The Sleeping Bear Blend

Tea type
Green Tea
Ingredients
Green Tea Leaves, Wildcrafted White Pine Needles
Flavors
Jasmine, Sugarcane, Vegetal, Pine, Vanilla, Berries, Flowers, Grass, Floral, Nuts, Sweet, Butter, Smooth, Cream
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Low
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Tea Pet
Average preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 2 min, 0 sec 11 oz / 326 ml

From Our Community

4 Images

66 Want it Want it

  • +51

20 Own it Own it

  • +5

66 Tasting Notes View all

  • “I haven’t had this one in a while so I made a pot of it. It was very refreshing since I’ve had a lot of flavored teas recently. The subtle flavor of pine is just lovely with the buttery green tea.” Read full tasting note
    99
  • “Pretty sure my feed isn’t working here, but oh well. This was a sad sipdown, but I appreciated the chance to try it (Thanks KallieBoo!). This is just a really clean, buttery, sweet green tea. It...” Read full tasting note
    84
  • “I’ve had this tea a few times without logging, my bad! Tonight i will though, and I’ll try to get a second steep in before bed too :) So the dry leaves are a lovely mix of thin, poky pine needles...” Read full tasting note
    87
  • “My parents were supposed to have been on the road with the Uhaul a few days ago, but it is taking them longer than expected to get all packed up. Most of their house is empty now and the TV is all...” Read full tasting note
    95

From Whispering Pines Tea Company

The Inspiration
The current batch of pine needles was harvested on December 27, 2013 in Bellbrook, Ohio.

Imagine a place with rolling pine forests fringed with open meadows and brambles of blackberry bushes just begging you to feed your senses. Imagine a place bursting with wildlife — a new ecological wonder behind every blossoming cherry tree. Imagine being knee-deep in crystal-clear water with pine needles floating by and spring in the air. Imagine love. Imagine my home: The Sleeping Bear Dunes.

Every sip of this tea brings with it a burning passion. Fresh, wild, green pine needles are sustainably wildcrafted from the deepest reaches of the wilderness and processed as a light oolong of around 20-30% oxidation. After cutting, withering, and drying, the needles are mixed with our purely blissful green tea blend, River Rain.

The final product is a lovely blend of green tea with the perfect amount of fresh pine flavor and a hint of jasmine. This tea is based off of the memory of a spring morning walk along Glen Arbor’s Crystal River with the birds singing and otters splashing along that pure, beautiful water. I have created my masterpiece. I have put my heart and soul, The Sleeping Bear Dunes, in a cup.

Breathe life, sip inspiration, and let my beautiful homeland warm your soul.

Please note: There will only be 8-10 ounces of The Sleeping Bear Blend produced each month. Due to this, we would like to limit this blend to 2 ounces per customer per order. If you’d like more, please contact us directly.

Notes
Pine Forest
Sugarcane
Chestnut
Jasmine
Spring rains
Soft Breeze

How to brew the perfect cup:
Steep 1/2 tablespoon of leaves
in 8 ounces of 180ºF water
for 1 minute and 30 seconds.

2nd infusion: 2 minutes
3rd infusion: 3 minutes
4th infusion: 5 minutes

Ingredients
Green Tea
Sustainably wildcrafted white pine needles

Caffeine Content
Low

About Whispering Pines Tea Company View company

Whispering Pines Tea Company is dedicated to bringing you the most original, pure, beautiful tea blends. We use only the highest quality ingredients available to create additive-free teas teas inspired by the pristine wilderness of Northern Michigan. Our main focus is on customer satisfaction and quality.

66 Tasting Notes

99
892 tasting notes

I haven’t had this one in a while so I made a pot of it. It was very refreshing since I’ve had a lot of flavored teas recently. The subtle flavor of pine is just lovely with the buttery green tea.

Whispering Pines Tea Company

Did you try a second infusion? Also, do you have the new version or the old version with Bancha?

KallieBoo!

Old version. But I am placing an order as we speak and added some more to my cart. And no… I didn’t do a second steeping.

Whispering Pines Tea Company

Lovely! I look forward to blending it! :)

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

84
615 tasting notes

Pretty sure my feed isn’t working here, but oh well.

This was a sad sipdown, but I appreciated the chance to try it (Thanks KallieBoo!). This is just a really clean, buttery, sweet green tea. It brightened a grey day a little bit even!

Pictures:
http://atinyteapot.tumblr.com/post/66498456759/the-sleeping-bear-blend-from-whispering-pines-tea

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 0 sec
Whispering Pines Tea Company

Wow! That’s the one with bancha…that’s over a year old! Awesome that it still tasted good! :)

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

87
1186 tasting notes

I’ve had this tea a few times without logging, my bad! Tonight i will though, and I’ll try to get a second steep in before bed too :)

So the dry leaves are a lovely mix of thin, poky pine needles and green tea leaves. The dry smell is quite faint, but fresh and a bit green and jasminy. I steeped for 1 and a half mins, and the resulting liquor is a bright sunny light yellow. The steeper smells of pine, Yay! The tea is very mild smelling on comparison, but still fresh

The first steep is pretty light, but I think more flavorful than previous cups. Maybe because I had a nice lower water temperature or a better ratio of leaves (almost a tablespoon for around 10 oz). Regardless, it is pretty good. The floral scent of very light jasmine wafts up and is present in the taste at the start, and a buttery, fresh warmth takes over. In the middle of the steep, a hint of pine comes out, cooling, like taking a breath of morning air in the forest. I’m not sure if I can detect the hint of citrus, but the cup is very refreshing and relaxing at the same time.

Overall, this is quite a delicious tea. Maybe I wasn’t quite in the mood for previous cups, but I can see the beauty in this one tonight. It is a light, subtle flavoring that blends wonderfully, but not one that smacks you in the face. Very pleased with this cup tonight :) i might even get the boyfriend to try a cup sometime, he thought it smelled pretty good :)

ETA – I made a second steep! I don’t think I’ll be awake enough to finish the cup, but the half I’ve had is really good, the pine really does come out in this one, but still meshes with the other flavors! So happy I have more of this tea, it provides a nice different spectrum of flavors!

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 1 min, 30 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

95
523 tasting notes

My parents were supposed to have been on the road with the Uhaul a few days ago, but it is taking them longer than expected to get all packed up. Most of their house is empty now and the TV is all packed up, so they came to my house to have an evening break and watch some Stargate SG1.

I brewed this tea for my mother and sister, a different tea for myself, and coffee for my father and my husband. As my last note indicates, I brought this tea for them to sample a few nights ago. That time, I brewed it according to the package instructions for 1min30sec. This time, I was too busy serving people to be careful about brewing instructions. I steeped it for 3min. My mother didn’t recognize the tea at first and she let my father sample from her cup. He said it wasn’t bad (he didn’t like it last time and he has never liked any green tea or jasmine tea). So I was thinking, hey, this longer steep time must make a difference and I tried it for myself just now (for 2min30sec). And hey, what do you know, I like it better this way too! It’s much creamier and the pine needle flavor that is supposed to be reserved for second steepings is probably affecting the flavor too, though I don’t recognize it specifically. The jasmine flavor was obviously jasmine in a shorter steep, now it is more of a general sweet flavor that doesn’t give away it’s source without some contemplation.

Never fails to amaze me how a few seemingly trivial parameters can make such a big difference.

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 2 min, 30 sec
yyz

So true!

K S

I miss SG1

Shelley_Lorraine

I’ve already watched them all through beginning to end and it’s sooo sad to reach the end of such awesomeness! I introduced my parents to it and they are still enjoying the first-time experience. Lucky them!! LOL.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

1220 tasting notes

I was given a not-so-subtle hint to try this one out :P I didn’t think I was going to be capable of drinking more tea, but running out of lip balm tubes means having to stop. I also had wanted to resteep Yunnan’s Fable but I put the infuser basket in the sink to get it out of the way and ended up getting dish soap in it so, nevermind that for now. Bear tea it is!

This steeped up very light, but it has the nicest green hue to it. It smells like a forest, just faintly in the midst of a green tea flavor.

It just tastes so fresh. Sweet and fresh, with hints of butter. The imagery to go with this tea is just perfect to imagine while sipping. It reminds me of waking up early in the morning while camping. The grass is usually wet outside the tent and you can smell it, and the birds are chirping already.

This one is lovely, I don’t think I can say anything that’s as lovely about it as its own description though. I think if you read it, you’ll have to buy an ounce of this one too.

Thank you for sharing your definite tea masterpiece, Brenden!

Tea and Trees

Now I really want to try this! I think I’ll be ordering some, I also want to try some of his mystic morning tea! Ps. is he from Michigan? I feel like all of his teas have a Michigan theme.

Whispering Pines Tea Company

I am from Michigan! Most of my Michigan-themed teas are created to bring me back there mentally. I’ll be moving back next year though, WOOT! Yay for eventually curing homesickness with a heavy dose of home! :D

Tea and Trees

Yay for Michigan!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

100
297 tasting notes

You know how just when you think a tea can’t get any better? Then it does?

Yea well this is one of those. I have a feeling I will be through my 2oz in no time & will need more, MORE, MORE, MORE!!

gah it’s so good. Quite different this time, more of a light floral note, still earthy, light & so freakin good!

Thanks Brenden (I have to say I am impressed that your name is spelt this way, my brother’s is the same & you rarely see it spelt like this), for this amazing blend!!

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 1 min, 30 sec
Whispering Pines Tea Company

And this tea has gotten better again, by the way ;)

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

676 tasting notes

Thank you Brenden for this sample tea!

I prepared this tea as Brenden recommended using 1 TB in a Gaiwan. The steep time was what I’d call immediate. Glad I had a nice little strainer to catch the pine needles that tried to escape.

There wasn’t a mention of what the green tea was, but when I tasted the tea, my mouth told my brain that the pine and tea was similar to the taste of a very good jasmine silver needle.

I’ve tasted some rather dull silver needles that have a dusky, murky flavor and that isn’t what this was.

You can almost sense a light effervescence.

There’s always something mesmerizing about this type of tea that takes me back to my childhood camping trips.

We camped less than two hours from home along the California Coast at Big Sur State Park http://www.bigsurcalifornia.org/images2/McWayFalls1.jpg . There were streams to swim and fish with huge boulders and deep pools of clear water which smelled fresh. This water, pine and rock scent is what I associate with tea like Sleeping Bear Blend.
The Ponderosa Pine, Redwood trees, Cypress and Oak created an earthy perfume that I associate with Puerh. Campfires at night, bacon and eggs over the woodfire in the morning…that’s my Lapsang Souchong tea frame of reference.

So much about drinking tea is also about memories and about how the tea makes you feel as a whole person.

I shared some of this tea in a tasting with my friend Eric the scientist (who likes to take tea into the mountains to drink when the weather is nice).
He loved it.
Thought the use of pine needles was brilliant.
This approval came from a plant nerd and is high praise indeed. (Eric likes to nibble plants that only he can identify while walking through the forest)

Lovely tea Brenden!

Fuzzy_Peachkin

These Whispering Pine Teas always sound so good! I really need to try them one of these days!

Whispering Pines Tea Company

We’re here and waiting for you! :) Thanks for the lovely review, Bonnie! So glad you’re enjoying them all! :D

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

80
174 tasting notes

Another one from Rachel, thank you for sharing this with me!

I forgot what was in this tea, just by looking at it, I thought it was an herbal tea. I saw some pieces of green tea in there, but the needles far outweigh the green tea. As soon as I opened the bag I smelled a pine forest. Needles crushing underfoot, pine cones scattered across the ground, I could smell the pine sap dripping down the trees. It was beautifully crisp and quiet, like an early morning sunrise before the world wakes up.

What a lovely tea. The bancha gives a nice soft buttery taste. The pine needles aren’t strong in taste at all, they are light and crisp. I feel like there is a little hint of jasmine in here, more feeling than taste. Thank you Rachel for sharing this with me, it is lovely!

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 1 min, 45 sec
CupofTree

beautiful review. must try this tea.

Whispering Pines Tea Company

Thanks for noting the hint of jasmine – you helped me finish the blend :)

Invader Zim

I’m glad my review helped you!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

86
1598 tasting notes

Another successful sample from MissB! Well, as successful as I can get with my nose stuff up again. I wouldn’t mind being a sleeping bear myself and just skipping the rest of winter!

From what I can taste of this, this tea is a nice refreshing green with a bit of buttery vegetal notes. There’s also more to it – like pine needles. I’ll have to resteep it!

Also I’ll try the last of it later when I can fully appreciate the nuances.

Whispering Pines Tea Company

Multiple infusions are a must with this one :) Especially the new version with oolong-processed wildcrafted white pine. Glad you could still enjoy it with a stuff nose! :D

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

42 tasting notes

Our top-selling green tea blend is back in stock! Our June harvest White Pine was harvested from a grove near Lake of the Clouds in the Porcupine Mountains, Michigan on June 4th. This month’s harvest yields only 10 ounces of The Sleeping Bear Blend, so get yours while it lasts!

This harvest is even better than the last, with an indescribable sweetness brought out by a longer heating process!

http://whisperingpinestea.com/the-sleeping-bear-blend.html

Marzipan

How was the move?

Login or sign up to leave a comment.