Whispering Pines Tea Company

Golden Orchid has such amazing reviews on Steepster, I think it would be almost impossible for any tea to live up to the hype. And honestly, for me it didn’t. It was very good: strong and malty with distinct chocolate notes and a hint of vanilla. It also re-steeped beautifully. But I found myself craving a bit more of that sweet vanilla flavor than I was getting. I did notice in Brandon’s description that the vanilla tends to sink to the bottom, so maybe there wasn’t enough in my sample? Or maybe I just had over-inflated expectations. Anyway, this was very good, but not something I’ll be rushing out to purchase tomorrow. Thank you to beelicious for the sample!

I’ve been meaning to review this one for ages! I got it from u/RedSpaceMagic on Reddit months ago. It’s perfect for this morn— er, afternoon after helping host a bonfire party.

Now, I love Whispering Pines. They have tons of truly unique blends. I’ve seen ingredients on their lists I’ve never seen anywhere else, and I’ve liked everything I’ve tried so far.

This blend is no exception. Although I would have never mixed rooibos with lapsang, I think it works! The rooibos isn’t strong enough to leave that weird aftertaste in my mouth, so I’m happy. The cedar is also a very nice touch. It reminds me of the fresh cut logs used in Carolina barbecue. I know those are usually hickory, but it’s a similar scent. The clove could be a tad stronger, but then again, I got this tea second-hand. It might be more noticeable in fresher batches. And the smokiness, it’s very well balanced. Again, I’m getting a sort of bacony, briskety smoke, but I love it.

This is definitely something I’d get again. It’s hearty, warming, and wonderfully smoky with just a hint of spice. Now I kinda wish I didn’t have like 3 ounces of Adagio’s lapsang to get through!

I had to have all the mushroom teas the minute WP put them out. So unique! This one is completely different from Mirkwood. The minute you open the packet, you smell the super sweet aroma of the dry leaf. I love the look of the dry leaf with the little pieces of mushroom in it!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/97273956@N03/15742661414/

That sweetness translates into a sweet maple flavor, with notes of malt and wood. I gongfu-steeped this and the flavor transforms from this super sweet maple note into more of the notes of the base tea coming through. The tea tastes more fruity, with notes of cherry and plums.

This tea is ridiculously sweet…no need to sweeten, for sure! Absolutely delicious and unique!

I’m sipping this down this morning, after much hoarding :( but it’s the perfect morning for it! It’s sunny out, the flowers are beginning to bloom, and it’s Saturday after a long week! What better way to celebrate than with this delicious tea! I slightly overleafed as I would not have had enough left for a final cup, so today started out a bit stronger in the malt department, but still oh so good. Less honey notes today too and a bit more fruit, so when I order more of this, I will remember to keep the 3 min steeping time but use a bit less leaf :) I am sad this is out, but I see WP was having a sale……..not that I should order more right now, but I am considering it :) see previous notes on this tea!

Thanks to Brenden at Whispering Pines for this free sample!! I have had this sample for a while, but it hasn’t felt like the day to have it yet. Today, though, feels like the day! Time for the Jabberwocky!

I read the poem, which I actually didn’t know before having this tea, right before making it. I love it! (forgive me for not having read it sooner!) It made me even more excited to try this tea :)

The dry smell is super chocolatey and malty, strong, usually the dry leaf of black teas doesn’t have much scent to me, but this one definitely has a good one! I followed Brenden’s steeping suggestions of 3 mins with 205 degree water. The steeped smell is grainy, malty, a hint of dark chocolate.

As for the flavor, wow, this is a great black tea. The inital flavor is very bready and grainy, some malt, then the honey notes hit!! Wow they are strong and delicious! There is also some fruitiness that I found in Second Breakfast, probably from the Ailaoshan black tea that is in both of them. As it cools, this fruitiness leads into the aftertaste, and it’s definitely cherries. I love cherries! There are also some deep dark chocolate notes at the start of the taste before the honey notes hit. I am not getting too much eucalyptus yet, but there is a faint cooling sensation when I breathe in after the sip, so I think that is it. Wow this is delicious, so comforting. And I definitely feel the caffeine in this lol! Edit – I feel the caffeine alertness, but also an immense sense of relaxation and happy feelings. :D oh and I didn’t mention this tea is smooth smooth smooth. Soft and caressing. So freaking good.

Overall, this is a superb tea. It’s so good. Man, if I could drink black teas more regularly I would order this forever. Oh and also if I wasn’t on a self-imposed tea buying ban. Ugh I just tried to reason with myself and the boyfriend to allow me to order this…no dice. :(. I will be ordering this in the future though. Like, 99% sure. Brenden, please re-blend this after the last bag is purchased. I need it in a month or so! Also, thank you again to Brenden for this free sample! I have found the magic in this tea too!

A wonderful lazy Saturday. The boyfriend and I went to lunch and I mailed of a TTB. Came back and cleaned up a little, only so I could make a new mess in the kitchen. I made my first attempt of “Vicks Shower Disks” using the recipe found here http://beingfrugalbychoice.com/2012/03/homemade-vicks-vapor-shower-disks.html. And I just threw http://www.alexandracooks.com/2008/05/20/i-love-david-archuleta/ in the oven and thought that this tea would complement them wonderfully.

Sadly this is the last of this wonderful tea. This one always reminds me of home. It is for sure going on the re-order list!

I know I’ve not done a tasting note on this tea before, but I do distinctly remember having it around the time I got my Whispering Pines order. This isn’t the type of tea you can really do a backlog on, though, so I waited until now so my tasting note would be more accurate.

This is a great example of a yunnan, I feel like. The dry leaf was so fuzzy and tightly curled, and the smell emanating from the back was all starch and sweet potatoes. I followed the steeping parameters recommended by Brenden and it yielded a gorgeous honey brown liquor.

The taste mostly honeyed wheat with a starchy mouthfeel. Mostly it reminded me of the crust of a loaf of freshly baked honey wheat bread. Sweet, but also savory. This is a very filling, warming cup.

After the leaves are steeped they unfurl and begin to smell almost fruity- specifically like the raisin notes of an assam. That could be because I smelled the Harmutty Assam tea earlier this morning so that scent is fresh on my mind, but I really do get that note from it. And I really like it.

This is quite, quite good. I don’t like it as much as I enjoyed the Jabberwocky, but having a straight Yunnan does allow me to see the characteristics it lends to that blend. Still, I did find it really warming, and as the cold weather will be around for a while yet I’m sure I will be drinking this again soon.

Just finished a mug of this – it’s been a white tea kinda day, I guess.

This was nice – smooth and soothing on the throat, with medicinal pine and rosemary notes and overarching creaminess balanced by a hint of cereal-ish grainy flavour. I enjoyed it hot, but it was even better cooled.

Gongfu w/ added in rosemary!

More tea & herb pairing experimentation during my Gongfu sessions! For this tea, I was looking to exaggerate a flavour note that I find naturally present in yabao which I really enjoy; and that’s a nice savory and herbaceous rosemary note! So, I added in a sprig of unbruised rosemary to my gaiwan along with the tea, and I steeped the two together.

I found this a very successful experiment; I could still taste other elements of the tea like the cedar and corn silk notes that I usually find present but the rosemary was definitely amped up and more of a present flavour throughout infusions! It took an infusion or two to really brew out in a strong way, and it did peter out somewhat quickly as well but it totally achieved the goal of boosting that quality of the tea! It was such a soothing, calming session with a lot of emphasis on the savory/herbaceous qualities of this tea – still some needed sweetness (creamed honey, some florals) from the tea itself to keep some nuance and diversity in the cup, but just… wow!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/BxsASYPBz-C/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTyO71LjZwU

Midday cuppa from today.

I’m on a big rosemary kick right now; teas with rosemary, rosemary in my cooking, rosemary infused hand lotions and lip balms…

I mean, there’s no real reason for it at all; it’s just one of those phases you stumble into and they just kind of roll with. So, I think I subconsciously gravitated towards this one today because it’s got those strong rosemary undertones to it. I know there are other flavours present for sure but today those were the ones I focused in on, and nothing else.

Song Pairing: https://youtu.be/HNnNLBteKeo

Mix this song and the cup of tea, and you have a very zen/peaceful and relaxing online Christmas shopping and sing-a-longs. Good thing the only person around to witness it was the cat.

Iced, with some honey.

Really into this iced cup; to me it came out especially rich tasting on this particular afternoon and had some really brilliant notes of cedar wood, pine, rosemary, and lemon all with that gentle, soft honey sweetness in the background. I was so impressed with how strong it tasted, in fact, that I let my boyfriend try it! His sense of taste/smell is pretty shot and in general he struggles tasting/smelling most things, not just tea. So, normally straight white teas are a no go for him. For once, he could taste the tea though!

…He just hated it. More for me though, right?

Lightly sweetened with brown sugar.

This is pretty smooth and silky, and it makes for a really nice evening tea. It’s got some nice woody notes to it, hints of herbs, and a lovely hay note. The brown sugar is a tiny little fleck of sweetness alongside an otherwise savory and herbaceous tea.

Peaceful.

This is a queued tasting note.

Gong Fu Session; stream of consciousness style review.

Rinse to wake up the tea leaf.

5 Sec
- Rosemary, cedar, corn silk, hay
- Really smooth
- Lingering Finish

7 Sec
- Really, really herbaceous
- Sweet body notes; honey
- Cedar/wet wood, hay

10 Sec
- Picking up some umami
- Wow… SO MUCH ROSEMARY
- Finish is sort of woody
- Creamed honey

12 Sec
- Basically a rehash of last infusion
- Still enjoyable albeit no new developments

15 Sec
- Repeat of flavour
- Really “feeling” the tea on the front 1/2 of my tongue
- Lingering taste and mouthfeel

25 Sec
- Strong herby/rosemary note is deteriorating a bit
- Finish is woody/salty
- I’m craving more body sweetness

35 Sec
- Final infusion because I’m growing bored and not getting much new

Cold Brew!

Not the most flavourful cold brew in the world, but it makes for better sipping while catching up on Big Brother than straight up water does. I feel like I actually tasted a lot of the herbaceous/rosemary like notes in this one than anything else. Pretty smooth, and pleasant.

Anyone else watching Big Brother right now? Who do you think is playing the best game? Who will win? Who do you want to win? And who deserves to win?

Big mug of this while reading this week’s course material for my sommelier class that started today; this one’s “From Bush To Cup” and focusing on growing conditions of tea and processing methods/processes. This week much of the focus was on soil…

Not gonna lie, it was fairly boring.

Tea was great though; soft with a rich, thick mouthfeel. Just a hint vegetal with notes that reminded me of cucumber skin but also corn silk, hay, malt, heavy cream, wood, rosemary, and some other herbaceous qualities. It’s very easy to get lost in this tea. That doesn’t exactly make for the best studying conditions either when all you’re thinking about is the tea.

The music I was listening to was mostly background so reading/studying wasn’t silent, but this is what was playing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZjosn2u1gA

Bam, just when you thought you were figuring out my taste in music I go and throw in some country! I am from the prairies though; it’d be blasphemous if I didn’t like at least a little country.

This is a queued tasting note.

So stoked that I don’t have to hoard this one anymore, since I picked up three ounces of it during Black Friday! I can pretty well indulge in this whenever it floats my boat because there’s now no shortage of it in the house! Yummy notes of cedar and pine, corn silk, cream, malt, and herbs. Often it tastes like rosemary, but today it’s just nondescript herbaceous undertones.

Prior to this cup I had finished a way too sweet mug of DAVIDsTEA’s Caramel Corn and this was the perfect redeeming cuppa! Plenty flavourful without being bogged down by unnecessary sweetness…

Made this one yesterday evening; my mom was fascinated by the look of the dry leaf (it is cool looking, isn’t it?) but I wouldn’t share any of the steeped up tea with her. Besides, I know she oftens finds white tea far too subtle so it would have been a sip wasted regardless.

The mouthfeel of the liquor was superb; it was thick and creamy and could have easily made a good stock/base for a light soup. In a way, it did kind of feel like I was drinking some sort of delicate soup: there were notes of cedar, pine, rosemary, hay, honeysuckle, and cream which are all things that could contribute positively to a nice ‘Yabao Broth’. I’ll stick with drinking this as a tea though; the last time I tried to switch things up with this blend didn’t work in my favour.

I’m thinking of the dreaded Yabao + Honey combo that flopped like an overweight middle aged dad from the highboard of the community pool. Can’t you just picture the kids, slathered in sunscreen, cringing? 10/10 Bellyflop. Send that shit into America’s Funniest Home Videos so other overweight middle aged Dads can cringe at it too.

This is a queued tasting note.

I think adding a little honey to my mug of this might have been a bad idea; while it certainly didn’t taste bad the flavor profile was dramatically changed and I don’t think necessarily for the better. There was still a bit of a corn silk/hay flavor but for the most part I couldn’t help but think of Honey Shreddies the entire time I was drinking it…

http://www.jygrocerydelivery.com/shop/bmz_cache/9/99f31f41ee94294161202d9a6c58b6ac.image.150×217.png

I would have described it as mealy; but I just did a thorough google search to make sure that was the term I was thinking of and I don’t know if it is; all of the sites I’ve found describe it as a dry (almost sawdust like) texture but obviously that’s not what I mean ‘cause the liquor wasn’t really a dry texture. I think I was thinking more…

Bland and starchy?

So, I got Chef Darcy laid using the power of tea!

Chef Darcy is the guy who comes in and teaches cooking classes at work; basically he’s there five days a week and he just picks things he wants to cook and then teaches how to make them totally fresh and from scratch. Everything he cooks with comes from the store, and so in that way he’s kind of advertising the products for us. As an example, he did a Lobster Alfredo and he start with killing your lobster – no prepackaged stuff in his classes! I do the art for the whiteboard out front advertising the class, when I have time during my shift that is – and when whatever he’s doing is something I can put together a picture for.

When Tea Ave. sent me a second sample set I tried to think of who I knew in person who would actually appreciate it, take the time to learn how to use the equipment properly, and then use and enjoy it. I was torn between my friend Robyn and Darcy – but I bombarded Robyn with tea not too long ago, so I gave the second set to Darcy along with a sample of this tea because I’d been talking about it and he’d expressed a lot of interest in it. Well, the set went over well because he and his girlfriend took the time to learn how to use everything and then did tastings of all three teas together! And, she thought it was a really romantic and sweet activity and, well…

TEA; GETTING PEOPLE LAID SINCE… WELL PROBABLY SINCE A LONG TIME.

When I portioned out a sample of this one for Darcy, I left the bag out for myself too so I could come back from work and enjoy a pot of it – which I did. I’ve only had this one a few times now, but I’m very much enjoying it and of the WP teas I got on Cyber Monday it’s the only one I know with absolute certainty I’d want to order again (it’s also the most affordable of the ones I purchased; which is a super happy coincidence)!

My jot notes from the pot:

- Cream! SO MUCH CREAM!
- Silky/smooth thicker mouthfeel
- Corn and hay notes
- Corn is like a sweeter Peaches & Cream corn!
- Peaches & Cream Creamed Corn? Is that a thing?
- Creamed honey notes too; especially in the aftertaste
- More herbaceous the longer it steeped
- A little pine? I’m still not sure if that’s really the right word for what I’m tasting…
- But given it’s meant to be pine wood and not needles, it’s probably the right word

And, now that I’ve recently had that Dian Yin Zhen from Nannuoshan I’m recollecting a note that was very present in both cups; though struggling to identify what that note is because, skimming through tasting notes I’ve done for both respective teas, I haven’t really used the same flavour descriptors. Maybe it’s the pine? I didn’t mention tasting pine with the Nannuoshan blend because I only tasted it a few times and so fleetingly, it was a little hard to pick out from the other flavours. But, it’s the only thing that the two really have in common…

So; very comparable pine notes I guess?

Anywho, bumping my rating up.

One of two bedtime “Mini Cups” of tea. I packed this with because it’s new to me, and I’ve been fascinated by it since first seeing it – and now that it’s actually in my possession I think it smells really lovely dry; and I needed to try it sooner rather than later. This trip to Regina seemed like the quickest way to sample it.

I’d really like to write a longer, more thorough review but I’m super tired and it’s late, and I know my little sister’s gonna wake me up as soon as she can tomorrow morning. So I’ll be briefer than I want to be.

I was planning a shorter steep time, but my little sister’s Dad stopped by to drop some stuff off for her that she left as his place before heading to Mom’s for the weekend – and I ended up talking to him for nearly eight minutes while my tea sat in the kitchen steeping. I hadn’t seen him in over a year, and it was good catching up. We maybe have a weird relationship because he and my Mom got divorced when I was about… 13? But for nearly all my early childhood memories he was as much “my Dad” as my actual Dad was, sometimes more so. But after he and my Mom got divorced I no longer saw him on a regular basis – just whenever B (I’m gonna not reveal my sister’s name – not that I don’t in general trust Steepster people, I am after all very open about my name and life and such, but she’s really young/underage) was around.

But the point is; this is quite a forgiving tea just like is claimed in the tea description. It got very, very close to a ten minute steep albeit at a lower temperature, and it’s not bitter or astringent at all. In fact, it’s very sweet! I get incredibly prominent honey notes and a rich silky mouthfeel, as well at light notes of hay, oats, and rosemary. More of a sweet rosemary than a savory rosemary, though. I’m also drawing comparisons to the Corn Silk tea I tried not too long ago; I am definitely experiencing a sort of “corn chip” like flavour to this, but I don’t see anyone else has observed crazy that so I feel a little crazy admitting it.

I’ve been wondering lately if the way I view “pine” as a flavour is different than how others do; because when I think of “Pine notes” I think of the sort of pine flavour that’s so strong and common with Juniper berries; crisp, clean, a little woody? There’s no way I’m tasting that here; and I’m disappointed because this is the second WP blend I bought on BF described with “pine” as a flavour, and I’m just not getting it.

I loved this though! Despite seemingly absent pine notes and relatively different observations than others. Maybe my prolonged steep time messed with the flavours present? Or the balance of flavours?

And hey; despite trying to be concise in my wording this ended up long winded afterall. Darn!

So tasty! I drank this tonight, mostly to combat the effect a sheng had on me earlier, but also because I love this Shou! The savory, salty, creamy mushroom notes blend so seamlessly with the Shou. Yum yum yum. My tummy thanks you!

This tea is awesome! Enjoyed a great session with it again today…my second time! We were watching Game of Thrones. ;) This tea was a great accompaniment! I love the creamy mushroom flavor and mouthfeel! This is a really a special tea to savor.

Okay all, Mirkwood is finally in my tea cupboard! Woo! I’ve wanted some ever since the teaplets went on and on and on about it! ;)

The dry leaf is pretty cool. Lots of dried morels in there. Smells good.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/97273956@N03/16164830670/

I brewed it up gong fu-style because that’s how I like my shou. Right away, I could tell this was going to be more savory, like soup. It tastes slightly salty, like a broth. You can still taste the earthiness of the puerh but the broth flavor blends in over the top. I also noticed spicy notes that appear at the end of the sip. The liquor is smooth and clear with absolutely no funk. The texture/mouthfeel of the tea includes a mushroom creaminess, or slime, whatever you want to call it! In a good way! Ha!

I looked up morels, as I’ve never had one, and supposedly they have a nutty taste. I can see that.

Overall, this is like drinking a super refined and deliciously smooth and clear mushroom broth, but better. It’s really good. Really freaking good.