Whispering Pines Tea Company

Unlike derk, I like cold-brewed greens quite strong. I crushed about 7g of leaves and steeped them in 500ml for about 2 hours at room temperature. The result is a briny and tangy tea with a lot of umami, decent bitterness and no astringency. As usual for greens the taste is crisp, refreshing and somewhat sour. I think it would go extremely well with a hint of elderberry syrup and mint, but I don’t have either at work :D

Like for derk, this is also the first 2019 tea for me. Here in Ontario, the spring hasn’t arrived yet, but while we anticipate its arrival, we can at least drink some fresh tea, right?

This particular tea is quite a light one, it reminds me of the first flush Mao Feng offered by YS. It is characterized by a clean and crisp taste of green vegetables with an underlying floral sweetness. Despite being on the lighter side, it is fairly complex, especially when using a higher amount of leaves. The aromas are nutty and floral, with notes like swiss chard, candies, courgette and lamb. Taste starts savoury, but quickly transforms into a sweet and grassy one. Apart from the flavours mentioned, I also notice chicory and white fish meat resembling ones. Aftertaste is weak, but there are similar notes complemented by some herbal ones like Breckland thyme.

I find that this tea performs better with longer infusion times and quite a high leaf/water ratio. For this session I used 4.5g/180ml and steeped 3 infusions for several minutes each. The body is fuller than with shorter brewing times. The mouthfeel is slightly less smooth, but I think the astringency actually adds to the experience.

Finally I had time for a more complex tea than some tea bags.
I sample from Derk and I really like it.

Preheated gaiwan, 3 grams of tea.
Oh, right after first notes started to appear! Mineral as well spicy, grapes, other stone fruits. Hmm, very, very interesting.

No rinse; too lazy to do it. I did not even had some precious time managment, just brewing as I like it. Once it was 30 seconds, then 90 seconds. I don´t care :D I was just preparing it somehow.

Tastes? Oh, so many. Red grapes probably most, but there are mineral notes, pine, forest floor, kinda woody, come on? It is so complex as well very velvety, smooth, cooling down a bit I guess. It is so good! Really! Maybe I feel bit nostalgic, as I also noticed antique shop aromas and as well a old books. Really fancy tea!

Derk, why you have not send me more? I would love to try it in different ways too! But of course it is bit ironic; it is lovely tea and really thank you for this sample.

Got this as a sample with my recent order so thought I would give it a try.

Its described on the package a breakfast blend with hints of dark malt and light citrus. Honestly I don’t notice either. However, I also have a cold. While my sense of taste has seemed ok, I’m sure my sense of smell is borked. I could have sworn when I drank this at one point that I kept tasting eucalyptus.

I’ll give it another go once I feel better and I can trust my senses a little better.

Drinking a sample of this one in an attempt to make Mondays better…

I got this one as a sample with my order of Lord of the Lakes…it’s a very different tea, so I’m glad to have tried them both. Huron is sweet, but not chocolately like Lord of the Lakes can be. I can see where the description of mushroom notes comes from, it tastes more like things growing in the forest than the forest itself, if that makes sense (and would probably go very well with a bowl of roasted vegetables). It also has strong minerality and a dry feel to it. I like the sweet/stone contrast, but it feels like it’s lacking something for me…Overall, a fairly mellow and savory, good-tasting tea, if not likely to be a staple for me.

I like to keep this one on hand for when the need for a nice iced tea strikes, but I’m pretty neutral about it as a hot tea. It’s not the tea’s fault, I just generally prefer something a little more surprising from my everyday tea. It’s a great earl grey, however; good quality tea and a nice balance of flavor (sure it could be stronger, but why completely drown out the tea?). I’d definitely recommend this one if earl grey is your style, or for people who want an accessible upgrade from tea bag earl grey…

Thanks so much for sharing this, Kawaii433! I certainly don’t think I’ve even had a tea that looked like this before? The closest might be Zen’s black dragon pearls. Black bundles with hints of gold, but these leaves have a sheen to them. GABA is Gamma-AminoButyric Acid — a neurotransmitter responsible for inhibiting overactive firing of neurons in the brain. It is the body’s anti-anxiety mechanism supplemented in the natural form through a drink. (Info from Mandala’s GABA black.) This sounds like a great idea in theory. I can’t say if it helped my anxiety, as I looked up what it meant after drinking the tea. I wish I had known to pay attention to my anxiety at the time…
On to the flavor: If you were a fan of Butiki’s Premium Taiwanese Assam, this might have the closest flavor profile out there right now, that I know about. However, since the GABA unravels into quite a large amount of leaves, I probably shouldn’t have used one teaspoon. So the second steep ended up a little brisk which I’m sad about. But the third steep didn’t have that bite to it at all and was much like the first steep again. The Butiki starts out long and wiry, which means I would have been using less leaves compared to these unraveling bundles. Then at times, the tea seems more like one of those Ruby black teas. But I also at times described Butiki’s PTA to Ruby as well. So maybe this is a tea in between a Ruby black and Butiki’s PTA. I’m sorry I don’t have more distinct flavor notes for this though… A Ruby tea tastes a Roman nougat in a Russell Stover candy at times… though this tea isn’t QUITE that. The next day, I did want to revisit PTA because of experiencing this tea and it just reminded me that it’s always like caramelized strawberry, so possibly this tea is more like a Ruby than PTA. Nothing can really compare to the PTA, I suppose.
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for a full mug // 16 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 7 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // 3 min
2019 sipdowns: 22

I’m only barely getting into puer, so don’t want to pass much judgement, but this was a really pleasant tea for a rainy day. Steeped in a tiny gaiwan. Reminds me of being out in the forest after the rain, maybe with a little bit of good dark chocolate.

Sipdown! Working my way through some plain black teas that probably would not appreciate being iced.

I didn’t have quite enough of this for my tumbler, so it’s got a scoop of Golden Orchid mixed in. You can’t really tell, though.

Sipdowns in 2019: 21

This was a freebie in my last Whispering Pines order. I was really excited to see it in the box!

The leaves are long, whole, and dark. They smell faintly toasted and sweet. Instructions said to scoop with a half tablespoon, so I did. The resulting tea is a warm, welcoming amber.

Flavorwise, this does taste pleasantly toasted. Almost like brown sugar or burnt sugar. The notes remind me of leather and sweet potato. It’s smooth and hearty and perfect for a breakfast tea. Whispering Pines never fails to impress with their quality and the complexity of their teas.

Bah, I forgot to write a review on this yummy tea.

Update on those people upstairs that caused 7 cop cars, ambulances and more to come to our unit. They were evicted. Apparently, the guy beating the dog and his girlfriend wasn’t a tenant here and so because I called 911 on them, they were also busted for having extra pets (I didn’t know about that) and the guy wasn’t on the lease. So there ya go. It’s finally over and they are out. Looking forward to the next neighbors (not).

Back to the tea… Great tasting notes/reviews on this tea (which is why I purchased it) so I just wanted to put my two cents in. Lots of delicious notes. Fruits, nuts, cocoa with honey and caramel sweetness, malt and minerals. :D

The dry leaves were a mixture of dark and green long leaves, kind of looks like something you’d run into while snorkeling off an island, floating in the sea. It smells of super fresh hay… Like when you go down to the horse stables in the early morning to feed them. The aroma brings back good memories. It’s a vivid aroma. I still can’t say that it’s an aroma that makes me go yum, I’m sure horses think differently hehe. It is an aroma that brings back some precious youth memories, lost youth. The wet leaves added so many more different aromas: Wintergreen, mints in general, flowers, fruits, anise, grass, licorice. As the infusions continued, the mint became more pronounced. There were also sweet cherry notes, subtle peach, cinnamon, and spices, cocoa, malt, roasted yams, honey sweetness notes. Delicate flavors but complex. I wish I wasn’t the only one who reviewed this because I’m sure there is so much more… Just like I think that different temperatures and different tea prep would change this tea as well. It is a medium bodied tea, satisfying with many different notes and aromas but licorice and mint were always there. It never got bitter nor astringent and it has a long minty-cooling finish. I’m not into mint teas but this is very good because of the complexity.

Gaiwan, 7g, 194°F, 110ml, rinse, 9 steeps: 5s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 35s, 45s, 55s, 1m5s

Just opened my bag of this from…years ago. I don’t know how many. More than one. Tastes delicious, definite cocoa note as indicated in the name. Very nice black tea to get through my morning with. 2 steep so far in my giant Deadpool mug and I think I’ll probably go for a third, though maybe with a little less water. Then decide what I want to drink next.

New medication causes weight gain and is making me super hungry so I’m triyng to placate with tea.

Thank you Derk for this good couple cups of tea :D

Busy day yesterday and I got to try this and it was a really good brew. Not going to go into it, Derk has a good review on it. I had oversteeped it both times. I had meant to follow Derk’s exact directions o.O but got involved in work… However, even with my horrible attention span, it was still delicious. :D

Wow, its been a while. Got a sampler of this in an order last year and finally sipping it down. Given my last note was almost 5 years ago, I thought I would make a new one.

I’ll agree with the description in that it does have kind of a cereal vibe to the flavor. Not really my thing.

However, I am glad to be trying to again. Tastes change over time and it can be nice to revisit to see how my perception changes.

I’m also updating to match better with my new rating system.

Wow, this stuff is rolled tightly. The little balls are so tiny but expand hugely. Start off with just a few small balls in my infuser and after steeping, it comes close to filling half the infuser.

Flavor is good, not bitter or astringent. I still prefer Golden Snail, but this is pretty good as well.

Backlog: I haven’t drank this one often because it’s a favorite I want to keep by. I had it a few days ago. If I drink it, it’s one of the few teas of the day because it’s powerful. I do agree with one of the other reviews. This one is kinda floral now that I think about it. It still has a apricot malt vibe to me, and I really like it. I have too many high end teas in my stash that I need to drink more of. I have drank more tea in the summer than in the winter or even spring for that matter.

Oddly enough, I’ve barely had tea at work. I would alternate between having no caffeine because of stress to having black iced coffee to prevent me from snacking during the day. I might bring my Gongfu2go tumbler again. The middle piece of it broke, so I don’t bring it into work often. I’m thankful that my schedule shouldn’t be as hectic this school year, knock on wood.

Sipdown, and a sad one at that. I wish I ordered more of this one than Ancient Spirit. It can get a little bit woodsy, whereas this one is like drinking fruit leather. I have tons of Taiwanese blacks to drink anyway, and so many frickin’ notes to write, but I wanted to start off with this one. I’m seriously surprised there are not other reviews because this is easily one of the best blacks Whispering Pines has offered.

Look at the previous note. This one is awesome.

To begin describing this one…is a bit of a challenge. I’ll try my best anyway.

Starting off with borrowing Brenden’s apt naming, nectar is a good place to begin The dryleaf is leathery, but the tea is fruity, having an aroma close to apricots, stonefruit, berries, and something tropical, like mango. More so mango and apricot than anything else. Whatever kind of fruity the tea resembles, it made me think of the nectar cups that you serve to birds in Bush Garden’s bird exhibit. So the Mountain Nectar tastes like….nectar.

Here’s the other pretentious things I get out of the tea. The texture is creamy and thick, and the flavors fluctuate gong fu or western. Heavier leaves gives you a hint of the cocoa note that many look for in their blacks, and this tea does have a little bit of malt to it, but retains its voluptuous creamy texture and fruity notes. I got a little bit of spice in the hints, but something soft like nutmeg, and there was a nuttiness that was not apparent like almond. The fruity notes combined with the creamy ones reminded me of marzipan for some reason. Brenden described buttery croissant, and maybe that’s what I’m getting in the savory background. That thought could just be a throwaway one. Oh well. Hopefully someone else will do a better job describing this one.

The tea is very durable, and can last all styles of brewing. It even lasted seven brews western and keeps on yielding with close to five grams. Anyway, this tea is definitely a favorite in my collection right now. It is very similar to the Wild Mountain one, but this tea has more tropical and orange colored fruits in the tastes, whereas the other one has more blue and purple fruits like blackberry and its special spicy kick. It can have a little bit of a rise in my tastebuds that’s almost cooling, and then warming again. I have no idea how else to write about it yet. This one is hands down smooth.

Not sure what to rate it, other than in the 90’s with a huge recommendation. The price is a little up, but I actually think you pay what you get for this one.