YAY WHISPERING PINES ORDER! I was getting upset when I thought it wouldn’t come today, but it turns out the mailman just felt like being FIVE HOURS LATE. Come on, man! But seriously, I wonder what happened there… Anyway, this was definitely the first tea to try! I’ve already tried half of the teas I’ve ordered thanks to Nicole and my badly-timed sample order. This tea is very outdoorsy-looking. There’s bark and fluffy white things in there! Clearly it is mountain man tea. It smells quite smoky, and I was surprised by the amount of cinnamon. There’s cocoa in there too, of course.
The smoke aroma is much milder in the brewed tea. And there’s definitely a burnt sugar element (hello, marshmallow!) along with cocoa and spice. The smoke is quite strong in the taste! It blends very nicely with the cinnamon and in turn it becomes sweeter and less harsh. I immediately pick up on the graham cracker in this, so much that I had to check and make sure there wasn’t a Yunnan tea in here. There’s a nice unsweetened cocoa note that stands in for the chocolate, and I get a light sweetness at the end of the sip that, combined with the smoke, could definitely be a charred marshmallow. The aftertaste is refreshing, cooling pine.
Overall, I do get how this is similar to a s’more. But it’s definitely a s’more with bittersweet chocolate and a charred marshmallow. And it needed a little touch of sugar to really connect for me. I can’t wait to try Pine Peak Keemun and then try to identify which teas are providing which flavors in this (obviously the smoke is from the lapsang, and I would assume the cocoa is the Fujian, but what about the graham cracker?).
Flavors: Burnt Sugar, Cinnamon, Cocoa, Graham Cracker, Pine, Smoke
Preparation
Comments
Brenden, Pine Peak Keemun will be first thing tomorrow morning! I will unravel the magic!
MzPriss, thank you. I try but I find I don’t have a lot of personality when I write. I’m a very technical writer. :P
Cameron – I LOVE your notes! They always give a great sense of what the tea tastes like and I really don’t see why you think you don’t have a lot of personality in them because that isn’t my experience – they’re great!
The graham cracker is magic ;)
Great note!
Brenden, Pine Peak Keemun will be first thing tomorrow morning! I will unravel the magic!
MzPriss, thank you. I try but I find I don’t have a lot of personality when I write. I’m a very technical writer. :P
Cameron – I LOVE your notes! They always give a great sense of what the tea tastes like and I really don’t see why you think you don’t have a lot of personality in them because that isn’t my experience – they’re great!
Yeah, I’ve got to agree with MzPriss here. You’re outnumbered!
YOU’LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE! :D