Whispering Pines Tea Company

Happy Valentines Day all ❤️

Thank you Derk :D for this sample. This has been on my wishlist for a very long time. Like many of my wishlist items, it was a tea that is long gone (at least for now) and the likelihood of being able to try it is also long gone. I was so delighted to get this that I just wanted to keep the sample of it for as long as I can… Maybe just frame it. lol

There are a few really great and thorough reviews on this tea. It is such a complex tea. I enjoyed reading them all. First thought after taking my first sip or two… This is Yunnan black tea? Did I grab the wrong one? Started out woodsy, citrusy, fruity, stonefruits, slightly floral, orchid. For an infusion or two, early on, it reminded me of a sheng I like. It was unique in its taste because it just didn’t taste like any of the Yunnan black teas I’ve tried (note: I don’t have a lot of experience with black tea. Thankfully someone else far more experienced said that too.) But this “Sheng” taste went away, it’s so complex that when I thought I somewhat understood the taste profile, it morphed into something else. Just as tasty, but different. There were berries, fruits, honey, clove, spices, and later some minerals, sweetness versus perfect tart notes here and there. In the long infusions, in the end, I got the malt, the sweet potatoes, the brown toast, the caramel along with the citrus and berries notes that were still there. Ah! I didn’t grab the wrong sample after all :).

So yeah, this was quite a journey. It lasted throughout the whole day. I look forward to trying it again if it ever becomes available. So, for now, my first impression is that it is a wonderfully complex and tasty wildcrafted black tea. I’d like to try it all the different ways as well.

3g, 110ml, 205F, rinse, 10 steeps, 25s, 35s, 45s, 55s, 65s, 75s, 85s, 2m, 3m, 5m.

I swear I’ve written a note about this one before. Anyway, I snagged some to savor when it was back in stock. I feel like I don’t need to write too much about this one. It reminds me a lot like bakers chocolate with extra loads of vanilla, making me think of brownies. This tea does better Gong Fu than Western in my opinion because I can break out the individual notes, like rose,cherry, licorice, bread, squash, and so on. I prefer this one over Golden Orchid because it’s richer, but out of all of the Whispering Pines blended originals black blends, I would still say my favorite is the Jabberwocky. This one is my favorite of the Vanilla Dreams Collection with Rivendell (please return sooooooon). I still recommend this one as a Valentine’s Day treat.

Opened the pouch yesterday. I was looking forward to trying this one.

The Jabberywocky tea’s dry leaf is thin dark twists. The dry tea leaves and tea are aromatic. It has a good chocolatey, woody forest, honey aroma. The wet leaves have the equivalent but more intense aroma of cocoa, dark cocoa to be specific and honey. I could smell some malt, baked bread, and wheat toast. I love those three aroma/taste in tea, by the way. The liquor was a dark amber color and the early infusions had some dried fruits, lots of cocoa. It was woodsy and malty. The baked bread, wheat toast/bread, sweet potatoes, and some spices notes, a dash of salt were present throughout the infusions along with the fresh aroma of fruits, sweetness. Later infusions produced minerals, raisins, and a stronger fruit taste, particularly white peaches, more malt, while the dark cocoa, wood, sweet potatoes, and bread-y notes remained. Lots of honey sweetness, along with brown sugar, burnt sugar, caramel, toasted bread. It has a thick texture although not as thick of a texture as their Alilaoshan Black that I sampled a couple of weeks ago. This is smoother though, in fact, when I drank the infusions, it felt as though I used a different type of water, I didn’t. Really soft mouthfeel. It is also extremely complex with clean notes. Great aftertaste and a long finish of sweetness, and coolness. No bitterness or astringency.

6g, 212°F, 110ml, rinse, 14 steeps: 5s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 35s, 45s, 55s, 1m5s, 1m15s, 1m30s, 2m, 3m, 5m

After having a very mellow, Wizard of Oz Poppy field, type of tea (China Fujian Anxi ‘Tie Guan Yin’ Oolong Tea by What-Cha which I enjoyed very much). I really needed a pickup. Decided to try another Whispering Pines black tea. It did the trick… I’m awake again.

O_O

The dry leaves smelled like dark chocolate, had an absolute yummy aroma. I had a salty dinner and sweet after salty is always good, and vice versa. The wet leaves had sweet potatoes, stronger chocolate, and caramel aroma. Heavenly. The taste although good did not have the intensity of the aroma of the wet leaves. It was good but something was missing from a top tier Dian Hong (for me). Where’s that thick malt that I love so much? Is that what is missing? Well no… It’s there. Not strong, but it’s there. In fact, as I progressed through the infusions, the malt came out more and more. Nice. Check. The next infusions I got more cocoa notes, nice chocolate notes are here. Nice notes of cream, chocolate, spices… Peppercorns, spiciness, a touch of floral (I really suck at guessing what type of flower btw), some more sweet potatoes, some minerals, caramel, honey, a splash of citrus. Pretty tasty.

It’s medium-bodied, smooth, has a nice slick, oily mouthfeel and a nice finish. I think I would’ve loved some baked bread notes as I felt there needed to be something more to get this to the 90 range… But, all in all, it is still a good cup of tea, a daily sipper, reasonably priced and a clean tea (wildcrafted). I’ll have to try their parameters next time.

6g, 212°F, 110ml, rinse, 8 steeps: 25s, 35s, 45s, 55s, 65s, 75s, 85s, 120s

Finished up my bag of this. I found that it does do well in a gaiwan but I prefer the Gold Needles brewed western using Brenden’s parameters of 1/2T (~2g?), 8oz, 212F, 3/5m.

Dry leaf smells like clean forest air with additional notes of citrus, pepper and malt. After the first steep, the aroma coming from the wet leaf has malt, cocoa, rose, honey and soft orange. The steam wafting from the cup is similar to the dry leaf, not quite as deep as the wet leaf.

The tea is very clean and light-bodied with very little astringency and no bitterness. Tastes of citrus, malt, mineral, fresh mushroom, cocoa, light honey and hints of black pepper and nutmeg swirl around the mouth as a smooth, well rounded brew with a clean finish. Tasty with a piece of bittersweet chocolate.

Too green for my personal tastes

I started this in the morning and well, due to many things, my gongfu session was broken up, and one of my cats stepped on my phone and I lost count on which steep I was on, blahblahblah lol. So I restarted a new one.

The tea leaves are really pretty, mixed colors with gold in it. When I opened the package, the dry tea leaves smelled like hay, sweet hay. In the cup, the dry leaves had a malt, cocoa aroma, less hay. After the rinse, the lid and leaves had a nice cocoa, malty aroma.

As I continued, other things came in… Hints of citrus and their rind, stone fruits aroma and flavors. The lid smelled of honey, brown sugar and molasses. As I progressed, I didn’t get lots of chocolate, I did get some in the beginning. There was always a lot of malt notes. (It could be because last night I had their Cocoa Amore which has an abundance of chocolate. Everything is relative. hehe) The aroma was progressively getting stronger in fruits, particularly stone fruits. I didn’t get the tart apple or honeydew as described and unfortunately I have no idea what wildflowers taste like hehe.

The mouthfeel changed from silky, creamy to clean… Not a lot of astringency nor bitterness. It had a long finish no matter what infusion I was on, and as I was sitting here reading the reviews, I could smell orange, orange rind, cherry, stone fruits and molasses on the inhale-exhale well after I finished the infusion. In the middle of these infusions, it reminded me of the Moonlight raw pu’er from Teavivre because of the strong presence of stone fruits but with lots of malt and some creaminess. All in all, it was a good several cups of tea.

7g, 212°F, 110ml, rinse, 10 steeps: 10s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 35s, 45s, 55s, 65s, 75s, 120s

I received this free sample. It came in a pouch, with good labeling and a 7.5 g serving. Lots of reviews, but looks like I’m somewhat of an outlier.^^

The dry leaves had a great aroma of molasses, cocoa, spices, malt, nuts. After the rinse, the lid smelled even better, along the same lines but with the addition of fried plantains and sweet potatoes. It remained flavorful to the end with constant changes throughout all the infusions. It was complex and I was glad I did shorter infusions in the beginning. Sweet potatoes were the main constant from beginning to end. Notes of roasted nuts, molasses, dark chocolate, bittersweet and sweet chocolate, malt, toast, a little citrus here and there, plums, caramel, spices too. It was a smooth and creamy mouthfeel in the beginning and then that changed too. Their site says it gives a “glassy” mouthfeel. It never got bitter nor astringent.

110ml porcelain gaiwan, put the entire 7.5g in it., 205°F, rinse, 11 steeps: 5s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 35s, 45s, 55s, 65s, 75s, 120s.

I received this free sample from them in my most recent order. It came in a pouch, with good labeling and a generous 7-8 g serving.

Oh no. Yikes. I’m the first one to review this. ^^

The dry leaves are elongated, twisted, dark, wire-y. The wet leaves, in the beginning, had a prominent floral aroma, almost perfumey. The liquor is a bright orange color. Early steeps I got a bit of baked bread, sweet plantains, honey, toast, but quite a bit of daylily notes as described on their site. For a couple of steeps, it started getting a little perfumey but that stage passed. The lid began losing the perfumey aroma and started smelling like sweet potatoes. By the fifth infusion, it was a wonderful full-on sweet potatoes yummy smell and on the 7th infusion, the lid smelled of freshly baked bread and sweet potatoes, the flavor profile mimicked the aroma. The floral notes were still there but not as prominent as before. I really began enjoying this tea in those middle stages on. As I progressed, the spices came out more, the floral exiting a bit, but was always there, the malty comforting side of the savory spectrum entered, some astringency but not a lot.

Delightful cup(s) of tea… Especially after my rice and steak stir-fry.

7g, 212°F, 110ml, rinse, 11 steeps: 5s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 35s, 45s, 55s, 65s, 75s, 120s

This is the last of the Pu-erh samples from Whispering Pines. I’ll go to sampling their black teas again after this. I received a nice size sample of 18g and used 6g of it.

It is a thick mouthfeel and it is active in my mouth as the description says. It tingles my tongue. There is quite a bit of minerality, wet rocks note. I didn’t notice any bitterness throughout the infusions, nor did I get a lot of astringency. It’s very smooth, warming. The fermentation flavors are there, the rich earthiness, wet earth, some mushroom notes.

It’s a nice blend of “Bulang Mountain material from 2007 and Menghai area material from 2012” and was fermented in cloth bags versus pile-fermented. Some other notes were of bittersweetness, brown sugar sweetness, some spices and did detect a little of the fruitiness, the tart cherries and dark chocolate. The finish is the brown sugar sweetness, not the bittersweet or tartness.

Their site mention that it is very reactive to humidity changes “so let it settle out for at least a week once it’s arrived at your house” which I did. I think this is a good daily drinker type, very rich and mellow. I enjoyed it after a good lunch.

Yixing gaiwan, 6g, 212°F, 110ml, rinse, 11 steeps: 5s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 35s, 45s, 55s, 65s, 75s, 120s

I got this as part of their pu’er sampler. It came in one 14g chunk, easy to break up in two. It’s a medium fermented Menghai Te Ji Grade pu’er, “mostly pure bud with some larger leaves mixed in (technically between gong ting and grade 1).”

It’s a super dark reddish brown liquor with a heavy leather aroma after the first infusion of 5s. The taste wasn’t that heavy of leather (thankfully). It was earthy, mushrooms, wet wood, some leather… Fermentation flavors. As I went through the steeps, the aroma changed and I could smell sweetness, cocoa, still very earthy, some leather. The flavors of fruit came out… Black cherry? Plum? with the earth notes, leather notes, mushroom, and mineral notes. I have no idea what merlot tastes like so if it has those notes as the description says, I wouldn’t know :P. It is rich, and it has a creamy viscous mouthfeel while sipping, ending with a bite. It remained very earthy, mushrooms and hints of fruit throughout. It’s a daily drinker type.

Yixing gaiwan (specifically for shou), 7g, 110ml, rinse, 5s, 7s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 30s, 35s, 40s, 45s, 1m.

Really enjoyed this the other day. I got it as a free sample. :D

I had it before from their pu-erh sampler but didn’t review it. I’m glad I had a chance to try it again. The dry leaves were small (Te Ji grade) strips, dark. The wet leaves gave off an aroma of leather, earth, some hay and those aren’t my favorite aromas hehe but the dark burgundy liquor was clean, absent of any strong fermentation aromas and tastes. The taste profile was plummy, earthy, some cocoa notes, some grape notes. As I went through my several short infusions, the sweetness came out more and more, as well as some mineral goodness, leaving only a hint of the earthiness behind. The first few infusions had a distinctive dryness, like that of wine. By the 4th and 5th infusions is was more smooth, more fruity and a delicate sweetness with interesting spice notes coming forward. The aftertaste was fruity, sweet, minerally, and spicy.

Gaiwan, 7.5g, 110ml, 10s rinse, several infusions starting at 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 40s and more until I was no longer counting steeps or timing infusions. It gave me a nice, relaxing energy. Energetic but calming. Was perfect for what I needed on the day my laptop died lol. I’m on my new laptop today and I finished setting it up and adding all the programs I had on my other one. Worst part about getting a new computer.

Nice and calm Sunday and thought I’d go through each of the Whispering Pines black tea that I have in stock to re-evaluate them. Sometimes when I get a lot of tea in, my head starts spinning lol. It’s nice to note which ones you really want on your shelf.

Instead of gongfu style, I’m putting 2 g in a 60 ml porcelain gaiwan for 3 min and 5 min.

Yunnan Gold Tips, Wildcrafted Dian Hong, and Golden Orchid so far. So, I had to stop and make an additional note on this one… This one is so good.

I want more. :)

Update: Just finished North Winds (Imperial grade), Ailaoshan and Golden Snail (this one was for 5m/8m instead of 3m/5m). The rest of my day will be Jabberwocky, Cocoa Amore, and Taiwanese Wild Mountain Black.

I’ll be playing Civilization 6 Gathering Storm, watching the news, maybe watch a musical later tonight, maybe finish a couple of books. Haven’t been in the mood to knit the past month so nah on that one. lol

You gotta love free days. Have a wonderful Sunday, all. ^^

note: I’ve done this with What-Cha, TeaVivre, Mandala Tea… Etc. It helps me realize which ones I really like.

Lots and lots of reviews on this. It must have been a happening tea back in the day. hehe Well, I can see why.

The dry leaves are twisted and dark. It smelled good, like a ‘hot cocoa’ mix with a strong vanilla aroma. As soon as the water came in contact with it, I could smell an intense dark chocolate and vanilla aroma. I wondered if it would be too sweet for me.

The liquor is a rich-looking copper color. The flavor though wasn’t just the chocolate and vanilla as I had imagined from the aroma. Not even. It wasn’t the simplistic taste I had thought it would be (from the aroma) but had lots of different notes: Toasted bread, dark chocolate, vanilla, malt, and fruity notes. Cherries? Plums? Raisins? At the end of the sip, the creamy vanilla (Kind of like a high-end vanilla ice-cream but warm) and slight sweetness remained in my throat, but then the dark chocolate is there in the background, lingering. It’s complex, and I didn’t detect any artificial flavoring. Just the real deal… Natural vanilla always tastes different than artificial vanilla. This malty, vanilla, dark chocolate, fruits, spices, great black tea base blend isn’t your normal everyday blend. It’s very smooth with a whip-creamy taste without that buttery mouthfeel. I’m glad I took my time with it and I’m glad it was available when I checked their website a few days ago. ^^

Gaiwan, 6g, 205°F, 110ml, rinse, 9 steeps: 10s, 15s, 25s, 35s, 45s, 55s, 65s, 75s, 120s

Watching SuperBowl 2019 and had a gongfu session. Nice way to stay relaxed during a tense time lol.

The first time I tried this, I really liked it but the notes were on the light side. It was a busy day, and I had brewed it Western style, as per the suggestions. At the time, I felt it didn’t do it justice. Tonight I went gongfu style, and I prefer it this way. Very creamy, rich, decadent, malty, with strong cherry-chocolate notes. The first couple of infusions were of dark cocoa, but as I progressed I got more and more fruit, cherry-chocolate, some caramel notes, a hint of licorice, vanilla and cinnamon spices. Remained creamy till the end.

7g, 205°F, 110ml, rinse, 10 steeps: 10s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 30s, 35s, 40s, 45s, 50s, 55s

P.S. The team I was rooting for… Didn’t win. lol

A lot of reviews on this. I was happy to see it available on their website again. Like many here, it’s been on my wishlist for a long time.

I prepared it by putting 5g in 12 fl oz at 200°F for 3 minutes, the second steep was for 7+ minutes. It’s a malty cherry chocolate black tea with some vanilla notes, some bittersweet dark chocolate notes… Like those dark chocolate covered cherries but mild. The cherry is very natural and it is not an ingredient, it is part of the tea itself which makes it pretty delicious. Next time I’m going to gongfu it to get a more full picture of the profile but for now, I was just so excited to try it (finally).

What a day. lol I rushed to get to the post office with minutes to spare and well… It’s Sunday. That’s one thing about working from home a lot, the days just kind of mesh together. For meetings, I just have to remember one or two days per month lol. Anyway, thank goodness for those self-serve machines. I was still able to send it and thankfully, for once, I actually packaged it at home since they don’t have tape nor pens there.

The post news Lupicia frenzy has me tasting and re-tasting all their teas. Trying to decide which one to hoard is like asking to choose only one type of food to eat the rest of your life if you’re stuck on an island. lol I thought I’d chill with some good pu’er. I used to be a sheng girl but am shifting to a shou girl…

So my “out of sorts” day continued… I messed up royally while testing this tea. On the 3rd infusion, instead of 15 sec, it became 15 minutes. Ugh lol. So here are some notes on it: It’s a good daily drinker type. A clean shou for the beginners, no strong fermentation flavors. It has nice notes of molasses, brown sugar, walnut, slightly sweet. Has a nice smooth mouth-feeling. It has also had notes of wet earth, caramel, cocoa. The liquor is dark but 15 minutes of any pu’er would give you a dark syrup looking liquor I think lol.

Oh man…

This is a much newer season, 2023 spring (?) I think. It’s pretty good. Cedar there, heavier on grass, milk, pear, and florals. I’m saying this a lot, but its yet another favorite I horded. If you ever decide to get a Whispering Pines Tea order, this is my personal recommendation out of the oolongs offered.

I confess that I order this one to see what it was. My bets were on the obvious Ali Shan or Shan Lin Xi, though I leaned towards Shan Lin Xi since they tend to have more of an alpine finish than their Ali counterparts do. Sipping this, however, made me lean a little more towards Alishan at first because of the honey and cream notes, but the evergreen character made me think otherwise. Then I put the picture on the page, and saw the Long Feng label…that makes so much more sense.

Anyway, I have greatly enjoyed it so far because it’s got some great complexity. Brenden’s notes does this one the most justice; it’s scent and taste have the evergreen feel to it like fresh air in the woods, but the aftertaste is far from woodsy and is instead sweet. Sometimes, the tea was smooth and creamy, sometimes it was pure sweet, and other times, it was sweet with a hint of spice. Either way, the tea was green, viscous, and just in part, vegetal.

It was the same price as the Li Shan, and I continue to prefer this one right now. I do think this is worth a try, and I actually think that the price for this one is reasonable given how outrageous a Long Feng can be in expense. With notes to come, I will note that I highly recommend it.

Kawaii already nailed the notes on this one. I got this on pre-sale, and I can safely say it compares to other high quality Li Shans.

I was not too impressed at first because it hit all the trademarks I associate with the varietal gong fu, including a strong umami and an ever shifting fruit blossom character in the hints and midsips, shifting between melon, mango, and apple amidst a creamy texture. Florals, greens, and umami characterized the tea overall. Western, it was much the same, but thicker. The Evergreen Oolong was becoming my preference for the past few days, but that eventually changed. Grandpa style surprisingly brought about some more complex notes out of this tea.

The florals, fruits hints, and thick viscosity combined into something very close to coconut water. The finish was sweeter and more pronounced, but it was thick and a hint acidic in the aftertaste without being sour. There was some evolution in the florals, between lilac, iris, honeysuckle, and hyacinth, but not too much. It lasted me four more rebrews grand pa.

Although I haven’t paid full attention to the exact notes yet gong fu, I know that the tea is durable and flavorful. This is no surprise given the giant size of the leaves. I am a little critical of the price on the regular website, but it’s not unreasonable for what you get. Some companies might charge as much as $15 or $20 for the same quality. Like my other notes of late, I will write more in the future. I’m rating it as a solid 90 to show it’s a quality tea worth trying.

A few weeks ago a friend came to a meeting with a box of lipton tea bags, a bottle of honey and a bottle of lemon juice. She was getting a cold and brought her own meds for it. Knowing I was a tea drinker, she offered to make me a cup. I dislike Lipton with a passion but I didn’t want to be rude, so I accepted a cup.

It wasn’t half bad that way. So yesterday when I got a tickle in my throat I thought about making some tea with honey and lemon. I didn’t, but it is much worse today. Like, my joints ache and I keep coughing up junk , and it hurts a little to breathe, and I feel miserable, but my nose isn’t plugged. So I decided to see what straight black teas I had. I found a sample sized pouch of this. I remember having it quite a while ago. It’s languished since then, although I recall I liked it fine.

Anyway, just a tish of lemon and a teaspoon of honey in a large, 14 ounce mug. I used double the amount of leaf I normally would, but the tea sin’t really coming through,. It is overpowered by the honey and lemon. Although, I do get a hint of mint. I don’t know if this is actually helping, but it certainly isn’t hurting. I imagine I will finish off the pouch today.

I wanted a rich smooth tea this afternoon, so I decided on this one. It was the sample I received with my last WP order. I wanted rich and smooth and that is what I got. My sinuses are a little more open today so I was able to taste the complex subtleties in this tea. This is a superior tea.

We’re expected 8-10 inches moire of snow tomorrow and Sunday. I am going no where and doing nothing but sit, read, knit, and drink tea.