Tippy's Tea

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Recent Tasting Notes

85
drank The People's Tea by Tippy's Tea
350 tasting notes

Now, I was probably predisposed to like this because Anlina wrote such glowing reviews of it, but having said that… this is really delicious. The sweet, floral, creaminess of the oolong really balances well with the smokiness of the lapsang. It’s easy and very pleasant to drink. Yum. :)

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 3 g 9 OZ / 266 ML
TippysTea

Not too bad eh?

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drank Not So Vanilla by Tippy's Tea
30 tasting notes

I drink an awful lot of tea. Starting to review teas online has made me realize that. Oh well …

I had some left overs of our ‘Not so vanilla’ tea and decided to brew it up. The smell of the loose tea is chocolatey vanilla. The taste is delicious, spicy, creamy, smooth, wonderful vanilla. I decided to brew this at a temperature lower than what we recommended to see what difference it would make to flavour, and it does not alter it too much.

I cannot wait for my Whispering pines order to be delivered, because if this is what I can create with my ham-fists then I’m sure their tea is going to blow me away.

Flavors: Chocolate, Vanilla

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 4 min, 0 sec 5 g 8 OZ / 240 ML
Tommy Toadman

Sounds good, I hope you love your WP teas!

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75
drank Early Bird by Tippy's Tea
350 tasting notes

I’m drinking Early Bird tea in an attempt to wake up this morning, and I haven’t gone back to bed, so… so far, so good! This is a nice bold, smoky, refreshing cup of tea. I found the smokiness to be fairly prominent intially, mellowing out as it cooled. I could definitely get some floral notes early on, which I presume are from the darjeeling, and then it became mostly malty with that “pleasantly sour” taste.

Flavors: Floral, Malt, Pleasantly Sour, Smoke

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 9 OZ / 266 ML

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My hand is sore. Last night I bet I chopped more vanilla beans than you have chopped in your entire life, in 40 minutes. Mad knife skills, but a sore right hand. This morning I decided to have some golden monkey. I have not drunk this tea. in a while as I’ve been drinking a lot of Taiwanese black teas and pu’erhs. This is still as good as I remembered. Chocolatey, malty and smooth. Really tasty tea and my favourite golden monkey thus far. It’s made me peckish for more Chinese blacks. Now it is time to gorge on chocolate for the next several days and then not eat chocolate for a month. Happy spring fertility festival!

Flavors: Chocolate, Malt

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 30 sec 5 g 8 OZ / 250 ML
caile

I recently placed an order with your April fool’s sale and am looking forward to trying this! :)

TippysTea

Thanks for the order! Hope you like it. All orders will ship out on Tuesday, the post office is closed until then.

Fjellrev

Poor you slaving away for the sale! I too finally made an order and cannot wait to get the goodies.

TippysTea

I hope you enjoy the sweat of my labour! That’s the secret ingredient in our tea and why it is so tasty … sweat. Just kiddin’ it’s orphans.

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This is a new batch of imperial golden monkey that we just got a few weeks ago. It tastes pretty much same as the old batch. But as can be expected when dealing with such complex biological systems these things are never going to be identical. Unless we have lab-grown, hydroponic teas that are exact clones of each other there will always be differences from batch to batch. More rain in one month, less sunshine, more bugs, less bugs, more fertilizer, farmer gets sick, etc, etc. So many factors effect the final product. Anyone who has grown a vegetable garden can attest to the finicky nature of, well, nature. The funny thing is that people expect exact consistency, even though this is nearly impossible to do. Teas are not mass-manufactured consumer products like ipods. There is a reason why companies like Tetley employ expert tea-tasters to ensure that their products taste the same. That being said, when I get teas that are from different batches that taste very, very similar I am always surprised. It attests to the care that the growers and producers have put into these teas; that they really care. This tea has a very, similar flavour profile. It has a slight wine like taste that was absent from the previous batch of tea. But there is more of a dark chocolate flavour compared to our last batch. Delicious. I’ve also brewed this tea for 10 minutes to see how it tastes at its worse. It’s still not bitter, just more malty. This is a great tea for people who are unsure of how to make tea, or who might be a little forgetful, such as myself.

Such a chocolatey, malty, delicious, smooth tasting tea. Just a little more wine like than the last batch. But that’s ok because we are not McDonalds.

Flavors: Bread, Chocolate, Malt, Red Wine

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 7 g 8 OZ / 240 ML

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I don’t know how I can write this review and sound objective at the same time because I adore this tea! So this an Imperial golden monkey that we sourced direct from China. The leaves are, as one reviewer put it, ‘tiger striped’. It’s a black tea with lots of very fuzzy orange tips. The dry leaves smell chocolatey and malty.

I infused approximately 5 grams of this tea in 240 ml of water for 4 minutes. The infused liquor is a deep amber brown colour with little to no turbidity. The smell from the liquor fills your nostrils with scents of sweet bread and chocolate. It’s chocolate tea!

First sip fills your mouth with a smooth and creamy liquid. The taste is a slight bitterness with a very dominant cocoa flavour. There is also a lot of maltiness. That dark chocolate flavour lingers on long after you have swallowed the tea.

I’m trying to be as brief as possible, without extolling the virtues of this tea too much. It’s really nice, probably one of the finest examples of this tea that I have tasted. Honestly though I’m biased as hell, since I do sell this particular tea. Hopefully when others receive their orders they can review it and either tell me that I’m full of it, love it as much as I do, or say ‘meh I’ve had better’.

Flavors: Bread, Cocoa, Dark Chocolate, Malt, Sweet Potatoes

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec 5 g 8 OZ / 240 ML
Ost

Mmm!

Anlina

I’m really excited to get this one, and I’m so glad you added it straight to the site. It’s been so awesome in your blends.

TippysTea

We added a better picture of that tea to our site a few moments ago and we also added a mint version of the not so vanilla, inspired, mostly, by your review of that tea. We also enclosed a sample for you to try with your order.

caile

I think you may have the volume amount listed incorrectly in the brewing parameters on the bottom of this review .. should be 240 ml instead of oz.? :)

TippysTea

Yes you are correct. That would be seriously over-leafed. I shall fix this right away! Thank you.

caile

haha, an easy mistake to make. I was pretty sure your tea pot wasn’t that big! ;)

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75
drank North Pole Estate by Tippy's Tea
350 tasting notes

I’m finally getting to try my Tippy’s Tea samples! After they spent 2 weeks in sub-zero temperatures in my mailbox while I was on vacation. :( Sorry, tea! They’re packaged well, so I’m hoping that means they will still be ok.

This one is interesting because the dry tea has such a strong, spicy scent (cinnamon! cloves!) that it’s a bit surprising when the brewed tea has just a subtle spiciness. I like it though. You can still taste the tea part of the tea. :) I think I’m tasting the assam more than the keemun, but either way it’s a decent malty base that blends well with the spices. It definitely tastes Christmas-y. :)

I added a bit of sugar to the 2nd half of my cup, and it’s good sweetened too. Weirdly, that seems to be bringing out a citrusy flavour for me – orange, maybe? I don’t have any drinkable milk in the house (what with just getting back from vacation) but I think next time I’m going to brew this strong and add milk and a bit more sugar, try it that way.

Flavors: Cinnamon, Cloves

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 10 OZ / 295 ML

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80
drank Early Bird by Tippy's Tea
296 tasting notes

I think I still like Lumberjack better. I like how clear and bold this tea is for the morning. Reminds me of a frigid, smoggy (I mean that fondly) city morning. I feel like it is lighter in body than the lumberjack, but it still makes for a lovely companion this early morning. Sipping down the sample so I can start on the 25g size lol

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80
drank Early Bird by Tippy's Tea
296 tasting notes

I have always been called an early bird. I will be the first to admit it. All my classes throughout my college career were as early as I could get them, and I cannot sleep in past 6am, even if I went to bed at 2 am. The majority of the places of employment I have had required me to be up and going anywhere from 4am to 7am. I am not one to stay up to late either. (Yes, I am LOADS of fun!)
Needless to say, just the name of this tea intrigued me. I love the idea of a bold and smoky slap-you-awake tea. The lapsang in this particular Tippy’s blend was toned down. I like a bit more smoky punch in my tea, so thank goodness they have their Lumberjack.
This tea hit the spot this morning with it’s smooth, yet robust flavor profile. It had a full mouthfeel that made me feel like I was drinking a glass of milk. It had the same experience to me as eating buttered multigrain toast with brown sugar and a side of applewood-smoked bacon. The combination of darkly sweet, malty, and smoke is a winning combo in my book.

note: I underleafed my second go at this tea later in the morning. None of the malty bread quality was able to make an appearance. Correct amounts of tea matter!

Flavors: Bread, Brown Sugar, Malt, Maple, Smoke

Veronica

Sounds yummy!

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67
drank Spiced Apple Keemun by Tippy's Tea
6444 tasting notes

Cameron B. was dead on when she said this tasted like honeydew. I am a little disappointed because to me the dry leaf smelled strongly of apple but this is a smokey honeydew tea for sure. Very strange. Not bad strange though. It is pleasant but not something I need to keep around. Still, I don’t think I would necessarily turn away another cup.

Cameron B.

Hah, I’m glad I’m not crazy and other people taste smoky honeydew as well!

VariaTEA

I took a sip and couldn’t place it and then I remembered your note and was like “OMG! She is right!!”

TippysTea

Thanks guys for the criticism. It’s input like this that we need so that we can improve our teas. We think that we missed the mark with this tea ourselves. To me it tastes more apple cider-y than anything else. What does honeydew taste like? I’m unfamiliar with that descriptor/flavour and cannot pin-point it in my mind.

Lindsay

Honeydew is a melon – unless you avoid all melon on principle you’ve probably tasted it: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Honeydew.jpg

TippysTea

Ok I know what you mean now. I’ll steep some up later this evening and see what I get, I’m sure I will. Both these folks have been pretty spot on so far. Thanks for the clarification.

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Just got done from shovelling snow with my son and my sister, oh Canada sometimes I ask myself why I left my native Ireland and all that rain! My wife being the wonderful human being that she is had made a pot of North pole estate tea, as a latte. I think I prefer to drink this tea in this manner, the milk and small amount of sugar really highlight the spiciness, whilst the sugar mutes the astringency of the assam ever so slightly. The malty keemun adds a milk-chocolate element when combined with sugar. As my wife just said “it tastes like liquid cookie.” And I agree.

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88
drank Not So Vanilla by Tippy's Tea
296 tasting notes

Okay. I will not compare this tea to Golden Orchid. I won’t.
The Golden Monkey base tea is divine. It’s the same one they use in their underground pumpkin. But the addition of vanilla beans changes this blend completely. Where the underground pumpkin has sweet potato notes, NSV brings out the Golden Monkey’s caramelized brown sugar flavor. I steeped this one three times western style. I could have gone for a fourth, and I wanted to… but I can’t cry about the steeping that could have been when the ones I actually had were perfect. The final steeping I had was nothing but pure vanilla sweetness. The melted Chocolate flavors really stood out to me on the first steeping especially.
This is a damn good cup of tea. Maybe Tippy’s best so far.
However, since I am not comparing, this is an ever-so-slightly price efficient alternative to Golden Orchid.

Flavors: Bread, Brown Sugar, Dark Chocolate, Vanilla

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp
TippysTea

Thanks! That golden monkey we have is some of the best that we’ve tasted. Brewed on its own it tastes just like malty chocolate. I never really thought about its chameleon like characteristics when paired with different flavourings though, but your right it is like that.

Ost

Ughhh need to try this so badly!

TheLastDodo

Worth it. If I hadn’t killed my sample I would so send some your way!

Ost

I almost ordered since they were having a sale, but I decided I’d wait till they were offering a more reasonable discount :P

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drank Raspberry Cocoa by Tippy's Tea
30 tasting notes

Packing up a few orders to ship out and sipping on some raspberry cocoa left over. I really like this tea. Delicious, almost like eating a chocolate covered raspberry; dark chocolate that is. It has gotten a little cold, but still tastes great. Makes me think that it will work really well as an iced tea. I’m two infusions in and the flavour has not let up. This is probably one of my favourite creations thus far.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 5 g 8 OZ / 250 ML
Cameron B.

My tea ends up going cold a lot too. Whoops! :P

leaf in hot water

do you find this is best straight, or with additions of milk / cream / sweetener?

TippysTea

We find it tastes best after sweetening it some to bring out the flavours. I know someone else on here tried it as a latte too. We haven’t tried that yet though.

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91

Tippy’s version of The people’s tea is a nice a simple blend. I like that they use a jade/lightly oxidized oolong in this blend! A lot of other blends that I have tried use a darker oolong or no oolong at all (Could it really be called a true Russian Caravan then?)

The tea unfolds in the prettiest way in my glass gaiwan. It’s teas like theses that remind me why I still use that thing :P The color is clear, and a ochre brown. The tea is quite fragrant, in and out of the cup. While the smoke flavor of the lapsang is strong on the dry nose, I am happy to confirm that it is not strong in the subsequent brews. It is however, the flavor that stays with the tea the longest. The oolong gives it the thick mouthfeel and the sultry floral aroma. I don’t know, but the combination of masculine Smokey flavors and feminine floral flavors get me every time.
This was a delightful classic blend of teas done well. It goes really good with any fantasy novel! :P

Flavors: Fruit Tree Flowers, Smoke, Wet wood

Preparation
5 g

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90
drank Raspberry Cocoa by Tippy's Tea
5 tasting notes

This blend of tea produced exactly the cup I was hoping for from the onset: a blend of black teas whose unique, earthy characteristics I could identify and enjoy on their own, with the comforting tastes of raspberries and cocoa as friendly accompaniments. Read my full review here: http://wp.me/p5c82m-1S

Flavors: Cocoa, Earth, Raspberry, Vegetal

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 0 min, 45 sec 5 tsp 7 OZ / 200 ML
TippysTea

Thanks for the kind words! I’m very glad you enjoyed our tea. You also left a ‘h’ from your hyperlink :P

Robin

You’re welcome! Thanks for being so generous with the samples! I hope I can help send many tea lovers to your site :-) Hehe, whoops! Fixed it =P

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78

After purposely overloading my taste buds with everything pumpkin this season (As I always do.) I was curious, if not apprehensive to try this blend. But knowing what Tippy’s style of flavoring teas is like, I felt confident that this blend would not taste like the infamous teeth-rotting-sweet PSL.

I thought I had done something wrong when I had brewed this tea. The pumpkin is definitely underground for sure. There was no distinct ‘pumpkin pie’ flavor that I was expecting. The golden monkey in this blend does stand out as a pumpkin stand in (:P)though. It takes on a sort of sweet potato, creamy quality when the spices were added.
The cinnamon and nutmeg flavors were very light in my sample. Almost as if I didn’t even have it in there. I didn’t feel like this was a pumpkin-y blend at all. but the golden monkey was so good that I finished off the sample in a few days.

The last brew I made, I added the teeniest bit of maple syrup – about a half a teaspoon. I drizzled it over the leaves and waited a minute or two before pouring the hot water over it. It brought out the flavor of the pumpkin pie spices quite well. A very tasty last cup.

Flavors: Chocolate, Cinnamon, Sweet Potatoes

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 5 g 12 OZ / 354 ML

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78

Last one! It’s taken me longer than I expected to get to these since I haven’t been drinking many flavored teas lately. I’m actually not a big fan of pumpkin spice-type teas, I find that they generally just have spice and no pumpkin. This appears to be one of those as well, the description only mentions “pumpkin pie spice”. Ah well! It’s the same Golden Monkey base as Not So Vanilla, the same tiger stripe leaves. Dry scent is creamy with warm spices.

The steeped tea smells much the same, and it almost smells like there’s a hint of vanilla or cream flavor here. Hm, not as much a fan of this one. The base tea is tasty, but I don’t taste anything pumpkin at all. Just cinnamon and possibly nutmeg, also clove. It’s okay, and the spice is subtle enough, but I wish there were some pumpkin present.

Flavors: Cinnamon, Clove, Creamy, Malt, Nutmeg, Sweet Potatoes

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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88
drank Not So Vanilla by Tippy's Tea
3986 tasting notes

Two more to go from Tippy’s Tea! This is the one I was most excited about, as I love all things vanilla and I also happen to find Golden Monkey quite tasty. The leaves are medium-sized and thin and twisty. The combination of dark grey and golden colors reminds me of tiger stripes. Dry scent is sweet cocoa and creamy vanilla, and it reminds me of Golden Orchid.

The steeped cup also smells of cocoa and vanilla bean. This is quite tasty! It does remind me of Golden Orchid, which makes sense given the combination of vanilla bean and Fujian black tea. I think I may have underleafed a bit, as the base tea doesn’t have a ton of presence in this cup. I mostly taste the vanilla bean with creamy cocoa and wood weaving their way into the background. Tasty! Next time I’ll use more leaf.

Flavors: Cocoa, Creamy, Sweet, Vanilla, Wood

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
Nicole

vanilla golden monkey? Yum!

Cameron B.

It’s good. I can send you a sample if you’d like. :)

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75

Another one from my Tippy’s Tea sampler! I tend to be a sucker for apple things, so this was a no-brainer. Another blend with just tea and flavoring, no frou-frou additional ingredients. The Keemun leaves are somewhat small and thin, but not broken. Dry, the tea smells like caramel apple pops and honeydew (?).

Hmm, this is an odd one for me. The Keemun base is nice and smoky, but I can’t find any apple. It just tastes like honeydew to me for some reason! No spice either. There’s something resembling pie crust, probably just bready notes from the Keemun base. Odd! Honeydew and smoke is surprisingly not a terrible combination, but it’s not what I was looking for with this tea. I would give this a rating of 80 based on taste, but since it’s nowhere near what the name promises, I’ll drop it by 5 points.

Flavors: Bread, Honeydew, Smoke

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
Tealizzy

Honeydew?! Weird!

Cameron B.

I know! I made my boyfriend taste it to make sure I’m not crazy. :P

Anlina

Huh that sounds so interesting.

Cameron B.

It actually tasted good, it just wasn’t what I was expecting!

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80
drank Raspberry Cocoa by Tippy's Tea
3986 tasting notes

Time to get back to the teas from my $12 Tippy’s Tea sampler. I ended up choosing mostly flavored teas, partially because the flavors were so tempting and partially because most of the blended teas have a smoke element that I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy. This tea appears to be simply black tea and flavoring, which is fine with me. I grow a bit tired of add-ins that are only there to look pretty and don’t contribute to the flavor at all. Dry scent is mostly raspberry candy, but if I inhale slowly I can smell the cocoa.

The steeped tea has a somewhat earthy note, leading me to think there’s perhaps a Keemun element to this tea? The raspberry flavor is nice, it reminds me a bit of a combination of raspberry jam and fresh berries. It’s also not too strong. The base tea is a combination of malty and earthy, with a bit of astringency that leads me to think there’s Assam here. I wish there was just a touch more cocoa, as it is I can mostly only taste it at the end of the sip. It’s definitely a dark chocolate or unsweetened cocoa powder sort of flavor. I’m sure sugar would help the chocolate to come out, but I don’t sweeten my teas.

Flavors: Astringent, Cocoa, Dark Chocolate, Earth, Jam, Malt, Raspberry

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
AllanK

Sounds really good, excellent combination.

Cameron B.

Absolutely, chocolate/raspberry and chocolate/orange are among my favorite flavor combinations. :)

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73
drank Lumberjack by Tippy's Tea
894 tasting notes

This is a nice smokey tea. Lapsang souchong dominates, with its smokey pine flavour, but there’s also some sweetness and malt that pop up on the finish. Subtle floral note as well. Just a touch of astringency, but not overly drying.

I’m enjoying my cup, but this doesn’t really stand out a lot from other smokey black teas in my collection.

Flavors: Astringent, Floral, Malt, Pine, Smoke, Sweet

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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85
drank Underground Pumpkin by Tippy's Tea
894 tasting notes

So Tippy’s is having a 20% off sale today only, which means trying out the rest of my samples, since I know that I need a good amount of the People’s Tea. (Oh god, I suck at not ordering more tea!)

After the absolute deluge of pumpkin teas this fall, I’ve been feeling fairly jaded about anything with pumpkin in the name, but I’m glad I didn’t let that get the better of my curiosity when picking out teas for my sampler.

This is good. Tippy’s base tea is really excellent – tonnes of malt and really distinct chocolate notes. Only the smallest hint of spice – I want to say maybe cinnamon and ginger, but it is so, so subtle, and that’s nice. I could mistake this for a complex straight black.

I’m not sure that I need to order more of this one, but I’m very impressed with the quality of Tippy’s teas, and super glad that I picked up the sampler when it was available. I’ve been really appreciating the quality of their blended teas, and how their flavourings are subtle and just enhance the natural notes of the tea, rather than the base being secondary to the flavourings.

Flavors: Chocolate, Malt, Spices

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 30 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
TippysTea

Your last sentence totally sums up our entire ethos to flavouring tea. Thanks for the kind words and we are very happy that you have enjoyed our creations thus far.

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74
drank Underground Pumpkin by Tippy's Tea
6444 tasting notes

I really like Tippy’s black base in this tea – chocolatey and malt and really smooth. Then there is the pumpkin spice which is subtle and balanced but present enough that its clear this is more than just a black tea. It really is quite nice. I am been really impressed with this company so far so I am glad I still have more to try.

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