Tippy's Tea

The raspberry notes I got when I had this as an eggnog latte are MIA now. Very weird but still good. The base is taking over but that’s okay because it is malty and chocolatey with a slight hint of astringency. Not bad but it definitely needs something to bring out the full spectrum of flavors.

I made this as an eggnog latte with a new type of eggnog which has a little bit more rum flavoring than the others I have been using. Consequently, the flavors of the tea have to compete with the flavors of the eggnog. However, the raspberry does punch through the other tastes in the cup which leaves me happy that I still have some leaf left to try this plain as I can see the flavors being quite wonderful.

I’m sipping on this tea now. I just received a package of samples from Tippy’s today, and this is the first that I’ve tried.

This tea benefits from a few minutes cool time (just as all flavored teas do, I think). The spices are gentle. This isn’t chai-like.

At first, I was a little disappointed that the flavors were so subtle, but then I started thinking about it. North Pole Estate Tea. Estate tea. The teas generally take on the flavors from the areas in which their grown. That’s how those flavors get absorbed into the leaves.

In the North Pole, I’d imagine the scent of spice, gingerbread and chocolate fill the air and get absorbed into the tea that is grown there. (Yeah, I know that tea doesn’t really grow there.)

This is a strong black tea with notes of cinnamon, a gentle touch of clove, hints of chocolate and cookies. Ginger. All the sweetness of the North Pole (Although some peppermint might be appropriate for it too, but, I don’t know how well peppermint would work with these other flavors.)

It’s really quite tasty.

Hello Steepster! I hope everyone had a lovely holiday with their families and friends. I must say, it’s nice to be back in my own house and just lazing about, watching TV with the boyfriend. This is the first tea I’ve had in a few days, since I didn’t want to be bothered with taking some along to our relatives’ place. This was the only straight tea blend that I chose for my 5-tea sampler pack from Tippy’s. It’s a blend of Assam, Ceylon, Darjeeling, and Keemun teas.

I must say, this is quite a tasty little blend. I can definitely taste the Assam, it adds that bit of intensity and plenty of malt, though overall the tea is very smooth and mellow. There’s a strong bready note, I’m not sure whether that’s from the Ceylon or the Keemun (I don’t have much experience with Ceylon teas). I don’t really taste the Darjeeling, which makes me think perhaps it’s a second or Autumn flush, especially since I didn’t see the telltale Darjeeling color scheme in the dry tea (purples and/or greens). Overall, it’s very good for a mellower black tea blend, making the name quite appropriate.

Merry Christmas! This is one of the many teas I got in Tippy’s Sampler Pack. I tried this one first because of it’s festive name. Drinking an Estate tea from the North Pole? Genius. The dry leaf smells like raspberry fudge. I get a hint of spice that takes me on to the first sip. It’s not so much raspberry fudge that I get on the fist couple sips, but more of a tart spiced cider. The base tea is really good too. It’s strong and malty, with molasses notes. It complements the flavorings so well.
I made a nice pot to share with everyone while we opened presents. It lasted through three steeping before losing any of it’s cheery character. Thanks Tippy’s tea!

Sipdown (137)

My batch is from December 2014 (thank you for including that on the package, Tippy’s as it helps me know how old my stash really is and provides incentive to drink up my older teas) and with age, the vanilla has grown thicker and richer. It is delightful and there is a thick mouthfeel that almost reminds me of vanilla bean ice cream, an idea which is probably aided by the vanilla seeds floating in my cup. The base is also present but smooth and it is mostly functioning as a stage for the main flavor to stand on. It also has a little essence of fruit in the brew which is giving the whole thing a great dessert vibe. Really, really awesome!

In other, unrelated news, I saw Deadpool last night and for any Marvel fans, just know it was awesome and definitely a million times more true to Deadpool than that disaster of a showing in Wolverine!

Where is the vanilla today because it’s not in my cup :(

I think that’s my fault though as I oversteeped.

This tea starts off tasting mostly like plain black tea. A nice malty black tea, but still, just the tea. However, just as you think you are going to be disappointed, the flavor of fresh vanilla bean takes over leaving you with a sweet and creamy aftertaste that you can only get from true vanilla flavoring. Yum!

Mmm tasty. I got distracted while drinking this, but I get raspberry and dark chocolate. One thing that jumped out at me was that the raspberry had that really fresh smell that I associate specifically with raspberry seeds – can’t really describe it, but it’s not typically present in raspberry flavoured stuff.

This is a solid breakfast tea. Bold, a hint smokey, lots of malt and mildly astringent. The smokiness differentiates it from other breakfast blends I’ve had, but it does feel similar to a Russian Caravan I drank recently.

At the beginning of the cup there was a floral and grassy note but that went away pretty quick. There is a slightly… sour is far too strong a word, but very subtle, pleasant sourness that I tend to associate with some white teas?

I’m enjoying this cup a lot and it would probably be really good with milk and sugar. The notes are well balanced, though I don’t find it overly distinctive.

Edit: Hah! And just after I finished this tasting note I hit the bottom two sips of the cup and discovered a surprise maple note!

I have the final version of this now, and wow, is it ever good. Vanilla and dark chocolate. Creamy and fudgey. No mint in this version. So tasty.

This came as a bonus sample with the sampler pack I ordered. This tea isn’t on their site yet, and the note said they were still working on it, so I’m not sure if I have the final version or not.

This is supposed to have chopped vanilla beans in it, but I couldn’t see anything but tea leaf in the dry blend. The dry leaf has a faintly vanilla-ish note, but not as much as I was expecting.

I steeped one teaspoon for three and a half minutes in 93C water. The liquor is a dark brown.

Again with things not being as expected – if I blind taste tested this, I would never have guessed it’s a vanilla black. There’s some of that vanilla creaminess in the background, which contributes to the thick, smooth mouthfeel, but the dominant notes on my palate are dark chocolate and mint! The mint is fairly subtle, but impossible to ignore, and the dark chocolate is right in your face. I’ve had teas with pieces of chocolate and mint leaves that were less chocolate-mint than this. The sip starts with mint, followed by sweet maltiness and then the dark chocolate makes a really rich appearance toward the end, with the mint reappearing in the finish.

So if I was looking for a straight up vanilla black, I might be disappointed, but setting aside expectations of what this could have tasted like, I’m really impressed with the flavour. I feel like this would make a killer latte.

I think this also might be one of the first teas I’ve had with chocolate notes, where I’m not guessing that maybe it’s chocolate. There is no question about the chocolate flavour in this.

Ah my sweet, reliable People’s Tea, when I need something that’s guaranteed to be delicious. I only got about two sips before I had to work, but it was a lovely cup to come back to when I was done. Smoke and malt and orchid. This is one of the best combinations ever.

I am impressed with both this tea and my travel mug.

I made this in my travel mug, yesterday, to take to a meeting. I put a teaspoon of the tea into my mug, topped it up with hot water, and let it steep. Well, I forgot it in my car during the meeting and then forgot it in my car when I finally got home a few hours later.

I finally retrieved my mug today, about 26 hours after I made this cup. In spite of the -14C weather today, the tea was only cold, not frozen or even starting to crystallize. And it was perfectly drinkable and delicious, without any bitterness or astringency. I’m pleased to discover that this makes a surprisingly nice iced tea.

So even though I repeatedly forgot about this, I still got to enjoy it.

Steeped this in the gaiwan for my party today – lots of leaf and short steeps. It was good, but I think this works much better steeped western style. With short steeps,the black teas steep much faster than the oolong, and so the balance of smoke and floral wasn’t as good as it normally is. Still lovely but heavier on the smoke and light on the floral.

Ah floral and smoke is such an amazing combination. I love this tea. I forgot about my second steep and the leaves sat in the water for I don’t even know how long and it was still smooth and delicious.

Does anyone else do this particular flavour combination? I find some Darjeelings have a floral and char note together, which is kind of similar but also incredibly different.

Resteeped yesterday’s leaves for my first cup this morning. Last night I suspect I underleafed it, and today I’m totally sure I did. My sweetie’s house has much bigger cups than I have at home, but I often forget to adjust the amount of tea per cup. Oops.

Still tasty, but the complexity of the oolong wasn’t as present.

I had to share this with my sweetie who loves smokey teas, so I’m happily drinking it again. I will definitely be ordering this once my sample runs out.

I had some other tea yesterday, but I am circling back around to these leaves again. Now on their fourth steep.

Some astringentness creeps out, and the smoke is more muted but with a bit of a harsher edge to it. The floral notes of the oolong have also mellowed into a more tangy vegetal note.

I think this is my last steep of these leaves, but I’m tempted to make a fresh cup. Which is weird, because I almost never want to resteep leaves even once, but I feel like I could just keep drinking this all day.

Bumping up my rating a bit, because I think I need this one in my cupboard – I can’t stop drinking it.

My Tippy’s Tea sampler pack came today. I slept in, had an odd morning and I’m prepping for a big event that I’m organizing and speaking at tonight, so I needed something a bit bold.

The dry leaf is a mix of rolled oolong and twists of black tea. It smells primarily of smoke.

Steeped, the liquor is brown and smells really intensely smokey, grassy and floral. Amazing! The flavours are very similar, with a bit of creaminess and malt as well. Full bodied but very smooth.

This is a really well balanced blend. I can taste each of the ingredients, but they complement each other really wonderfully. One of the best takes on Russian Caravan I’ve had.

Edit: Second cup is even more orchid floral with the smoke slightly muted. Mmmm!