Whispering Pines Tea Company

Tea break! I was needing something decadent, and this chocolate-y minty goodness fit the bill. Because I was being decadent I added some sugar and cream. The result is a tea that reminds me so much of Thin Mint cookies. There is the dark chocolate note followed by a kick of mint. It’s nice to have a tea that satisfies my sweet tooth enough to keep me away from the junk food that’s lurking in my pantry. ;-)

So I told myself that I’m only allowed to drink teas out of the traveling tea box today because I want to get it in the mail on Friday, and I still have a bunch of teas I’d like to try. I failed. I wanted to sit on my porch and watch the rain, and I wanted a tea that I knew I would enjoy while I was out there. After a quick look through my stash I chose this one. I love the dark chocolate notes, and the mint is really good. It was a lovely relaxing moment in my otherwise chaotic day.

Yum. This is exactly the chocolaty minty treat I wanted today. So glad I have this in my cupboard.

Backlogging.

Sipping on a cup of minty chocolate goodness with zero guilt is sometimes all a girl needs to be happy. I love that the great dark chocolate flavor comes from the tea instead of an artificial flavoring, and I love the amount of peppermint used in the blend. It’s a great mix.

Whispering Pines could well be the death of my pocketbook. Now that I’ve tried a few of their teas I want to order everything they’ve got. I’ve enjoyed all the teas I’ve tried from them, and the mint chocolate chip is no exception.

This was a sample that was added to my order, and I’m so glad it was. There’s a great mint flavor with a dark chocolate note that is steady through the sip. Usually if/when I taste chocolate it’s at the end of the sip, so I really enjoyed having it present from start to finish. The tea is also very smooth, and while it’s not overly sweet the mint adds enough sweetness that I didn’t feel the need to add sugar to my cup. Plus, it resteeps very well. I’ve steeped the leaves three times now, and the flavor has been consistent with each cup. Win!

This one needs to always be in my cupboard.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

I’m one of those people who spend New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day by myself. I’m probably not the only one…and after years and years, I don’t feel sorry for myself about it.

There was a time when I was forced to be around New Years events that I didn’t want to be around…and I ended up afraid of what could happen to me at the hand of an abusive person.

I’m so thankful in my present life to be safe!

Tonight I put on good music, made some dip and crackers…had a really good dinner too. Worked on my Pinterest Boards.

Now, here we are together…you, my friends on Steepster.

It’s just us with some tea.

If you’re alone like me…make some tea and I’ll tell you how this tea made me feel…how it took me back to another December.

The Story:
Silicon Valley is a new title for the Valley I grew up in.
Once it was known as the ‘Prune Capitol of the World’ not the center of technology.
On one side of the Valley are the small Coast Range Mountains and then the Pacific Ocean.
At Christmas, my children Aaron, Annalisa and I would bundle up and head up narrow Black Road…winding our way through Ponderosa Pine and Redwood Forests..up, up through mountain mists until we reached our favorite tree farm.

The dirt entry off the paved road was perched above the tree farm. As we looked below us, we could see a low ranch house and a big rustic woodshed decorated with Christmas lights, candy canes and stars. A woodfire billowed sweet smelling smoke into the cold, damp air. A hidden machine blew bubbles like snow high into the sky. It was magical!

When we arrived a rotund, aproned Mrs.Claus greated us with laughter, hot cider and ginger cookies…then gave us instructions on how to cut our tree to protect the trunk for regrowth.

We tumbled laughing and yelling through rows and rows of fragrant trees, letting the branches swipe across our faces…rushing off here and there to be first to find the perfect tree.

Such delightful joy!

I often think that this was one of those moments that God allowed me to be a child…as it does now in the retelling of the story.

The Tea:
When I prepared this tea…the use of real Ponderosa Pine with ‘mild’ Yabao in the blend, transported me back those 30 years.
I could smell the sweet, fresh cut fir tree and the sap. It’s a sweet smell. Then, brown sugar, graham cracker…nutmeg and ginger.

Spot-on this tea takes me deep into the WINTER FOREST.

I’m a lover of raw innovation…bold creativity and high standards in blends. No spay-tan flavors to make-a-buck pseudo-tea for me.

One of the memories that lasts throughout your life is scent and taste. Cool isn’t it. All the tea will associate with places and people…woods and trees, love and celebrations.

Evergreen Spice allowed me to become myself 30 years ago with my young children in the Coastal Mountains cutting down a Christmas Tree with the scent of Redwoods and Pine. Spiced Cider and cookies…

How glorious is that!

Blessed 2014 to you all my beloved friends!

A note: Not a critic of real sugar here but I have a critical note for once below:
(No artificial sweetener…none…nada…it changes the yabao into soap so don’t please.)

(Yikes this is review 666 on New Years Eve…good thing that I have no fear! It’s funny!)

Backlog.
My first cup after receiving my order I was a little out of it and ended up seriously overleafing — like double! Managed to get through 1/2 of the crazy strong cup before I realized my error and added some more water.

Next couple times I paid more attention to what I was doing, and I have to say I still really like this tea. It’s great for when my throat feels clogged or I start getting the sniffles.

Yay, it’s here! After I used all of my sample from MissB I felt better and forgot to order this. Fast-forward a couple weeks and I’m SICK big time. I’ve been bombarding this stupid cold with everything I can get my hands on, so I was glad to see that this shipped out the morning after I ordered it. Hopefully it will help me kick what’s left of this sickness and prevent any more for the rest of winter!

Finished off my sample this morning, and I swear this stuff is working. Maybe it’s just a placebo effect, but I usually I get full-blown sickness pretty quickly after the first signs, and now it’s been an entire day and I feel better than when I drank this last night! Not worse, not even the same… better! I let it steep a little longer this time (8 min.) to try to get a little more of the medicinal goodness. I think this one’s going to be a winter staple.

One more sample from MissB (there’s a lot of them!)
My throat started feeling a little weird yesterday, not bad, just not normal. Then out of nowhere I got a nosebleed last night, and more of a sore throat today… so as I surveyed the pile of samples to choose my tea for tonight, I knew I had to give this one a try. Normally I catch everything that’s going around, so I’m really hoping this will fight off the germs and keep me well. The good news is it doesn’t taste bad! I wasn’t sure what to expect since it’s more of a medicinal tea, and I’m not typically a big fan of ginger, but surprisingly I enjoyed this. Of course I’ll stick with sweeter, yummier teas most of the time, but if this helps me avoid getting sick I’ll definitely stock up!

Additional notes: Finishing up this one! This is better than I remember. The rooibos gives it a nice cedar flavor to go with the subtle smoke and the sweetness from the marshmallow root. The cinnamon is a nice addition. Thanks again Veronica for sharing this one a while ago!

7/10 sipdowns before I get to 1,500 tasting notes! Looking over my tasting notes, I realize I overuse the exclamation point – this is just to show my enthusiasm for tea. :D

Thank you SO much Veronica! I get to try this one! I’ve been known to eat the occasional microwave s’more for breakfast, so there you go. The steeping instructions say three teaspoons (one tablespoon)! Wow! My sample has four teaspoons, so I went with two teaspoons for this steeping session, so I’d have enough for another cup later on.

Steep #1 // just boiled // 4 min
This is lovely and delicious, but I wouldn’t call it S’mores. It has a nice sweet smokiness, which is the strongest note. There is a hint of chocolate from the black tea, as some Fujian black teas have, but I think other tea drinkers notice that more than I do. I wish there was MORE mallow root here, as I wish there were more teas that used it anyway. But the flavor is sweet and smoky.

Steep #2 // just boiled // 7 min
This cup is nice but even less like S’mores. Maybe it’s my fault for not using enough leaves. I like that it’s a rustic, actual campfire blend that could translate to S’mores (without all the fake ingredients that Whispering Pines doesn’t use). I always wanted a smoky S’mores though, and this is certainly perfect on the sweet smokiness level. I appreciate Whispering Pines’ blending skills… I certainly couldn’t do it! Oh it is just making me miss autumn… I’m sick of winter and it’s not even January yet. Tea makes it a little better.

Tea #35 from the Here’s Hoping TTB

It’s been awhile since I’ve ordered from Whispering Pines, but I’ve loved a lot of what I have sampled so far. A lot of the teas remind me of being outdoors, something that I don’t get to do as much when we have two feet of snow on the ground and subzero temperatures. As I was riffling through the TTB I immediately noticed this tea, it was particularly eye-catching, the dark elderberries contrasting with the bright orange color of the safflower. Somehow it ended up getting shuffled to the bottom of my “want to try” pile, so I’m just not getting to it. It has a real earthy taste to it from the safflowers, followed up by the tangy sweet/tart flavors of the elderberries. Such a lovely cup of tea, I’m glad I got to try it.

Even though it’s not cold I’ve felt chilled all night. I’m not sure if it’s the weather, ( it’s rainy and dreary here, and it looks like it’s going to stick around for a few days) or if I’m getting sick. Either way this tea is comforting. It’s silky smooth with the mint offering a brightness followed by a bit of richness and depth in the smokey note.

Yeah, I needed this tonight. Good stuff.

This was my after dinner tea. We cooked out, and I was loving all the smokey flavors in the food, so I decided to keep it going with this tea. It was also nice to have the mint to help settle my food. When I bought this tea I thought it would be one of my fall/winter teas, but I enjoyed it so much today and can see myself reaching for it at other cook outs and barbecues. I guess a good tea is good any time of year.

Tea of the morning. Last week was rough and kind of left me reeling, so I’m taking today to rest and reset. That means today will be full of comfort teas, and I’m looking forward to each cup.

The mint in this tea is so good. It has that crisp, bright, straight-from-the-garden flavor rather than a toothpaste or candy taste. It’s definitely able to hold its own with the lapsang souchong. The combination of smoke and mint is so relaxing – like being wrapped under my favorite blanket and sitting by the fire.

Yesterday my daughter missed the bus, so I ended up driving her to school. I had already steeped a cup of this, so I threw it in a travel mug and headed out the door. My daughter commented on how it smelled a little like a campfire. She was curious enough to try a sip, and while it wasn’t her favorite her comments on it began the most enjoyable discussion about tea, blending tea flavors, and other areas of the world. I kinda wanted to drive past her school so we could keep talking, but I dropped her off because that was the responsible thing to do. We’ll save a hookey day for when the cabin fever really hits us. :)

While this may not be my daughter’s cuppa I enjoyed it quite a bit. One of my favorite aspects of this tea is how smooth it is. Other smokey teas I’ve tried have has some harshness or at least a bit of a rough edge, but there’s none of that here. This is smooth, rich, minty and smokey. Is it bad I’m happy I get it all to myself?

I like minty teas. I like smokey teas. I love this minty smokey tea!

I must admit that the first time I made it I over steeped by two minutes, and the lapsang souchong overwhelmed the mint. The next cup I watched with greater care, and the result was a delightfully minty tea with plenty of smokey notes. The mix of smoke and mint is delicious, and the tea has a very smooth quality that makes me want to continue to sip and enjoy. This is the tea I’ll have in my mug the next time it snows. Sipping on a cup of this while tucked under blankets and watching the snow fall is my idea of winter perfection. (Note that my idea of a perfect winter involves not going outside!)

this tea is really warming and delicious, the elderberries and the spices are perfect :) I’ve been using this one as a mulling spice for my mulled dr.pepper and it is excellent!
Great blend for the winter months.

A sample from the lovely MissB.

Sadly this isn’t for me. I tried it, the flavours aren’t flavours I want to drink, and it has been added to my brother’s Christmas present.

:)

I hate adding teas to the database, and I royally messed this one up. Can anyone help me? I forgot to add an image, and Steepster won’t let me edit the information. I guess because I posted it?

Anyway, I was sent a sample of this along with an order I placed on Cyber Monday of Whispering Pines chai blends. I was really excited to get the sample, as it made me feel special. I’m especially glad I got this sample, because I like it a lot more than the Masala Chai blend, which is a really nice tea, but which I think demonstrates that maybe Chai blends are not so much my thing.

Anyway, because I like this tea more, and because I’m about to finish the sample, I decided I would post a log note. I’ll make one for the Masala Chai blend later, but I’m waiting to decide exactly how I feel about that tea.

The brewing instructions for this tea are the same as the masala blend, 1 TBL for 5 minutes at boiling. I think that 1 TBL of tea would brew way too strong of a cup, as this tea, like the masala blend, is STRONG. I brewed 1.5 teaspoons of tea per 1 cup of water for this brewing, as I found out with the masala blend that such a tea to water ratio worked for me after trying a couple of other ratios.

I take my tea without milk, so maybe with the Whispering Pines suggested chai recipe which has half water to half milk ratio, 1 TBL of tea works. Honestly, this brews so strongly though, that I probably would still cut my tea back.

Anyway, I’ve been cramming out a paper all day yesterday and today, due today of course! And it’s cold in my room, so chai seemed appropriate. I also thought I’d brew something novel—thus my sample.

This is such a rambling log note. Hopefully my paper makes more sense. Anyway, the base on this tea is good I think, but it is heavily spiced. The base is Whispering Pines’s Kenya Surprise, which is a CTC black tea. The tea in this brews strongly and has a very nice black tea taste without a lot of bitterness from what I can tell, and when I place my next Whispering Pines order, I hope I remember to buy an ounce or two of the base tea to try by itself. I think I actually really like it.

I also like the blend of this chai and the masala chai, which is very similar. I taste a lot of cardamon, which I really appreciate, as that to me is the most detectable spice instead of the cinnamon or cloves, which I think think is a failure of a lot of chai blends. I really like cardamon. However, the blend is very even. In fact, in theory, I like this blend so much that it lead me to the conclusion I’m not feeling chai right now, because this and the masala blend are great teas and great chais.

I can’t quite detect why I like this tea better than the other blend. They are very similar, and this one works for me so much better. Obviously, the technical reason is the mint, but I don’t know what about the addition of the mint suits me more than the straight chai blend. I’ll attempt though, because the whole point of a tea log is for me to describe tastes in vague difficult to pin down terms, right? I think the mint adds a sharpness to the tea which actually rounds out the spice blend. Since I’ve been drinking these two chai blends without milk, I think the roundness is necessary (although, as a note, I added milk to one of my pots of the masala blend, which will come up in my review of that blend, which I will write eventually.) Furthermore, it somehow makes the blend taste a bit lighter and like—fluffier. (Now my language has gone off the deep end. I’ll stop now.)

Anyway, I like this tea a lot. I probably won’t buy the masala blend unless I need to have chai on hand for some reason. But I might reorder this tea. It’s really lovely actually. Oh, and I got 1 great steep from it, a nice second steep, and a half-way decent third steep last night, which is notable. The second steep tastes more heavily of the spices, which is a really interesting difference. I like when teas have significant flavor changes with steepings.

Very unusual tea, one that evokes many a childhood memory camping, and even more surprisingly, of my neighbors burning former Christmas trees in their backyard after the holidays.

I get zero mint or berry in here, although perhaps I would if I steeped it more. What I do get is smoke, strong smoke, and pine. It’s literally like drinking a smoking pine tree, and adding sweetener only makes me think of marshmallows dropped in the fire, caught on fire, with some pine needles stuck to it and their oil singeing the soft mushiness.

Really, really difficult to rate this one. I admire the creativity and thought put into this, as well as the evocative nature of the tea. At the same time, I’m less of a smokey tea person, and this is the first time I’ve had anything even remotely pine anything in a drink… that I know of, or consciously put in there… I did spent almost a year living in the forest.

I likely won’t order this again for myself, but I definitely will for friends whom I know will go gaga for this.