Willow

Brought this tea with me to Utah while visiting family this past week or so. I was so gooped to see that I still had some of this squirreled away! I almost left this behind in my cupboard, but I am trying to break the habit of letting particularly precious teas hide away until the either go stale or I completely forget and move on. Like the saying, “If you love them let them go,” but more like, “If you love them, DRINK EM FRESH.”

This tea still had it’s intense sweet maple candy aroma and woodsy scent on the dry leaf, carrying over to the subsequent steeps. So intoxicating! I grampa’d and gongfu’d this whenever I got bored of WP’s Silver Snail. I was able to continually brew this tea for a whole day/6-7 steeps damn near every time. The scent of the candy cap mushrooms didn’t fade a bit over the years, and dominated the first 4 steeps each time. The cocoa and woodland notes of the black tea only made for an exciting combination. I’ll be sad when i finish this one, but so glad to have been able to enjoy it as much as I did.

Good morning :) I realized today I hadn’t made a bacon and eggs breakfast since moving from the city. I flipped my egg and it flopped under the range grate. What the heck? At least the smokey bacon covered up the smell of burning albumin on the grate. I ate the egg anyway.

Been a while since a song pairing.
The Diamonds — Little Darlin’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysVLzXWnTzA
The share timer function on youtube isn’t working for me. 1:38 is where it starts.

This group came up at work Saturday after one of my older coworkers received a phone call Friday from Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers to chat about the pandemic.

Needed a sweet tea to pair with a salty, savory breakfast. You wouldn’t think mushrooms would be the solution but these are candy cap mushrooms. Pure maple syrup without the sugar. The aroma is so dense and penetrating, I had to store the swap from ashmanra (thank you!) in a mason jar. No added flavorings to create what smells like a maple syrup soaked buckwheat pancake. As for the taste, I honestly don’t think I could paint a better picture than Brenden (the owner of Whispering Pines) did in his description for this tea. It’s more a malty and mineral cleansing taste perfect for cutting the bacon grease. The aroma gives an impression of strength in sweetness but it’s actually lightly sweet. Cocoa-vanilla hangs out up by my sinuses. Notice the cherry on the swallow after it cools down a bit.

This is how you do a maple-flavored tea.

Hope y’all are doing ok today. Two of my friends are ill, one in Ohio and one in Seattle.

Have another song, why not.
Red Hot Chili Peppers — Tear
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OzjUuB3WHo

GCTTB

I pulled this one from the box to try out, since i’d like to get through some of the samples quickly so VariaTEA can come pick up the box whenever. I wasn’t sure what to expect since i didn’t bother looking anything up prior to drinking it. This is rather pleasant…feels like maple..and then sort of turns in to a lovely mild black tea. Ineresting tea nonetheless. glad i got to try it.

So today I decided to pull out something different and make my brother drink it with me. I kind of lied about it because I told him we were going to drink mushrooms straight up. He gave me an ugly look… but he does trust me with tea so he went with it. To his, and my , surprise this tea is one bold cup of comfort. The black tea used in this is of course a Whispering Pines tea and therefore, from my collected data, it will/is/shall/can/may/has/moreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee great.

This is a tea that I would not buy on my own because I would see the mushroom and pass it up, but I am glad I tried it because it is wonderful.
I will be honest: While drinking of this I knew it would be better if a frog was drinking it with me ;)

GCTTB

There was just enough of this left for one session with it. This smells so much like maple in the bag! I was really surprised to read that it’s the mushrooms that are giving off this scent. When tasting the first brew, most of what I was tasting was maple, and a sort of grain like or whole wheat flavor, as well as a sour, fruit like note. To my disappointment though, no mushrooms. Happily, they made an appearance in subsequent steeps, a little in the flavor, but more so in the savoury aftertaste. There’s a slight a stringency and bitterness, but it’s mild. By the third, ah! There’s the chocolate notes, and the fruit notes remain. It just gets more savoury as it goes, as the mushrooms and wood flavors really come out to play. I think I love these mushrooms! The leaves are a milk chocolate brown, and they really expanded throughout my session with them, these are big pieces of leaf, and they lasted well, at 8 sweepings filling the recommended times on the site. Huge thanks to whoever put this in the box. I’ve always wanted to make a Whispering Pines order, but the cost really prevented me from buying blind, even with the good reviews. Now I get all the hype. Chocolate mushrooms are da bomb!

Mmmmmm, smells like chocolate malt with a little bit of grass.

Tastes like chocolate and malt, too. It reminds me of chocolate Horlicks or Bournvita, but without the sugar. At some point, I think I’ll want to try this one with milk and sugar. The chocolate is strong with this one. :)

Backlog from yesterday morning. I sampled it from the GCTTB4

This reminded me a lot of Golden Orchid – that lovely fudgy vanilla note. I oversteeped it a bit, though – 4 minutes instead of 3. It covered my tongue and was nice and thick, with no astringency. I did get a sweetness, which I guess was the candy cap mushroom, but it wasn’t that strong.

Good tea, but I know I won’t restock just because of the exchange rate between Canada and the US. I’d love to find a similar blend that would be more accessible.

Watching Willow, Sipping Willow :)
anybody remember that movie? nothing to do with the tea really but i thought it would be cool to watch again while sipping this tea And it is, its cool man.

My Whispering Pines order came in yesterday! It was a happy day. The past few weeks, I’ve been sipping down some of my favorites in anticipation of this order coming in. I was at work all day and I didn’t get home until late, so unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to try any of my new teas last night. But today! Today is a good day for tasting. Let’s do this.

In the bag, the dry leaf smells intense and sweet like maple candies. The sweetness is offset by the deep, resounding aroma of mushroom, earth, bread, and wood—much like a shu. This makes me think it might do really well blended with a shu puerh. Followed the western brewing instructions, though I would like to gong fu this later. This tea tastes like maple syrup, brown sugar, mushrooms, wet wood, and cocoa. There’s a bready note that makes me think of sourdough rolls or pancakes. It’s also slightly tart, like stone fruits—plums, raisins, cherries. The finish is oaky and a little drying. It leaves a malty coating on my tongue along with the taste of maple. I didn’t find the blend overly sweet. The maple flavors are balanced nicely with earthy, woodsy qualities that keep it grounded. The base tea notes come through MUCH more strongly in the second steep. Maple is ever present in the background, but at the forefront you have grain, malt, dark chocolate, and cherries. The natural sweetness of the tea makes itself known. It’s clearly identifiable as the base tea for GO. It’s almost like fudge, and it’s so delicious. The finish here is juicy and sweet. Still slightly drying, with a taste like wood, but it’s drying in a way that makes your mouth water.

Gosh. I’m so glad I was able to pick some of this up. I don’t think it’s something I could drink all day, but it’s definitely good. Like many of Brenden’s teas it makes me want to take it hiking.

Haven’t had this tea in ages. This is the kind of tea you only reach for when you’re feeling like something really different – like today.

Last time I left a review, I enjoyed this tea but botched the brewing. I have no idea what brewing parameters I used then but today I went for gong fu. I enjoyed the tea then but I think gong fu brewing made a huge difference on this tea.

First infusion was only 10 sec . Got a bit of maltiness but it was mostly all maple sweetness. I’ve got a terrible sweet craving today and this is really taking care of that today.

2nd infusion -20 sec – Malty, bready, maple syrup Yum Yum! Delicious!