Whispering Pines Tea Company

sooooooooo….i picked this one up, since a number of folks were fairl certain that this would be a tea for me. Also, the idea of pine needles in teas, appeals to me because i adore bellocq’s pine needle tea. What i failed to realise…and that’s on ME…is that this has a jasmine presence. As in…that other thing i dislike a lot…though not as much as bleramot…though sometimes MORE than blergamot lol.

Soooo i love every thing about this tea…. the needles…the initial sip..the brew… until the jasmine punches me in the face. I can probably finish off the rest of the ounce i picked up, but this is not for me.

Well, I’ve come down with a sinus infection. Luckily for me it’s not a very bad one—I used to get them chronically. For now, at least, my tastes aren’t even off, so I’m not afraid to try out this sample!

Right out of the bag this smells exactly like pie or cobbler, and it only gets more intense as the water hits it. I was a little worried at first because I don’t tend to like dark oolongs, but it’s actually perfect for the apple and cinnamon flavors. There’s a maltiness to it that really compliments the apple flavor and reminds me of baked ones when they’ve soaked up all those spices and they’re practically falling apart right out of the oven. The cinnamon isn’t overwhelming despite how strong the smell is in the bag, instead becoming a sweet background note that compliments the oolong. This one is a gem! I’d definitely buy it.

Sometimes I wonder if I could really notice all the individual notes unless I had read about them before tasting the tea itself.
Can’t say I could for this one, but it was still enjoyable.
I’m a fan of heavier teas and this one was light and smooth but you can definitely taste the quality and care placed into the production of this tea.
To me, it tastes somewhat similar to Teavivre’s Yun Nan Dian Hong Golden Tips and I have to say I enjoyed that one better but will happily finish off my packet of this.

Mmm, I love this tea! For the first steeping, I can detect strong notes of bread and honey, both in the scent and the taste. If I sip it nice and slow, I also taste a cocoa note near the end of the sip (and I even catch a little of the gardenia aftertaste that’s described on the WP website!). I took my time with this tea today, and savored all three of the recommended infusions for Western-style steeping. All three were excellent—though I will admit that the first one was my favorite.

This is a wonderful Yunnan black tea, smooth and complex, just like so many of the teas from Whispering Pines. I’m definitely considering restocking this one (and I’ve tried tons of excellent teas lately, so that’s saying something). I need to try it gongfu style soon!

Yum, delicious! This black tea is quite complex with yam, cherry wood, malt, cocoa, burnt caramel and plum notes, with a finish of bread crust and more caramel. The Jabberywocky is really smooth with a thick custard like body.

The resteep is really good too – very sweet with all notes, missing the woodsy ones. Admittedly, while drinking this I wished I was drinking Whispering Pines’s Ailaoshan instead. Jabberywocky is good, but I prefer the richer flavor of Ailaoshan straight up, rather being mixed in with 2 other blacks in Jabberywocky.

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/jabberwocky-tea/

This tea is good, overall. I get notes of malt first followed by the baked bread and sugarcane. That being said it is too malty for my tastes. Being foremost a fan of Puerh I don’t like malt all that much, unless it is the rare chocolate malt taste, which this doesn’t have. It is still good though.

I brewed this tea once in an 18oz teapot with 3 tsp leaf and 200 degree water for 4 min. I would recommend this tea to drinkers who like malt flavor.

I just got my first order of Golden Orchid in the mail today. I was dying to see what the highest rated tea on Steepster was like. My first impression is that it is very complex. I got more of a chocolate aroma and a lingering vanilla aftertaste. This is a tea that I don’t think I could get tired of, unlike so many others.

This tea has the strong taste of lemongrass followed by the taste of mint. The base is a slightly astringent, slightly malty black tea, a Keemun I believe. It is a relatively nice tea but the taste of lemongrass is too strong for my taste. It did not brew up bitter, which is good. I think it has a quality tea for a base. I can’t taste the Elderberries which Whispering Pines says is the main flavor in this tea. This tea would definitely be better if he blended it with less lemongrass next time. Lemongrass is a powerful flavor ingredient that doesn’t always give the same punch each time. No two stalks of lemongrass will be the exact same strength. It may be that the Lemongrass he used this time was more potent than previous times but I am just guessing because I have never tried this tea before.

I brewed this tea once in an 18oz teapot with 3 tsp leaf and 200 degree water for 5 min.
I would recommend this tea to anyone who likes the strong flavor of lemongrass with a secondary flavor of mint.

I’m so behind on logging tasting, I have no idea where to even begin now. Or if I should even bother at this point. I’m rather embaressed to note that my last note was nearly a month ago. But with Steepster acting up around that time and me getting distracted from even starting up my computer, notes have been a dreaded thing to attempt. Especially on my tablet which is old and finicky and has a tendency to eat large amounts of text without warning if I’m not paying attention. Or registering the wrong tap so I misspell things, so excuse the text if that happens.

So I figured I’d start my notes again with the tea I’m having tonight. I have to start somewhere afterall. I honestly have older teas that I really should be trying/drinking first, but I rationalize digging into my whispering pines order now since these aren’t sealed and those other, older teas still are. Lol.

So smelling all of the teas I got, this one caught my interest the most. Chocolatey was the name of the game (since I didn’t feel like leather, mushrooms, grass or smoke tonight. Lol!).
Brewed it up and I can smell cocoa with malt and something almost sweet. The brew itself isn’t sweet to me, but I definitely get a cocoa note, along with a woodsyness and something malty. I really kinda like this since it’s pretty stable by itself. Adding some Truvia gives me the sweetness that I find myself expecting/craving when I smell the brew.
I’m pretty sure that I’d consider reordering this when I run out and my cupboard pares down to something that I can manage to drink through in a reasonable time frame.

Edit – I made a second steep of this @ 5 min/206* that was (in my opinion) lightly better thn the first. Lol. The first steep had something almost peppery at the back of the sip that was gone in this second steeping. But it was marvelously cocoa-y and delicious. It was a bit watery though so I might try 6 min next time to see what happens.
Didn’t have time to try a third steep since it was so late, but I’m not sure if the leaves could hold up to one.

As a woodworker, hiker, and nature enthusiast, nothing this easily accessible, gets my senses going as pine does. These fresh dry needles strike a harmonious chord inside me, filling my cup with inspiration and delight. Perfect for rainy days and cool nights alike. I wouldn’t change a thing, Brenden. In fact, this blend has inspired me to wildcraft my own pine needles, using your methods to create my own green tea blends, as well as adding to soup stocks … good $4!T man.

Very roasty and long steeping oolong. delicious stuff. Can easily get 5-6 infusions out of this each is different from the last. Wonderful stuff, I’m sad to have ran out..

Delicious roasty oolong. Could easily be a coffee substitute for those so inclined to do so. Myself, I like this in the evening after work, rejuvenates and calms me from a stressful day.

Whoops. Totally forgot it was Valentine’s day all day today.. thought it was tomorrow so I didn’t have any of my Valentine’s themed teas. Somehow I don’t think I have many at this point? This was from Kawaii433— thank you very much! It’s also a sipdown. I love these types of teas in general, I’ve had WP’s in the past. So this note is for the new harvest! The little rolled bundles look mostly gold in color. I think lately this type of tea from other vendors has been lighter than I remember them in past harvests. Which means the flavor results in a lighter flavor as well. The gold brew is delicious but slightly too light in flavor for me. I remember the past harvest of this being ridiculously complex. Though I think maybe because the leaves have more to unravel, each cup also has unraveling flavors. The flavors here are noticeably sweet potato and honey. The second steep is a bit darker and takes on more of that awesome wine quality some very fresh black teas seem to have. (I think I notice that fading in my black teas when they get older, sadly.) It’s lovely to revisit a fresh harvest of this type of tea. Though as I expected, the newer harvests of many black teas seem to have lighter flavor. The rating for this one would be 90.
Steep #1 // 1 heaping teaspoon for a full mug // 9 minutes after boiling // 2 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 2 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
2019 sipdowns: 10

Thank you TeaTiff for the swap! It’s terrible it’s taking a while for me to try these teas. I’m trying! These leaves are little coils of gold with hints of black. There is a fragrance of tomato soup before I even take a sip. The flavor is lovely – very smooth, tomato soup, honey, hints of chocolate, sweet potato, bit of spice. A ridiculous combination if you think about it, but the flavors work perfectly together… only in tea! The second steep really melded together and deepened… more difficult to pick out the flavors like I did in the first cup but very delicious!
Steep #1 // 1 tsp // few min after boiling // 3 min
Steep #2 // just boiled // 5 min

Thanks so much to Dexter for sending me samples of these pricey Whispering Pines teas! The leaves of this one are rather broken, but I think that’s mostly because it came from the bottom of the package. I can see the cedar leaves and a few scant saffron fragments mixed in. Dry scent is earthy, woody, and reminds me of scotch.

This tea has a very manly aroma. It’s a mixture of woody and leather with a touch of vanilla, and makes me think of a study with a vintage wooden desk and leather-bound books. Hmm, this one is actually quite interesting. It tastes much as I would expect it to from the aroma – there’s a strong woody flavor and roasty note. It tastes almost exactly like high-quality scotch to me (I don’t drink, but my boyfriend loves scotch so I’ve tasted his on multiple occasions). I can taste a hint of menthol at the end of the sip. Overall, very unique, though I don’t see this being worth the price.

Can I get this by the pound without breaking the bank? What lovely flavors of chocolate and vanilla. There is also a melange of other flavors but I can’t really pick out the individual flavors. The dry scent is lovely, almost better than the flavor but the flavor is awesome. I can picture this in a daily rotation of favorite teas. Unfortunately, I don’t have more :-(

Thanks to The Cookie Lady!

So, this worked last time so, I’ll try it again. I have never tried this tea, but I would desperately love to try this. It sounds so fantastic. If anyone would like to, I would love to swap for this tea.