Whispering Pines Tea Company

2025 Steepster Advent Swap: Day 13

From yesterday! This was delicious, like drinking a toasted piece of good homemade whole-grain bread. And that’s all I have to say on the matter. :D

2025 Steepster Advent Swap: Day 9

I love that the dry leaves look like spindly spider legs! Tastewise, this is very pleasant. There’s no bitterness or astringency at all; it’s quite light and smooth. It’s almost salty, like heavily diluted seawater — but again, in a pleasant way. I do get an edge of smokiness, too, which adds a little depth.

The smokiness disappeared on my second steep, and now it’s almost sweet, like the ghost of salted caramel.

Another highly drinkable tea!

25g Sipdown | No.24 of 2025

Instant repurchase if this ever comes back in stock!

Deep malty bread with bergamot leaving a light dusting of cocoa powder over the tongue.
Brewed extra strong with a dash of milk, it was smooth, thick and heavenly.

Reminds me of a mineral Assam, but with a lingering malty, yeasty sweetness. Super smooth and just slightly astringent as it cools. Strangely the plum note emerges as it cools as well.

This is the second steep of a pot I started yesterday. The first steep was nice, bready and slightly sweet. This second steep is much sweeter, butterscotch and still very smooth. Is there black tea in here? Tastes more like a honey buttered biscuit. I’ll try a third steep and would jump at a chance to buy more of this!

This one brews well for three steeps, has distinct and interesting notes and disappears from my cup far too fast. There is a salty, mineral note along with a smooth dark chocolate note and the finish is smooth enough for my dad’s palette. I will need more of this gem from WP!

Didn’t have much hopes on flavor here as I have not enjoyed other Silver Needle teas in the past. But this is a sample from a previous order and I’m in a mood to get things sipped down and my stash cleaned out.

The smell of the steeped leaves reminds me of cooked spinach maybe. It might be a food I adore, but in regards to drinking, not something I am usually wanting. Happily the smell of the liquor does not have that.

The liquor has a light almost golden color and is pretty. Flavor isn’t bad but really very light. Something in my brain keeps expecting it to have a sweet flavor, but that only shows up as its cooled down to near room temp. When its hot, there isn’t much there. Curious what it tastes like as a cold brew, but I don’t have enough left for that.

I took these notes a few days ago but never really managed to finish them due to prep for another office move. I’ve got enough for another pot today, but I just don’t feel like it. Its not bad, just not my thing. Going to treat this as a sip down and move on.

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – October 2025 Tea #2 - Oct. 20 – Fall Leaves Appreciation – your largest or prettiest leaf tea (I made this holiday up!)

A day late!  I actually had this tea travel with me specifically for this prompt, so late or not, here it is.  Fall Leaves Appreciation should 1,000% be an actual holiday… great idea Ashmanra! I received this tea from Ost AGES ago.  Thanks Ost!  Next time it’s a sipdown.  The leaves here are so interesting — all sorts of colors, white to very dark and all sorts of shapes.  That might be the most interesting thing about this tea, as the flavor isn’t anything special BUT this is a very old tea. I’m sure it was quite good at one point, being from Whispering Pines and all. So I really shouldn’t be noting the quality of the flavor AT ALL here today.  Steep #3 tomorrow!
Steep #1 // two teaspoons for a full mug // 35 minutes after boiling // 1-2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 35 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep

Sipdown no. 13 for 2025.

I ought to have tried this gongfu at some point, but it became one of those teas I did Western style on a busy work day when I needed something with briskness to get me going.

Malty, tobacco-y, woodsy and a hint of smoke is what I remember. Good with Western style savoury food.

Sipdown no.12 of 2025.

Some days the chocolate-y base of the Golden Snail came through more. Other days, the bergamot was stronger. Once, it was the most perfect orange-chocolate tea I could dream of. But it seemed to be a bit finicky depending on steeping parameters, and I’m a bit loosey-goosey with that most of the time.

No doubt this is a high quality tea and I love that real bergamot is used instead of flavouring.

Backlog: I watched Hilda with my brother, and it was super British. I had an old, old sample of this and turned it into an English Breakfast with some cream. This was actually a great idea. Soo smooth and heavy with cocoa. Two steeps. I was happy.

Got too late to make another hot steep of this before bed, so I chucked the flowers in the fridge for a cold brew.

Came out so lovely and refreshing in the morning!!

Lovely flower tea!

For the first time round, I did a half tablespoon in 300mL boiling water for around 5 minutes. It was a light and subtle taste which suited the late evening when I wasn’t looking for too much sensory stimulation. The fragrance is wonderfully mild and I can’t really compare it to anything else. I did read that the Japanese use this flower in fragrances to scent linen and I can see how that would work beautifully. Good resteeped for an unknown number of minutes as well.

The second time, I experimented with a heaped tablespoon in 300mL water at 100C, and forgot about it for some time. I returned to quite a sharply bitter tea which reminded me of the outside coating of antihistamine tablets. However, this bitterness was somehow deeply thirst-quenching? I wouldn’t recommend oversteeping it though.

Also seemed to improve my dry cough symptoms the following morning, and I can see why this is used as medicine.

A rare and wonderful find.

Sipdown 28 – 2025

This was underwhelming. Mild honey notes, but a bit muddled.

Sipdown 26 – 2025

Drank through a 1oz bag of this and remember it being fine, but can’t recall any specifics.

Sipdown no.10 of 2025.

A bit of a finicky one to brew, as oversteeping via too much leaf or too hot water does lead to sourness, and that wonderful chocolate-covered strawberry note will be lost.

I never quite bothered to time my brews and I can’t remember what temp was best, but the packet directions would be a decent shout. Brew it right, and it would be quite glorious.

Got a new glass teapot for my black teas so that I can base it off the colour now. I like my stone pot but the transparency of the glass is fun to watch the leaves unfurl.

Presence is everything.

I got to brew and drink this with all the time in the world today. And it becomes a completely different tea when I do so.

Having this for the first time while I was rushing to get to work, I could not notice a single thing about it other than ‘Chinese black tea.’ But today, I took a sick day and just sat with the tea and my experience of it.

100C, Western style with 1 tablespoon in 200mL for 3 steeps. Afterwards, I contemplated what tea to have next, and then promptly chose to brew another tablespoon of the Imperial Golden Needle.

Beyond words and descriptions, I simply enjoyed it without bothering the cognitive mind with specifics. I like when vendors are detailed with their tasting notes, because it gives me the option to search out those notes in the tea without bothering to go down memory lane to retrieve those impressions myself.

Power of suggestion. Which is what most of reality is, anyway. But sincerely, I agree with Brendan’s descriptions. The chocolate-covered strawberry note comes out more as the tea cools, by the way. It’s one of those teas where I notice that the temperature it is drank makes a change to the notes in each sip.

This tasting note is just to log that today, I steeped a half tablespoon in 200mL-ish for 5 minutes at 100C, and the sweetness was more prominent than when I’ve steeped a heaped tablespoon in 200mL-ish for 3 minutes at 100C.

Very nostalgic to order from Whispering Pines again, and it was the main thing which made me feel justified in the absurdity of ordering tea which went from China to the U.S. to Australia where I live. Mostly I’d just order direct from China.

But the ethos of Whispering Pines is very beautiful to me and I like supporting that.

How lovely to be able to take my time and enjoy this tea properly on a day off. I had previously pounded this down in a rush for work and did I notice much about it? No, because tea appreciation is so often about presence of mind and it just hadn’t been there.

I’m not sure if I oversteep my teas in comparison to the average Western-style brewer, but I always have to use a solid heaped tablespoon of leaves per 200mL to get the strength and depth I like from a tea. It’s contrary to the half a tablespoon suggested, but I’m getting rather good at brewing intuitively.

Would love to have presence of mind to gongfu this one day.