Whispering Pines Tea Company

I personally didn’t think this tea could get better…It was already a perfect embodiment of the love I have for my hometown in Michigan. As my homesickness grows stronger, my memories of the pine forests and the recollection of the spring breeze off the river linger on. The more I miss home, the harder it becomes to create teas that bring me back. I recently took my Christmas vacation to Ohio…a land of deciduous pine forests scattered with sunlight. There, I had my first sip of White Pine – the same species found in my home, The Sleeping Bear Dunes. The White Pine is soft, smooth, and fresh with sweet buttery notes and a hint of bitterness. I decided to remove the bitterness and enhance the buttery notes by processing the pine needles as a lightly-oxidized oolong. After cutting, withering, and drying I packed up the pine and headed back west. The entire plane ride home had me thinking of how I could improve the base of The Sleeping Bear Blend. Upon landing, I had a plan…a theory to tie together a new green tea base and the beautiful White Pine needles. When I got home, the only thing on my mind was to test this theory. I switched out the mao feng green tea with a small-leaf xin yang mao jian green tea, and kept all other ratios the same. Mao Jian is soft, buttery, and reminiscent of spring grass and deep forests. The outcome was closer to my memory than anything I had ever been able to achieve. In fact, I would go as far as to say that this is my first perfect embodiment of a memory in a tea, and will set the benchmark for all of my future blends. I’m proud to be able to offer the new version immediately!

Breathe life, sip inspiration.

http://whisperingpinestea.com/sleepingbear.html

The Inspiration
The current batch of pine needles was harvested on December 27, 2013 in Bellbrook, Ohio.

Imagine a place with rolling pine forests fringed with open meadows and brambles of blackberry bushes just begging you to feed your senses. Imagine a place bursting with wildlife — a new ecological wonder behind every blossoming cherry tree. Imagine being knee-deep in crystal-clear water with pine needles floating by and spring in the air. Imagine love. Imagine my home: The Sleeping Bear Dunes.

Every sip of this tea brings with it a burning passion. Fresh, wild, green pine needles are sustainably wildcrafted from the deepest reaches of the wilderness and processed as a light oolong of around 20-30% oxidation. After cutting, withering, and drying, the needles are mixed with our purely blissful green tea blend, River Rain.

The final product is a lovely blend of green tea with the perfect amount of fresh pine flavor and a hint of jasmine. This tea is based off of the memory of a spring morning walk along Glen Arbor’s Crystal River with the birds singing and otters splashing along that pure, beautiful water. I have created my masterpiece. I have put my heart and soul, The Sleeping Bear Dunes, in a cup.

Breathe life, sip inspiration, and let my beautiful homeland warm your soul.

Please note: There will only be 8-10 ounces of The Sleeping Bear Blend produced each month. Due to this, we would like to limit this blend to 2 ounces per customer per order. If you’d like more, please contact us directly.

Notes
Pine Forest
Sugarcane
Chestnut
Jasmine
Spring rains
Soft Breeze

How to brew the perfect cup:
The ideal way to brew The Sleeping Bear Blend is in a 4 ounce gaiwan with 180ºF water.
Use 1 tablespoon of leaves and begin with 2-5 second infusions. Enjoy 10-15 infusions!

Alternatively, brew western style:
Steep 1/2 tablespoon of leaves
in 8 ounces of 180ºF water
for 1 minute and 30 seconds.

2nd infusion: 2 minutes
3rd infusion: 3 minutes

Ingredients
Green Tea
Sustainably wildcrafted white pine needles

Caffeine Content
Low

Trying this in the gaiwan for the first time! :)

I used 1 tbsp in a 4oz gaiwan, quick 2-5 second infusions in 180ºF water.

This is SO much better asian style! Every infusion I’m getting intense fresh pine notes, a touch of light jasmine and an extremely sweet body!

The tea leaves the tip of my tongue with a long-lasting slightly astringent tingly pine note…It’s lovely!

I think I’ll be getting at least 20 infusions out of this. It has some really strong energy too!

EDIT: I got about 20 infusions before i went to bed. Never went past 10 second steeps, either!

I really like this one, It is a very interesting I love safflower and the elderberries are a really nice touch in this one.
Manitou Mist is a very calming peaceful tea to me, I’ve only drank it about 3 times so far but I realized that I like it best late at night before bedtime it really relaxes me.
I think it may even be nice to drink right before meditation too, I’ll try that next time I have it.
I’m really liking Whispering Pines Teas. I just placed a new order with Brenden tonight I’ve just about tried them all, just a few more to go.
There will always be many Whispering Pines teas in my house from now on, an instant favorite place to buy tasty teas online :)

I know it’s only Tuesday, but I’ve had a crap work week already. Happy to be home, hockey season starts tonight. So pizza, chai, and hockey are on the menu. Does chai go with pizza, I don’t know, but chai and hockey go with winter so that’s my choice.
This is ok, a bit cinnamon heavy but not as bad as others I’ve had. Missing cardamom (but then I’m a huge cardamom fan), but all in all not a bad spice blend. What I’m not getting is the coconut. You can see it in the leaves, but I don’t taste it at all. Shrug, not the best not the worst, maybe a bit better than average.

Backlog:

Thank you TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this to try. I like this Yerba Mate Blend — a really great way to energize!

The cup is smoky, earthy, fruity, sweet and tangy. Nice!

Here’s my full-length review of this tea: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/05/14/painted-paradise-tea-from-whispering-pines-tea-company/

Another tea from my Whispering Pines order. I took this one to work today, and was drinking it for most of the morning.
In all fairness this is a pretty decent dark, chocolaty, malty black tea. (There are more chocolate notes in this one than the oolong I just wrote about). What I didn’t like about this was that it didn’t resteep very well. I normally can get three decent steeps from a straight black. The first steep was great, and then it was all downhill from there. The second steep seemed to have lost all that deep dark goodness, and you were just left with generic black tea. This is quite a bit cheaper than most of my favorite blacks, but if you don’t get the resteep is it really better value?
All in all, this is pretty good.

This was another one in my Whispering Pines order.
Disappointed, if you are going to call a tea dark chocolate, there should be quite a bit of chocolate notes to it. Yes understand this is a straight oolong, but I also understand that most dark oolongs have a hint of chocolate notes to them. I don’t think this one is special, or has any more chocolate to it than any other oolong. It’s a decent dark oolong, but certainly not dark chocolate. (Or maybe I’m just fussy because I’ve been drinking so many straight blacks that have tons of chocolate notes to them that I was expecting that from this oolong). All in all just ok.

This is black, oolong blend and it’s heavy on the oolong. I was getting more oolong than black. The site lists orange and pepper notes, I didn’t get any of that. It’s really just dark roasted oolong.
I’m not sure I got to taste this tea at it’s full potential. Whispering Pines packages leaves something to be desired, and I the leaves were pretty badly crushed when I got it. Not sure how it would be without the “dust”, but this is just ok for me. If I want oolong, I’ll just choose an oolong. I thought this would be more balanced, and I would get both black and oolong notes in it. Sadly that didn’t happen. This is a miss.

After months upon months of sampling and finally choosing the right tea for the job, our newly-redesigned house black tea, North Winds, is now available! Read about the inspiration and new flavor profile below!

Michigan is full of wondrous little towns known for the things they have perfected and small spots of nature that will take your breath away. This tea is inspired by the entire northern area of Michigan, from Traverse City to the Les Cheneaux Islands.

Traverse City is in the northern lower peninsula of the state. They are widely known for their amazing cherries, which are sold alongside other fruits from roadside stands during the summer months. You can get anything cherry here, and it will spoil you for cherries forever. I’ll never be able to eat cherries elsewhere! =)

Heading northward from the cherry capitol of the world and over the longest suspension bridge in the northern hemisphere brings you to Mackinac Island. This island is full of little shops, cafes, and bakeries, and they are very well known for their fudge. Any flavor of fudge you can imagine can be found on this island, but you can never go wrong with a piece of dark chocolate fudge as Autumn is closing in!

As the north winds bring you higher and the first snow begins to fall, the Les Cheneaux Islands and surrounding area of the upper peninsula will send chills down your spine. The wind picks up, the lake begins to freeze, and a snowstorm will keep you indoors with a hefty cup of black tea as company. Looking outside at the winter wonderland, you can’t help but notice that you are in the most beautiful place in the world.

Our house black tea for good reason — North Winds is the essence of northern Michigan. Sweet fruity notes of apricot and white grape bring you to Traverse City while heavy dark chocolate notes allow you to have that Mackinac Island fudge desert without having to take the ferry. Notes of toasted rye with cherry preserves show up mid-sip with a beautiful malt and wildflower honey finish. These smooth, decadent notes combine into a medium-bodied tea with a bold and rustic feel that makes for a perfect breakfast tea — but you’ll want to drink this all day long!

North Winds is blended seasonally to achieve the most balanced flavor profile. The current offering is a blend of Spring and Autumn 2014 material from Fujian and Yunnan provinces of China.

Available here: http://whisperingpinestea.com/north-winds.html

I have some big news — Whispering Pines is headed back to Michigan!

For the past two years, I have been growing the company in hopes that eventually it would fund a move back home. While being located in different locations over the past two years, my heart has always been in Northern Michigan. After all, it is the land of inspiration — the place that created who I am, and in turn, what Whispering Pines has become.

I am proud to announce that because of my amazing customers, I am finally able to go home! On June 1st I begin the journey from Arizona to White Pine, Michigan, just southeast of the Porcupine Mountains. The expected arrival date is no later than June 4th.

I will keep the website open to orders during the move, but they will not be fulfilled until I complete the move and settle into my new home. All orders after Wednesday the 28th at 11:59pm will be filled after the move and sent out no later than Monday, June 9th.

I can’t thank you all enough for helping me grow the business to this point, though I can promise you a few things. Firstly, be on the lookout for new teas. With inspiration comes new teas, and finally going home is sure to provide me with plenty of inspiration! Secondly, rest assured that no matter how much Whispering Pines grows, my quality, handmade traditions, and customer care will always be top-notch. And finally, I can promise you many photos of my new homeland! You can follow my photography on Facebook at Whispering Pines Photography (http://www.facebook.com/whisperingpinesphoto) or at www.lifethroughthepines.blogspot.com.

Once again, than you for making all of this possible! I couldn’t have done it without you!

Cheers,
Brenden Gebhart
Owner and Tea Mixologist

I’m sipping on this tea. It’s a comforting tea and it’s bringing me home :)

From today forward, every ounce of tea you buy will plant a tree! And no, this is not an April fool joke!

Effective April 1st, 2014, Whispering Pines Tea Company has pledged to donate to non-profits specializing in sustainability. Our foremost goal for this pledge is to offset the negative effects of worldwide deforestation to create a stronger, cleaner, and greener future. We pledge to plant a tree for every single ounce of tea you purchase from today forward. Many of these trees will be planted by non-profits in parts of the world where deforestation is a large concern for the ecosystem, and many will be planted directly by the staff at Whispering Pines.

We feel great pride in taking these vital steps to preserve some of the most pristine areas on Earth and we are honored to create a simple way for our customers to do the same.

Anyway, this is my morning cup today because it’s cozy and rich. This and Golden Orchid have become my go-to black teas in the morning recently :)

A full-bodied black tea with notes of sweet fruit, dark chocolate, and malt!
-
Michigan is full of wondrous little towns known for the things they have perfected and small spots of nature that will take your breath away. This tea is inspired by the entire northern area of Michigan, from Traverse City to the Les Cheneaux Islands.

Traverse City is in the northern lower peninsula of the state. They are widely known for their amazing cherries, which are sold alongside other fruits from roadside stands during the summer months. You can get anything cherry here, and it will spoil you for cherries forever. I’ll never be able to eat cherries elsewhere! =)

Heading northward from the cherry capitol of the world and over the longest suspension bridge in the northern hemisphere brings you to Mackinac Island. This island is full of little shops, cafes, and bakeries, and they are very well known for their fudge. Any flavor of fudge you can imagine can be found on this island, but you can never go wrong with a piece of dark chocolate fudge as Autumn is closing in!

As the north winds bring you higher and the first snow begins to fall, the Les Cheneaux Islands and surrounding area of the upper peninsula will send chills down your spine. The wind picks up, the lake begins to freeze, and a snowstorm will keep you indoors with a hefty cup of black tea as company. Looking outside at the winter wonderland, you can’t help but notice that you are in the most beautiful place in the world.

North Winds is the essence of northern Michigan. Fruity sweet notes bring you to Traverse City while heavy dark chocolate notes allow you to have that Mackinac Island fudge desert without having to take the ferry. These smooth, decadent notes combine into a heavy bodied tea with a medium-malty background that makes for a perfect breakfast tea — but you’ll want to drink this all day long!

Please note: You can get at least 5 full-bodied infusions out of this tea!

Thank you Brenden for the surprise in my mailbox of this sample tea!

The last time I had some tea from Whispering Pines was…well…in the beginning of the company during the short phase where most of the tea’s (if not all) were smoky. There was a lot of feedback from Steepster folks that Brenden listened to (this is what makes a great tea vendor by the way) and now there is a wide variety of tea’s to choose from on his Whispering Pines Website.

I’ll have to admit though, that I hadn’t looked at the website for a long, long time (over a year).

Brenden noticed my lack of attention to his company (he being a regular Steepster hawk), and sent me a couple of tea samples (smart man).

Kudo’s that this Fujian isn’t smoky! It arrived not contaminated with smoke from the other tea’s that Whispering Pines is known for…the outdoorsy tea’s!

I’m not going to play games with a long review. I’ll get right to the point and then explain.

If you love tea’s like chocolaty Laoshan Black or Fujian Black Pearls this is the tea for you!

Brenden doesn’t lie when he discribes his tea as chocolate. It doesn’t taste like barley or bread, just chocolate tea with a hint of malt. Medium thickness, rich and smooth with a gentle fading of the flavor lingering softly in the mouth.

Delicious dessert tea!

This is the only truly chocolaty black tea that I’ve tasted other than Verdant’s and companies that carry Fujian Black Pearls (which are maltier).

If this was a stock, I’d buy it! Winner!

Hope you don’t mind but I’m attaching another little musical piece by my granddaughter with my photo’s. http://youtu.be/bOKtmS5L9BQ
We’re collaborators.

Added note Oct. 4th I just discovered a talent that Brenden from Whispering Pines has… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUYSjbD0kW4&feature=share&list=UUIhSZ7loxDZ7166OavqfrhA

COOL

I could’ve sworn I tried this before. I guess I just didn’t remember to write a note for it.
It’s got a nice scent to the brew. Kinda malty. Mild woody taste. Also vaguely sweet & kinda fruity maybe?
Overall this is pretty unremarkable to me. I enjoyed trying it, and I’ll finish what I have, but I’ll probly not be ordering any more.

A sample of this came with my order from Whispering Pines. At first I wanted to have this as my morning tea, but I got distracted by a random sencha I came across in my tea box and brewed that up instead. Then the very blah morning turned into a very blah afternoon, so I thought it would be the perfect afternoon tea. As I was steeping this, one of my friends (and his flatmates) stopped by for a quick visit, since I’d been planning on giving them a box of various teas to try out (a few of them are tea drinkers). We chatted for a bit, and when they left I suddenly realised that I was starving, so I thought I’d cook up an early dinner.

Well, as it turns out, that ‘quick dinner’ turned into ‘cook enough food for the next two or three days’. So on the plus side, yay, I have lots of food now, but oh no, I realised that I’d oversteeped my tea by a few hours.

So I rushed back to my room, which smelled like a warm apple pie, and took the strainer out of my mug. Since the tea base is an oolong, I had hope that it would still be drinkable. It still smelled great, after all!

I took a sip and was totally wowed by the flavour! With a tiny bit of sugar, it would basically be the liquid form of a freshly baked apple pie. It still tasted amazing plain, though, with a hint of sweetness. The apple and cinnamon flavours were perfectly balanced. The cinnamon actually tasted sweeter than what I was expecting. Or at least I think it was the cinnamon. It may have been the apple.

I’m so glad I got to try this out, even if I oversteeped it by a lot! I think I still have enough of the sample for another cup. Hopefully I won’t be so distracted then!

Having a cup of this tonight, so good. Smoky yet sweet and spicy. A very sweet citrus aftertaste tonight too! I’m at my bfs parents this weekend and they have a fireplace, and this just seemed appropriate to sip by the fire. My kitten is here too, he’s had a holiday here all week while work has been done on the apartment, so he’s sleeping in his cat tower and my bfs parents cat is sleeping beside me, making me sneeze lol. Man I love cats. Nice to relax tonight finally, tgif!! See previous notes on this tea :)

I’m giving this tea the chance to make me like smoky teas haha, so far I’ve only had DavidsTea’s LS and it was just too much for me. So here we go with this one! The dry smell is nicely smoky, not overpowering, but definitely a lapsang blend. There’s a faint hint of spices as well. I steeped to Whispering Pines recommendations, 5 minutes with boiling water. The resulting liquor is dark, deep red, and smells primarily of smoky pine but with a sweetness and a spiciness.

As for the flavor…yes! This is more like how a smoky tea should be! It’s quite tasty! I get a lovely smoked pine note of course, but there is some body to this tea, I think from the rooibos. That also probably adds to the slightly woody flavor. The spices are definitely in there as well, and a hint of the citrusy orange melds in too. As it cools, it seems like the flavors meld together even better. I can actually tell this is a blend with LS, it doesn’t overpower. And none of that sickly aftertaste of cigarettes in this one!

Overall, I am quite impressed with this tea. It is making me see that I might be able to like smoky blends after all :) very happy I picked up an oz of this to try!

Just wanted to say, Whispering Pines Tea’s customer service is great! There was a minor issue with my order that was quickly resolved by Brenden, who also sent me an additional sample of this new tea. Thanks, Brenden!

I managed to get three steeps out of this tea and took brief notes of it.

Steep 1: The mint is pretty strong, but I can still taste the chocolatey goodness from the Fujian Black. Tastes really similar to the ice cream flavour. Yum!

Steep 2: The black tea base is becoming more prominent now, with the mint starting to fade into the background. Sort of like a minty hot chocolate, I’d say.

Steep 3: This really reminds me of a chocolate mint now. More dark chocolate with a subtle hint of mint.

Sipdown! I had a bit over a tablespoon left in my sample pack but not quite enough to split into 2 cups I don’t think, so I overleafed this cup by a bit and steeped for only 4 mins instead of 5 to compensate. Mmm I do enjoy this tea, minty and fresh, but there is a strong pine note today, a bit smoky, a bit citrusy. This cup is a bit harsher in the aftertaste, most definitely due to my overleafing, but it mellows into a good, slightly smoky flavor. I’m thinking I will put some of this in my next Whispering pines order for sure, minty black teas done like this are definitely my thing. See previous notes!

Thank goodness for tea.

Tea is the one saving grace of this week. It’s been such a miserable week that I want to end, especially yesterday, and today someone was smiling on me…both my Whispering Pines order and my Verdant order arrived! Talk about a much needed good surprise! I feel much better already :)

So then I had to decide between 8 new teas which one I should have! Gah, what a tough decision! They all looked and smelled sooo good, from both orders! I finally decided on this one, which was a free sample from WP, and Thank you so much Brenden as this one was super close to making it into my order! Also thanks for the hand written note! I love that both my orders tonight contained a hand written note, makes the tea ordering experience so much more like it’s specifically for me :) It was the tea for tonight because it’s a wonderful harvest moon outside, so yes, I had to have Manistee Moonrise! My sample actually labels it as ‘Manistee Moonrise Spirit Blend’, if that makes a difference :)

So the dry smell is lovely! Smoky, with a hint of sweetness and mint! I actually checked the ingredients before brewing to see what was smelling so darn good! I did the recommended steep of 5 minutes with boiling water. The steeped smell is just so intriguing. It has a sweetness and the lemongrass is also there making a bright citrus note, and a smokiness and lastly the mint. Such a crazy combo of scents that work together quite well!

The flavor is delicious. Man I totally should have thrown some of this into my order. I was thinking it might be a bit too smoky, but this is just right in this blend. I definitely get the hint of campfire with a wonderful sweetness and freshness, and of course, the mint aftertaste. A mild mint though, not overpowering, and the base is very nice too, a perfect amount of body for the tea and not a hint of bitterness!

Overall, this is a really good tea! I have enough in my sample for one more cup, so I might be hoarding this one! So happy this is making my week slightly turn around, sometimes it’s the little things that just change everything. I’ll end as I started, with thank goodness for tea :)

ETA – This resteeps quite nicely at 6 mins. The smoky black tea flavor is more pronounced, but still nice and mellow. No more cups tonight because I need to sleep at some point lol, but I’m so exhausted from this week I don’t think that will be a problem.

I had some of this last night to help out a headache (not a migraine, thankfully). The brew is an extremely pale yellow. As to the taste – I know there’s no mint in this, but it totally tastes minty to me. That might be because I store it next to the Whisper of the Woods tea :-) Pine plus mint is actually a lovely and refreshing taste. The underlying tea is oh so slightly buttery and quite smooth. This blend becomes even more refreshing as it cools. Very reminiscent of walking through the woods in that seasonal sweet spot where summer has ended but fall hasn’t truly set in (so, pretty much right now).