Whispering Pines Tea Company

Whispering Pines Tea Company drank Laoshan Black by Verdant Tea

Okay…

I’ve waited about 6 months to buy this tea. I’ve wanted it the whole time, and the raving was driving me crazy, so I finally broke down and bought 4oz of it.

It arrived on Thursday and I opened the bag up to the smell is chocolate brownies! :D

Steeped my first pot the same way I steep all of my black teas at first – 2 level teaspoons, 14oz of boiling water (boiling is 203ºF here in Prescott, AZ) for 3 minutes. Immediately after pouring the water over the leaves the smell vanished and became a much deeper melting chocolate aroma.

The first taste was exceedingly disappointing. No chocolate, no caramel, no brownies, not much of anything really. I tasted wood and graininess, very similar to a dark oolong. Near the bottom of the pot I began to taste a hint of milk chocolate, but definitely not dark chocolate.

So I decided that I did something wrong and steeped it with a tablespoon of leaves in 8oz of water for 3 minutes (verdant tea’s recommended western style steeping). Same thing. Was beginning to feel quite confused and VERY disappointed. So I went on a steeping rampage and tried every method of infusion I could think of and still got nothing. Tried gongfu style brewing as outlined on the verdant site and still the tea was boring and unflavorful.

So I’ve gone through about 2 of my 4oz and just am not feeling it, sadface. I was expecting way more from a tea with so much hype, but I guess it’s just me.

2013-03-16 15:29:18 -0400

205 °F / 96 °C

3 min 0 sec

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Bonnie 2013-03-16 16:17:04 -0400

Quite an odd experience. I’d try another day maybe. I can’t even taste certain white tea’s that other people rave about and don’t know why. They taste blank.

TeaGinner 2013-03-16 17:21:43 -0400

I lowered my rating from a 95 to an 80 after having 6 or so more cups after my initial one. The first cup I tasted everything from chocolate to cinnamon, but I’m starting to think it was just more of wishful thinking from me. Now to me it just tastes more like a nice, regular tea. I over-hyped it a bit too much and ended up slightly disappointing myself just as you did. IT’S STILL A GREAT TEA, don’t get me wrong, it’s just not as good as the hype! (to me) I want my first steep back, that’s where I tasted all of the notes! :(

Kittenna 2013-03-16 17:43:28 -0400

I find that I appreciate this tea most after taking a break from it for a while. On that note, perhaps I’ll have some today! I know I’m not imagining the chocolatey flavours, personally, because I was extremely skeptical when I first tried it, and was shocked when I could actually taste it!

Have you tasted chocolatey flavours in blacks before? I’m too lazy to check to see if you carry a tea like that :P

Whispering Pines Tea Company 2013-03-17 00:20:33 -0400

Ohhh yes, I certainly do! I have Dark Chocolate Oolong ;)

Yeah, I think I need to put the bag away for a while and come back later.

Jude 2013-04-19 15:03:47 -0400

Just received a sample of this from Verdant and am puzzled by my own similar reaction to the tea… just not at all a tea that I would seek out, and I was expecting at least an “mmm, this is good” out of it. But it’s, just as you say, very similar to a dark oolong. So I’m thinking is it possible there this recent batch is not the quality that our Steepster brethren have received?

OMGsrsly 2013-04-19 21:45:57 -0400

My reaction was “Blech!”. I also need to revisit it, maybe after I try the samples I received from Verdant. I just might not like the type of tea, after all.

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