Whisper of the Woods

I’m totally channeling my INNER-HIPPIE here. LOVE IT!

This smells amazingly tranquil. Just enough floral and mint hints to make you wonder…a lovely green tea and herbal combo. Not to mention the Gunpowder touches thru-out.

This is terrifically done in every way. A very pleasant surprise.

I really needed something to help me chill-out/nerve-wise and this is helping quite a bit but still helping me keep that more positive momentum to get thru today’s deadlines.

Yes! Hippie Haven…peace out, man.

There is, for those of you who have more decorum than I and thus are unaware, such a thing as the “I Got New Tea Today” dance. It may not be pretty, but it does exist. I would know, I just did it. Then I got down to business and sorted out what tea to try first.

This tea sample was one of the ones I scored in a ‘bunch of awesomeness’ sale from Brenden. For the record, he is great to order from, even when you do it all wrong. :)

This is yoga disguised as tea. I love it. It feels brisk and cooling from the mint, and it certainly has a sharpness to the smell because of it, but it is the best mint blend I have ever tried. Both mint and jasmine are flavors (and smells for that matter) that I adore in theory but get very sick of most of the time in practice. Two steeps in, it is staying wonderful, and just as intriguing as the description. In fact, the smell now reminds me of a wild mint patch I accidentally crushed once… Ah, some memories are not fit for public consumption!

Ahem. The jasmine smoothes the mint in both smell and taste and allows the tea to be a conversation, not an assault. Neither the spearmint or the peppermint ever quite takes over, and there is just perfectly enough jasmine to have a floral grace to the scent and a very unassuming sweetness throughout the cup. This is what I wanted peppermint green tea to be when I first tried it as a kid, mixed with what jasmine tea just plain ol’ lies and pretends to be when it is trying to trick you into sipping perfume. Wow. This is an excellent blend.

Had to get a sample of this one because I loved the name and the ingredients sounded good. I’ve been waiting to try it and now seemed like a good time, having just returned from a forest. It was a very small forest, as it was in a park, but it was awesome and is the only one I can get to from where I live. I am just waiting for the day until I live near the real forests…

As for the tea, it tastes quite floral. It’s almost overpowering the mint but I do taste the mint. It’s actually one of the best green teas with mint that I’ve had lately, and it reminds me of my favorite iced green tea from Tazo. This would probably be good iced as well. Maybe even with a little honey. It was definitely a relaxing cup of tea.

Well, I must say I have been quite impressed with the selections from Whispering Pines Tea Company! Everything I’ve had so far has been quite enjoyable. This tea is no exception. It is delightfully minty (but luckily a non-toothpaste mint) with just a hint of jasmine. I’m not noticing the green tea base much but it adds a bit of heft that this blend wouldn’t have if it was an herbal. This is a great way to end my day and prepare for another work week.

Phew, first day of work is over! I needed something refreshing and relaxing tonight, as it hit 30 degrees C here today! In May! What is up weather haha!

Dry, this smells very minty, I was wondering which of the teas was the minty one and this is it. Mmm it’s a nice refreshing scent. I steeped for a min and a half with approx. 180 degree water. The steeped smell is also minty, reminding me a bit of Della Terra’s Jasmint actually.

The taste is perfect for tonight! The green and jasmine is perfect, not overpowering or cloying at all! The mint is refreshing and compliments the rest of the flavors wonderfully. I prefer this much more than Jasmint, though both are jasmine and mint blends. This one doesn’t have that grassy taste, it has a more mellow, clean green tea flavor than grassy.

Overall, this is a very tasty blend. I will hopefully have time for another infusion tonight, as this is hitting the spot and also fits the nice rain clouds that have shown up and will hopefully open up a bit to cool it down here. I am quite enjoying trying the Whispering Pines teas, so far they are all very refreshing and lovely! Oh, and they also have very nice names haha, that is part of the reason I had to order this one :D

This is a really nice blend that offers the calming impact (for me a sophoric)of Jasmine with the cleansing and refreshing impact of mint blended so both are muted to create something that is deeper and sweeter and fresher, over a creamy slightly smoky sweet green tea with hints of spinach which creates a nice mouth feel and adds depth. The tea has a really nice body and the flavours blend nicely. The second steep still has a nice creamy body with the jasmine a little more prominent but the flavours still compliment and blend nicely. The scent of the dry tea at first reminds me a little bit of graveyard blend which is ironic as their is no licorice root either in the blend or the flavour. Their is a mix of green teas including some with really beautiful long twisted blades and the tea brews to a light saffron colour. I’m off to enjoy a third steeping.

I’ve a couple of new-to-me Whispering Pines blends with me today at work. After my success with Woodland Chai yesterday, I’m looking forward to trying some more! I chose to start with this one, because I wanted something fresh and clean tasting to chase away my grogginess. I used 1.5 tsp of leaf, and gave it 1.5 minutes. It got boiling water because I was sleepy and not really concentrating, but fortunately it seems none the worse for it.

To taste, I’m primarily picking up a wonderfully sweet, refreshing combination of spearmint and peppermint. I like to see spearmint in mint blends because it adds a sweetness and a lightness that I sometimes find lacking in peppermint. For me, peppermint adds a stronger, cooler mint flavour. The combination here is just right, making this refreshingly minty without being overpoweringly toothpaste like.

I can taste jasmine in the mid sip, and it lingers as a light floral in the aftertaste. I’m a little sensitive when it comes to jasmine teas, but this one isn’t too perfume-like. It adds an extra bit of sweetness, and works better with the mint than I was expecting it to. The green tea base is fairly unobtrusive. In fact, I probably wouldn’t have known this was a green if I’d not read the description. That’s how I realised I should probably have left the water to cool a little – looking at the dry leaf, I think I pretty much assumed this was a herbal. In any case, it’s very smooth with no bitterness or astringency.

While I’m enjoying my cup, this probably isn’t unique enough for me to want to keep it around all of the time. There are other mint blends I prefer, but It’s undisputedly well done, and I’ll certainly have no trouble finishing my sample pouch.

Revisiting this tea after many months! I think that, like the Sleeping Bear Blend, I only had this one once or twice before I put it away. It wasn’t the right time for me to appreciate it…but that time is tonight!

Each sip starts bright and minty sweet. Clean, calming, refreshing. Like breathing fresh mountain air. There are notes of soft, delicate jasmine as the tea unfurls in its full glory. It’s buttery with a somewhat honeyed taste. Thick mouthfeel, medium body, creamy and somehow slightly smokey. (At least at first.) I’m a sucker for buttery green tea, and this one is not really vegetal or grassy at all. So it means AWESOME in my book! I don’t like grassy greens; the vegetal factor is the reason I hardly drink green tea. I don’t even like vegetables. Anyway, getting off topic. Everything is quite well-balanced. The finish is buttery sweet, lingering on for a few minutes until the cleanness of the mint takes over again. It’s not a definite mint flavor, per se, it’s more of a texture. And it’s just barely there.

This tea re-steeps well, too. I infused it for 4min 20 the second time; the mint is toned down a little and the butter-honey notes of the green tea seem more intense. This is a good blend, a very good blend. Of course I would get into it after it’s discontinued. I did this to myself. At least I still have a decent amount left to enjoy…

This lovely tea came to me by way of kimquat. Thank you!

When I say this tea is lovely I mean it. The blend of jasmine and mint with a great green tea base is so soothing. This is the type of tea I’d want in my cup after meditating or at the end of a long stressful day when I just need to relax. It’s also perfect for a Sunday afternoon while watching baseball. :)

I already have this tea on my wishlist, and it’s going to stay there because I need more of this. A lot more.

Backlog:

I thought that this would taste “smoky” because … something about the name just … sort of insinuated it to me. But this isn’t a smoky tea. It’s a lovely combination of mint (spearmint and peppermint) and jasmine and green tea. A tasty combination.

Not overly minty. Crisp and cooling, but not in a sip of mouthwash sort of way. I taste green tea and jasmine along with the mint, and it’s a very refreshing, interesting combination. The jasmine notes build as I continue to sip.

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/04/13/whisper-of-the-woods-green-tea-blend-from-whispering-pines-tea-company/