Whispering Pines Tea Company

Mmmm…

I’m really loving the complexities of this one.

I just made it as a simple, late night Western mug but I feel like I got such a great array of flavours even with that straight forward preparation. The sip started off with sweet hay notes and hints of white peach, and it sort of evolved into this mix of gentle spice notes, herbaceous rosemary/thyme, driftwood. It finished with a very clean, crisp soft honey note, and the entire time all of this had smooth undertones of very floral chrysanthemum. It was both very relaxing, and also quite engaging because of the complexities. I very much enjoyed it.

Western style tea pot!

Is it wrong to admit that I blindly bought this cake just because I love the aesthetic look of it so much? Like, I was pretty sure I’d enjoy the taste BUT visually this is just so stunning.

- Medium to full bodied flavour
- Notes of hay from the white base
- Floral undertones; chrysanthemum, gardenia?
- Also very herbaceous with strong rosemary notes
- And a bit of a woody/pine quality
- Overall does a great job of delivering a smooth profile that evokes the feeling of nature

I can’t wait to try this one Gong Fu because if it’s this fascinatingly nuanced and unique as a Western styled brew I can’t wait to see the fascinating layers of flavour it’ll have Gong Fu! I’m glad I enjoyed this one a lot, on top of it just being so pretty to look at.

The first raw/sheng pu’er I’ve tried, and the second 100g cake I’ve purchased. (The first one I ever got, as a present, was the Ontario pu’er 100g cake from WPTC.) This is also the first tea cake I’ve ever attempted to crack apart. I think I did ok, although of course I did break a few tea leaves. This cake doesn’t seem so tightly compacted that it’s going to be hard to break some off for a cup of tea. The leaves are beautiful, of course, all twisted and varying in color from a light silvery color to dark walnut brown.

Since I’m still new to pu’er, I decided to follow someone else’s steepings on here as close as I could—first steep at 5 sec with 6.5 g of leaves and 5 oz water, though I skipped doing a rinse; the leaves I managed to get off were individual and not in a chunk, so I felt it would be unnecessary to do a rinse.

The dry leaves smelled amazing and the wet leaves did as well, with little difference between the two that I noticed. A nice floral aroma, sweet, perhaps more like hay or grass. The tea brewed up a pale green, similar to a silver needle tea I recently had. It actually tastes very similar, too, although the floral notes are stronger and it seems sweeter than the silver needle. Not a trace of bitterness, happily.

Second steep of about 10 sec. Tastes similar to the first cup, not much difference that I can tell. Third steep ~15 sec. This one has a more sour note to it, possibly the grass flavor I have seen others mention? Fourth steep ~20 sec. Grassy note is gone; back to the sweeter, more floral green tea taste. Fifth steep ~25-30 sec. Touch of the sour note again. Otherwise, the flavor is slightly fainter than before. Six steep ~40-45 sec. Tastes much like the first cup, with a faint hint of the grass.

I received this in JakeB’s sale a while back — a whole cake! Thanks JakeB! I’m not sure if I tried this before because there is a piece missing, or if I just removed a piece to send to someone else. It would be surprising if I didn’t write a tasting note for a tea the first time I sipped it…. especially as this is the highest rated tea on Steepster at the moment (whoa!) Sadly nothing is special about it, so I probably had it before but didn’t write a note. My rating might drag it down from a 92 though, despite so many glowing reviews from other Steepsterers. I’m not sure if I’m steeping this wrong but this seems like your average ripe pu-erh… very smooth and dark but not as dark as I love my pu-erh to be. A smooth pu-erh seems like black tea to me (that somehow never gets astringent) but my favorite pu-erh needs something MORE there. Of course I’m very happy when none of those icky pu-erh flavors are there. All three steeps had relatively the same flavor, despite vast differences in steeping. I’m missing the magic that others see in this one though! Ah well, different tastes.
Steep #1 // 16 minutes after boiling // rinse // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 1/2 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // MANY minute steep

Edited to add: Honestly, I lowered the rating on this one until it was among the 90 rated teas and wasn’t the only tea as a 91! (Yesterday it was 92!) But my original rating would have been 80 anyway.

Great! Nice, smooth and soothing with a long-lasting session.

this good i love it

Creamy, woody and sweet. It’s the perfect way to spend this afternoon working from home. Sometimes I get a little dark mulch, sometimes a little raisin. Sometimes, I get a little cocoa.

I first had this about one year ago, and it blew me away from the start. The burst of a very vibrant, sweet-ish scent I could sit and inhale for an hour, and the combination of malty and honeyed flavors (to my taste buds – I am a fairly novice tea drinker) made this an instant favorite, and the one I choose when wanting to kill a good amount of time relaxing with a cuppa.

Over the next year, I tried many other Yunnans and blacks, thinking that I might find something comparable to the Golden Snail. So far, nothing even comes close. This tea is otherworldly, smooth and so layered. Stands up to repeated steeps, too.

Along with Earl Gold and Imperial Gold Buds, this tea has solidified Whispering Pines as my ultimate go-to for spectacular teas. Brenden is on to something really special, and I am happy to be able to experience it. Peerless.

Nice tea with a slightly different profile from the typical.
Nose; light floral, honey, sweet potato, slight koh ( incense ).
Palate; more delicate than most, sweet potato, butter, slight umami, almost a dancong sweetness and a light mineral character.

Smooth and sweet daily drinker, this light ripe would be a good introduction to shou.

The nose on this was what really got my attention, as it made me think of the aromas of a ramen restaurant with the vibrant umami aroma of nori (seaweed). The body seemed more medium while the lower-grade Ontario was full-bodied. Definitely a good-quality shou puerh, but I’ll need to come back to it and pay a bit more attention to the flavors.

Very vibrant caramel/chocolate/dark fruit flavor and thick coating mouthfeel in the first four infusions, and the sweetness and richness hung on better than most tippy black teas in the later infusions, though there was quite a contrast between the third, fourth, and fifth steepings where it got woodier and a little thinner

For me this rich tea sample was notable for its red wine, cocoa, mushroom and clean mineral notes.

It is also quite warming. The memory of this tea grew on me, I may order a cake.

Edit: Several months later I did buy a cake.

I had a 14g sample and used half in a 170 ml gaiwan, which in hindsight was too large, especially for my usual flash steeps.

The result of not following the instructions was that I couldn’t get a sense of the tea which was tasting like hongcha.

After three steeps I put the rest of the 14g into the pot, ah that was the ticket.

Clean soup, smooth, nutty, bittersweet chocolate and brown sugar.

Made for an enjoyable long session on a chilly morning.

Wow! This was a delight to the senses! So many flavours without any conflict, in a single cup. In the three cups I partook of this tea, I absolutely loved the hints of dark chocolate and the mix of fruits.

I came upon this tea during a visit to a friend who has just returned from Spain, for a work assignment. Interesting that he got the tea from a flatmate there who found this tea too complex for his taste. My Indian palate, is not averse to complexities. I exchanged whatever was left of my friend’s tea for all my organic Nilgiri coffee stash.

Although I won’t say that I regret it, for the tea was quite a happy surprise, I could have retained half my coffee stash. I have just two cups’ worth left. I hope tomorrow will be a more exciting day with this tea.

P.S. – I realised that my earlier reviews were not very detailed. I have tried to amend that with this review.

Okay, I’m finally back on Steepster after a nearly week-long absence. It’s not that I haven’t been drinking tea during this time, I just haven’t been posting reviews. Specifically, I have been working my way through larger amounts of several teas I have had for some time, one of which was this Yunnan black tea.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a very quick rinse to open the tea up, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 205 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 14 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted pleasant aromas of chocolate, malt, and wood. After the rinse, I detected aromas of brown sugar, toast, honey, sweet potato, and molasses as well. The first infusion produced a similar aroma with hints of butter, fruit, and vanilla bean. In the mouth, I picked up on gentle notes of dark chocolate, molasses, butter, wood, toast, malt, and brown sugar underscored by subtle hints of earth, honey, sweet potato, and fruit. Subsequent infusions brought out impressions of vanilla bean, baked bread, apricot, orange, maple syrup, honey, smoke, raisin, sweet potato, moist earth, and plum. The later infusions were smooth, offering hints of minerals, bread, toast, smoke, and malt underpinned by a slight honey and fruit sweetness.

I found this to be an extremely nice Yunnan black tea. It was a little more mellow than anticipated, but it had a tremendous amount to offer. It was definitely on par with the other Chinese black teas I have tried from Whispering Pines Tea Company. Of those I have tried so far, this one might be my favorite.

First steep at 190 F with 1 tsp of leaves for ~2 min. The dry leaves smell strongly of lilac, as if you’d buried your head in a lilac bush in the middle of a springtime garden. After steeping, they remain half-opened, again the strong scent of lilac. The brew is the palest shade of jade and the scent is lightly floral. The floral taste comes mostly in the aftertaste to me. There is no hint of bitterness at all, although the taste is so light I think perhaps I didn’t steep it long enough or use enough leaves.

Second steep of ~3 min. Leaves have opened more fully, showing off their beautiful vibrant green color. They look mostly complete, with very little broken leaves and some missing just a bit around the edges. The color of the brew is a darker shade of jade now, although the taste remains light. Still not as much floral or creaminess as I was hoping.

Third steep of ~4 min. Leaves look as if they are fully opened, although I no longer smell the lilacs from them. The shade of the brew is perhaps a touch lighter than the second brew, and less aromatic too. It does taste creamier though than the previous two brews, although less floral as well.

Here’s Hoping TTB

The dry leaf of this tea is so pretty! Long, fuzzy pale green buds that give off a faint aroma of new-mown hay. The liquor steeps up to a clear light yellow-green color without much of a scent. The flavor is light and sweet and slightly fruity. This definitely seems to be a quality tea, but it’s also a reminder that white tea just isn’t my favorite. I prefer a more robust flavor.

Forgot to save my previous note on this, so this will be just a short and quick review.

I prepare this tea mainly gongfu style, but I have also done it western

With gongfu, early steeps contain a very fruity apricot taste (specifically dried apricot). But subsequent infusions adopts a heavier wood-like taste with malt and dried apricot background. I haven’t seen how it tasted following the end-stage infusions, so can’t give much of a comment on that.

I did prepare this western style once quite a while ago, and I do have to say that western style is the recommended way to approach this tea. It had a very complex yet harmonic taste, consisting of fruits (with apricot as main), honey, general sweetness, light wood, chocolate, and a maltyness around it. I believe gongfu style doesn’t allow the blend of leaves to steep sufficiently enough to have the combined flavour from all of them, but instead prefers the faster steeping leaves over the others.

Not a bad tea, but not recommended if you prefer tea gongfu style.