Whispering Pines Tea Company

Tea of the morning. This is always such a treat. The combination of flavors is so well done and just plain yummy! It’s lightly sweet and smooth at the beginning with notes of honey, bread, and creamy marshmallow while the dark chocolate and pine flavors linger at the end of the sip. Seriously tasty stuff.

Yet another Whispering Pines tea. I’m on a roll!

I’m drinking the old version of this blend. I steeped it for seven minutes and was rewarded with notes of honey, chocolate, malt, cinnamon, bread, and smoke in an almost syrupy thick tea. Oh, so good. I’ve already resteeped the leaves once. I’m going to steep them one more time to eek out all of the yummy goodness in this blend.

I only have one serving of this left, and while the hoarder in me wants to hold on to it I think I’m going to finish it off this weekend so I can get the new version of this tea with my next WPT order.

Win! Win!

We had a great Fourth of July bbq. Lots of food and lots of laughter. Now we’re in that quiet time between eating too much and going to watch the fireworks. A perfect time for tea. This is the tea I had planned to have tonight when we were camping out (stupid rain), so I thought I’d enjoy it now.

I took Miss B’s advice and over steeped this one. I usually steep it for three minutes, but today I went for six. The results are glorious. The chocolate and honey flavors are thick with the graham cracker and marshmallow flavors mixing in layers. One sip I get more graham cracker, the next creamy sweet marshmallow. High yum factor goin’ on here. At the end of the dip I get the smoke and a light taste of pine. It really brings the whole tea together.

I know this is billed as an autumn tea, but for me this tea will always remind me of summer and simple pleasures.

…and it’s gone. Actually, I think I can get one more steep out of the leaves in my brew basket, but then I’ll have no more S’mores. :(

I’m going to miss all of the layers of chocolate, graham cracker, marshmallow, smoke and honey. This tea is so beautifully unique but also fun. (How could a tea inspired by the classic campfire treat be anything less than fun?) I’ve enjoyed it so much this winter, and chances are I’ll be buying it before we start our camping season in May (right after I get my medical bills paid. Eek! ). Until then I’ll enjoy all of the other Whispering Pines treasures I have in my cupboard.

Hello Steepster peeps. I’ve missed you. I ended up getting a nasty case of pneumonia that culminated in a short stay in the hospital. Not fun. Even after I got home I spent most of my time sleeping and recovering, so it’s nice to feel like I’m back in the land of the living. I’d much rather be here with a nice cup of tea in my hand while reading all of your lovely tea notes.

Speaking of tea, I’m still loving this one. The warm sweetness, the dark chocolate note, the honey is all wonderful. The first cup had lot more graham cracker flavor than I remember from previous cups, but it was really nice. The second steep offered more of a balance and all of the layers that I love so much. This is exactly what I wanted. So good!

I don’t know if I would have necessarily thought of a s’more if someone had handed me a cup of this tea and not told me the name. What I would have thought is Oh. Holy. Yum. This is delightful!

This isn’t a tea that screams s’mores! (despite its name). Rather it gives you all the notes of a s’more – nice dark chocolate, sweet honey, a touch of bread, smooth marshmallow, and light pine smoke – into something infinitely more sophisticated than your run of the mill campfire treat. I particularly like the honey and pine taste together and then the lingering chocolate at the end of the sip. So good.

My husband saw me lurking on Whispering Pines web site and surprised my by ordering this for me (he’s a good guy). I’m so glad he did. This is easily one of my new favorite fall/winter teas.

Ah, yes. I needed something delicious tonight! A sipdown as well, and yet, one that really fit the bill. I get a bread-y cinnamon from this one, and tonight I definitely taste something icing-like too (although that’s likely the sweetener I put in it).

More decaf teas this evening as I enjoy Lost Girl, a poorly named show with a decidedly sexy sci-fi bent as I write a newsletter, get through oodles of email, and try to finish knitting my first shrug.

This still tastes like cinnamon bread to me, and I so wish there was a hint of icing. ;)

Bought this about a month back just after it was renamed. I love cinnamon tea, so this was on my must try-list.

Huge slivers of cinnamon in here makes it a really strong smelling tea, and this is promising for me. Kind of reminds me of Bengal Spice (Celestial Seasonings) my current favorite cinnamon tea, even though I’m loathe to admit it. Bagged, grocery store tea? Sacrilege!

All I taste is liquid cinnamon and rooibos at the end of the sip. This is a good thing (for the most part… there is some bitterness in there). I’m happy to gulp it down with or without sweetener – although sweetener does help it pop more.

The Inspiration
Evergreen Spice was inspired by the pristine evergreen forests and deciduous woodlands of the upper peninsula of Michigan! We started with a complex base of traditional-roast tieguanyin and aged yabao before adding wildcrafted green pine needles and roasted red cedar leaves. This beautiful evergreen base is set on top of the perfect blend of organic spices and organic holy basil before being sprinkled with earthy spearmint.

The flavor of Evergreen Spice opens up with smooth green notes and the pine and cedar fuse with the spices for a very unique combination. They are so well balanced that the spices almost seem to be coming from the evergreen leaves, forming a beautiful layer of warmth. The middle of the sip carries creamy floral notes from the tieguanyin that are spun together with the sweet velvety freshness of aged yabao. The yabao naturally has pine notes, pulling all of these ingredients together as one. At the end of the sip, you get warm cedar, peppercorn, and earthy organic holy basil tied together with the earthy qualities of spearmint, and as the taste lingers on your tongue, you are left with the slightest hint of cooling mint — barely there yet vital to the beauty of the cup.

Both the green pine needles and roasted cedar leaves are ingredients only found at Whispering Pines Tea Company. The pine needles are sustainably wildcrafted by the owner and processed similar to white tea. The cedar leaves are roasted under low heat in 1 ounce batches to achieve a complex and sweet evergreen profile.

This is a perfect embodiment of the beauty of northern Michigan and will please any tea lover!

Notes
Pine
Cedar
Caramel
Roasty
Rosemary
Brown Sugar
Earthy
Warm Spice
Mint

How to brew the perfect cup:
Steep 1 tablespoon of leaves
in 8 ounces of boiling water
for 5 minutes.

2nd infusion: 5 minutes
3rd infusion: 7 minutes
4th infusion: 10 minutes

Ingredients
Traditional-Roast Tieguanyin Oolong
Sun-Dried White Tea
Wildcrafted Roasted Western Red Cedar Leaves
Wildcrafted Green Ponderosa Pine Needles
Black Peppercorn
Organic Ginger
Holy Basil
Spearmint
Organic Cardamom
Organic Cinnamon Pieces
Organic Cloves

Caffeine Content
Medium

http://whisperingpinestea.com/evergreenspice.html

This has become my go-to tea this month ever since I discovered how much better a 3 minute steep is! Savory, smokey, cocoa and bright citrus notes…I’ve had about 4 cups of this each day for the past week :)

Hopefully the snowy memories that inspired this tea will bring the snow soon!

Happy holidays, everyone!

I’ve been working on this tea for quite some time now :)

My goal was to create a tea with cocoa, citrus, and smoke notes that had no bitterness or astringency that would be the perfect companion on full-moon walks in December, when the moonlight reflecting off of the snow makes it as bright as daytime.

This ended up being one of those teas that is so smooth that it’s hard to set down. It’s a rustic blend, perfect for outdoor lovers. It withstands oversteeping very well, making it ideal for the backcountry.

Enjoy! =)

December, you are the month of chills. The month of campfires that die from the bitter cold wind. The month of snowfall and of embers and the moments one cannot wish to describe. December, in all your bright white moonlight and soul-stirring knee-high snowdrift steps, I love you. You are hot cocoa and orange peels with cloves and the warmth of the fireplace dancing across my toes reminds me of nothing but the moments I spent last night shivering cold with snowflakes on my beard. How is it that the bite of your night is so painfully addictive as to keep me wanting more? Perhaps I will ponder your eerie charm with another full moon walk and a cup of tea.

I’m at the point now where I’m deciding which tea to drink because it’s literally hitting me on the head when I open my cupboard. This was the first decaf that came tumbling down, and thus I prepped it for drinking.

I underleafed this significantly based on what the website says (1/2 tb per 8 ounces) vs. what my package said (1 tsp per 8 ounces). As I always use the package instructions when steeping (if there are any), I went with 1 tsp – and it seems just peachy at that amount.

This tea reminds me of a hike in dense, moist, cooler underbrush like at Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island, where I come to a clearing of cinnamon bushes. Seriously. That’s what this tea is to me.

There’s something spicy in there, and I had to double check that this wasn’t a chai initially, because it easily could be. Strong cinnamon flavor with spice, perhaps minty, green, almost pine-like, and then something sweet in there too. I can, and have, easily downed two cups of this unsweetened with CelebriTEA’s turkey tea cups she sent me, and will finish off this sample size with two more cups to go.

A lovely cool weather drink that reminds you how toasty it is inside while still appreciating the majestic outdoors.

Tea #25 from HHTTB2

Everything I’ve had from Whispering Pines has totally reminded me of nature and connecting to it and I LOVE it!

All the little safflower pieces in my infuser totally looked like reddy orange feathers floating on a pond in sunrise. It’s unbelievably pretty.

Safflower is the dominant flavor, with it’s savory but slightly sweet earthy flavor. The elderberries lend themselves to the tail of the sip, making it end on a lovely sweet-tart note. This is a really relaxing cup. Definitely a tranquil nighttime kind of blend.

this is very clever. brendan, if your goal is not just to blend a tea then i will state this one an absolute success.

let’s begin however, with what this is not: it is NOT graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate in a tea.

what this is: a snapshot of someone(s) crouched by a campfire, the wind blowing slightly against their favour, trying to pull the roasted marshmallows off their roasting stick without blistering their fingers (they escape mostly unburned, lol).

layers. i really can’t wrap my brain around how you accomplished them.

-i get heat and smoke. they are SEPARATE. and the smoke is not a souchong source. by diagnosis of my tongue it is campfire smoke. the warmth is distinct but seems not to be coming from a spice.

-cinnamon and a cookie qualifier are there… they chime in after the smoke and i would count as layer 2.

-layer 3 is fruit, although very distant and not nameable…. at least not in this first steep.

-4 a softness is beginning to start which i believe will end up as marshmallow.

i don’t know if this is the order that you put them down in, but this is how they manifest for me.

this is an impressive accomplishment. this is less a tea and more a stillframe. and this coming from someone who does NOT particularly favour smoke in tea.

i did amend my methodology given that you are so beautifully purist in your blending brendan: i overleafed (1.5 tbsp) for my 12 oz mug and 2) i used 1 tbsp of coconut sugar. i think the effect is brilliant.

as it cools the warmth is still there, the smoke is SWEETENING, but a charcoal element in also settling in. very, very nicely done.

so if this tea is a memory for you…. let me ask: did your fingers get burned? or was my tongue off? =0)

thanks to MissB for this excellent adventure!

Thanks to MissB for this tidbit!

this is an unusual incarnation of a mint chocolate chip blend ;0)

okay, i cheated, i peeked at the ingredients, which (because i cheated) revealed absolutely nothing! mint is a given, chocolate too, there would be issues with my palate if i didn’t notice the tea…. but i’m getting citrus! there’s no reason to think the ingredients are other than as listed…. there are lemon breeds of peppermint, sage too for that matter. you can also have one crop affect another by proximity to something like lemon balm or lemon thyme.

the citrus note is neat! very unusual! i FOLLOWED THE DIRECTIONS for the first steep (yeah, yeah— pick your jaws up off the floor, lol) but next time round i think i’d prefer a longer steep.

no numbers til it sits on the counter for 4.5 instead of 3. ;0P

Thank you Brenden for this sample tea!

I prepared this tea as Brenden recommended using 1 TB in a Gaiwan. The steep time was what I’d call immediate. Glad I had a nice little strainer to catch the pine needles that tried to escape.

There wasn’t a mention of what the green tea was, but when I tasted the tea, my mouth told my brain that the pine and tea was similar to the taste of a very good jasmine silver needle.

I’ve tasted some rather dull silver needles that have a dusky, murky flavor and that isn’t what this was.

You can almost sense a light effervescence.

There’s always something mesmerizing about this type of tea that takes me back to my childhood camping trips.

We camped less than two hours from home along the California Coast at Big Sur State Park http://www.bigsurcalifornia.org/images2/McWayFalls1.jpg . There were streams to swim and fish with huge boulders and deep pools of clear water which smelled fresh. This water, pine and rock scent is what I associate with tea like Sleeping Bear Blend.
The Ponderosa Pine, Redwood trees, Cypress and Oak created an earthy perfume that I associate with Puerh. Campfires at night, bacon and eggs over the woodfire in the morning…that’s my Lapsang Souchong tea frame of reference.

So much about drinking tea is also about memories and about how the tea makes you feel as a whole person.

I shared some of this tea in a tasting with my friend Eric the scientist (who likes to take tea into the mountains to drink when the weather is nice).
He loved it.
Thought the use of pine needles was brilliant.
This approval came from a plant nerd and is high praise indeed. (Eric likes to nibble plants that only he can identify while walking through the forest)

Lovely tea Brenden!

I’m, umm, not even going to put this one in my cupboard. The rest of the sample will go to my mom and brother. Thanks, Dexter3657, for sharing. :)

Interestingly, even with a 5 minute steep, the leaves are still fairly tightly curled. I wonder how long it would take for them to look like leaves..?

Smells like burnt chocolate dirt pie. It’s a flavour in tea that I just can’t wrap my head around, and I really can’t stand. I know other people like it, and more power to you if you do!

I’ve had two sips. I can’t drink this tea. If you like those dark roasty chocolatey earthy teas then you might like this one. I’m going to have to pass.

The Inspiration
Our goal for this blend was to create a unique synthesis of complex flavors reminiscent of all the hidden wonders in the deep forest — a chai for all the wonderers, adventurers, and naturalists!

Woodland Chai has layers upon layers of complexity created with a fantastic malty blend of premium black and oolong base teas. This flavor fusion is achieved with creamy, cocoa, and sugarcane notes from our Yunnan Bi Luo Chun Black Tea, spun together with our dark chocolaty Fujian Black Tea before finally being completed with a brandy oolong carrying barley and heavy apple notes. Steeped, this tea has the aroma of fresh baked apple pie and spiced hot chocolate! The base tea takes the stage as the perfect blend of organic spices form a beautiful background nuanced with warm peppercorn, sweet safflower, and earthy spicy holy basil.

This chai is best in its natural state — enjoyed plain without milk or sweetener. I would recommend enjoying this chai inside on a cold winter day or sipping it from a thermos on an early morning springtime walk through a deep deciduous forest.

Notes
Apple
Fruity
Malt
Cocoa
Creamy
Sugarcane
Earthy Sweetness
Floral Warmth
Balanced Spice

How to brew the perfect cup:
Steep 1 tablespoon of leaves
in 8 ounces of boiling water
for 5 minutes.

2nd infusion: 5 minutes
3rd infusion: 7 minutes
4th infusion: 10 minutes

Ingredients
Black Tea
Oolong Tea
Organic Ginger
Organic Cardamom
Organic Cinnamon
Black Peppercorn
Organic Cloves
Organic Holy Basil
Safflower

Caffeine Content
Medium

http://whisperingpinestea.com/woodlandchai.html

Had a huge mug of this tonight. For some reason, it felt like it stripped my teeth of enamel in a very slight yet significant way. Still tasty, and perhaps I brewed it incorrectly somehow.

Had another cup of this later last night, and really enjoyed it as well, although I do prefer it hot over cooled.

Another cup of this the other night when Steepster first started going AWOL and refused to let me do much of anything. It really, truly does taste like a ginger snap to me – other than maybe the ‘snap’ part (I say this laughingly, as really, it’s tea). The lower steep temp definitely brought out the flavors a bit more. I think I may have to leave my kettle at 200F!

Steeped this one about 18 minutes; have to say I like it a lot more at the five minute mark, where the rooibos flavor disappears.