DISCONTINUED (was not certified 100% pesticide free) - Yunnan Dian Hong: Classic 58

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Dried Fruit, Earth, Malt, Molasses, Raisins
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
High
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Blodeuyn
Average preparation
Boiling 3 min, 15 sec 10 oz / 295 ml

From Our Community

2 Images

0 Want it Want it

0 Own it Own it

13 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Nice solid tasting black tea is the best I can think of right now. Lol. I’m not really picking up anything special here, but it might just be that my palate isn’t really that refined yet. Though I...” Read full tasting note
    59
  • “I put some of this in the GCTTB – one of the participants asked me to share some WP teas, so I did. WP asked that this tea be discarded from the GCTTB because it may contain pesticides. I apologize...” Read full tasting note
  • “GCTTB Brewed this one gong fu. It was a good solid black tea. I enjoyed it but there’s nothing there to draw me back to it again. It became even better tasting at the end of the cup when it...” Read full tasting note
  • “The last two teas I have to try from Whispering Pines (again, thanks to Cameron B.) are discontinued, and judging by their response whenever someone reviews them, I think WP would rather they just...” Read full tasting note
    73

From Whispering Pines Tea Company

Dian Hong, a famous high-grade black tea from Yunnan, China, has sweet passionfruit, melon, and honey notes! Dian Hong is my favorite black tea and is truly a treat to drink!

The Perfect Cup
8 oz of boiling water
1 tsp of tea leaves
Steeped for 3 minutes

Caffeine Content: High

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.

13 Tasting Notes

59
224 tasting notes

Nice solid tasting black tea is the best I can think of right now. Lol. I’m not really picking up anything special here, but it might just be that my palate isn’t really that refined yet. Though I do get a bit of astringency at the end.
Followed company’s instruction for second steeping. Not much different from the first aside from it tasting a bit weaker. Ah well. But this is definitely one I’ll likely keep around.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec
Whispering Pines Tea Company

You might have luck halving the leaves and doubling the steep time :)

Shadowfall

I’ll definitely give that a try. I certainly have enough left to keep trying until something tastes different. Lol! Thanks.

Whispering Pines Tea Company

No worries, enjoy! This is a great tea to train your palette with, too :)

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

1040 tasting notes

I put some of this in the GCTTB – one of the participants asked me to share some WP teas, so I did.
WP asked that this tea be discarded from the GCTTB because it may contain pesticides.
I apologize to the participants of the GCTTB and everyone else I sent samples to. I was unaware of this situation and would not have shared it with others had I known.
If this is enough of a concern for them to ask that it not be passed around, I feel I should let others know who may have it in their cupboard. I’m not sure why a participant in a traveling tea box would be contacted but not customers that bought the tea. If anyone has this in their cupboard, you may want to contact Whispering Pines Tea for more information.

Whispering Pines Tea Company

This tea and some other teas that I’ve sold in the past were not of a high enough quality to merit testing, so I discontinued them instead. I’m not saying they are unsafe to drink, just that they don’t meet my standards anymore. People that drink WP because they believe in the quality I strive for might drink this tea, and knowing that they might be drinking a tea with pesticide residue is enough for me to want it removed from a box meant to allow people to try different teas for possible purchase. I can tell you that I did not taste or feel effects from pesticides in any of my discontinued teas, which I generally can even on very low pesticide residue. I’m 95% sure they are safe, but I’d rather that others don’t take the chance. I also didn’t contact customers that bought the tea because it’s been a VERY long time since I’ve sold them, so I figured they’d be out of existance by now, and since my last website update, I no longer have a list of who bought them.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

661 tasting notes

GCTTB

Brewed this one gong fu. It was a good solid black tea. I enjoyed it but there’s nothing there to draw me back to it again. It became even better tasting at the end of the cup when it got cold and I could taste honey and malt.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

73
2201 tasting notes

The last two teas I have to try from Whispering Pines (again, thanks to Cameron B.) are discontinued, and judging by their response whenever someone reviews them, I think WP would rather they just disappeared all together.

I agree with Tea Sipper who said this doesn’t taste like much. I mean, there was some flavor (mostly scent), and it was kind of nondescript, but it was also weak and completely inoffensive. It kind of reminded me of really weak tea bags I’ve had when there were no other options. Or even the base teas that some companies (not WP) use for flavored blends, that have no interest on their own, they are only there to be the vehicle for the flavor. Nevertheless, I drank the whole cup yesterday. Yup, inoffensive.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
Whispering Pines Tea Company

Hahaha yes, I want them all to go poof! :-) I am not even a little bit proud of the stuff I offered just one year ago. I send potential customers to my company page to get an idea for what they may like, which is the reason I don’t really like seeing old teas up here. BUT, I think I’ve solved that issue by putting “discontinued” before them. I agree with everyone that rates them low, but it just hurts me to see my name beside a “meh” tea. I am glad this was inoffensive to you :-)

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

59
4164 tasting notes

Lewis & Clark Traveling Teabox – Tea #10
I’ve tried a couple 58s from other tea shops. Maybe it’s just the harvest but there are DEFINITE differences in the 58s. This one seems a little flavorless. It’s so light and what is there tastes mildly like cardboard, albeit a sweet cardboard. A little bit of a sweet fruit flavor. It’s so shocking that even something like the same “recipe” or whatever you call it would be so different! Whispering Pines can’t have ALL magic teas!
Steep #1 // 1 1/4 tsp // few min after boiling // 3-4 min steep

Whispering Pines Tea Company

But I can! I haven’t sold this one in a long time! ;-)

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

75
3986 tasting notes

I just realized I hadn’t tried this tea yet! Gasp! I’m sorry Whispering Pines, I didn’t meant to neglect you! I received a sample of this from Nicole, and I also bought a decent amount of it in a stash sale (was it Shadowfall? I don’t remember now, sorry!) It’s funny, even though this is a far less tippy Yunnan (appears to be about 30-40% tips?) than the others I’ve had from them, I can still definitely tell the quality difference in the leaves between their tea and other companies’ similar offerings. The leaves are long and unbroken, and very light and fluffy. And the golden tips have an obvious fuzzy texture and metallic appearance. Lovely! The smell is quite mild, like most Yunnan teas I’ve tried (some exceptions with the bud varieties). It’s light malt with some honey sweetness and vague fruit reference.

Brewed, it smells slightly earthy, but nowhere near the amount of the darker Yunnans I’ve been trying lately. And there’s definitely malt and dark dried fruit alongside it, which really turns it away from the mineral/smoke element that can be present in these teas. The taste is also somewhat earthy, but there’s no smoke here. There is malt and molasses with some dark dried fruits (raisins, cherries, figs maybe), and these really help to take the edge off of the earth notes and make this tea much more enjoyable for me. I wouldn’t call this tea bready, but it’s almost there. Not my favorite, but not bad for an everyday Yunnan, especially for someone who likes those darker flavors.

Flavors: Dried Fruit, Earth, Malt, Molasses, Raisins

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

790 tasting notes

A good, solid tea. Nothing that I will want to keep on hand for itself, but am certainly interested in trying the blends with this in them. It’s a fine, solid Yunnan.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

77
237 tasting notes

From the Tea and Cards TTB: The aroma here is not very strong. Very light cocoa notes with a bit of caramel are emanating from my cup. As I sip it, I can’t help but to think that although I am enjoying it, there is no defining characteristics that really shine through. It has a pleasant malt taste, with a slight fruity quality but it stops there. I like it, but I don’t love it and I doubt I would every crave it, as it has nothing unique.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

652 tasting notes

This was my morning tea today.

It was a pretty good black tea, though I really didn’t get any cocoa notes in this one. Nothing like North Winds or the Fuijian tea from WP.

I’m too lazy to look up what the differences between all these black teas are, but of the three straight blacks that I’ve tried from WP, this is the one with the least amount of mind blowing flavour and excitingness. I don’t honestly think I was able to pull any specific flavours out of this, maybe a slight hint of fruitiness though don’t ask me to specifically name any fruit or you will be given a blank stare in response!

That being said, I’m still working on bringing my tastebuds up to speed, one cup at a time, so maybe this will blow someone else’s mind!

Thanks to Brenden for including a sample with my order :)

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

85
2238 tasting notes

I’ve been having a lot of luck with this kind of tea recently, so I pulled this one out to try yesterday evening. It’s the first Whispering Pines tea I’ve tried, although there are a few more in my cupboard. They’re next in the to-drink pile!

I gave 1.5tsp of leaf 3 minutes in boiling water, and added a splash of milk. The smell of the dry leaf is mildly fruity, and this carries through to a certain extent in the flavour. I wouldn’t say I’m getting melon and passionfruit as the description suggests, but there is a sweetness that’s reminiscent of raisin. The main note I’m picking up is cocoa, and it’s delicious! It’s sweet and malty, and the chocolatey flavour with the added milk gives it a wonderfully creamy edge.

I’m glad to have had the opportunity to try this one, although it didn’t wow me quite as much at the Teavivre golden tip version. It has made me curious to try more Whispering Pines teas, though.

I’m slowly coming to the realisation that plain blacks might be my absolute favourite, which comes as a surprise given that I discovered tea largely through flavoured varieties. I’m not sure that I would have been able to pick out all of the flavours in teas like this back then, or even that I would have appreciated them as much as I do now. How tastes change! I’m glad to have discovered this one :)

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp
Sil

Yay for plain blacks! Woot woot!

Whispering Pines Tea Company

Looking at your other reviews, I think you’d really enjoy the Ailaoshan Black and Imperial Gold Bud Dian Hong :)

Login or sign up to leave a comment.