Tippy Yunnan

This tea has a greenish-brown color and a lightly smoky aroma. The flavor is remarkably smooth with a very slight sweetness. There is almost no dryness and no change in the aftertaste from the taste of the tea itself. The smokiness was not evident for me until after I had consumed about a third of the cup, and even then it was very light. It has an earthy flavor, not as bright and round as an Assam and not as crisp and dark as a Keemun. It takes cream and sugar well and is a rather nice and satisfying cup. I would probably tend to have this tea with a meal or in the afternoon at the desk. It is not as bold a tea as one might want for that first morning cup. Though not incredibly complex, the flavor is quite nice and approachable. I imagine this being a good “accessory” tea, a tea whose flavor is not necessarily meant to be the primary focus of the moment but which would still make a nice, tasty and satisfying treat during a get-together or after a meal. This is a tea I would serve to a group of guests at a book club meeting or evening poker game, for example, but probably not my first pick for a tasting event or more formal afternoon tea time. All in all this is a very nice tea, worth consideration as a staple for frequent tea drinkers.

I ordered the sample of this one since I am not a huge fan of Yunnan teas, although I enjoy a few pu-erhs. It is pretty nice, but I would say that the astringency is leaning toward 2 for me, though Harney and Sons rates it as a one. The teas with NO astringency usually get a one. This one was a little drying on the tongue the more I sipped. The flavor is pleasant, I detected the very lightest whiff of smoke, and there was just a hint of pepper. I agree with another post that it tends to a white pepper scent rather than black pepper. Still, I stand by my personal feelings about Yunnans and this one doesn’t sway me, though if you are a Yunnan fan, you just may love this one.

Hmmm, quite an interesting and pleasant tea. This is my first venture into Yunnan teas, with that said, this has the light aroma of a Lapsang Souchong, the palatable clarity of a Ceylon and the aftertaste of a finer bitter chocolate…not overpowering. This Tippy Yunnan is quite tasty; and yet it reminds me of a lighter Formosa Oolong…a little floral but less sweet…not malty at all. For my tastes, this is better as an afternoon tea. I would recommend this tea to try and for the experience. Look for the samples, that way it’s easy to try without spending a fortune.

Earthy, medium-bodied to full-bodied, slightly astringent, maple sweetness is the core aroma/notes. The dry leaves are dark & twisted leaves mixed with a few golden tips. The liquor is a dark amber to dark brown. The aroma was earthy, spicy with some maple sweetness. The flavor profile matched it with an added vanilla and peppery spice notes. On the last steep, it was very astringent.

Silver gaiwan 6g, 140 ml: no-rinse, 15s, 30s, 45s, 60s at 212° F

Thanks, Tea sipper, for the sample! I finally finished the end of it today.

Thanks to tea-sipper for sharing this tea! I enjoy Yunnan black teas, and I am happy to try this version. I’m pretty bad at words to describe straight teas, but to me, this one is quite malty and tasty. It doesn’t need milk. This is one of the better teas I’ve tried from Harney for sure.

This tea looked promising: unusually short for Yunnans but certainly unbroken leaves with a definite presence of golden tips. Unlike many Harney and Sons’ teas it even had a dry leaf aroma of raisins, pears and malt. This aroma quickly transformed itself into some generic overripe berries in the wet leaves and subsequently mysteriously completely vanished from my resulting cup of tea (3 minutes per tea spoon, Western style).

The tea itself was eminently smooth and unispiring: some (honey? apricot?) sweetness plus some bitterness (cherry? chocolate?) There were probably some notes one can recognize via extreme concentration but why on Earth would I force myself into doing it?
In short, some very generic Yunnan that does nothing to charm you outright or even show a promise worth exploring via gongfu.

Oh, and as all other basic Harney and Sons teas it needs a looong steeping time to acquire a decent taste with disernable elements and there is NO possibility of steeping it one more time: it produces something utterly undrinkable despite it deceptively dark color.

I was attracted to Harney and Sons’ teas because of their price – about $5 per 100g after discounts. And yes, they are about 2-3 times cheaper than basic offerings from Yunnan Sourcing and Teavivre but this advantage is negated by the fact that you can steep those more expensive teas multiple times and gongfu them as well. And oh, they also taste MUCH better and are way more complex. And they actually offer you the info on harvest date and location. So in the end Harvey’s teas provide you with about an equal number of tea cups – that have very little smell and taste quite basic – as direct-from-China web vendors. I can still see Harvey’s advantages for the fanciers of flavored blends or basic teas to mix with milk and sugar but that is really not me.

Harney & Sons teas have become my go-to morning jump starters lately for several reasons:

I have wanted to try this Tippy Yunnan tea because of my love for Yunnan and Keemun teas. I don’t think I’ve yet encountered a bad one, by any company, regardless of price.

I bought a pound of this product and when I opened the large sealed bag, my smelling sensors didn’t receive the leathery aroma that I expected. The odor was sweet and more like Ceylon tea. The leaves were medium-length and dark brown.

I steeped the leaves for five minutes at 212 degrees. The final liquor was a dark molasses brown. The aroma was mostly sweet like syrup.

The flavor of this tea had primary caramel and pancake syrup attributes.
Recognizable black tea tasting points were at least five rows back. There was a slight amount of astringency in my first couple of sips but that seemed to disappear quickly as I slurped deeper into my cup.

I would not easily identify this tea as a Yunnan tea but it does possess some of the qualities I like about that variety. It is smooth without (lasting) astringency and there is no bitter aftertaste. I also enjoy sweet black teas, as long as they taste natural (which this one does).

I would chalk this one up as another wise purchase from Harney & Sons. I will savor its sweet and smooth characteristics in my morning jump start tea rotation and I will have no problem devouring the entire pound. And, I just might repurchase another pound when the bag is empty.

Another sipdown for today. I used 1 tsp in 500 mL hottish water with soy milk. I don’t think Yunnan blacks or puerh go with milk at all, but I had half of a soy milk tetra pack to use on something.

anyway, the leaf has pretty golden streaks and smells very Earthy. It reminds me a lot of a puerh. Soil, Earthy minerals, leather, dry oak leaves/leaf litter, roasted barley, malt. It isn’t my favourite black tea, but it was nice to try. It is very distinctively a Chinese black, more specifically it does tasty like a Yunnan tea. There is such a huge difference between Chinese blacks and Indian blacks that they aren’t very comparable.

I’m finishing up my sample of this tea from a stash sale I got on reddit, along with some toast with clotted cream and raspberry jam.

I have to say that I’m surprised at how strong and full-bodied this tea is. It’s a little earthy and leathery, like a good puerh. It’s also extremely malty. The flavor reminds me of a smoother version of a breakfast blend.

But it’s not as smooth as most Yunnan blacks I’ve been drinking lately. There’s a hint of bitterness on the edge, and the flavor is hefty with almost no chocolate. As it cools, there’s a hint of smoke.

Looking up the price, I’d say this is a good everyday breakfast tea if you’re looking for something with more flavor than Twinings English Breakfast.

Drinking this at work right now. I’m not at all impressed. The leaves are small and broken, whereas other yunnan blacks, even the chinatown bulk variety were whole larger leaves with lots of golden tips. I’ve tried it western style and gong fu and everything in between and it comes up sorely lacking.