Cedar Ridge

The Inspiration
Imagine waking up at your campsite in the summer, stepping outside and rinsing your face off with naturally chilled water from the stream beside your tent. You breathe, stretch, and then head up the ridge to see the sunrise. On the way up the hill, you pick wild berries and breathe the clean morning air. When you reach the top, the sun rises above Lake Michigan and warms the tips of the cedar trees while the soft morning breeze pushes the fresh Michigan air into your lungs, revitalizing your body for the perfect morning hike.

Cedar Ridge was inspired by sunrises and summer camping in evergreen forests. This blend combines slow-roasted cedar leaves with elderberries and cinnamon, slow-roasted peppermint and chicory root, all brought together with a touch a ginger. Sweet, warm, and smooth, Cedar Ridge opens with the indescribable aroma of roasted cedar and elderberries. At the middle of the sip, earthy and warm elderberry combines with notes of pine wood, and closes with the lightest touch of mint and ginger, leaving you with an aftertaste of caramelized fruit! Best enjoyed outdoors!

Notes
Roasted Cedar
Elderberry
Pine Wood
Earthy
Roasty
Ginger
Mint
Caramel
Fruit

http://whisperingpinestea.com/cedarridge.html

Thank you to beelicious for sharing this tea in our recent swap! This tea isn’t something I’d normally gravitate toward, as I’m not big into herbal blends and the ingredient list looks a bit frightening (spearmint and cinnamon in the same tea?) But I needn’t have worried…it seems that Whispering Pines is incapable of selling a bad tea! This one somehow manages to be both soothing and refreshing at the same time with just a touch of warm, comforting spice. It was the perfect bedtime cup of tea!

ok so THIS is what i wanted sleeping bear to be (minus the elderberries). I’ve had this one before via samples, but there’s something to be said about a brand new unsealed package. This was good through several steeps this morning – i’ll likely need to order more when this is finished up. :)

Had this tea last night. I thought I might enjoy this herbal tea since I do like woodsy herbal teas. It was quite pleasant. Brenden really is a master blender. Everything seemed to be so perfectly balanced.
Spearmint – gives the tea that feel of clean clear outdoors.
Roasted Cedar – Wasn’t sure if this would be too strong for the tea but it added such a wonderful dimension. It took me back to the days when I was a kid and my aunts used to cut cedar in the woods to form bundles. I remember helping them a few times and the cedar smell was wonderful.
Cinnamon – I like cinnamon but am not a cinnamon lover like my husband. I think it has it’s place and I don’t like it overdone. It was done just right in this tea adding a nice warm spicy feel to the tea.
Ginger – Another spice I don’t like overdone. In fact I usually avoid ginger in teas because it’s too strong. The ginger in this tea was only slight. It’s there just to add that extra spiciness but nothing more.
Elderberries – Well, I have no idea what elderberries taste like or even if I was picking it up in this tea. I really enjoyed the tea overall though!

Lewis & Clarke TTB

I have been wanting to try this one, and someone kindly added a (wee) bit of it to the box! Thanks, someone! My teaspoon was the only one left in the pouch, so it was very broken up and I didn’t really see any elderberries in there. Dry, it mostly smelled mildly minty. There was only about teaspoon left, so I used less water than I normally would have for this cup (suggested volume is 1.5 tsp per 8 ounces).

This definitely reminds me of Elder Grove a bit, and the two do have several common ingredients. I wish there was more berry flavor, but I think that was just due to my teaspoon not having many elderberries in it. The main flavor is mint, but it’s mild and smooth and not at all abrasive. I also get a nice mellow roasty flavor, I assume from the ceder leaves, and a touch of cinnamony spice. Overall, tasty! I would like to try this one again with a more representative sample. :D

Brenden sent a sample of this with my WP order last month. It’s not a tea I would have picked out normally, since I don’t usually like minty teas, but I’m glad I gave it a chance.

This is the kind of minty tea I can get behind. It smells like my old favorite vanilla mint sleepytime tea, so I guess spearmint? I’m not well educate in the various kinds of mint.

And thankfully, the mint isn’t the star of the show here. There’s some nice spice (cinnamon and ginger) and a bit of earthiness, and overall it’s very mellow and soothing.

I think it might even inspire me to go to bed before 3am for the first time in forever. Dare I say I might even add this to my next order?

These tea leaves smell incredible. Sadly, I found the taste of the brew was extremely weak. I followed the directions of brewing 1/2 tbsp @ 212F for 5mins. I even tried it the second time with extra tea and more brew time. Still, watery tasting. Perhaps I got a bad batch or something? I may give this another try in the future, but for now I cannot recommend it.

Due to the fact that I generally don’t get home any earlier than about 7pm (11pm some days), I was in dire need of some non-caffeinated tea to drink before sleeping. This was my first tea from Whispering Pines, and I generally don’t drink blends. So this was unknown territory for me! Fortunately, it was a highly awesome experience! This tea was minty and sweet, but not overwhelming. It was comforting and refreshing! After enjoying this tea, I had no issues sleeping. I also credit this tea for curing my sour stomach which I had had all day, which immediately disappeared after drinking my cup. YAY MAGICAL TEA!!!

This was my last tea of the day, & although I enjoyed it, I don’t really feel that I have much to say about it. I did enjoy the Cedar & the Elderberries. It is a gentle soothing cup, especially nice lightly sweetened.
Another sip down, as the rest of my sample is going to Sil.

I read yesterday on a post that this was an excellent calming tea.

Now I doubt that this will put my hyper self to sleep, but it can’t hurt to drink it at night, right?

First, can I mention how much I adore Brenden’s description of his teas? If you’re an outdoorsy person like I am, you really understand what he’s talking about…if you’re not flirting much with the outdoors, it will make you wish you were.

It tastes so smooth, it is a very soothing infusion, think spa and aromatherapy…

I get hints of spice and citrus, with earthy undertones, it feels very organic. (That’s because it is!)

I’m really glad I ordered this, it will calm me down when I feel like going out for a jog at 11 at night!