Upton Tea Imports

The dry leaf smells awful perfume-y but happily once it is brewed a bit of a tea smell joins up with it. The taste is not overwhelmingly bergamot thankfully – it’s actually a pretty smooth blend of tea base (though not an overly strong or distinct tasting base) and bergamot. It’s got a heavy feel on my tongue, kind of silky, and that’s nice.

I’m having this cup straight, but unlike yesterday’s EG, this one isn’t really very sweet and the bergamot is a straight bergamot (instead of candied citrus) so I think it would take additives rather well. It doesn’t necessarily need them though but it couldn’t hurt to slightly soften and sweeten the bergamot edge to the end which occasionally comes across as a bit sharp and dry.

All in all, it seems to be on the good side of a standard Earl Grey. I think I prefer the not-quite-as-EG EGs from Upton that I’ve been sampling recently, just because they are something different and a hair more exciting.

This was alright. I am picky when teas are fruit flavored. The flavoring just wasn’t tasty. It was fake tasting. I tried it iced, and finished my cup. I didn’t care for the black tea either, just wasn’t OMG worthy. It does smell like it tastes, which isn’t a plus. I’m just not loving it.

Really good for no doctoring, definitely no additives needed. I enjoy it – it might be close to perfect. Doesn’t zing with bergamot as much as I would expect, but very good. I will give this tea an 80 rating with room for growth.

Trying it with additives this time, just ‘cause I can. Looking back over my previous tasting note, I was concerned that sugar would make it too sweet and milk might kill some of the flavors. And yeah, that’s basically it. I added maybe half a teaspoon of sugar to my 10oz but it’s surprisingly sweet. And the milk takes away the candied citrus aspect of things and turns it more into a perfume-y EG flavor which isn’t near as fun. But it’s still not bad, I just like it more straight.

Oooh, great aroma. The dry leaves smell very sweet – like candied citrus. Once brewed, the smell citrus comes through stronger but it’s still very sweet smelling.

And wow at the taste. Very citrusy. But not harsh. Again, I’m going to go with candied citrus, possibly because it is and possibly because I’ve been up for only 15 minutes and my brain is merely limping along so I can’t think of anything else. I can’t really say, “Oh, this is the bergamot, this is the lemon”, it’s just all citrusy-fresh and sweet in a way that makes me think of my favorite heirloom navel oranges – they are very sweet with just a slight tang of citrusy sharpness, and so is this tea. The citrus isn’t refreshingly tangy or anything. It’s just sweet. (That’s okay, I like sweet.)

There is a hint of astringency on the end of some sips. Also, the flavoring starts to feel a little strong/perfume-y as it floats up the back of my throat into my sinuses, but it’s a wet, sweet perfume-y instead of a dry, floral perfume-y so I’m okay with it. I do feel the flavoring almost needs a little taming, but I think sugar would make it too sweet and milk might kill the flavors too much.

The aftertaste is a little tart as it builds in my mouth and there isn’t a whole lot of the tea base flavor coming through. But it’s not a rough nor harsh tea so I suppose I will forgive it these little quirks.

With milk and sugar. I can taste the lavender mainly in the aftertaste. It’s got some bitter endnotes which I assume is the lavender. A bit sharp. The bitter taste makes it not as pleasing. Dry aftertaste, lack of aftertaste… disappointing because the lavender with it smells good. After tasting some of the wife’s, I think it is better without additives.

Apparently, I am not done with caffeine today! (Thankfully the fine tremors from earlier teas have stopped.) At the husband’s request, I’ve made one of the new EGs for us to try out. He’s had a tough day, he deserves some happy tea.

The dry leaf smells very whoosh menthol of lavender. My sinuses are a little stuffy but this stuff has got to help that.

I’m going to attempt to go additive-less on this one (because the last thing I need is caffeine and sugar). The liquid smells both bergamot-y and lightly menthol-lavender… which oddly combines in my nose to make me think of the smell of fake crab, but maybe sweeter?

The taste, thankfully, doesn’t remind me of fake crab. It seems to be evenly bergamot and lavender – if one pushes forward more I can’t tell which one it is – but the aftertaste is more lavender. There’s not a whole lot of tea base taste here – it’s fairly mild – but it’s also smooth and the overall feeling and taste is very easy so I’m okay with that. There’s no real astringency or bitterness, even after a 4minute steep, so I don’t feel like it needs additives at all.

Probably not the smartest move, having a caffeinated tea at 10pm, but hopefully it will work out just fine as this tea is fairly smooth and relaxing, not bold and energetic. I find it nicely enjoyable.

This is a very interesting chai blend – one of the more unique ones I’ve ever tried.

The licorice, together with the cinnamon, ginger and coconut creates a very strong flavor that is a little overwhelming, but I am enjoying it. I have a hard time distinguishing the black tea here, though.

Even though it is a very pungent tea, I found it to be soothing and relaxing to sip.

I’d like the smell of this a lot. It’s got a very good aroma into it, nice and chocolately and hints of the bergamot in the Earl Grey. The taste is very, very lightly Earl Grey. Mostly just kind of a medium chocolaty taste that’s relatively good because it’s not overpowering. The Earl Grey flavors are not prominent enough for me so it kinda falls into a chocolaty tea with Earl Grey notes. But for a chocolaty tea this is probably my favorite so far.

This is the first EG in a big batch of EG samples from Upton Tea Imports. (I ordered 22 different teas, over half of which are EGs!) I’m not the biggest EG fan (though I do like it) but the husband is (I blame Star Trek TNG), so the purpose of this endeavor is to find him a go-to, must-have EG to keep on hand. And bonus points if I like it a lot, too.

Taken with sugar and whole milk, this tea reminds me of last week’s Twining’s Lady Ear Grey – fairly soft with a more lemony taste than straight bergamot. The one thing I missed in the Lady EG was the actual tea taste (which I attribute to the teabag being old) but this one fixes that problem. The tea base is nicely noticeable, though it doesn’t scream a particular tea type – bolder than the typical Ceylon, not rich as the typical Yunnan… it makes total sense that this is a Ceylon/Chinese black blend because that is what it tastes like. While the base isn’t overly special, it is nice to have a tea base that tastes obviously tea-like but not overly Ceylon.

The flavoring and overall tone of the tea is soft and relaxing – not a harsh EG at all, but not so soft that it is girlie frou-frou either. There’s a little prickle to the tea that is either astringency or a little roughness to the tea base taste. And even though it doesn’t taste like a bold wake-up tea, the caffeine level is enough to make me perkier than I justifiably should be.

I like this one a little more than Twining’s Lady EG simply by virtue of having a more noticeable tea base (though I reserve the right to adjust that ruling if I ever get the chance to have some fresher (and hopefully more tea-tasting) Lady EG). It’s probably not the smoothest EG I hope to find but it’s nice and very drinkable so I would have no problems adding this one to the regular tea rotation (if this one ends up getting the husband’s vote for ‘must-have’ EG).

This is interesting. It is a good tea but tastes kind of heavy, like the Taylors of Harrogate version. It does it has good flavors but very subtle bergamot. (I could be imagining this but it might seem like I can get a taste of Bohea – maybe because it has smokiness to it or maybe the tumbler wasn’t cleaned well.) Overall, very good for a new Earl Grey – I would put it up near some of the better ones and would say this could be a good standby Earl Grey. It continues to grow on me the more I drink.

First whole leaf white tea I have tried. The aroma of the steeped tea is clean and light with hints of flowers. The flavor was soft, and sweet with something that just hints at fruit. Very full bodied. I steeped it quite a few times at varying temps (130-170) and varying lengths of time, and got a nice cup every time. The buds just seem to keep giving flavor all day. I would be happy to drink this again.

It bugs me that Upton doesn’t give more info on the teas…on most there is no way to know how old they are. If you are going to charge 15 dollars for 40 grams I would like to know that at least.

This was the first holy basil I sampled, and I loved it. Since then, I’ve tried holy basil from a number of other companies, and also tried Upton’s green leaf (BH06), but I strongly prefer this one. It’s warm and balanced, rich, complex. Aroma is balanced, and mostly of spice. I also find this herbal tea to be very relaxing.

This is my first experience with Assam that isn’t CTC. Very robust and malty. As recommended from Upton, this would be very tasty in chai. I must admit, it’s a lot better than the stuff at the India grocery that’s all CTC. More layers of the flavors. Has a coffee like bite to it. Doesn’t seem to stand up for rebrewing as well after third time. All the initials after all the different Assams is overwhelming to me, but I googled and found out what it meant! Yay! I love how much there is to learn with each different variety of tea, it’s like a rabbit hole. Oh tea, I love how complex you are!

I am very pleased with this blend. I have been looking for a grapefruit GREEN tea to replace the grapefruit tea I fell in love with in Tucson but have been unable to find since. This one comes pretty darned close, even if it’s a white tea.

The grapefruit aroma and taste is authentic. It doesn’t taste sweetened, it smells like fresh, juicy grapefruit. The flavors are well balanced – the white tea is not overwhelmed, and the grapefruit tastes true.

An excellent tea!

This tea has just enough bergamot to be pleasantly fruity without overwhelming the tea base. The cornflower petals are pretty but I’m not overly concerned with the appearance of leaves, I’m more focused on flavor/aroma.