It’s always nice to get tea from Whispering Pines, since shipping costs from the U.S. to Canada are so high. Thanks to Daylon for the generous sample! I steeped 6 g of leaf in 120 ml of water at 195F for 7, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is hard to pin down, with elements that remind me of cranberry, grape, hay, malt, tobacco, tomato vine, and wood. It smells like a wild Yunnan tea, if that’s helpful. The first steep has notes of earth, forest floor, minerals, grapes, squash, honey, hay, malt, and wood. The next steep is sweeter, with molasses, tobacco, bread, red grapes, cranberries, pine, and maybe some spices. In the third and fourth steeps, I get bread, honey, sweet potato, raisins, hay, malt, cream, pine, earth, smoke, wood, and minerals, and the tea is a bit drying. The aftertaste is particularly sweet, though this is a savoury tea overall. I get berry and cherry notes in the next couple steeps, and the tea is a bit sweeter. As the session goes on, the tea becomes more like a standard Yunnan tea, with notes of bread, honey, pine, tannins, malt, and wood. The final steeps feature malt, wood, tannins, minerals, honey, and raisins, with some red grape sneaking in on the longer steeps.

This is a rustic, wild Yunnan tea that is nonetheless nuanced and complex. Its sweet, earthy flavours really do evoke a forest, particularly in the first few steeps, and I had fun trying to detect everything that was going on. I don’t usually gravitate toward these types of teas, but would highly recommend this one.

Flavors: Bread, Cherry, Cranberry, Cream, Earth, Forest Floor, Grapes, Hay, Honey, Malt, Mineral, Molasses, Pine, Raisins, Smoke, Spices, Squash, Sweet, Sweet Potatoes, Tannin, Tobacco, Tomato, Wood

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 6 g 4 OZ / 120 ML
Daylon R Thomas

I’m really glad you appreciate that one. I love having it on a rare occasion, but I have to really sit down to enjoy the tea fully. IF I rush it, it’s just an earthy black tea.

Leafhopper

Agreed! I’ve had two sessions with this tea, and on the first, less attentive one, it tasted like a Yunnan purple tea to me. I paid more attention during the review session and got more out of the leaf.

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Daylon R Thomas

I’m really glad you appreciate that one. I love having it on a rare occasion, but I have to really sit down to enjoy the tea fully. IF I rush it, it’s just an earthy black tea.

Leafhopper

Agreed! I’ve had two sessions with this tea, and on the first, less attentive one, it tasted like a Yunnan purple tea to me. I paid more attention during the review session and got more out of the leaf.

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Since I discovered Teavana’s Monkey Picked Oolong four years ago, I’ve been fascinated by loose-leaf tea. I’m glad to say that my oolong tastes have evolved, and that I now like nearly every tea that comes from Taiwan, oolong or not, particularly the bug-bitten varieties. I also find myself drinking Yunnan blacks and Darjeelings from time to time, as well as a few other curiosities.

However, while online reviews might make me feel like an expert, I know that I still have some work to do to actually pick up those flavours myself. I hope that by making me describe what I’m tasting, Steepster can improve my appreciation of teas I already enjoy and make me more open to new possibilities (maybe even puerh!).

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