Whispering Pines Tea Company

I sipped this down very quickly, and have worked at it between yesterday and Christmas day. I also ordered some other teas to share with Leafhopper and write about on here. I’m surprised and greatly appreciative that Brendan sent it out TODAY of all days. I did not expect it, but I really appreciate it.

This one is one of the better Vanilla teas I have on hand at the moment. I love how rich and full it is between the vanilla and natural dark wood and cherry notes of the tea. Most of the vanilla teas are out of stock on the website right now, but fortunately, I’ve got a decent share of the Taiwanese blacks to hold me off for now. I really liked how smooth and rich this one was out of all of them.

I’m almost done with this one and I’m sad about it. I’ve got so much black tea that I drink roughly 33% of so far, but I’ve still been getting more. I’ve really wanted some Taiwanese Blacks like an assam or such lately, but I don’t have it in my stock. I’m enjoying this one before its gone.

I like this one. I took it out and drank it western mug style in my cup with a built in strainer, let it sit for about 3 minutes, took it out, sipped it, allowed it to cool in the crisp air, and then enjoyed it. I mostly get vanilla, oak, wood, malt, and black tea. Sometimes, I get cocoa along the lines of bakers chocolate, and I usually get steep 2 cherry notes. IT’s a very earthy vanilla tea. I actually like this one a little more than Golden Orchid, but it’s on the same tier as Cocoa Amore. It’s a little bit more subdued than cocoa amore since that one has a little bit more bitterness, whereas this one is earthier and more woodsy while maintaining some smoothness. I like it, but I’m pretty easy to sell to anyway. My rating hovers between an 88-92.

Preordered for the temporary vanilla dreams release. I tumbler styled it, and was actually pleased with it. Heavy on the earthy woody notes with the vanilla and malt. Sometimes, there were some mushroom or rootlike qualities to it. When it cooled off, it tasted something like cream soda or rootbear to me in tea form. I don’t have too much to add right now. Rivendell and Cocoa Amore were my favorites of the Vanilla dreams, and I’m glad I can mark this one off as one I’ve tried.

I roughly "gongu"d this so that I could use a smaller amount in my 100mL gaiwan. Three minutes.

Smell: Bergamot first, very well balanced. Light sweet trichome smell. Brewed, stronger trichome and malty sweetness. I’ve worked around very dusty, trichome-heavy teas for so long that I associate a smell with them now, a sort of thick, sweet dust.

Taste: malt, burnt sugar. Not getting any bergamot! As it cools, I get a bit of bitterness at the back of the throat, bergamot-adjacent. From there, the bergamot builds a bit with sips, but doesn’t get very strong. A little light, but the bonus is it doesn’t hide the notes of the tea at all. Citrus, grapefruit, molasses, honey.

Second steep at 7 minutes—smell the bergamot on the liquor now. Taste is light, citrus/grapefruit, honey. Most of the stronger notes from the previous steep are gone.

I feel like the pairing is well-done, sweet, light, balanced. It would be interesting to compare this tea fresh, as I’m sure the bergamot’s dissipated a lot.

No other tasting notes for a Whispering Pines tea?!?! This is from Daylon R Thomas!  Thanks so much!  I have been drinking so many Nepal teas lately — all of them different tasting, yet so elusive in describing, that I’m skipping writing tasting notes for many of them… for now.  This one is very good.  Twisty black leaves with only a hint A HINT of auburn.  (But it also looks like my sample has a stray sickle of white tea in there.)  The flavor was surprisingly smoky in that first cup!  I didn’t expect smoke at all. The brew is crisp, clear, sweet.  A medium strength black.  The next morning, finishing the dregs when the cup has cooled, the smoke is gone. The flavor is so different this morning that I forgot I didn’t steep a second cup yet.  The second steep is much less smoky.  I can appreciate the clearness of this tea, the crisp cleanness, which seems the opposite of what otherwise, is mostly a tea with a smoky note.  Not bitter or murky at all, though usually I would prefer a murky tea, this one is just a gem.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a mug // 18 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 //  just boiled // 4 min

I feel a bit like a caveman with this tea — my second session with it. I get the bread, camphor, prunes, berry, tobacco… most of the notes that folks have mentioned. Less tree and forest, I suppose. The overall impression is just a light Yunnan that doesn’t much thrill me, and the notes so subtle… I feel like I don’t know why I’m hunting around in here except that I was told to. I might focus on this one for a few days, until I’m out of it, and see what I learn.

Drank this yesterday after coming home from a tea tattoo(!!!)… I thought for a long time I was going to ink California sagebrush, and then a couple months ago I suddenly realized why I hadn’t quite settled into pulling the trigger. Because it was supposed to be tea. Duh.

Leaves and liquor smell of a Three Musketeers bar: sweet milk (not dark) chocolate and marshmallowy nougat. Wowza.

I admittedly came to this tea looking for deep cocoa and malt notes layered with vanilla, and that’s just not quite what this little one is. I initially brewed western with a resteep, then went directly for a heavy-handed gong fu session, thinking maybe I underleafed my western brew. But no — the base is just fairly light. There was also a persistent acidic/sour note that I had a hard time reconciling with the rest of the profile..

I am finding that very rich blacks work nicely in my morning routine, but this isn’t quite that… and that’s okay. It was more balanced with food; a garlicky Impossible burger broke up my session, and the steep following that was more rounded, with the sour note tempered. Might try this iced, too.

Wow. What a revelation. Muscat complexity and depth like red wine. Steeped western while half asleep this morning; second steep didn’t slow down at all; wish I’d brought the leaves along to work for a third. Looking forward to bowling and sessioning this in a less-groggy state.

Coming back to add: 3rd steep about 24 hours later was cotton candy glorious.

Strong and comforting sweet and grainy aroma with a prominent cocoa note. First steep is sweet, grainy and nourishing. Second and third move into earthy territory with dominant tobacco and rye tastes as tannins and complementary bitterness present. A great breakfast tea.

It’s been years since I’ve had a straight up Yunnan gold tea. Thank you Whispering Pines for including this as a free sample with my order :)

The tightly curled snails of black tea in this sample smell richly of honey with a touch of molasses and malt. There is a deep, rich baked fruit aroma as well.

The first steep was so rich and full bodied. Gorgeous color, and looked so pretty I decided to have it in my silver lined cup from Crimson Lotus.

I had just made zucchini bread with a mystery grain that was in the freezer. It looked a lot like hard white wheat but may have been spelt? I ground it into flour and also was combining two recipes I have made. The bread turned out great. Somehow it was almost like caramelized sugar on the outside even though the new recipe only had 1/4 cup more sugar than the old one, but the extra full cup of flour would have counteracted the sweetness, I would have thought. This bread needed a tea with body and flavor.

I preferred the first steep to the second, but the second was good. I gave most of it to Ashman when he got home from work to go with his slice of zucchini bread. I intend to keep using this flour, keep using this adapted recipe, and make sure I have a hearty tea like this one to go with it.

A customer at work got the last of Earl Gold Reserve this morning, in the original bag, so if he likes it, he knows where to go!

One of these days I’ll get around to taking notes on this tea.

As much as I was looking forward to trying this little sample from beerandbeancurd, AJ seems to have an understanding of Earl Greys that necessitates getting to try this tea. That, and Whispering Pines is easily accessible for me in the States, so I gave this packet a good long sniff and taped it up with the ITCC Teas of Nepal box. Safe journeys, little golden Earl. May you enjoy, AJ :)

I’ve tried the ‘regular’ Earl Gold in the distant past and it was lovely. But this smelled divine. Just that whiff absolutely brightened my mood.

Got a little box full of delight from ashmanra (thank you!) just as Steepster borked itself, so this is a catch up. I was terribly excited to try this shou, as everything from Whispering Pines has positively astonished me thus far.

I think the most surprising thing about this tea is that it isn’t rich or even terribly complex. It’s just so clearly and simply and daintily mushroom. I’ve used “fungal” to describe some other shous, but woo — this just redefined the word for me. It’s a light mushroom, like white button or portobello. Clean, creamy, extremely drinkable. No compost flavor whatsoever — restraint in the piling? Feels respectful of the leaves. This might be a good introduction to ripes for a new drinker.

From beerandbeancurd – many thanks!

I had this for breakfast thinking it would be heavier on the bergamot than Ashman goes for, but I think this is one he would have liked. Too bad, I drank it all.

Sam and I had hard-boiled egg, toast with jam, and bacon. I actually had rhubarb and raspberry from Fortnum out, sniffed the dry tea leaves, and put it away and took out Burlington Breakfast fine cut marmalade. That’s how special this tea smelled…it had to have just the right pairings.

I expected strong bergamot but instead I got a face-full of the richest, silkiest golden tip tea with strong sweet potato and honey aromas, like a cashmere scarf came out of the pouch a la Bugs Bunny and caressed my cheek. Thus the move to a marmalade that would complement it. The rhubarb and raspberry would have been far too sweet to pair well.

This is a very full bodied tea with what Graham Kerr referred to as “mouth-roundness.” I made two steeps Western. The bergamot was subtle, refined, and elegant.

I went to the website and hit that NOTIFY ME button so fast…

TTB Review #55: Well, I was certainly very skeptical upon seeing “wet rocks” listed among the flavors. Smelling it…why, yes, it does remind me of wet rocks! Wet leaves is another apt description. Tree bark, mud, musky grass. The taste isn’t as harsh – woody, nutty, and with just a hint of wet rocks. Despite wondering if I’m drinking puddle water, I kind of like it!

Sample from Brendan. This is a beautiful black, an easy winner for breakfast. I don’t know what the exact blend is, but the citrus notes almost hit like a Keemun, or… familiar and light like the orange pekoe tea bags of my youth, too, but that seems insulting as it’s far more. Strappy brown bread, malt, cocoa, marmalade, toast, whispers of minerality. There was a flit of floral perfume on the steaming leaves that I couldn’t pin down before it vanished. My split-second thought was rose, but I don’t think that’s it. Suffice it to say, this manages to be both familiar and interesting.

Brought this tea with me to Utah while visiting family this past week or so. I was so gooped to see that I still had some of this squirreled away! I almost left this behind in my cupboard, but I am trying to break the habit of letting particularly precious teas hide away until the either go stale or I completely forget and move on. Like the saying, “If you love them let them go,” but more like, “If you love them, DRINK EM FRESH.”

This tea still had it’s intense sweet maple candy aroma and woodsy scent on the dry leaf, carrying over to the subsequent steeps. So intoxicating! I grampa’d and gongfu’d this whenever I got bored of WP’s Silver Snail. I was able to continually brew this tea for a whole day/6-7 steeps damn near every time. The scent of the candy cap mushrooms didn’t fade a bit over the years, and dominated the first 4 steeps each time. The cocoa and woodland notes of the black tea only made for an exciting combination. I’ll be sad when i finish this one, but so glad to have been able to enjoy it as much as I did.