Whispering Pines Tea Company

I received a sample of this tea from The Cookie Lady. I haven’t yet tried anything from Whispering Pines Tea Company, but I’ve been wanting to, so I was excited about trying this tea as well as the Mountain Nectar tea that I received. I like the flavor of this tea, though I doubt I could easily describe it. It’s complex, and both fruity and toasty. I wouldn’t say it’s very bitter. I’ve tried a few teas described as tasting like plum, so based on similarity, I could say that it does taste like plum – or at least it has a comparable taste to other teas that are described as tasting like plum… All I know is that I like it, and find it more agreeable than some of my other black teas. I’m steeping the tea a second time, but I knew I liked the tea the first time I drank it. I need to buy Whispering Pines teas, so I think I’ll put this on my shopping list.

After yesterday’s debacle involving Jabberwocky tasting like pretzel dough, I decided to brew this up using filtered water. I do think it’s made a difference, but how much I can’t tell….

The smell when this first brewed up was definitely sweet potato with a bit of malt/honey. The taste was very similar, but I wanted to let it cool down a bit.

Now that it’s cooler, a new variety of flavours are coming out. I can smell honey, but I also think I taste a bit of plum along side the smooth maltiness.

I’m not getting caramel the way others have, but that’s fine. Glad I got to try a bit of this!

This was originally a swap from Ost. I had half, and am saving the remainder to send off to Variatea so this is technically a sipdown.

This is a fairly tasty white tea with notes of honeysuckle, as well as floral notes. It is fairly sweet for a white tea. It is good a worth a try. I only bought a one ounce sample and will probably not end up buying more, not because it isn’t worth buying, but because I already have way too much tea.

I brewed this one time in an 18oz teapot with 185 degree water and 4 tsp leaf for 3 min.

Picked this one tonight because it is caffeine free, I’m not actually sick. This is an interesting tea, tasting strongly of ginger and spices as well as honey. I added honey so I am not sure how much of what I taste is the tea. The spices give it a zesty flavor.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 5 min.

I have to admit that I am a bigger fan of the old version of this blend. This version is more minty/smokey where the old version had the mint/lemongrass/tea flavor that I liked so much. This version is also much heavier which wasn’t what I was looking for in this tea.

I’m beginning to think there’s something wrong with the water in my house, or with the kettle I’m using. I keep on getting this sort of savoury, alkaline taste with my black teas that I’m not too fond of – think of the flavour of the outside of a pretzel.

It showed up when I drank this tea, which was not what I was expecting. The tea smelled lovely upon first steep – I could definitely get the chocolate and menthol notes that people had mentioned. But the flavour was relatively underwhelming. Sad. :(

This was a swap I got from Ost – I’ll be sending the rest along to VariaTEA soon.

Oh wow. This tea just stopped me in my tracks, after just one sip, and made me sit, for the few minutes that it took me to finish the cup (yes, piping hot and I just couldn’t stop drinking it) and just give in to the joy that came with every sip. That has only happened to me with two other teas. Verdant’s Laoshan black, and Teaspring Tan Yang. And now Jabberworcky. Also, I normally drink unflavored black tea with a touch of milk. Not so this tea. It just feels like that would be doing this tea a disservice, as it deserves being center stage with my full attention.

This is from my first Whispering Pines order and I must say so far I’m really impressed.

This tea is quite good. It has been a while since I have drank it. Since then it seems to have lost some of its fermentation flavor. It seemed less pronounced than the last time I drank it. There are still notes of cocoa and berries to this tea. I will have this tea for years to come. A while ago I got an offer from Brendan at Whispering Pines for a 10% discount on a tong of this and I took the deal. I have seven more of these to open. Can’t wait to see what this tea tastes like in a couple more years of aging.

I steeped this eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 8g leaf and boiling 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, and 30 sec. I stopped there not because the tea was finished but I am at my caffeine limit for the day. I’m sure the tea would have gone to twelve steeps at least, if not more.

They say that the date 12/13/14 is a lucky number. Well it is for me. While I am still grieving over the loss of my cat Pandora, tonight I am celebrating. For over a year I have been involved in a legal dispute with the insurance company for my employer. I have been suing over occupational asthma. Over a year ago I won my initial case. The slimebags, represented by slimebags, appealed the case. While the case was in appeals they paid none of my medical bills. Today I got a letter in the mail saying the case had been decided in my favor. The insurance company has lost their appeal. Hopefully they will not appeal again. In any case, today I celebrate with the best tea I have enjoyed in ages.

This tea is sweet with a mild amount of fermentation flavor. It is incredibly delicious. I would venture to say notes of chocolate and berries. Dark chocolate in the early steeps, berries in the later steeps. This is the best tea I have had in ages, on par with the best shou I have enjoyed.

I steeped this eight times in a 207ml Taiwan Clay Teapot with 8.6g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 10 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec, 1 min, 2 min, and 4 min. Judging by the strength of the eighth steep I would say that there were 2 to 4 more steeps in this tea. I hope he doesn’t run out of this soon, because I want to buy more. It is not cheap but it is worth it.

OMG I love Rivendell. I really loved it before. I loved it so much it was taking me forever to figure out how to write about it. And what did The Hobbit do? He went and made it BETTER with the anxi ben shan oolong base. This one of the very, very few teas I rate at 100. I require this tea.

It is ethereally beautiful – green, creamy, floral-fruity.

I love it so much I gave it TWO songs on my blog:

https://atasteofmzpriss.wordpress.com/2014/12/13/rivendell-whispering-pines-tea-company/

Continuing on with older samples! This one came from Mikumofu. What a unique and cute tea! It’s made up of little white tea buds (literal buds, with their protective outer layer and everything). They don’t have much of a scent while dry. I used the whole sample in my 8 ounce cup after looking at the suggestion of 1 T on the website.

It smells very herbal and reminds me of sheng in a way. The taste is actually quite musty, which I did not expect (almost like raspberry leaf or something). It’s a very herbal flavor. I can also taste some of the pine and rosemary notes mentioned in the description. The liquor feels quite thick in the mouth, although I wouldn’t necessarily call it smooth, as it leaves my mouth feeling a bit fuzzy. There’s a definite sweet aftertaste, similar to honeysuckle nectar. Overall, this is strange and it’s not something that I’d drink, but I’m glad I got to try it.

Breaking a puerh cake is always exciting…breaking one from the first series of cakes in the history of Whispering Pines is beyond exciting!!!

Yes, Huron Gold is the first cake pressed under the Great Lakes Label, awesome concept from WP.

First, those little 100g goodies were filled with love and it shows. Brenden the owner made sure we would notice. They come in those very practical and cute rustic envelopes, made of 100% recycled brown paper, perfect for storage, allowing proper breathability. How cool is that? Very innovative.

The cake’s artwork is beautiful…a map of the five Great Lakes.

Love the golden color of the dry leaf. Smells almost like sweet caramel. The pressing is pretty loose, making it very easy to break into.

The taste is remarkably smooth and silky. No sign of heavy earthiness or leather here.

Think light moss with rich cocoa notes.

There’s a faint sweetness to it, reminiscent of ripe figs. It feels syrupy and round in the mouth.

It’s very accessible and mellow. It provides a nice warming feeling, it’s such a cozy tea.

Another excellent product from WP. No wonder I’m such a fan, they never disappoint me!

And I’m so happy I got two of those babies :-)

Pics:

http://instagram.com/p/whmkn1whxx/

http://instagram.com/p/whnWt-Qhy9/

http://instagram.com/p/whsI7swh5q/

This is a very tasty tea and just the sort of tea I needed after the passing of my cat. I hope my apartment complex management lets me get another cat. They allowed Pandora fifteen years ago. In this tea I get the notes of chocolate and stonefruits and of course the vanilla. Also in the steepster description are caramel, graham cracker, and toasted rice. These also seem to be there but less so. There is also a bit of malt. Malt can be a flavor that I don’t like in tea but here it is mild.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with 3 tsp leaf and 200 degree water for 3 min.

I’ve been really bad about posting on here lately. I’m kinda obsessed with Instagram. It’s so visual! Anyway, I enjoyed a nice session with this tea last night. I got a really nice caramel sweetness in the later steeps. I also enjoyed it in one of my new teacups from YS. I think tea tastes better in them!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/97273956@N03/15526001794/

Okay, I have to say I’m a fan of Whispering Pines’ Shou offerings. This is my kinda shou! Like the Ontario Shou, this one is dark and syrup-like. Very smooth. The flavor here is less sweet, more mellow earthy. Yum yum yum. Glad to have both shous in my cupboard!!

I think I messed up my parameters on this one. I was really excited to try it as I love a good chai. The dry leaf smelled like vanilla chai. Yum! I steeped it for 3 minutes and added a little sugar and a splash of almond milk. Unfortunately, I think the milk muted the base tea. So, I did a second steep without milk and found it tasted more balanced, but I still think I under leafed it. Hmmm. Soooo, next time, I’m going to add more leaf and skip the milk. The spices are delicious, though. Very spicy and nicely balanced. I just want that base tea to come through more. I also got a buttery taste which was interesting. I’ll reserve final judgement until next time!

It’s been ludicrously cold here recently (especially by London’s usually always-mild standards), so I was massively craving something warm and comforting. I saw my old bag of this, sitting on my shelf, and felt it might be worth giving it another go.

I think it was a good call! Every infusion was smooth, slightly sweet, and comforting, with notes (I think) of caramel and chocolate.

I didn’t treat it as well as I should have (sorry Brenden!), but I did at least use my nice gaiwan and tea set. I think I mostly used boiling or near-boiling water, with pretty short steeps. I didn’t steep this tea out, as it was getting late and then my boyfriend came home so we moved on to cook dinner. BUT it was certainly going strong after the 4 or 5 rounds I did.

I still have enough in my bag for another two sessions, I think, so maybe tomorrow I’ll go again and I’ll really do it properly. Still, I absolutely loved this session.

When some more money comes through, I think I may treat myself to some more WP teas. It’s been a while, and their new puerh cakes look/sound lovely. Plus, they’re pitched at an affordable price, which is always good to see.

I brought this adorable little bag of loose Puerh with me when I recently returned to Oxford for a talk, along with my Gaiwan and little tea cups. I then ended up having to stay up horribly late to finish a self-study assignment that I’d kinda neglected…

With that in mind, I wanted something energising and dark and thought this Puerh would fit the bill. However, without any way to measure it and any Gong-Fu instructions for it to hand, I had to do a bit of guesswork and definitely guessed wrong. I overleafed this spectacularly. A 2-3" infusion produced tea that was a black as fresh coffee and probably a little stronger :P

It was really smooth, though – just like a delicious, dark-roasted, full-bodied coffee. It was so strong, though, that it hurt my tummy a little… XD

Still, given the promising flavour of the tea (it really was delicious, extreme strength aside), I think I’ll rebrew it according to Brenden’s written instructions in a mug at some point and write a proper review XD And maybe I’ll do a milder Gong-Fu session using the instructions I had for the Canton Tea Co “White Dragon” loose Puerh, which was similarly tippy and delicious looking!

Definitely nothing wrong with this tea, as far as I could tell. Hopefully a proper brew will leave me as impressed as I certainly wanted to be!

Dark, thick, smooth, vanilla, caramel, cocoa yummy-ness!!!

When I got home late last night and I opened this, I had a feeling it was going to be great. It smelled so good! Well, it tastes amazing too! Uh oh, this is bad for my tea budget! ;)