my circadian rhythms along.

When I threw this in the basket late last night for this morning, right away I was like “oh, oops” because it’s clearly an herbal…a very unusual, striking looking herbal! It’s safflower but it looks like a bag of priceless saffron, a mound of some kind of feathery stamens with little peppercorn-like elderberry woven in. The smell is warm and spicy too, which contributed to that sense of saffron and peppercorn. I went with it and figured if I was still tired after drinking it today I’d just mix up some matcha.

When the cup was ready, I was startled by the color. It’s unusual indeed—the center is unalarming black tea-like, but it’s rimmed with this BRIGHT, algae-like gold-green with gray undertones. Very strange. But it smelled good, warm and gently spicy, like sweet and peppery smelling wood chips (because of that it kind of reminds me of the smell of the lumber yard/fencing section of an outdoor landscaping shop like the kind my parents would drag me to early every summer…I’d alway groan “not the plant store!” but now those sense memories always amaze me with how vivid they are thanks to all the novel seasonal smells). Dove in and yes, I love this! Maybe not for everyone, but I’m amazed two simple ingredients I’ve had in numerous tea blends can be so powerful. This is camping in a cup to me, the smell of drying forest and earth with some sweet heat—evoked the nights we slept in Olympic National Park, how it felt to wake up surrounded by forest. And I actually think it weirdly makes an excellent morning cuppa—it’s incredibly relaxing but the unusual, unique, strong aroma is also stimulating. It puts one in a very tranquil, peaceful mood before facing a hectic day, makes one feel like they’ve woken up in a forest with dew on everything and the echo of birds singing high up in the towering trees everywhere enveloping you like huge corridors—how can you feel too stressed like that? I would definitely reorder this, long wait time or whatever be damned.

This is a wonderful outdoorsy tea blend. the elderberry, cedar and chicory give it roasty, earthy, piney notes while the cinnamon, mint and ginger give it sweet subtle spice notes.
The taste of the Cedar in this one is amazing. I love this!
If you were lost in the forest and you met a friendly elf
I bet he would give you something like this to drink :)

I’m drinking my fifth steeping of this today, after forgetting the leaves for a day or two… It’s not as fantastic as the first few, but still good. I’m sad today and I have zero energy right now, so I hope tea will help…

This tea smells AMAZING and tastes almost as good… I’d been afraid to try it in case it didn’t live up to my expectations, but I finally did last night (and had the later cups with some chai tea monkeybread, mmm…). It tastes fantastic, the comforting familiarity of vanilla, the uniqueness of the cedar tips… but I can’t stop grappling with myself over the price tag. Maybe for special occasions… or just to take out and smell every once in a while.

Whispering Pines has yet to disappoint. This blend is both simple and simply perfect. It has a rather thick mouthfeel, though I wouldn’t go so far as to call it bready. The initial flavor is sharp ginger. Spicy cinnamon finishes the sip and builds over time. Definitely lives up to its name. Thanks for checking another tea off my wishlist, MissB!

While I’m sad to see the last of this cup, I really am thankful that MissB was able to send me some. I’d never tried anything from Whispering Pines, but the samples she gave me were all very good. Too bad I am overspent on tea orders but maybe in April I’ll be able to place an order?

This is such a nice gentle and refreshing tea. Maybe I’ll turn into a sleeping bear afterwards, caffeine or no. :P

Another successful sample from MissB! Well, as successful as I can get with my nose stuff up again. I wouldn’t mind being a sleeping bear myself and just skipping the rest of winter!

From what I can taste of this, this tea is a nice refreshing green with a bit of buttery vegetal notes. There’s also more to it – like pine needles. I’ll have to resteep it!

Also I’ll try the last of it later when I can fully appreciate the nuances.

To be honest, I wasn’t too enthused about this tea that MissB gave me a sample of, but that was stupid of me. This tea is amazing and so great. It tastes lime like mint chocolate, with dark rich chocolate, yet there is only mint added in.

That’s either magic or expert blending! Thank you so much!

(I wish I could wax poetic about this one, but I can barely keep my eyes open! )

ETA: SIPDOWN 167!

This was one of the many teas MissB sent my way, and I am quite happy that she did. I’d never tried any Whispering Pines, and this tea is quite nice. Thank you!

It’s got that chocolate malt flavour that you find in Verdant’s Laoshan Black, and it has a little bit of astringency at the end of the sip; but it’s astringent in a good way – not bitter. It seems to have a touch of honey in there too, or at least I imagine it.

Oh, and the chocolate notes linger long after each sip – just the way I like my chocolate….

I absolutely love Brendan’s North Winds and this is it with Vanilla in the mix, what a wonderful creation.
Notes of Smooth Chocolate and Creamy Vanilla are just OMG so good, If you are a fan of North Winds you will prolly like this one alot too.
The Vanilla in this one is just amazing, it is the perfect compliment to the dark chocolate and malty notes that this tea carries, it makes for a very smooth creamy sweet delight.
Brenden mentions an Ice Cream shop on Mackinac Island in his description on this one, tho I have never been in that particular shop, I have to say that he hit the mark with that statement.
When you walk into an Ice Cream Shop and you get a whiff of the Vanilla ice cream they are making in the back combined with the sweet scents that you get from the other ice creams and candies, you can very easily compare that to the aromas that you get from this one. That is a very comforting and welcoming aroma that just makes you feel good.
The taste OMG totally matches the aroma, what you smell is what you actually taste and that is a wonderful thing that don’t happen often enough.
As I’m writing this I’m sipping and trying to think of more write but alls i can think is “oh Vanilla, you are so good to me”
It’s amazing how good the Vanilla in this tea is, this is no nasty vanilla flavoring that leaves a funky film in your mouth, it is real and clean and creamy sweet goodness that you only get from real Vanilla Beans.
I can’t say enough good things about this one, it is delicious to me just like Brenden’s other blends I just can’t get enough.

Oh Yeah, after the tea is steeped out the Vanilla keeps going, very interesting and very good :)

I’ll be order lots of this one for as long as it is available :)

This tea is very different from the last time that I had it. The first main difference was that as soon as it started steeping, it smelled very smoky, almost tobacco-like, which I did not detect at all last time. The seaweed flavor that I remember from last time was still there, but only came after an initial smoky taste. Both times, though, I’m confused about where the “dark chocolate” is supposed to be in this tea. I’m lowering my rating because of the smokiness, but this is definitely unlike any other oolong that I’ve ever had. Thanks bluebelle for letting me try this!

Edit: Oh, and this is a sipdown (121)!

Thank you bluebelle for a sample of this oolong! This tea confuses me, but in an exciting kind of way. It’s definitely unlike other oolongs that I’ve had (& I’ve been drinking a lot of them lately). First off, it has that nice, roasted taste with a bit of nuttiness in there as well. What confuses me is the “dark chocolate” part. I’m not detecting any chocolate-y notes, but I’m rather getting a roasted seaweed taste from it. I actually quite enjoy it, but I do not think it is aptly named.

Thank you Shadowfall for selling a bit of this one! I felt like I needed a bit of (any) keemun in my collection. I really like this one!

Steep #1 // a few minutes after boiling // 4 min
I steeped a teaspoon and half. The dry leaves have the fragrance of dry grass. The steep color is a dark copper. The flavor is very nice: a bit of that dry grass, maltiness at the top of the cup, hints of dark chocolate but not as much as Teavivre’s keemun. ISlight briskness that is perfect for the morning (golden sunrise?) t doesn’t seem that smoky to me, and I thought keemun was generally supposed to be smoky, just not as much as lapsang souchong. Though I haven’t had too much experience with keemun. It’s just really a perfect cup and was gone in no time.

Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 min
This cup was a tad bit less amazing than the first cup, but still really really good. If I made a purchase at Whispering Pines, I’d definitely order some of this one… but it looks like it isn’t on the site (I swear I saw it a week ago). It seems like WP’s plain teas are as nice as their creative blends!

Parting is such sweet sorrow…I may have yacked about this before already, Hell I dunno if so then here it goes again lol

Sometimes I get a little sad when I get to the bottom of a bag of tea that I really really like because that means that this is my Last Cup for a little while, It’s like having to say good bye to a good friend whos been hanging around but now has to go home, you feel sorrow cuz they leave but it’s still sweet because you know you’ll see them again one day.
Same with some teas for, I’m sorry it is gone but Sweet! now I can buy some more!

I also get Happy too because, Sometimes your sweet friend may leave something behind when they leave, a parting gift so to speak, and thats always Sweet!
This Tea left behind for me today a most Awesome parting gift, as I removed the last bit of the leafe from the bag I noticed all the crumbs and dust in the bottom and stuck to the sides and I got really exited because I know what that meant, it meant that I was about to have an Kick Ass cup of Tea!

Surely somebody else knows what I’m talking about, I know we want big pretty tea leaves to make or tea with instead a little ground up tea shavings and crumbs that make up some bagged teas But this left behind stuff from the loose tea bag IMO is So Not like that found in some tea bags at all.
It’s the little hairs and dust and crumbs that come off of the teas naturally and settle to the bottom instead of intentionally ground up tore up tea for tea bags.
To me it’s is one of the perks to drinking loose tea, an extra added bonus to look forward to in the end, and it makes a really nice cup of Tea.
Honestly sometimes the cup you get from the dust is even better than all the previous cups of tea that you had from that same bag of tea, like the tea has a mind of its own and saves the Best for Last just for you.

Some of you that may know me on FB already know that I’m a weirdo and I get some crazy ideas sometimes lol
Well I aint gonna lie I got a crazy Idea once when drinking this tea dust and I thought perhaps I can just take some of this tea and stick in the coffee grinder and powder it down and drink it as I do the dust, So I did just that and it was a bad idea it didn’t work at all, it was not that great(even prepared as a matcha).
I decided that it didnt work because it grinder was to hot, i dunno but it sounded good to me lol
So I tried again, this time I used a mortar and pestle, It was pretty good but NOT quite the same.
I reached the coclusion that I don’t this can be done on purpose, You just have to wait and collect the dust that happens on its own, or it just wont be the same.

These are Very Special cups of Tea to me and I really hope somebody else besides me uses the dust in the bottom of their bags of tea also because if not then I may just be a tea fiend and a lot crazier than I think.

Here is a photo, I hope the link works
http://instagram.com/p/us7JI_EwOo/

One of My Favs, I decided to try it a little different this time around, For some reason I figured that it would be yummy if I made it into a tea latte with the steamed frothy milk and all but i was wrong lol
it quite tasty and all but it wasnt what i was expecting, i tasted none of the yummy fujian blak notes that i love so well, it was just a simple tea latte, not bad but I will not do it with my Fujian Black again.
This tea is perfect naked it needs nothing at all to dress it up.
I will try this with my other favorite tea just to see how it goes :)

My Comfort Tea,My comfy chair and Runescape, Good Times!!
I love this tea so much, it makes me feel happy.