Whispering Pines Tea Company

Post Thanksgiving dinner mug of tea.

This was supposed to be a hot cup of tea, but everyone knows what happens after Thanksgiving dinner – you fall the fuck to sleep. So, instead of drinking this when I made it I set it aside and had a nap with Eilert instead. Guinea pig naps are the best.

Now this is cold though, and it’s not quite as good as it was. Still not bad, but just a little flat? Primarily a hybrid of peach and buttery vegetal notes: creamed spinach, edamame, and artichoke hearts? Also, just the faintest bit of astringency in the finish of the sip. Likely from the very fine sediment sitting at the bottom of the mug from being strained that then proceeded to hang out in my mug for nearly two hours.

Welp.

So I didn’t love this one the first time I had it, however I recently tried it again as a Western style mug of tea to much better success. I honestly don’t know what the difference was; I think I prepared it essentially the same way? However, this time around it tasted a lot brighter and smooth and the top and body notes were dominated by a very smooth, juicy flavour of peaches and nectarines! It was very natural and vibrant, and I was really into the nectarine notes in particular.

Like, just to give some sense of how intense/vibrant they were – had I not prepared the tea myself and seen that it was indeed a straight white tea I would have been CONVINCED that this was just a really well done nectarine flavoured white.

The finish was more like what I experienced with the last cup; very vegetal and buttery. In particular, I thought it was very brussel sprout like. I few years ago that would have been such a turn off, but my palate has changed so much in the last few years and that buttery brussel sprout flavour was actually really nice. I’m not sure that had it not been contrasted against those fruit notes I would have loved it the same way but for this cup at least it was really smooth and pleasant.

Good thick mouthfeel, too.

Western.

God, I love the little curly snail looking tea leaf for this one. It’s just so strikingly fun and whimsical; I could look at it forever.

- Can’t decide if I like this one or not
- Very, very buttery with a sharply smokey finish
- The body is very, very vegetal: artichoke, green beans, peas, squash
- It’s unlike your typical white tea for sure; just don’t know that I’m into it

Maybe it’s a bit of an acquired taste and I’ll just have to try it a few more times to get into it; or perhaps I just need to approach this one with a different style of making it. I’ll hold off on rating in the meantime, until I’ve tried this a few more times and know what I think of it a little better.

I tried to drink this tea to escape being literally drunk on Christmas day. The following excerpt is obviously me, hammered:

“This cup is a gentle white tea with flowery cinnamon notes. It’s like a summer morning in a flower-strewn prairie. The tea itself takes a backstage to the dainty main notes.

When I looked up this tea on the Whispering Pines site, the author talks about a cricket song dancing through a desert plain. I was super-hype that I’d come up with the “outside flowers-in-an-expanse” visual.

Were the Whispering Pines dude and I connected? Am I a psychic? Should I take up tarot reading or palmistry or numerology or astrology? Or maybe I could acquire a crystal ball? Where does one acquire a crystal ball? Ebay, as it turns out. It’s also possible to get pendulums, runes, and scrying stones."

http://sororiteasisters.com/2017/01/26/cricket-from-whispering-pines-tea-company/

I got this as a sample, so 5g, ~100ml, 205F, w/ 5s wash.

The initial taste I would say is /kinda/ like seaweed and umami, but very little seaweed and a ton of umami. It is quite reminiscent with the other Shou Pu-erh cakes from whispering pines. What’s REALLY interesting is the after taste, it has a very strong cocoa flavour to it. This aftertaste is strong enough to overpower the actual initial flavour, a really surprising find on my end.

There is no astringent taste to it, that I would associate with other strong-flavoured shou pu-erhs. It has some great mineral notes, but nothing ‘rocky’ tasteing like wuyi oolongs.

Comparing this to two other pu-erh’s I had from WhisperingPines, I would classify this as not being as tasty as the 2012 Huron Gold Needle, but generally better than the 2015 Lord of the Lakes.

One thing to note, due to the constant cocoa you get per sip, the bitterness adds up over time, which can be one negative for this cake. Otherwise, it’s pretty decent.

This tea it thick and rich with sweet flavors like cherry and vanilla. People talk about tea’s ability to transport the drinker to another place and time and this is one of the few shous I’ve ever found that do that for me. My only regret is that all I have is a sample size of this cake. I will be ordering more soon!

What a lovely tea! First of all the tea cake is gorgeous, you almost don’t want to chisel through. The initial aroma gave me hints of citrus and spice. The soup started out a beautiful golden and with each steep making its way to an amber. I started my steeps and progressed as follows:
1: 20 sec @170F / 2: 20 sec @170F/ 3: 20 sec @170F/ 4: 20 sec @ 200F / 5: 30 sec @ 160F / 6: 1 minute @ 140F/ 7: 1 minute @ 140F

At the last steep I was loosing flavor…I am thinking I should have gone back up to a warmer temp to try and push it…which will be my note for the next sesh with this tea.

Overall, I loved this tea, it was very very delightful….although this m y first go around with this tea it left a very good impression on me. I plan to explore this more throughout the week.

i want it…

Enjoyed a tea sesh with this tea yesterday morning. First ripe puerh I have gotten into (been drinking raw puerh up until now) and the darkest tea I have ever drank. The dry leaf had a dried salted fish aroma but also earthy. I did the recommended steeps and got a thick & velvety soup, rich molasses color and it overall reminded me of coffee (which I rarely drink). This was a great introduction for me into ripe puerhs – looking forward to more exploration. (Gong Fu Style in a glass gaiwan)

“Tonight’s energy brought to you by…”

I needed a cup of coffee tonight, but didn’t want to grab any while working, so I grabbed my Kamjove and brewed this instead. It was very nice to have tea for once at work. I rarely have the time do make tea or even move from my desk. They take the whole, “Look busy” thing seriously. However, I figured to heck with it, I need tea; otherwise, you’ll have an angry worker who was already anxious for the day to end.

Notes; Chocolate, nutty, and oranges(?). Drank this for nearly two hours. Better than coffee.

Gongfu Sipdown (668)!

This is/was a very old sample; it’s labelled on the bag as Spring 2017 – so I’m electing to call it unintentionally aged, rather than stale or anything like that. It actually did come out really quite nice tasting though, despite spending the last two years in a little sample packet. Maybe less vibrant/rich than it used to be, but completely drinkable and still really pleasant! I only got like five steeps, but I was pushing them fairly long to compensate for the sparse amount of leaf I was brewing. Still delightful, and also just a REALLY beautiful tea to look at!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/B0LhtKAgQMi/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN-xizBxlko

Sloppy Gong Fu.

- Four infusions
- Really smooth; thick mouthfeel and no astringency
- Malt, cocoa, sweet potato, grains, honey, stonefruit
- In that order!
- Also some red fruit undertones
- Some of the most gorgeous dry leaf I’ve seen in literal months!

Really enjoyed it; will try to do better notes next time.

This is the first of 7 teas I ordered from Whispering Pines, that I have tasted. First I would like to note I am a newbie, an amateur, so my tasting notes will reflect that of a novice. Second, I keep hearing from seasoned Chinese Tea drinkers that puerh is no good to drink unless it is at least 10 years old – any younger than that, you will not get much flavor or body. With that said — each time I try a raw puerh, I seem to get the same flavor results & thought = green/bitter. After drinking the 2016 Silver Fox, I definitely got similar notes – I went through 6 steeps. At first it started out very bitter but with each steep it dissipated. It tasted very “green” and around steep 4 I noticed a dry sensation in my mouth. The tea was not bad at all – but I wonder what it will be in 5, 10, 15 years down the line? The question is should I purchase another cake to store? I will have to go through a few more sessions to determine that for sure.

I’ve been holding off on this review for most of the day, but I finally decided to just go ahead and post it. This is apparently intended to be Whispering Pines’ house green tea, the sort of basic tea one may generally refer to as a “daily drinker.” I do not know much about this tea’s origin-the Whispering Pines website did not go into specifics-but I’m willing to bet this tea is Chinese in origin. A glance at the leaves revealed that this is a Bi Luo Chun, so this has to be Chinese, right? Teas of this type traditionally come from Jiangsu Province, but these days they also come from Yunnan, Sichuan, Zhejiang, and even Fujian Provinces. If I had to place its origin, I would guess Yunnan Province, but beyond asking the vendor directly, it’s not like I can be sure. Regardless of this tea’s origin, I found it to be a basic, pleasant, drinkable green tea.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. I usually do not rinse green teas, but I decided to do so here. After the rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 175 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 11 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 35 seconds, 45 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes.

Prior to infusion, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of grass, asparagus, bamboo, sorghum, and smoke. After the rinse, I detected wood and straw. The first infusion brought out hints of nuts and spinach. In the mouth, I detected mild notes of smoke, asparagus, grass, straw, wood, bamboo, and sorghum underscored by traces of nuts and spinach. Subsequent infusions brought out spinach, chestnut, hazelnut, seaweed, mandarin orange, lime zest, pine, green pea, corn husk, and mineral impressions. The later infusions were dominated by straw, mineral, seaweed, spinach, and wood notes underscored by subtle smoke, pea, grass, and citrus impressions.

This was not a bad tea. It would most definitely do the trick as a reliable, basic house green tea. I, however, had difficulty giving it my full attention over the course of a session. In truth, I found it kind of predictable. It did not surprise me much at all. I expect a lot out of the offerings from Whispering Pines Tea Company, so maybe I’m being somewhat harsh, but I just don’t think this tea compares to many of their other offerings. Also, I feel that while it is a quality green tea, I think it may be a hair too expensive for what it is. In the end, I would say that this tea is worth a try, but there are better teas of this type out there, and it is certainly not representative of the best this particular vendor has to offer.

It’s hard to believe this white tea compressed with snow chrysanthemum is almost ten years old now! I bought it all the way back when it was first pressed, in my vety first Whispering Pines order. Though it’s lost some of the pungency of the chrysanthemum flowers, it’s matured insanely well over the last ten years. The liquor is thick and syrupy with a very mouth coating quality, though it feels quite soft (and dare I say “fuzzy”) on the palate. It’s soothing with a pleasantly medicinal and herbal taste. I get notes of aged orange peel/chenpi, tree bark, ginseng, and crunchy Autumn leaves primarily. Though I’m glad I’ve had restraint in not drinking through it so quickly, I’m also really glad it’s not been neglected in my stash either. Tasting it age has been both delicious and educational!!

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/C-_PYo_umrm/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPOIe6WdhPQ

Geek Steep S3E13 – Cowboy Bebop

Gongfu!

This is the tea I ended up drinking during my rewatch for this episode. I kind if picked it for a few reasons, but the big one was the music in the series. I mean, the score for Cowboy Bebop fucking slaps and is, arguably, one of the best parts of the series. Certainly my favourite part of the series.

Every time I had a steep that timed out really well with the score it just felt like this perfectly paired, cinematic punctuation mark to the show. Especially for the fifth episode, which (without spoiling it) is one of the best moments in the series. It was drama, it was beautiful, and it was very delicious. That highly aromatic, kind of medicinal yet floral yet menthol yet citrusy profile of the tea just worked so damn well.

As we discussed in the full pod episode, this isn’t one of my favourite animes but I do think this ended up being one of my favourite anime pairings that I’ve explored since we started Geek Steep.

Gongfu!

This was my mid afternoon session today, and my first Gongfu session in the new apartment! That’s pretty cool; though in keeping with this year’s New Year’s resolution I tried not to think too much about picking the ‘perfect’ tea for the occasion and instead I just picked a good tea.

This chrysanthemum infused tea is thick and medicinal, with similar notes to chenpi, along with full bodies hot hay and floral notes. It’s coating on the throat and soothing, with an underlying sweetness. There’s still a fair bit of unpacking to go, but I have enough unpacked to #gongfu now, and the tea desk setup is looking pretty solid!!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/B8pGmqug7xI/

I wasn’t sure if I’d like the white desk over my old one, but I think it makes the space feel a lot brighter!

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciVfmcrbkqU

Another one that I was just really craving this week!

Smooth, full bodied and heavy liquor; kind of dense and syrupy. I did this one up as a Western mug and it came out very potent; soothing medicinal/camphor notes, lots of chrysanthemum, a bit of a basil like herbaceous quality, and a bit of a cooked down orange note. Reallllyyyyy good. Very relaxing.

Just realized that, without meaning to, I’ve basically been “checking in” on this tea yearly – and now I’ve got a pretty cool record of the flavour progression. Only thing is that I seem to have brewed a different prep method each time… Oops…

Today’s cup was Grandpa Style at work; my general workplace steeping method ‘go to’. Definitely stronger notes coming from the florals – distinct chysanthemum, with orange-y undertones comparable to chenpi, as I’ve observed from other chrysanthemum teas as of late. Some of that same sort of dandelion profile; and malt/hay. This brewed thick, and strong – perhaps a touch stronger than I was desiring? Not a bad Grandpa contender; but I think I preferred this with other prep methods overall.

I’m really delighted with how this cake has been aging!

I brewed myself up a mug of it probably about a week ago, and it was just such a pleasant cup. Very, very thick mouthfeel and rich flavour. I’d describe it as this malt and straw mixed general profile accented by a floral dandelion kind of taste that, although it isn’t the strongest flavour note, shines top to bottom in the sip – but especially in the top. Definitely one of those teas that hugs you from the inside out.

Midday cuppa.

I definitely steeped this one way longer than I had originally intended to. When I saw how intensely, deeply orange the liquor was I knew I was in for an experience – I just thought it’d be a bad one. I expected it to be pretty bitter, but it actually wasn’t. The flavour WAS really intense though. It was very savory/herbaceous with a mix of really strong, dominant chrysanthemum, dandelion, rosemary, pine/wood, and hay notes.

I actually liked how unabashedly herbaceous this tasted! It was brilliant, and different and very comforting. I’ve enjoyed that element of this tea in the past, it was just ten fold here.