Whispering Pines Tea Company
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I’m really enjoying this one today, although I wish I’d made it just a tad stronger, but as it is, I’m at the bottom of the bag, & if I’d used it all for this cup, it would have been too strong. I have just enough left for one more serving, so it goes into my Sipdown Extravaganza box. I’m getting a pretty good collection lined up!
Glad steepster is working, & glad to be here. I am technically right handed, but I write well with either hand, both forwards & backwards. If anybody ever wants to read my journals, they will need a mirror for some segments, because I like to ask questions with my RH, & let my subconscious answer them backwards with my LH. I can also type really well left handed, eat with chopsticks, & pretty much anything else my RH does.
Except drive a stick shift :(
Tasty & smooth, kind of creamy even. The vanilla is nice, esp if you add a little maple.
I was more enamored with this tea the first time I tried it, and it is nice, but the price is too steep for me. I realize the price of vanilla beans is way up there, & I appreciate Brenden’s use of REAL vanilla though! :)
This is sublime…simply sublime.
Picture this: It’s a really hot day (& it IS in St Louis). Hot & humid, & you’re literally dragging yourself across that field of dreams, because you know that if you just take that walk, there will be relief.
And so, finally, you arrive at the edge of the forest, & as soon as you duck into it’s shade, your entire day begins to unwind. Even in the heat of summer, the coolness of being beneath the canopy is all enveloping. The smell of layer upon layer of decomposing leaves rises to greet you, the humidity in the air immediately becomes cavelike. You walk until you reach a bubbling spring, you find a sizable patch of moss, & you lie down in that shady place, with the sounds of water, birds, & leaves gently rustling .
Heaven doesn’t always include a Harp.
Isn’t it pretty Terri?
We have moonrise very soon
It is pretty, & I just realized I didn’t really say anything about what it TASTES like, but this is the best I could do, LOL.
I made it through 2 steeps, & when I went back to try for a 3rd, I was disappointed to discover that Tony, in a kitchen cleaning frenzy, had dumped my steeper…ackckckckck….
OMG. Tony might need a spank.
I am chomping at the bit! All my tea friends keep reviewing teas that I have just ordered and are on the way! I can’t wait to try this one. :)
Love this review terri…
Sipdown! (107)
Aw, I’m sad to see this one go, but I couldn’t bring myself to keep the two servings I had left when I can easily order more when there are fewer teas in my cupboard. This is a very lovely tea, combining very strong honey flavor with grain and fruity notes. My final cup was a little bit bitter but that was due to overleafing – I didn’t want to have a tiny awkward amount of tea left over. :P
Preparation
Hooray, my new electric kettle came in the mail today! I could not have been more excited. I filled it up, boiled the water, then dumped it out twice just to make sure there was nothing weird inside. And then I selected this tea to try because I was curious about its contribution to the S’mores that I tasted yesterday. The leaves are very long and thin, twisty and jet black. Very dramatic! The dry smell is somewhat malty, somewhat fruity, and a little musty with some honey notes. Brewed according to package directions! :)
The aroma is not what I expected for a Keemun. For some reason I was under the impression the Keemuns are smoky and earthy. Apparently not all of them! It smells of sweet, syrupy raisins with a hint of spice, along with lovely malty bread notes with brown sugar. It’s like cinnamon raisin bread tea! :P On to the taste! The raisin is definitely here as well, and I think I pick up a touch of spice (cinnamon?). There’s a lovely light grain or bread flavor that segues perfectly into a lovely creaminess near the end of the sip. Somewhere in the middle is a nice earthy cocoa note that lends depth and richness to the overall taste.
This tea is not at all what I expected! Much lighter in color and texture than I thought it would be, and the flavor is not heavy at all. I can definitely see this being the graham cracker in the S’mores blend, with some help from the added cinnamon and marshmallow root. And it’s very delicious on its own too!
Flavors: Bread, Cocoa, Creamy, Earth, Grain, Raisins
Preparation
Almost done with these samples I’ve gotten with other orders. D: Don’t think I noticed the earthiness of this tea so much before, but I actually still like it.
Lots of cocoa notes among the earthiness.
Still really enjoy it. (:
Flavors: Cocoa, Earth
So, steeped this for like 5 minutes on accident. xD Got way too excited messaging Sarsonator about Rifftrax. If you have no idea what Rifftrax is, look it up. It’s like one of the greatest things in the world! XD
This is pretty malty, but not too strong. I love the cocoa notes in this tea, it’s just a perfect combo of chocolate and malt. ^^ Another win from Whispering Pines!
Flavors: Chocolate, Cocoa, Malt
The roofers started at 6 am, and the cleaning lady is here. She’s really loud – one of those people who only has one volume. I think by the time they both leave today we will all be ready for bed.
I wasn’t willing to gamble this morning and needed something reliable and strong. This was my choice. Save me snails!
How much longer are the roofers going to be?
I remember many years ago when we had a very snowy early December, and then things warmed up, but not really. By the last week of December, the snow melt had iced in the gutters and we had really, really bad ice dams in them. Really bad. And then it warmed back up some, and the roof and insulation at the apartment we were living in was pretty…well, it was an apartment, so they didn’t care about my heating bills. And as the snow melted, it flooded the dammed up gutters and we had water POURING into our apartment. We were on the second floor and it was bad, but the woman living below us literally had a waterfall for a doorwall. So they hired someone to take the gutters off the buildings. Good idea. Except that they showed up at 7am on a Sunday and used sledge hammers to remove them. And they started in the corner of the building right over my bedroom. That was miserable.
I wish I had a cleaning lady! I don’t mind cleaning floors and most of the bathroom…my pet peeve is scrubbing the grout in the shower stall. Absolutely HATE doing that for some reason.
It’s something I had to do, since I work from home I really need to be off in my house instead of always working in the house, or ON the house. She’s not too expensive either. She comes every other week and does the heavy stuff, floors, bathrooms, etc. $70.
That’s not as bad as I thought it would be price wise. I guess I’d rather have a gardener though. Weedeating and mowing in this heat is the absolute worst. Maybe when I pay off my car :)
Well, we have that too.
:) living the dream :)
My house isn’t yet ready for someone to come in and clean, if that makes sense. I need to actually have things put away, I think, to get someone to come and clean.
I can’t wait to get more of this tea. I just love it!
The Snails are soo yummy, we love this one, we just ran out of it and I just ordered some more :)
LOL send up the snail signal :)
Hahaha!!! Too cute, mj
Last tea of yesterday, then I kept the leaves so I wouldn’t waste the resteep. It is today’s first tea. So. Good.
On tap for today, see what’s in my work email and deal with that, then do laundry all day while watching Netflix. I finished The West Wing so I need something new to watch.
Now I can say that I have had “wee snaily yums” and my autocorrect REALLY wants that to be Yuma instead.
These little dingleberries of awesomeness certainly make a nice tea! And they’re cute. Then they morph into giant tea leaves. It’s like having sea monkies in tea form. It’s a show and a tea!
Yep, in a weird mood today!
For the past week I have been having themed tea days. Today is Whispering Pines day! I think I will adjust my schedule though, and have more of an event that will go until I have had each of the teas from that collection. The whole point of doing this was to make myself revisit teas in my collection, but I am finding that I don’t get to visit as many as I had planned. So, I’ll start that today.
This was the first pick on Whispering Pines day, and this tea is just. So. Good. I don’t have anything to say about it other than what I have said before, but having it today makes me wonder why it’s not totally gone – it’s so good.
Allow me a tiny first world whine. I only had one cup of tea yesterday!
/whine off
But I saved the leaves in the fridge and resteeped this today. So all is good.
We had fun yesterday, went to that board game tournament and met some new people. It was quite fun/exhausting since we are both pretty introverted. Plus, it was freaking hot outside. By the time we got home we were both so hot and tired that hot tea sounded like torture, so I had a cold Sprecher cream soda instead. Ahhhh.
Today we are going to another board game thing that I found on meet up, and I get to see Stephanie for a quick tea drop (and I get to meet her dog!)
Then it’s supposed to storm so we’ll be home and I will be in my comfy chair.
And tomorrow we are getting a new roof put on.
Tiniest world whine everrrrr….
What board game are you playing today?
Not sure, it’s sort of an open thing, show up and play stuff.
Sounds like an awesome weekend!!!
Turned out to be Catan and Rolling Through the Ages.
I haven’t played Rolling Through the Ages, but I love Catan!!
Tea of the morning. Nom nom nom. We are off to a Ticket to Ride tournament because we are geeks. Have a good Saturday!
WHOOHOO!! sounds fun!
Are you just watching or participating? Have fun!!
Have fun!
I came in 3rd place
Woot! Nicely done :)
What is a ticket to ride tourney?
It’s a board game :)
Ahhh:) fun!
Hey I played that one for the first time just a couple of weeks ago! Nice!
I live in what is weather-wise, sort of the armpit of hell. For much of the summer it’s close to 100 degrees with 100% humidity. It’s during those times that the TV warns people not to go outside due to the heat index, and we hear of people dying due to no a/c. I remember some of our Danish family sort of pooh-poohed the weather (how bad can it be?) and then then came here in July. They tried to walk to the end of our street and my brother-in-law almost stroked out because he was so hot. Amateurs!
So today it’s July 15th, and the temperature outside is 66! It’s so unusual, and so wonderful! We have the windows open and I am just thoroughly enjoying it. I don’t even mind so much my weather induced headache.
Oh yeah, tea! My first cup of tea this morning was a sample I was sent to evaluate, and it was a little disappointing. So I really didn’t want to gamble with the second cup, and I’m having this. I think I am getting a little tea spoiled, because I have so many awesome ones here by now and I am turning my nose up at the more pedestrian ones. It’s nice to be moving out of the “must try all the teas” phase though.
I couldn’t believe how nice it was outside this morning when I took the dog out. I’m LOVING it!
I so understand the hot humid weather problems. Enjoy your 66! It’s still 90 here
The ultimate cup of goodness!!
Enjoy the fresh weather :-)
It’s 66F in Pocono and lotsa rain
Same here boychik! It’s pouring nails!!! But I love it :-)
I dread to think what the UV index gets like where you live. My skin is very white and can’t tan at all, so UV is something I’ve learned to pay attention to! I buy the highest factor sun cream I can find. (Annoyingly, the higher the factor, the higher the price) If I were to visit you in July, it sounds like I would be pretty much stuck indoors for safety reasons. O.o I’ll stay over here, thanks.
Angrboda, my oldest dd and my son have such a pale skin you can see veins. It has bluish tone. While me and my middle dd have olive tone. They have to wear rush guards and SPF 50 and still burn. My middle dd tans naturally even with the same sunblock. Her skin looks like peach. My oldest complains cause she want to be tan. I tell her she looks like English lady, royal blood haha. We try to avoid sun all the time.
It’s 67°F here and currently cloudy. It is the week of the Ann Arbor Art Fairs (I work in AA) which is normally the hottest week of the year, although there is always one day with nasty storms. This is completely different than normal and it’s blowing my mind. I almost forgot Art Fair was this week because of the weather.
Angr – one thing our Danish relatives don’t understand is why we don’t spend more time outside and why we don’t walk more places. Once some of them visited, they understood. Not only is the weather awful, but the sheer scale of things is totally different. No bike lanes, so biking isn’t really safe, and we live on a state line, so there’s a huge, huge bridge that we have to cross regularly and it can’t be walked or biked across. You know that old saying, in Europe 100 miles is a long way (km I guess), in the US 100 years is a long time :)
Sometimes the teas with Asian names are hard for me to remember. I almost wish there was a subtitle like “sparkle pony” but instead I’m just trying to rewire my brain to remember them as is. I just spent five minutes searching for this under L.
Anyway, because I am a very bad girl, I had a cup of this at 7:30 last night. Then I noticed that it said “high caffeine” on the website and I still thumbed my nose at the world and drank that sucker anyway. Because I can. And damn, it was good.
Weird how it looks like there’s cocoa in there, that dust in the bag, isn’t it? I think it’s magic dust. I’m going with that.
So anyway, I learned that for me, a cup of Elder Grove will still put me to sleep after a cup of high caf tea, so this might be a dangerous new habit.
Yum, yum! Sparkle Pony! My favorite!
It’s totally magic dust. I’m trying to convince the farmers to roll this one Bi Luo Chun style and then I’ll call it Fruit Loops :P
That’s how I feel about all the French blend names as well. As someone who doesn’t speak French… I have considered just taking my revenge by adding everything new I try from Danish shops in Danish. I really don’t like the ‘translated name (original name)’ solution either. It gets so long and clunky.
Good morning, my little tea lovelies!!!
I am drinking this beautiful tea with my breakfast this morning! I was asleep by 10:30pm or so last night and the dogs and Chairman Meow let me sleep til 7:45! Wooo! I am ready to face the day!
Brian and I are going for a hike to pick wineberries which I will use to make wineberry wine, an amazing treat. It turns a beautiful dark fuchsia when done. We are down to only one bottle from last year’s batch. Time to make more!
I love the gentle jolt this tea provides, and it tastes really lovely with toast and butter. Or pancakes. Or french toast. You get the idea…
Have a wonderful day!!!! <3
(Or cherries…just saying)
Have fun berry picking :-)
:p
I should make a cherry wine…
Oh ya!!!! Booze and cherries, now you’re talking. That would be amaaaazing. I drink very little, but wine is my thing.
Maybe I will make a Foxy Roxy cherry tea wine in your honor. Oh yeah, I absolutely do make wine out of teas!!!!
the YS one is supposed to be good
apt: YS has a what?
ailaoshan black. they call it ai lao mountain black which is the same thing
Thanks, apt! I am going to get some pu’erh from them soon. I’ll add a bit of their ai Lao to try!
You’re going to get some what sarsy???
I usually make some Cherry Bounce before all the cherries are done for the season. It’s ready by Christmas!
I’m not buying any tea, if that’s what you’re implying, TTF. :p
What’s a Cherry Bounce?!?!?! HoneyBelle! Sounds fun!!!
Sunday morning yums!!!!
I made this in my new banko clay pot that was seasoned for unflavored black teas.
I’m working up some motivation for a hike, and today Brian & I will also be picking wild blueberries and huckleberries along the trail. The plan is to pick enough to make some wild blueberry huckleberry wine. Fingers crossed!!!!! Wheeeeeee!!!!!
That sounds like a much better plan for the day than mine – which is restoring order to the chaos that is my house and mostly my meditation/yoga space which has gotten taken over by all the extraneous crap in my room that I use for that. Organizing some tea would help my sanity level too
Well I DO need to clean my house. But this is a prime weekend for blueberries, so those win out. :)
As they should!
Sars – I’m thinking about possibly doing that Tea show in Philly in the fall
OMGeeeeee really? You totally should!!!! We can meet and it would be so fun!!!!!
I’m thinking about it. I have a hotel room reserved, but I’m waiting to see if more vendors ign up. It’s looking a little sparse at the moment
Well they better sign up!!!!!
Holy. Shit. That is amazing. Just fantastic!!!!
My day will also resemble yours Missy :-(
Need to clear that tea chaos!!
Also…a tea show? For real? Ghawww.
Sars, have fun, blueberry picking is just awesome, you can even try a batch of NST with freshly picked blueberries, yum!!
You should come to the show…
I think I may dry some berries, TTF. If there’s enough after I make wine, anyways.
(Come to the show? Oh, there’s a few things you don’t know about me!)
So… Many… Berries….
yay! I got some (more) cherries
Holy shit, MzP. You just reminded me that I have fresh cherries in the fridge!!!! Gotta eat them up!!!
I love that tea pot!
One of these days I’d like to go to a tea show :)
A friend of mine is going to the Rocky Mountain Tea Festival. I told her to find Bonnie & give her a big hug from me :)
I’d love to check one out! Philly is so close that I’d be nuts not to go. :)
Whispering Pines is going to be the death of me, but at least I’ll die a very happy, tea-drunk death.
Method: 1.5 tsp, 8 oz, 203 degrees, 3 minutes, French Press
Dry Leaf and Brewing Aroma: light malts and honey
Flavor: Why, WP, WHY?!?!? Every time I think I’ve found my favorite tea, I end up with another beauty. And then I have to go order some. This was a sample from MzPriss(HoneyBelle) and I was dying to try it after her glowing review.
This tea is just lovely. Really wonderful. It has a very mild, smooth feel. It’s naturally sweet, and very noticeably so. It has a light malt flavor, but then there are these juicy fruits on top of that! I’m really amazed at how good this is. This is going on my list of teas that I want to drink every day.
I had a wonderful evening last night with dinner at the Macaroni Grill and then some RiffTrax Live Sharknado! I woke up in a great mood and this tea just enhanced my morning. I’m starting to think that MzPriss may be a Tea Secret Agent, writing amazing reviews and then sending out samples to make me buy more tea! LOL. And her co-conspirator is TheTeaFairy!!!
Preparation
They are both registered Teacret Agents. That is all I can say on that subject, the rest is entirely confidential :P
Laughing extremely hard
I KNEW it! I look forward to the day when I am recruited into the Teacret Society as a Teacret Agent. Wait, I mean, no. Not interested. You keep your Teacret Societies to yourselves. wink wink
All these people blaming my totally innocent self for their tea addictions. TeaTiff blamed me for her Golden Monkey problem this morning too.
I call shenanigans on your innocent act! :p
In all seriousness, I think we all love you and TTF and your passion for awesome tea. My bank account doesn’t appreciate it, but I know I do. :)
You two make excellent Teacret Agents. I hope you’re well-paid! With extra tea hazard pay!
Well the thing is there is awesome all over the place. The one thing you won’t ever see is me being passionate about tea that isn’t spectacular IMO. So whether it’s this or the Golden Monkey or Special Dark or Golden Orchid or Wee Snaily Yums (I mean Golden Snail) or Wild Monk or Laoshan Black (etc, etc, etc) I will assault you with superlatives – but I will also share amazing tea :D
No one will ever accuse you of being blasé about tea while I am around! Or else!
Hahaha! Too bad i missed this post this morning :-)
Oh, this is so hilarious.
Thank god me and MzPriss have some kind of credibility here…at least I’d like to think we do:-) (we’ve both been steepster members for 3 and more years)
I have tried and seen many companies through the years, I’ve also been approached by a few to get “involved” with them. I can tell you that WP is at the top right now with just a few other places I order from, and I would NEVER say this if he was paying me to say it. I buy and pay my tea (except for the occasional teacret samples:-)) and the day I try one of his tea I DON’T like, I will not be afraid to say so (but really, I doubt that this will ever happen!!)
Like MzPriss said, if the passion isn’t au rendez-vous, than you will never read a raving review from me.
(Sarsonator, I will strongly recommend your recruitment!!! You seem to be teacret worthy…or i never said that…wink, wink,)
I think it’s wonderful that you give totally honest opinions. And I know they are honest because when I later try those teas, they’re just as amazing as you said they would be!!!
Oh and thanks so much, TTF!!! I really want to learn the teacret handshake! :p
Haha! Will be working on that :-)
And I forgot to say, I’m really glad you liked the tea…I start my day with this one almost every morning!
I can see why! It’s really impressive. I may try this with a little maple syrup next time. Somehow I think it might be good that way!
Maple syrup gets the seal of approval in EVERYTHING!!
Yes, I have noticed that it seems to be the holy elixir of steepster! I assume that it is the official sweetener of the teacret society.
I call maple syrup in tea “Terri-style”
Does that mean I get to be a teacret agent too? ;)
Absolutely. In fact, I’m pretty sure that if a tea technique is named after you, you won’t even need to do the interview portion. Lucky!
Teacret Terri-style
In the gaiwan at 170. Quick rinse and a first steep at 1.5 minutes Nice and vegetal but quite mild. Second steep opens up and I’m getting a little of the juiciness with a little stonefruit. Third – the aroma is getting gorgeous and ok – I’m starting to get the white tea thing. There is a hint of grapey-ness that I love and lots of juice. The fourth steep is my favorite so far, more juicy fruit.
This is a revelation! Who knew I liked white tea this much? Clearly I need to spend more time with my gaiwan:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/125488674@N02/14626557522/
But that’s all I have time for this morning. Delicious!
I made this up chai latte style (1/2 cup milk 1/2 water boiled with the chai for a bit).
This was the exact warm creamy spicy decadence I needed for after dinner (Parmesan lemon tilapia, and herb and butter rice with peas and carrots, and salad).
I don’t get much cocoa from the base, but what I do get is perfectly balanced spices that are perfectly supported by the tea base and that stands up beautifully with the milk. This is one of the best chais I’ve ever had.
Preparation
Oh, this is such a pretty tea!
From the look, I’m guessing this is a blend of beautiful Silver Needles and fuzzy Bai Mu Dan?
(I stand corrected by the Master himself : «This is not a blended tea at all, It’s a single-origin white dried under the moonlight») Good to know, it makes it even more special :-)
White juice at its best.
White teas often get a bad wrap for not being tasty enough.
Having them Gongfu style will make you change your mind. The tastes just explodes this way, as opposed to a mug brew.
This is so juicy.
Notes of melon and cucumber, some peach, sweet peas, and honey.
Right from the start, you get a buttery thickness and a fresh mouthfeel that intensifies afterwards. At fourth steep, I can’t believe how sweet this is.
The wet leaves smell like hay warmed by the son. I know exactly how that smells like, my Grandpa was a farmer.
It might be delicate, but it’s so tasty. Also, it makes a wonderful cold brew.
I love this tea, and I’m hoping it will still be available by the time I place a new order.
It’s a sunny and happy tea :-)
Yay!!! you found another happy tea tonight. “hoping it will still be available…” LOL you will probably order again really soon ;))
Lol, I was just thinking the same Dexter. Do you have straight whites sometimes?
This is not a blended tea at all :) It’s a single-origin white dried under the moonlight :)
Bad me, should have done my homeworks :-) it really looks like needles and white peony mixed together. It’s just beautiful..
Straight white – not really. I only have one straight white tea in my house and I normally cold steep it with a little (just a little) fruit tisane. I did like the silver needle gong fu style that we did during my tea class (if that counts at all) – but I don’t really do that at home…
I love it…One of my favorite non-traditional whites for sure! :D
I love whites gongfu, but my silver needles also tend to hold up to ‘grandpa style brewing’ and one of mine is now my favourite tea to cold brew!
I’m going to have to gong-fuy this. I keep missing the point of whites so apparently I’ve been doing it RONG – I shll make a weekend date with the gaiwan and this and several others
Yyz, I love silver needles, and they are also fabulous cold brewed!
MzPriss, there’s no RONG lol, everyone has its own ways, but if your experience hasn’t been the greatness with them, then it,s worth trying :-)
You make this tea sound absolutely amazing. I’m going to have to pick up some of this.
This sounds wonderful. I may have to add some to the WP order that I already have planned for August! :)
The Teacret Agents strike again!
TeaKesser, it is absolutely worth trying :-)
Lol, Sarsonantor, where did you possibly learned about the teacret???
Please read my Ailaoshan review when you get time :p
The teacret is out…
Haha! i have some catching up to do, will do FOR SURE!!!!
This is another tea I cold brewed last night and took to work. This one I drank on my break. I can’t recall if I’ve had this cold before. I poured it over ice and was rewarded with a jasmine floral forward notes with nutty creamy undertones and enough gentle vegetal notes to support it all. I don’t always crave a jasmine green tea, but when I do, this is my favorite. The perfect amount of floral, and the pine needles add that extra something that makes it so unique.
That is so interesting and amazing! :)
you are amazing Terri!
Unfortunately Steepster isn’t really working all the well for me :P
All that well
Yeah, I think I jinxed steepster with this post. Sorry everbody
Haha ;)
One thing that’s really frustrating to me is that I can’t see all the reviews for my teas on the usual company page. Random ones (like this one) don’t show up http://steepster.com/companies/whispering-pines-tea-company