Vietnam Golden Tippy OP Organic Loose Leaf Black Tea

🍵 The Leaf — An evenly worked Orange Pekoe grade black tea from northern Vietnam, light brown with abundant golden tips that signal quality and careful selection from small family estates

🍵 The Liquor — Brews to a warm copper cup, smooth and full-bodied with a brightness that invites you to drink it plain before considering anything else

🍵 The Character — Gently floral with soft caramel sweetness and a clean, rounded finish — quietly distinctive without being showy, and naturally easy to drink

🍵 The Occasion — Well suited to a calm morning or a thoughtful afternoon cup, and rewarding enough to enjoy without milk, letting the natural flavour speak for itself

Vietnam Golden Tippy OP Organic Loose Leaf Black Tea is one of the more quietly impressive organic black teas available as a loose leaf — a Vietnamese black tea with a genuinely distinctive character and an elegant, golden-tipped appearance that hints at the care taken in its production. Grown in the Ha Giang Province in the far north of Vietnam, close to the Chinese border, this organic black tea is cultivated by small family estates that follow traditional methods handed down through generations, with the area having moved substantially to controlled organic cultivation in recent years. The result is a tea that carries both authenticity and integrity in every leaf.

The Orange Pekoe grade refers to the size of the full, evenly worked leaves — a grade long associated with a clean, well-structured cup. But it is the golden tips, the youngest and most prized part of the plant, that set this tea apart. A tea rich in tips is known as a Tippy, and it is considered a premium style precisely because those young buds bring a natural softness and sweetness to the liquor that more mature leaf alone cannot replicate.

In the cup, Vietnam Golden Tippy OP brews to a warm, copper-toned infusion with a full body that is smooth rather than heavy. The flavour is gently floral, with soft hints of caramel woven through a clean, rounded finish. There is a quiet complexity here — not loud or assertive, but layered and satisfying, with enough character to reward slow, attentive drinking. It is the kind of organic loose leaf black tea that is particularly good drunk plain, without milk or sugar, allowing the natural floral notes and caramel sweetness to come through clearly. That said, it also holds its own with a splash of milk for those who prefer a more traditional black tea experience.

Vietnam has one of the oldest tea-drinking cultures in Asia, though its reputation as a producer of fine single-origin teas is a more recent development. Long overshadowed by neighbouring China and India in the speciality market, northern Vietnam — particularly the mountainous provinces bordering Yunnan — is now gaining the recognition it deserves for producing teas of genuine quality and character.

Since 2008, High Teas London has been one of the country's leading independent tea specialists, with one of the largest collections in the country — over 350 teas and infusions from the world's finest gardens. Vietnam Golden Tippy OP Organic is a tea that speaks clearly for the quality this origin is capable of, and we are pleased to offer it as part of our collection.

Ingredients: Organic black tea.

Brewing Note: Vietnam Golden Tippy OP Organic is best brewed with freshly boiled water allowed to cool very briefly — around 95°C is ideal, though fully boiling water works well too. Use one heaped teaspoon per cup and steep for three to four minutes. This tea benefits from not being over-steeped; keeping to the shorter end of that range preserves the floral notes and keeps the finish clean and smooth. It is particularly worth trying without milk on the first brew to appreciate the natural caramel sweetness and gentle floral character. A loose leaf infuser or teapot that gives the leaf room to open fully will give the best results.