Midday Flight

This tea is thanks to CrowKettle!

It’s super mild. Definitely more of an afternoon tea than a kick-in-the-pants morning tea (hey, someone dropping coffee again can hope!).

I can tell it’s a Chinese black, but it’s not terribly complex. IDK. It’s nice, but I don’t think I’d go after this one myself.

Thanks for sharing, CrowKettle!

Midday Flight? More like Midnight Flight…

Thank you VariaTEA for sending my first Tippy’s Tea blend my way! This is a company that’s received a lot of love here on Steepster and one I’ve debated ordering from so many times. I’ve done quite a bit of cart building! But, as much as I want to support a Canadian company (especially with our shitty dollar) the fact I’ve never tried any of their blends has always held me back. Now I’ve tried one of them!

Drank this one from a timolino on the walk home from work. It was about 11PM (hence ‘Midnight Flight’) and caffeine was probably a bad idea since it ended up taking me what felt like ages to fall asleep that night, but I needed something warm to get me through the drizzly walk. At least it’s a downhill walk home…

I’ll be totally honest; I went in with zero expectations for this tea and even still I ended up feeling pretty disappointed. And, it’s not like this tasted bad because it certainly didn’t. But all of the flavors felt kind of hollow and definitely didn’t resonate with me. I picked up on some really mild cinnamon and nutmeg sort of notes, earth notes, a bit of malt, but mostly what I was getting was smoke notes – and not the sort of strong Lapsang smoke notes I like but more so what I associate with Keemun. I thought that this was a Darjeeling/Assam blend?

Got home and looked it up before crashing for the night; sure enough this does actually have Keemun in it which is probably my least favourite ‘class’ of black tea. Damn, I wish I hadn’t tuned into the Keemun so much – I think I could have enjoyed this a lot otherwise.

However, I did receive a really generous sample of this one from VariaTEA so I’m definitely going to play around and try and get this one to work out better for me. I’m thinking milk might help this one out, or the Cinnabon creamer I have since I had already picked up some spice notes. In the mean time I’m holding off on rating this one.

This is certainly a smooth cup of tea but I am not finding anything that stands out about it. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t an enjoyable tea but there are other teas I already have in large quantity that I would reach for first.

Backlog:

Today, I’m spending the day testing some of the tea samples and tea flavorings that I’ve been sent by companies to start working with so I figured since I can’t write reviews right now that it’s a good time to start working on my backlogged reviews waiting to be written on Steepster.

This is a really pleasant blend of teas. I like that I can taste notes from each component: I tasted malt and richness from the Assam, a hint of smoke from the Keemun, the even character of the Ceylon and the crispness of the Darjeeling.

A very satisfying afternoon tea! I liked this one a lot. Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2015/01/14/midday-flight-black-tea-blend-from-tippys-tea/

Can I please change taste buds with someone? :(
I am really sad. I’ve tried two of Tippy’s Teas now and I don’t really like either of them. They really aren’t living up to the hype for me. :( Turning out to be such a waste of money, I don’t even know what’s wrong with me… Clearly there is something wrong with me since everyone adores these teas and I’m literally the only one who doesn’t like them.
Gahh! I really wish I had better taste buds. :(
This tasted a bit malty, but mainly just woody to me. Not at all what I expected. :( Need to learn not to trust so much in everyone’s tasting notes on teas because I seem to always be the odd one out. My taste buds suck, man. :(

Another share from cavocorax which was great because it let me NOT place an order with tippy teas, and still get a chance to try out a couple. Now i know that an order will be placed in future…once i get my cupboard under control! This is a relatively nice black tea. Nothing crazy out of this world, but it’s nice and smooth, with a little bit of heft to it so that it’s not on the wimpy side of things. There’s a little bit of maltiness here but not overwhemlingly enough for me to be like WOAH MALT TEA! :) A nice afternoon cup!

How lovely! This one made me sit up and smile. The dry nose caught my attention right away with its deep keeemun richness. The flavor has a firm base, with definite malt, but balanced with a lighter, slightly sweet topnote. Definitely a keeper.

Another sample from Cameron B! :)

Like they say on their site, this is a good everyday tea. I think you can pretty much taste each of the teas blended in, which makes it a nice complex black tea. I got notes of cocoa, citrus, and it was kind of bread-y. Very nice. Makes me want to try their other tea blends.

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.