Whispering Pines Tea Company

Cold-brewed this last night. I like it better this way but it’s nowhere close to a favorite. It’s just too roasty. This way the dark chocolate notes come out much more strongly, so it’s like drinking a dark chocolate bar mixed with a really dark oolong. Maybe my problem with this tea is that they don’t seem to blend together? I’m really not sure, but the remaining little bit is probably going to the swap pile.

This one is dark. I can’t smell much other than roastiness when it’s dry, but as it brews it does smell exactly like dark chocolate. It brews up very dark, possibly the darkest tea I’ve had (minus that one oversteep, of course…).

The taste is interesting. Straight up it’s more like cocoa powder than actual chocolate: dark, a little smokey, and a slightly powdery mouthfeel. The oolong base is definitely noticeable but there’s not much nuance to the flavor other than a slight savory roastiness at the end of the sip. It’s almost like coffee.

After adding a splash of milk it’s better, a little lighter with more obvious chocolate notes. There’s a creamy taste to the finish, but something still feels off. It may simply be too roasty for my tastes.

Word to the wise: oversteep this. Just try it. It went from campfire marshmallow dropped in pine needles then carmelized, to all that plus honeyed something-or-other. Now I’m a bit sad that this was a sipdown!

I have, maybe, one serving of this left. That’s what I get when I share so much and forget to try a tea! :)

Wanted to try something woodsy and earthy today, because that’s what always seems to make me feel better. This definitely fits the bill – as with most of Whispering Pines’ blends, I get a campfire, hiking feel, with sweet notes of marshmallow and graham cracker in there. The chocolate is almost there, I have to reach for it though. Honestly, this tastes like I’d dropped my marshmallow smushed between two pieces of graham cracker, dropped it in some pine needles next to the campfire, put it back on the fire, and then ate it.

The Inspiration
Imagine waking up at your campsite in the summer, stepping outside and rinsing your face off with naturally chilled water from the stream beside your tent. You breathe, stretch, and then head up the ridge to see the sunrise. On the way up the hill, you pick wild berries and breathe the clean morning air. When you reach the top, the sun rises above Lake Michigan and warms the tips of the cedar trees while the soft morning breeze pushes the fresh Michigan air into your lungs, revitalizing your body for the perfect morning hike.

Cedar Ridge was inspired by sunrises and summer camping in evergreen forests. This blend combines slow-roasted cedar leaves with elderberries and cinnamon, slow-roasted peppermint and chicory root, all brought together with a touch a ginger. Sweet, warm, and smooth, Cedar Ridge opens with the indescribable aroma of roasted cedar and elderberries. At the middle of the sip, earthy and warm elderberry combines with notes of pine wood, and closes with the lightest touch of mint and ginger, leaving you with an aftertaste of caramelized fruit! Best enjoyed outdoors!

Notes
Roasted Cedar
Elderberry
Pine Wood
Earthy
Roasty
Ginger
Mint
Caramel
Fruit

http://whisperingpinestea.com/cedarridge.html

I’m not moving all that fast today. I probably should have slept longer, but I have a lot I want to get done. To shake off the sleep and the blahs I grabbed my favorite chai. It’s sweet, spicy, smokey, and incredibly comforting. Love it.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, this tea is freakin’ awesome. This is a go big or go home kind of tea which I love in a chai. Everything from the spices, to the fruity note, to the smokey finish, to the over all smoothness of the tea is BIG. And delicious. It’d be so easy for one part of this tea to overwhelm the rest, but it’s well blended and has great balance.

Love, love, love.

Tea of the morning. I woke up to frost on the ground this morning, and I knew I wanted this in my mug. It’s so warming and unique. There’s a sweet fruity note along with smoke and spice. The combination is absolutely delicious. The end of the sip is very clean leaving just a touch of heat in the back of the throat. Nice.

I removed my infuser a minute earlier than I normally do, and the difference was amazing. There’s a lot less smoke and the longan fruit note is much more pronounced. Because I’m a fan of smoke I’ll keep to a longer steep time, but this one was very nice, too.

Still blissfully in love with this one. It’s a sweet, smokey, spicy chai. So good. Even though I try lots of other chais I keep coming back to this one. I’m liking the longan fruit note more and more. It adds a light note that keeps the tea from being too dark and heavy. Such a great blend. This is another tea I’m guilty of hoarding, but now that autumn is here I’m sure I’ll drink my way through it fairly quickly.

I had this tea earlier today. I finished my chores before the kids finished theirs, so while I was waiting for them I thought I’d relax with a lovely mug of this. My past notes on this have raved about the base tea (wonderful!) and the spice blend (spot on!). I don’t have anything new to say. This is one of my happy teas, and drinking it today made me smile.

Wow, Brenden went and upped his game. He said months ago that he switched the base tea to a higher grade lapsang. It adds longan fruit and stronger honey notes. It. Is. Amazing. I really didn’t think it was possible for me to like this tea more, but I do. Holy frickin’ yum!

The spice blend continues to impress me. It’s well balanced lending to the smoothness of the tea. The smoke flavor is strong but not harsh. In fact, it’s sweet and does a great job of blending with the spices. I keep coming back to the base tea – it’s so good! If this wasn’t already one of my favorite teas it would be now.

…and my daughter just came in and stole my cup. Time to go resteep. ;)

Tea of the morning. I was having a hard time waking up, so I chose a tea that I knew I would love and would help my poor brain start to function.

I do love this chai. While this was steeping the honey scent was really pronounced. That combined with the smell of the spices was soooo nice. It was like a mini aroma therapy session. And of course the taste was outstanding. Spicy, sweet, bold, smooth. Seriously delicious chai.

I spent the better part of my evening running my kids from place to place and then setting up for a bridal shower I’m helping with this weekend. I brought this tea along for moral support, and it did its job beautifully. Tonight it was a bit less sweet and a bit more spicy. Loved it. I didn’t add milk to my cup this time, and I think it let the spices come to the front a little more. So very good.

Tea of the morning. A few cups of this delicious chai and then I’m off to play outside. It looks like we are finally going to have a sunny, mostly warm day here, and I plan to do as much outside as possible! I think I might even take my third steep of this outside and sit on my porch. Yay spring!!!

If you haven’t tried this tea yet you need to! This is such a yummy chai. Well balanced and full of flavor. Don’t be afraid of the smoke if you aren’t a big smokey tea fan. It really is added with care and a light hand so that it enhances rather than overpowers the great chai flavors.

It’s late, and I shouldn’t be drinking caffeine, but I really wanted this. It’s such a great chai, and it makes me happy. And really, who couldn’t do with a little more happy?

Still loving the blend of spices in this one. It’s spicy and sweet, and it’s well balanced against the base tea. Yummy stuff.

You know that feeling when you meet someone for the first time and you hit it off right away? You have lots and lots to talk about, and even the moments of silence are easy instead of that uncomfortable dead air that leaves you grasping for something to say. Meetings like that, for me at least, are rare and special, and I treasure the handful of people I have met that way. It’s the same way with certain teas. Every once in a while you have a moment when you take the first sip and think, “Oh, this is the ____ (chai, earl grey, milk oolong, etc.) I’ve been looking for”. For me this is that chai.

Probably my favorite thing about this tea is the blend of spices because it is done so well. No one spice drowns out the others, and while the spices have strength and boldness, they don’t mask the smooth, sweet flavor of the tea or the smoke-y note. I also like that the smoke is much more subtle than I was expecting and is used as a way of enhancing the flavor of the spices than just being one other flavor in a chai. That’s not to say that the smoke isn’t there. It definitely is, but it doesn’t over power the tea. I’ve had a few smoke-y chais that ended up tasting like smoke and clove or smoke and cinnamon. Thankfully, that is not this tea. Lastly, the black tea base is good. Really good. There is a sweetness that took me a while to place, but I think it reminds me of wildflower honey. More than anything the overall blend is beautifully done and after two resteeps I can say I adore this tea even more.

So basically this is crazy delicious and I will be drinking insane amounts of it for the foreseeable future because it’s just that good.

to me this is similar to Gong Fu from Zhi Tea…durability seems similar as well,which isn’t so great…pretty tasty though…

Anyone else think roasted mate smells like stale cigarettes? No, just me? Okay.

The tulsi and peppermint pretty much make this blend for me. They add a sensational cooling element in my mouth, and just taste fresh and scream ‘WAKE UP’. They are also the primary flavors (yay!) The mate adds a roasty element, kind of earthy and a little ashy, and then hangs around for the aftertaste.

For a roasted mate blend, this is pretty awesome. For a cup of tea for me I could probably pass. Luckily, Fiance is a bit of mate fiend

Thanks for the chance to try, though KallieBoo!

This tea is beautiful. I got the package today and I was at work, so I spent a couple hours just periodically smelling it and hoping it would taste as good as it smelled… it took me right back to summers camping in the sierra nevada with my family, where I’d sometimes nibble on pine needles just… because.

I expected the taste to be a little more aggressive — pine needles have a bite to them, after all — but instead it’s just fresh and crisp and pretty subtle. It does not disappoint, though. I’ll be enjoying several more (tiny) pots of it tonight…

I asked for a sample of this tea from MissB because the description was so intriguing. I do end up a little confused since the ingredients list is only “black tea”. Based on the flavors within I am assuming it is an unflavored blend of various black teas, but I would love to know what they were. It’s honestly the type of thing that keeps me from ordering such a tea because I don’t really know what’s in it. “Black tea” is not a thing; every black tea is a varietal, and while it may not mean much to some of your customers, it means quite a lot to others. Even just saying “China” versus “India” or “Sri Lanka” can communicate a lot more information (for instance, I generally stay away from Indian teas).

Anyway, with that rant over, this is a lovely tea. Very chocolatey… it reminds me a bit of a Fengqing black dragon pearl, though not pearled, obviously. There are bright fruity notes and I do think they come across as a tart, fresh cherry. There is a bit of hay and the robustness of malt. Very smooth, very tasty. Thanks for the sample, MissB!

Sipdown! This is a really interesting tea, and I’ve never had another herbal like it. The fruit flavor alternately tastes like apples or berries, and it’s earthy and a little bit spicy from the cinnamon. It reminds me a little bit of baked apples, and it’s really comforting on cold days or days when I’m feeling off. I’d definitely get it again.

Okay, here is my official promise that I will not make any new tea for myself that contains caffeine tonight. I will be resteeping that dragonwell because I’m curious how it’ll hold up, but otherwise it’s all herbal/rooibos for me. I haven’t been sleeping well lately and caffeine at 10 pm can’t help (although I don’t think that’s the cause, I just don’t think it helps).

Dry, this smells woody, piney, and a little spicy. As it brews it smells like baked apples! Not what I expected at all. I overleafed this a bit to make sure I got everything in the cup. Considering what’s in it I’m shocked to report that it tastes a little like mulled apple cider! There is a piney flavor to it, but it really does remind me of cinnamon apples in some form.

ETA: As this cools it completely changes. Now that it’s room-temperature it’s piney, wintery, but still a touch appley. I’ve never had anything quite like it!

Not much to say about this one since it’s discontinued. But KallieBoo! sent this my way but it’s not my cup of tea. Maybe it wasn’t anyone elses’s either – hence the discontinued. but i’m glad i tried it :)

backlog from yesterday – thanks again to dexter for letting me try this one. On the whole, this wasn’t a bad cup of tea, but i’m glad that this is one that i don’t feel the need to order from WP. There was a bitterness there that i didn’t love. still not a bad cup..just not one i need to keep around.

Final Count yesterday: 114