Campfire Blend

11 different black teas? Awesome! Plus Rooibos? Cool! AND Spices and Orange Peel? Woot!!!

I’m excited!
Let’s try it shall we???

It smells smoky and orange-E. The color of the liquor is that of a rooibos but also a medium-dark brown combined.

It’s smoky but not overly-so…not like a straight-up Lapsang Souchung but still very nice and fitting to the name. The mesh of 11 black teas in the base are interesting…something I have never tasted before! That I like and appreciate all of the thought that went into it.

I can taste the orange and it’s lovely. Again, not overpowering but I’m happy it’s present. The spices seem to mesh really well with eachother as well as the black tea base. I can’t pick out one spice over the other(s)…it’s a nice combo – that’s for sure!

It’s earthy and woodsy…true to it’s name, too! It’s slightly sweet which is a nice surprise. It has a sweeter-maltiness to it, too! I REALLY like that!

It also has a very subtle taste of mineral/rock type taste…reminiscent of Wuyi Rock Oolong, perhaps.

I really like this because it is so different. Also because you can tell a lot of thought and work went into it. It certainly lives up to it’s name :)

:( I tried this one after my massive lack of success with DT’s Cherry Cola tonight, and unfortunately, don’t like this one much better. The aroma is fairly light and mild, with a bit of a familiar and slightly unpleasant aroma. I feel like it’s an aroma I’ve associated with a black tea in the past, but I can’t for the life of me remember which. The unpleasant-ish aroma follows into the flavour – I’m left with quite a light blend, where I can taste a touch of sweetness that’s unfortunately coming off as something a bit rotten, alongside a pleasant black base. I wonder now if it’s the rooibos causing this…

Anyhow, I was certainly hoping for a whole lot more than I got from this blend :( Although there was a lot of orange peel, that’s certainly not a dominant flavour in the blend (in fact, I can’t even really taste it). I can only catch the barest hint of smokiness; given that this is a “campfire blend” I would have expected more. There is a creamy, pleasant aftertaste, which I wish had more impact upon the rest of the blend, but that’s its only redeeming factor (though, I say that as this tea grows on me a little… I’m trying to give it a chance by drinking the whole cup, which does seem to be improving my opinion of it, but not enough to ever re-purchase.)

Anyhow, I do wish I had better things to say about this blend, but it’s fairly bland (I used 2 tsp for ~10 oz. water, and it got a full 5 minute infusion in boiling water) and has a bit of an odd flavour (although I’m wondering if cross-contamination from other samples from Whispering Pines could be a partial cause of this). Oh well!

ETA: Although I just burnt my tongue on a different tea…. grumbles, the re-steep of this one is fairly decent. Half the water, 6-minute infusion at boiling. I’m tasting light spice, perhaps a hint of citrus, and none of yesterday’s wierdness. I will try this one again soon and hopefully it will be better then! Perhaps let it air out a touch.

Thank you hesper june! I’ve been wanting to try something from whispering pines company for a while now and she was happy to oblige me. A first scent of this one, I’m not really sure what to expect. There’s a really strong spice smell, not just cloves but cloves and….something. I think I was expecting something with a bit of smoke to it, which I don’t smell.

After brewing this one, I’m left with what I’d call a kind of boring cup of tea. Th strong spice smell that was present in the aroma is muted. I can’t taste any of the orange and the tea blend almost has too much going on for The tea to decide what it wants to be. It’s not a bad cup of tea, but its not wonderful either. Ill be looking to try a few more from this company though as its possible that this sample had too much of the spices and not enough tea.

Thanks again to the lovely Hesper June for sharing with me :)

I wanted something warming and comforting this Monday morning.
Sleet is hitting the window hard, mainly because of the 70 mph gusts of wind.
I reached for this tea.
Because as soon as I smell it, it smells like Christmas Eve in front of the fireplace.
A little smoke alongside a orangey clove aroma.
What hits the tongue first is a little clove than orange and a nice smoky black tea base.
This is one of those teas you curl your hands tight around the mug and just inhale.
It makes me happy clear down to my toes.
I know this is not a holiday blend, but it really speaks christmas-y things to me.
I have to wrap some presents and makes some holiday treats today, so this is a prefect tea to start out my day with.

TY to Whispering Pines Tea Company for having a weekly drawing – and woot, I won tea!
http://whisperingpinestea.com/drawing.php let’s go tea peeps, enter!

DRY: very spicy smell! Clovey!

STEEPED: Black tea brown colour, smells kinda smokey with a hint of sweet.

TASTE: Very earthy and woodsy, full of flavor and slight smokey. The cloves are present but not overpowering, and a hint of citrus at the end. Interesting, the tea is smooth and the flavors mix well. No bitterness or astringency.

I tried this tea with a bit of honey and a splash of soy milk and it turned out very well – honey with this tea is very tasty!

COMMENTS: I’m thinking latte with this one.. or next time my Dad visits he’ll ask for this tea every morning until I’m out. The spice level is nice, the black tea base is interesting – I was really worried this was going to be bitter, but it wasn’t.

This is a beautiful tea. It’s smooth (yet I can’t understand how it’s smooth with the amount of different teas in it), yet kind of smoky, but not overly so.

It’s nicely spiced & a touch citrusy. It’s just yum. I hate when I love a tea, but failed to buy enough of it. This is one of those teas. So far I have liked every tea I’ve had from Whispering Pines.

I bought a ton of samples (pretty much every tea on the site) after trying my first tea from Whispering Pines…this one just sounded fun! :D Their description was kinda funny and super cheesy “except for maybe the whisper of an ancient campfire and the cry of a lone wolf on a cool autumn night.” so I figured I’d give this a go as my second tea (I like cheesy, haha). I opened the bag. WOW. They aren’t even messing around. The smell of this tea gave me chills. There’s this intense wildness to it that brings me straight back to the nights I spent camping in the upper peninsula of Michigan (where I grew up most of my life)…and amazingly enough, that’s their motto: Inspired by the true wilderness of northern Michigan. So my first impression was mindblowing. I carefully scooped 1/2 tablespoon into my mini-pitcher and began to heat up water. I just kept smelling it…over and over again. Anyway, my water was boiling so I poured it over the leaves and excitedly leaned over the cup to smell the tea steeping. As I stirred the aroma got more and more intense and..just…I don’t even think I can explain it, but this stuff is magical. It finished steeping (I steeped it for 6 minutes) and I strained it into my mug. At this point I was afraid tasting it would ruin the adventure I was having with it, but I couldn’t hold off any longer. The first sip actually brought tears to my eyes. I became epicly homesick at the moment. Somehow whoever does the blending at Whispering Pines has put Northern Michigan in my cup. How? I don’t know. But somehow they have done it and I have fallen in love with them for it. The tea itself has a light spice complemented with a hint of orange all set over a deep powerful mix of something…this confuses me. I looked over all the ingredients to see what it was that I was tasting, nothing matched it. I think somehow a few of the ingredients combine to create this overall ‘deep-woods campfire’ sensation. The even strange thing is that it doesn’t taste one bit like a campfire. This is the most truly magical tea I’ve ever tasted and I can’t quite get over how much I love it. Might just need to call and talk to whoever created this tomorrow, they are my hero. Best. Tea. EVER.