Whispering Pines Tea Company

Sipdown (1336)!

I’m pretty sure this sample was from TheWeekendSessions, so thank you Micah for the tea sample! I always feel bad finishing off straight tea samples Western style, but I just didn’t have the energy to make this one Gongfu – I did resteep it a few times though, because that made me feel less guilty…

It was tasty though; pretty robust and earthy with this really enjoyable thickness to the liquor. Like drinking a sweet and petrichor rich broth. I felt calm and relaxed afterwards, and though I had this “warm glow” about me, the finish itself after each sip was cooling and camphorous. Also just a really smooth and clean tasting shou overall.

One last session for the evening before I call it a night, embrace the sweet comfort of bed and mentally prepare myself for the nightmare that will be working retail on Boxing Day. I pulled this one a few days ago to drink, but just getting around to it now – it’s been in my cupboard for a while now and though I have tried it, it’s been a long time and I think it was only Western style that I first had it?

Started off with a rinse; the aroma is lovely! Stewed fruits, earth, molasses, petrichor…

Steep One: 12 Seconds
- I’ve been experimenting a little with my steep times for Gong Fu lately
- But haven’t settled into a generic “pattern” I’m sure happy with yet…
- This is ok; but oddly salty…
- I find myself thinking of red earth, clay, and jerky; or at least what jerky smells like
- Or cured meat!? Tough(ish) for me to place
- Longtime vegetarian, after all…

Steep Two: 12 Seconds
- Smells sweeter/less of umami and meats??
- More woody, with the same mix of red earth and clay
- Still a LITTLE BIT salty but not the same way it was
- Lingering finish is a bit more cooked fruit/stewed fruit and sweet earth

Steep Three: 18 Seconds
- Much, much better now in the overwhelming salt/meat flavour department
- Talking to Slack people about it; and I think it just didn’t air out as well as it could have
- Now it feels more well rounded, with a lot of sweet wood and earth notes
- Kind of a sweet, vanilla/nut undertone creeping in now
- Also still cooked/stewed fruits in the finish: prune/raisin

Steep Four: 25 Seconds
- Steeped leaf smells lovely; sandalwood and damp earth! Very peaceful…
- Yeah; totally a much better/cleaner flavour now!
- A mix of wood, red earth, raisin, petrichor, stewed fruit, resin, and walnut skins
- Kind of a creamy mouthfeel

Steep Five: 30 Seconds
- Best steep yet; mostly wood, petrichor, cream, vanilla, and walnut
- With sweet cooked fruit/raisin undertones
- Really nice finish! A slight, haunting linger of vanilla and wood then short fade out

Steep Six: 30 Seconds
- Much of the same as last infusion but with a stronger vanilla/cream thing going on
- REALLY digging this pairing of vanilla and strong wet wood notes though
- It’s good shit

Steep Seven: 40 Seconds (Give or take a bit; lost count near the end)
- Definitely seeing a decline in the robustness/dark hue of the liquor colour
- But I’m really enjoying the flavours as this one begins to die off
- Silkier, with soft notes of wood, earth, vanilla, walnut, and dates now
- Kind of brown sugar-y as well?
- REALLY clean finish

Steep Eight: 1 Minute
- Same as prior infusion, just a touch milder/more watery

Steep Nine: 1 Minute
- Still a light coppery colour to the liquor but like 90% of the flavour has faded now
- Mostly a very vanilla/wood sort of thing with light earth undertones
- And a bit of a caramel sweetness to the end
- It’s sort of a sad overall flavour though; very weak/watery

Steep Ten: Two Minutes
- Just a shadow of what this was
- I think this is as good as any a time to cut the session off
- There’s still SOME flavour left, but it’s quite late now
- And I should definitely be policing my caffeine/liquid intake

Overall thoughts? This wound up being a nice session with some really good overall flavours in the middle of the infusions. Plus, as the flavour notes did die out near the end they did so in a really lovely way which highlighted some of my favourite flavours I got to experience drinking this tea. I don’t know what was up with the first few infusions which reminded me so sharply of salted meats – probably just some weird funk from my not allowing this to air out long enough/well enough. It did sit for A LONG TIME air tight, and only in the last few weeks have I let it air out more openly.

Still good overall; nice end to the evening. Fingers crossed the caffeine doesn’t wind up biting me in the ass though…

I’ll write a more proper tasting note when I drink this Gong Fu, but for now here are some jot notes from the Western styled mug of this that I happily slurped on whilst watching Jungle Book:

- Thick mouthfeel, smooth profile
- Earthy, wet wood, walnut, dark wood, cocoa, brown sugar, camphor
- Just slightly roasty
- Full bodied; clean finish

PS. I totally recommend watching the new live action Jungle Book. I thought it was really well done, and I loved pretty much all of it – except Christopher Walken kind of creeped me out a lot as King Louie. Which I suppose is the point. I don’t know; that ONE aspect didn’t work for me.

I really don’t like this tea. It’s malty, but super tannic. I thought I just oversteeped it, so I tried a second cup with a shorter brew time. I don’t enjoy breakfast teas (too brisk for me), so I’m not surprised. I generally avoid African and Indian varietals because I find them too strong and fairly boring. Undertones of grain and coffee, no sweetness of “baked bread” as others have found. Maybe it was my sample, but it tasted like any grocery store English breakfast. Very underwhelming for such a high rated tea.

Since my recent cocoa nib awakening, I have been obsessed and, in turn, delighted with the sweet, creamy, chocolate flavors I have found that they impart.

This tea falls right in line with all of this. A puerh that is also sweet and chocolate-y? Well, yes, I would like to drink that all morning. And I have! This tea really does combine the best of both ripe (smooth, creamy, dark, earthy) and cocoa nibs (creamy, sweet, chocolate).

I am going to have to play around with my own cocoa nibs and other “plain” puerh and see what I can create. Thanks for the inspiration and great tea, Brenden!

Dry leaf: Sweet, small leaf material, well compressed. A little grassy, but clean, like a forest after a cool rain.

Taste: Sweet, clean, white grape juice, nice floral aroma. Very slight bitterness with a nice sweet aftertaste.

Liquor: Clear, light buttery yellow.

Spent leaf: Small leaves and buds. Very good quality and I was surprised to see so many buds. The leaf texture was very soft with an even medium olive color.

Vessel: 125ml clay pot (actual water 100ml)

Happy 5th anniversary Whispering Pines Tea and happy first raw cake production! I was very excited to get this cake. The wrapper artwork was beautiful and the pressing and leaf material were very nice.

As recommended, I went with 190F/87C water temp. This helped work around most of the young bitterness and I also went with a little bit shorter steep times. This tea had a nice light, juicy body that thickened up a little bit in later steeps. It had a nice warming effect and very nice sweetness.

While this tea wasn’t super complex, I’m betting it will age wonderfully and I’m looking forward to seeing how it develops. (I’m planning on saving about half the cake to taste next fall.) Thanks Brenden for this beautiful tea!

I don’t have much experience with white teas, and most groups, say for instance Bai Mudan, or most of the silver needle teas, taste very similar to me even from different vendors. This one really stood out for me though.
Nose; Blood orange, honeydew, light hay, clover, bergamont ( for you earl grey lovers ), red raspberry.
Palate; mandarin orange, clover honey, sweet grass, peach, lime, very nice finish and throat.

I found this one really fascinating.
Nose; I got a definite really good cigar note, now I used to smoke cigars so for me this was more nostalgic than off putting, be warned…sweet potato, leather, earth, toasted grain.
Palate; nice full mouth, slight cigar again — so unusual, molasses, malt, sweet potato, a light floral note.

This one is a step up from the Yunnan gold tips.
Nose; Sweet potato, butter, honey, tannin, cocoa, citrus note.
Palate; Sugar sweet on the tip of the tongue, nice full mouth feel, rich, slight lime, sweet potato, once again that honeyed Darjeeling quality, just a touch of bitterness.

Ok, so I need to get caught up on posting some tasting notes….
This one seemed to have some almost Darjeeling or Assam characteristics, I do not drink Indian teas much, but that was the impression.
Nose; sweet potato, light honey, home made chicken soup, light malt.
Palate; Brown sugar, sweet potato, very light floral, slightly bitter.
IMHO nice, but nothing out of this world.

Great Tea!!

I got a sample of this, along with other Whispering Pines Teas, as a gift. Unfortunately, I didn’t review it when I drank it, but I remember loving every sip. IIRC, it was smooth and full-bodied, with hints of sweetness.

Reviewing it here to remind myself to buy it again.

Sipdown. I had one very last underleafed cup of this. 205F. Malty, bready, honey. Good, but not repurchase.

Sample from my last order.
Pretty thick golden leaves, dry leaves smell of chocolate malt
30s- cocoa malt, sweet potato as it cools
At least 5 steeps after this.
Very good
Budz

Nice Dian Hong. On the delicate side, which I happen to like.
Nose; Slight floral, wildflower honey, sweet potato, light aloeswood.
Palate; sweet potato, butter, slight umami, moderately full mouth feel, almost a Dancong like sweetness.

This is overall a very nice tea. It was bittersweet in the start. The bitterness was not too strong or too long lasting. There was a fair amount of fermentation flavor. There may have been some chocolate notes but I wasn’t paying close attention to the specifics. Just the fact that it evolved into a nice sweet tea. I think I can say that by the twelfth steep it had developed a bit of a fruity taste although I could not pin it down to a specific fruit. Overall I really liked this tea. It has been so long since I have drank the loose of this tea that I couldn’t tell you how they compare. This one is definitely worth picking up a cake.

I steeped this twelve times in a 150ml Ru Kiln Shui Ping teapot with 13g leaf. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 minutes. There were maybe three or four steeps left in the tea but twelve was enough for me.

My tea experience began in with a Jasmine Iron Goddess from a wonderful San Francisco tea shop last December. I am so thankful I wondered into the shop on an afternoon away from my meeting. The tea was really good, but I wanted to taste it without the Jasmine. After sipping several wonderful teas from Whispering Pines I decided to purchase a teiguanyin from him. Boy, am I happy I did! A sip of this liquor is like spring becomes alive in your mouth. What a beautiful tea. I got two vacuum packages and think I too will squirrel the second package away.

This is a really tasty tea from Whispering Pines. It is the sort or raw I like most, not real bitter and too young to have developed any unpleasant aged flavors. I brewed this tea at 190 degrees to lessen any potential bitterness. It was really good. As another reviewer mentioned there was a slight grassy note to it. It had what I would describe as a sweet note from the beginning, not sweet like sugar mind you. I didn’t find the flavor notes of apricots that are so often mentioned in young sheng. I am not really sure to describe the sweet note.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 100ml teapot with 9g leaf and 190 degree water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 minutes. Could have gotten a few more steeps out of these leaves. This is the sort of yound sheng that is good to drink now due to the lack of bitterness.

We have another sample sipdown here. I received this with an order from Whispering Pines Tea Company sometime during the summer of 2016. I found it in the very back of one of my tea cabinets yesterday evening, enjoyed a couple of cups, and then finished the rest of it off this morning. It was a nice Laoshan green tea, though it lacked the fruitiness of some similar teas from other vendors.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick 3-4 second rinse (I don’t always rinse green and black teas, but felt like doing so here), I steeped 5 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 175 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 13 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, and 3 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of freshly cut grass, hay, soybean, peas, and spinach. After the rinse, the aforementioned aromas were joined by roasted grain and asparagus. The first infusion produced a more balanced bouquet with all of the elements listed above. I detected robust notes of freshly cut grass, peas, soybean, spinach, and hay underscored by less prominent notes of roasted grain and asparagus in the mouth. Subsequent infusions saw the grassiness and the pronounced soybean character mellow a little, as the notes of peas, spinach, and asparagus grew stronger. The roasted grain character began to remind me more of toasted rice at this point, while a subtle mineral presence began to pop up on the finish. The later infusions were mostly dominated by minerals and lingering traces of peas, asparagus, and toasted rice. Very faint impressions of soybean, hay, and grass could be found at times as well.

I have made it no secret that I tend to be a huge fan of Laoshan teas, but I have grown accustomed to Laoshan green teas that provide something of an underlying fruity sweetness. I did not find that characteristic in this tea. It was a very grassy, grainy, vegetal tea. I imagine that it would please fans of grassy, vegetal Chinese green teas, and while I found it to be a satisfying tea overall, I still cannot help feeling that it was missing just a little something.