Whispering Pines Tea Company

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Recent Tasting Notes

89

This is a really nice blend that offers the calming impact (for me a sophoric)of Jasmine with the cleansing and refreshing impact of mint blended so both are muted to create something that is deeper and sweeter and fresher, over a creamy slightly smoky sweet green tea with hints of spinach which creates a nice mouth feel and adds depth. The tea has a really nice body and the flavours blend nicely. The second steep still has a nice creamy body with the jasmine a little more prominent but the flavours still compliment and blend nicely. The scent of the dry tea at first reminds me a little bit of graveyard blend which is ironic as their is no licorice root either in the blend or the flavour. Their is a mix of green teas including some with really beautiful long twisted blades and the tea brews to a light saffron colour. I’m off to enjoy a third steeping.

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83

At the first couple of sips, I was ho-hum about this tea, but by the time I got to the end of the cup, I was loving it. The spearmint comes through on a nice subtle level and mixes well with the rooibos, hibiscus, and elderberries. I found a longer steeping time (7 1/2 minutes) better than 5 min.
Would I purchase this again? I would say . . . 50/50.

Preparation
Boiling 7 min, 30 sec

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97

I really loved this tea. Perhaps it is the cinnamon. (Yes, it must be the cinnamon!) Add that to wonderful rooibos and I’m sold. I found a longer steep time slightly better. With my usual dash of sugar – Yummy. (I will buy more of this.)

Preparation
8 min or more
MelissaTea

Too bad it’s been d/c’d. I’ve been looking for a substitute but nothing will be quite like the original!

Whispering Pines Tea Company

You might like Ginger Snap, which is what this was replaced with. :) http://whisperingpinestea.com/ginger-snap.html

Whispering Pines Tea Company

And also, all discontinued blends are available as special order if you REALLY want them!

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87

This is the second straight Keemum I’ve tried. The first I tried (Zen teas) was a little picky if over leafed or steeped too long it was very smoky but when you got it right it had a nice body and an interesting mix of flavours but it isn’t something I drink on a regular basis.

This one is quite nice. It is very sweet and refreshing and the smoke takes a back seat. I brewed this tea in a western style according to the instructions on Whispering Pines website. 1 tsp per cup for 3 minutes at boiling water. It brews up to a maple colour hinting at copper. The tea smells of smoke, mint, sweet caramelized potato and plum hinting into cherry with a hint of lemon.

At first sip it tastes of caramelized burnt sugar and sweet potato, opening into a fresh smoky and slightly minty flavour, underneath a slightly sour sweet plum taste with a hint of artichoke. The tea is pretty refreshing and might make a nice ice tea. Later sips reveal floral notes of rose as a top note. It is a fairly smooth tea with little astringency and a thin to medium body. There is an aftertaste of burnt sugar/ dark honey, with sour stone fruit notes. This tea is a nice mix of sweet and sour and refreshing. The mint might be the result of contamination from a tea it was shipped with or might be how I detect the pine notes this tea is supposed to have, but it actually is a nice addition to the tea if it is. This is a nice everyday tea.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec

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65

Been cold brewing all of the teas I was kinda meh about when tried hot, letting them sit overnight in the fridge in my Takeya Flash Chill pitcher, and setting aside a little mason jar of simple syrup with mint from the deck herb garden for my husband (you don’t want to know how sweet he makes his tea given he’s a southerner, ha). So far this has definitely been the winner in terms of having the biggest gap between how I felt about it hot and how we feel about it cold—it is so delicious iced! There’s more flavor (that was what disappointed me about it hot; the taste wasn’t bad, just too weak), and it’s thirst-quenching, but also a smoky, mysterious element that makes one think of campfires, appropriate for iced tea. Really great. Husband loves it too.

I’m gonna keep the score for the hot tea so I don’t confuse myself when I look at my rating logs, but I’m definitely making a note for myself on a “favorites iced” list.

yyz

I know what you mean. I really liked this tea but I did need to add quite a bit of extra leaf to get the flavour intensity I like when hot. Glad you loved it cold!

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59

Not much has changed from my first tasting note’s opinion on this. It’s still a nice solid black tea to drink. Kinda reminds me of the black dragon pearls I get from Adagio, but without the resteepability. (I think I just made a new word there. Lol!)
I get a cedar-y, malty smell from the brew. And a nicely malty taste from the sip. I’ll finish this off, maybe consider reordering if there’s a good deal on it. /shrug/

2nd steep as per website’s instructions – 5 min/208* – Pretty much tasted like a watered down cup of the first brew. I’m not sure it’s really worth the effort. Maybe if I was making a batch of tea to chill I might, but otherwise I think I’d rather just dump the leaves and brew a fresh batch.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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59

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 :)

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80

Good Morning, Steepster!
I am starting my day with this tea.
When the tea is brewing I get hints of chocolate and tobacco.
First taste is brisk then a spicy, earth tone comes out.
Notes of avocado, perhaps?
I seem to enjoy this tea on days that I am not rushing out the door.
Since, it gets the job done of waking you up, but not in quite a bracing manner as an Assam.
A great tea to sip while catching up with letter writing.
Have a beautiful Thursday, friends!

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec

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86

Backlog:

Thank you TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea. I really liked this Oolong blend. I like the contrast between cinnamon and mint, although the cinnamon definitely was more subdued than the minty taste.

Here’s my full-length review of this tea: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/02/07/blackmint-oolong-blend-from-whispering-pines-tea-company/

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89

thanks so much for sending a bit of this one to try, Kasumi no Chajin! Whispering Pines seems like such a nice creative little tea company. This is my first tea to try from them. It certainly is a unique blend! A smokey black tea with lemongrass, spearmint, and elderberries. I’m not exactly sure if I’ve had elderberries before, and I couldn’t detect any of those. But I love smokey teas! This one is clearly authentic, and doesn’t have that weird fake smoke flavor that I’ve found in other teas. (It seems odd that teas would need a fake smoke flavor anyway.. it’s smoke. Cavemen knew about it.) But I really love that it is combined with lemongrass and spearmint! I don’t mean to discourage anyone from trying this one, but it reminded me of the dentist’s office, and I don’t think it is just the spearmint. Hmm. Very odd blend but it works well!

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82

Finishing off the last of a sample of this I had laying around. I’m still digging it but I feel like I can taste the rooibos more this time which is slightly unpleasant since I don’t like it that much.

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82

I think this sample was also from Emilie I love me some jasmine and I love me some coconut, so I was super excited to try this! It is very light and bright and I’m mainly tasting the jasmine here. I may not have known there was coconut in this without seeing it in the name. Its pretty good though :)

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74

So far in my life, I haven’t liked oolongs very much, but I also haven’t tried very many at all either. Certainly none from such an esteemed company as Whispering Pines. This trade is from Alphakitty. She sent it to me back in January and I’m just now getting around to tasting it. I love to do trades, but I have a bad track record for actually drinking the traded teas in a timely fashion. My bad. If anyone is irritated by that that has traded with me, I can put your trade on the top of the pile. Otherwise I’ll just go on picking an envelope at random a couple of times a week.

Back to the tea, this is not as scary a tea as I thought it would be. In anticipation of not liking it, I couldn’t make myself drink it until now and it’s cooled off completely but I think I like it this way. I’m always really torn between how I like a tea most, hot or room temperature. I rarely drink iced tea, even in the summer. This tea, however, is strongly mint and that’s nicely refreshing at the cooler temperature. I can taste the oolong, oh yes, but I can’t really pick out any specifics to the flavour except that I probably wouldn’t like it plain but it’s just fine with the mint. I don’t pick up really any cinnamon which is strange because usually I’m so sensitive to it. Well, it’s a bit ‘warming’ despite not actually being warm so that might be the cinnamon talking. All in all, not bad. I’ve got another cup of the tea waiting for me (I made a pot) but I don’t think I’ll be steeping this again.

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 2 min, 0 sec
Lala

I can’t tell you how often I thought “its not as scary as I thought” while drinking tea! Love this post.

Whispering Pines Tea Company

This tea is ideal when coldbrewed for 14 hours :)

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81

This is another older tea that I’ve had for a while. It still smells great, smoky and foresty, but unfortunately it seems to have lost a lot of its flavor at this point. I still get a weak smoky flavor but that’s about it. I definitely need to go through my stash and clean out some of my older teas and refresh my stash, since I believe a significant number of my teas are on the older side.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec

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81

Any time I drink a Whispering Pines tea, I feel like I should be wandering through a forest. I’m sure its at least partially the name and vibe that the tea company has. But I know its also the wonderful and unique ingredients and flavors in all of their teas. This one is no different.

It is smoky, as some others have mentioned, but in a very gentle way. I feel like that’s the word I would use to describe this whole tea: gentle. I’m having difficulty saying what individual flavors I got out of this, I will need to try it again and pay close attention.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
Cheri

I feel the same way when I drink their teas. At least part of that is because I’ve been to a lot of the places Brenden talks about in his descriptions.

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81

On the bag, this tea recommends a 4 minute steep, and on here a 5 minute steep is recommended. A lot of people seemed to have success with a five minute steep, so I went with that. It smells really good, very naturey and campfirey. I really like smokey teas, and this one is good. It’s very smokey at the beginning of the sip, with the mint coming in at the end. I’m not really getting much of a berry flavor, I think it might be mixing in with the smokey flavor to make it nice and earthy. I wonder how this would do as a cold steeped. Maybe the berry flavors can come out more

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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72

This one was next in my day of tea. I’m sending the rest of it out soon in a trade, so I wanted one last cup, even though I apparently never logged the others.

I have to agree with some of the other reviews I’ve seen that say there isn’t a strong coconut flavor here. It smells very creamy and coconutty, and while the creamy smell is there in the flavor as well, the coconut is difficult to find. The spices are nice, and the chai flavor is good. I feel that adding milk might help bring out that coconut flavor, even though this is creamy enough that milk probably isn’t needed. Unfortunately, there’s never milk in my dorm room, since my roommate doesn’t drink milk at all and I only like it in teas. We can never use it fast enough, so it’s pointless. Also, our fridge is tiny.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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50

Sipdown! And thank you again to the lovely Hesper June for letting me try this one. Still not my favourite cup of tea but it does give me hope that I may enjoy some of the other blends that Whispering Pines tea company has to offer as i can sense the potential in the tea, even if this one seems all over the map resulting in a kind of boring tea. One more down..and technically one more to go to hit my goal for this weekend! woot woot!

Whispering Pines Tea Company

I think Campfire blend may be a hit-or-miss kind of tea…hmm, who knows! :)

Glad you see potential though ;)

Sil

haha yeah. There’s a LOT going on in that tea that i think it cancels out some of each other.

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50

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 :)

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88

Steeped according to package directions.

Yummy is the word for this. I think this is the first milk oolong I’ve had – at least that I knew what it was. I had wondered why the “milk” and to be honest, the idea of milk already being in dry tea was kind of a turn off. I realize that isn’t what it means, but the associations weren’t good. :)

It’s creamy, smooth and buttery. Two infusions so far and so good.

Preparation
Boiling 2 min, 30 sec

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68

Loose
Appearance: dark, loose leaf, large pieces of lemongrass, mint
Aroma when Dry: bright,earthy, woodsy mint
After water is first poured: sweet, chocolate notes, minty, smoky, no astringency
At end of first steep: smoky, earthy woody notes, hints of mint
Tea liquor:
At end of steep: light brown
Staple? Likely Seasonal
Preferred time of day: evening
Taste:
At first?: smokey, faint mint and lemongrass
As it cools?: notes get smooth, deep, very creamy lemongrass notes lengthen, no astringency, then gets thick and smoky
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? No
Lingers? With a lemongrass smoke texture, no astringency

Second Steep (5 min)
Aroma: Light smoke
Taste: Light smokey woodsy notes

Third Steep (8 min)
faint smokey notes, as it cools mint notes surface slightly

Fourth Steep (6min)
Smokey water
Fifth Steep
Smokey water

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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88

I like black tea.
I like oolong tea.
So, when I saw this tea, I thought I couldn’t go wrong with it.
I am so happy when I am right:)
For some reason, I was afraid that the black tea would overwhelm the oolong, but it does not.
The Oolong is very much a part of this lovely cuppa.
Malty and Nutty.
Fruity and Savory.
The tea makes me think of chocolate (dessert) yet a like it would be tasty with a Dinner.
Very yummy.
Well Done, Brendan!
Another winner in my book.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec
Whispering Pines Tea Company

Yay! Thanks! :)

This one is really good chilled as well!

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94

Thank you to Azzrian for sending me some of this tea.

When I read a tasting note about this tea just yesterday, I had read that it was a smoky tasting tea, and that stuck with me when I brewed this, so, I did a quick rinse of the leaves before I brewed to maybe remove some of the heavy smoke flavor. I’m not a big fan of smoke, I prefer a gently smoky tea over a heavily smoked one … so I hoped that a quick rinse might keep it from tasting too overwhelmingly smoky.

And … it doesn’t. It is smoky, yes, but there is so much more going on here. The berry notes are outstanding. I taste notes of lemon as well, and the pine’s resinous notes. The mint is subtle but I love that crisp note it provides.

A really lovely tea. I’m so glad I was able to try it!

Tabby

I keep reading this as “Manatee Moonrise”…

gmathis

Me, too! (And wondering how a manatee could manage a teacup with nothing but flippers.)

Bonnie

they must have changed the recipe for this tea because I don’t remember it having mint and berry.

Terri HarpLady

Yeah, I want it to say Manatee…so what does Manistee mean? Maybe it’s a place…(quick zip over to search engine)…yup, Manistee, Michigan. Dunno if that’s what they named the tea for, but now we know.

Azzrian

:) Glad you enjoyed it!

LiberTEAS

@Terri: It is what the tea is named for. Whispering Pines is in Michigan. :)

Whispering Pines Tea Company

LiberTEAS, glad you enjoyed this!
Terri, check out the description here: http://whisperingpinestea.com/manisteemoonrise.html
And also the product video here :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy0xKilUWZY

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79

I find myself unsure about this tea. My first few sips … were a bit disappointing … so much so that I stopped drinking it and focused my attention on other things … and when I returned to the cup, the liquid was cold. This is infinitely better cold!

I like the peppery notes … it’s a little bit spicy which contrasts with the sweet notes of the white and Oolong teas. There’s a fruity background and I like the way the peppery notes meld with those as well. I’m not usually a huge fan of rose hips, but, I’m actually kind of enjoying how they contribute to this cup.

Overall, a very interesting tea … I don’t know that it is one that I’d want to drink often, but, I’m glad I got to try it, and it is one that I’d definitely consider having on hand when the warmer weather arrives and I want a refreshing iced tea.

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this to try!

Azzrian

Sounds interesting !

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