Upton Tea Imports

Upton Tea Sampler Buying Spree Tea #4:
On to other Earl Greys! This tea was chosen to be next in line on the highly scientific basis of “the name sounds nice.” Just from opening it, it seemed more potent than the Original Earl Grey. I’ve been quite congested lately and could barely smell the latter, but this stuff got through to my nose just fine. It brewed up darker, as well, but the taste, thankfully, was not overwhelming. There’s a fruitiness about it that blends quite well with the bergamot. Makes for a very smooth cup.

Upton Tea Sampler Buying Spree Tea #3:
So, among my Upton Sampler Buying Spree items are, I think, something like 8 different Earl Greys. From this you can probably figure out that I’m kind of a fan. Earl Grey is, without a doubt, my favorite kind of tea and you can imagine my glee when I saw that Upton had 18 (EIGHTEEN, people) different kinds. I don’t even know how I chose between them; its all a blur.

The logical place to start when faced with actually tasting these Earl Greys is with the Original Earl Grey. As it says on the tin, the bergamot taste here is quite faint. It’s a tease is what it is. It’s all like, am I an Earl Grey? Or aren’t I? You better take another sip just to make sure. I prefer my Earl Grey more bergamot-y, but if you are interested in something more subtle, this is the Earl Grey for you.

The leaves of this tea are beautiful with plenty of tips. It has a slightly nutty smell and is very mild and smooth. It does have a very slight minty note. It steeps up a light amber color and actually reminds me of a roasted green tea in taste. The tea has sweet undertones as it cools.

This is an interesting tea, interesting in the flavor it has. I can’t place it at all. It steeps up a dark brown and does have a little astringency and just slight bitterness. Its gently robust and has a full mouthfeel. Its not my favorite tea from Upton and I more than likely will not order this again. I feel this tea is better for blending which is what I will do as I have a very light Lapsang Souchong which I can add this to.

Well, back to mornings as usual at Chez Ewa. Let this steep for maybe a minute before running out the door. Ah mornings. You suck.

So, I’ve been letting this stuff air out in a shallow container in hopes of getting rid of the chai contamination, and I decided it was time to risk it again. The root beer taste IS gone, thank goodness. But there’s nothing to replace it. It just tastes kind of generic and slightly astringent. Maybe I should just give up on this stuff?

Ok, I actually grabbed the right tin today for trying this out and comparing it to the Irish and Scottish breakfast blends. I kind of wish I hadn’t though because I am totally getting root beer from this. ROOT BEER! Now this is bad for two reasons, 1. it makes no sense, and 2. I don’t like root beer.

The root beerness faded into a general sweet note as I got further into the cup, but I have to say I am still dissatisfied with it. It’s just not smack me in the face enough for my mornings. I think I’ll have to stick to the plebian quick brew blends. Looks like it’s back to the Scottish blend for me!

So I was going to offer the rest of my sample to Morgana since she mentioned she’d like to try it the last time I posted on this, but I have a suspicion that the whole root beer taste might be coming from contamination with what was previously in this tin, so I wonder if this wouldn’t be doing both her and the tea a disservice. Still, if you want to risk it…

Ok, caveat guys: I am not, in fact, sure that this is River Shannon. It is in an Adagio Masala Chai sample tin, but it is definitely not chai. Because I am a giant nubcake, however, I failed to make a note of what it IS. HOWEVER, it is the only one of my Upton Samples that is unaccounted for, so…odds are pretty high!

It’s very weird, because the tea smells totally oversteeped, but I was having one of my “forget to make tea until last minute” mornings instead of my “forgot I made tea and let it steep for like 20 minutes” mornings. (Those are basically the only two kinds of mornings I have. I don’t like mornings) That means that I, in fact, steeped it for about 30 seconds. But it still has a kind of weird burnt, overdone smell to it. Very strange. And not particularly appetizing given that I have a presentation today and my belly is in knots about that already.

The taste is much nicer, though. A nice assertive black tea taste with only a hint of astringency, just to let you know it’s there. No hint of oversteepedness at all. The fact that it was able to have this much personality with even a short steeping time is heartening, but that combined with the smell make me think that this would not be suitable for my other kind of morning. Sadly, I have no way of knowing what kind of morning it is going to be until it is already happening, so no way to plan ahead for that!

There is also a weird underlying piquant note in the aftertaste that makes me think of cola for some reason. I am going to go ahead and attribute that residual chai taste due to being too lazy to clean the sample tin out properly.

Upton Tea Sampler Buying Spree Tea #2:
I am drinking Breakfast Blend in the evening guys. I’m a woman on the edge! There’s no telling what I’ll do!
Seriously though, this tea brews up a really nice amber color and is eminently drinkable. It’s got a bit of astringency, especially towards the end of the cup. But still super tasty!

Getting to the end of this…which will put me without smoky teas! (oh noes!) I plan to get the black dragon from Upton on my next order, but that’s not going to be a while because I’m heading out to Japan in a few weeks. (Summer Intensive Language Program) Oh well guess I will have to survive until then.

Well, I’ve basically overdosed myself with sweetness, what with all the lattes and biscotti tea, etc, etc, so for my afternoon tea it’s time for…smoky! Yay smoky!

This is pretty tame as smoky teas go, and has a light sweet note that I am, right now, kind of wishing wasn’t there. All in all, I’m kinda wanting something…more.

I couldn’t find this or my River Shannon blend yesterday when I was sifting through my Upton samplers. I was getting weirded out and beginning to suspect tea gnomes or something when I suddenly remembered that I had transferred them over to some of my Adagio tins. Whoops!

This is my second try on this tea and I don’t know if I am just buying into the hype, but there is something about this tea that really does scream “afternoon” to me. Perhaps its because my delicate constitution is just unsuited to smoky teas in the morning. (They give me the vapors) This just feels like a good tea to curl up reading with. Like the spiced green it asserts its existence without being obtrusive; it’s a little weird to compare the two given that smoky IS smoky, but there you have it.

It also makes me happy to know I have this in case I want to make more tea eggs. Not sure if it’s quite smoky enough for that though. I really like the way the Golden Moon LS I used pervaded the eggs so I am taking a “smokier is better” policy on those. (The pinnacle would, I guess, be to just use bacon tea on them :D )

So I was directed to the Upton Tea site, recently, where, noticing that they have $1 samples and possessing no self-control, I promptly bought something like 15 different samples of tea. This is the first of them that I’ve tried and I really like the blend. Just the right amount of smoky. I’m not that into smoky teas so not exactly something I’ll be drinking on a daily basis, but certainly a nice break from the norm.

This is the last tea in the Upton sampler, and the only one that is a China Oolong rather than a Formosa Oolong. I’ve really enjoyed all of these and I’m looking forward to comparing Oolongs from other companies as well as some of the pricier ones at Upton to see if pricier equates to that much better.

I don’t know whether it is psychological or whether I read this somewhere, or both, but I expected this one, since it is last, to be the most complex, fullest, heartiest and perhaps even best of the bunch. It’s been a while since I had enough time to feel as though I could enjoy this without rushing through it, as I knew I’d want to put it through multiple steeps. Of course, since it has been so long between my note on the third sample, the Jade Oolong, and this one, I don’t have a clear memory of what that one was like. So I’m going to do a side by side taste test of those two. (I don’t think my bladder could handle doing multiple infusions of all four samples, and I’d probably be bouncing off the walls all night. I may be too caffeinated for this hour now as it is.)

However, I will comment on the dry leaves of all four. These do in fact look the fullest and heartiest. They’re big and and curly and greenish brown. They have the most in common with the Formosa Amber leaves in terms of color and the intriciacies of their curl, but they’re uniformly large whereas the Amber’s vary in size. The Fine Grade looks a little mulchy by comparison, and the Jade’s curls are smaller and the leaves greener. The aroma comparison is pretty interesting as well. The first three teas each seem to have a dominant note in the aroma of the dry leaves. The Fine Grade is toasty, the Amber is white-winey (champagny), and the Jade is “green.” This one is richer and deeper than all of the others. It’s got both the toasty and champagny notes, but they’re smoother and without the tang the others have.

I steeped these in identical glass mugs, using identical amounts of tea (1 tsp) and identical amounts of water (about 7 oz, I think — I forgot to measure the mug’s capacity first). Either there’s something wrong with my eyes, or the liquor of these is indistinguishable in color. They’re both a golden yellow color with maybe a little twinge of green. I’d love to be able to say one is greener or oranger than the other, but I really can’t.

The Se Chung’s aroma in the cup is bolder and has the toasty/champagny overtones of the dry leaves. The Jade is more delicate and more floral.

On the first steep at 3 minutes, the Se Chung is less silky in the mouth than the Jade, but bolder, deeper, and less green in flavor. Very pleasant, though the Jade is as nice as I remember it, too. (Did I mention that I’m finding this side by side tasting thing hard? I’m trying to clear my palate with crackers between tastes, but I’m wondering if the crackers are affecting the taste in their own way…. Any tips from those more experienced greatly appreciated.)

Second infusion, 4 min.+ The Se Chung’s mouth feel got creamier, and the flavors opened up some and became rounder and more buttery. There’s something else, too, that is more noticeable this time which could be a floral note. (I am particularly bad at identifying floral notes when I’m not told that the tea has jasmine, rose, or whatever in it.) The Jade is much as I’d said in my first note about it. On this steep the two seem to be converging toward a tawny/floral middle ground.

Third infusion, 5+ minutes. And they diverged again. The Jade took a very subtle turn toward the vegetal, though it was still silky and buttery. The Se Chung remained much where it had been in terms of flavors, on the toasty/woodsy side of things. But the flavors seemed to become more varied and more interesting, though I am having a failure of imagination trying to find comparisons for these more varied flavors.

Fourth infusion, 6 min.+ Though they were both pretty mellow and starting to fade by this time, the Se Chung had more of a nutty perkiness to it while the Jade was rounder and continued its subtle drift toward the vegetal.

The infused leaves of the Jade are significantly lighter and a fairly uniform green, and those of the Se Chung are darker, more varigated in color. And as could have been anticipated by the appearance of the dry leaves, they were generally longer and broader than those of the Jade.

So where do I come out? I’m not sure. It’s pretty close to a tie, and I think the question of whether one is better than the other really boils down to which I’d be in the mood for at the time. I can see keeping both on hand, potentially, and drinking the Jade when I’m looking for something mellower and the Se Chung when I’m looking for something more “Oolongy.” I’m giving the Se Chung a slightly higher mark, only because I do think it has more in common with the Formosa Amber, and I enjoyed it more.

I’ve been conserving the precious few leaves of this I have left, now that it’s “currently unavailable” and it may be months before I can get more. But today is Easter, so I celebrated by brewing up 12 ounces of PBS, which I am savoring a small cup at a time. It’s a bigger treat than a chocolate bunny or a marshmallow Peep!:)

I’m almost out of my beloved Bohea, but I’m able to enjoy it nonetheless, secure in the knowledge that another 400 grams is on its way (packed immediately and shipped within hours of my ordering — yay, Upton, for so clearly understanding the nature of tea dependency!). I’ve settled on five minutes of steep time and a heaping tablespoon of dry leaf per cup. Soon I’ll be able to measure it in grams with a pocket scale that’s also on its way (yay, Amazon!) and be sure I’m not wasting a single precious leaf.

Yesterday I attempted a second steep with the wet leaves left in my French press — not something I normally try with black teas, and, as it turns out, not something I’d recommend with this one. All the cocoa-y flavor went into the first steep, and the liquor from the second tasted rather flat. Oh well … you can’t blame me for trying to get a little extra mileage out of my favorite!

Sunday morning and a French press full of Bohea Supreme … what could be better? Although I confess I’ve gotten so attached to this tea that I haven’t been reserving it solely for weekend use, and the level in my 200-gram bag is already getting distressingly low. This morning I’m getting a honeyed note from this, more than a cocoa one, maybe because I measured out a little less of the dry leaf. It’s nice to know my favorite tea still has unexplored dimensions.

Nailed it!:) This morning I’m finding this tea so satisfying that I haven’t even gotten around to eating breakfast yet. (Note to self: Approach Upton with book proposal for “The Bohea Supreme Diet.”)

Ah, what a pleasure to share a quiet weekend morning with Bohea Supreme again! This mellow tea calls for a generous measuring hand and a longish steep, but in my enthusiasm I might have gone a tad overboard with both today. There was still no bitterness, but the cocoa flavor was a little less prominent than before. No worries; I’ll get it right tomorrow!

The Bohea Supreme has the same round, incredibly mellow character as its sister, Bohea Select, sans the slightly funky tinge of wet leaves. The delicious cocoa note is stronger in this one, and I found that a little unsweetened vanilla-flavored almond milk really brings it out. This tea is the perfect choice for a laid-back Sunday morning when I want to be wakened gently and start my day with a satisfied smile. My only complaint is how quickly I’m using it up!

On weekends at home I fall into an unfortunate habit of overcaffeinating myself. That’s the inevitable result when a lover of “hard-core black teas” [tm SimplyJenW] is close to the kitchen all day and repeatedly thinks, “You know what would be great now? A(nother) pot of tea!”

I just brewed my third pot of the day. I ended up second-guessing my choices for Pots 1 and 2 — which involved four different Ceylons, as it happens — but I know that won’t happen with Pot 3, good old Organic China Black FOP. Rich and mellow, a little cocoa, a little vanilla, and nothing I could possibly regret … well, except for the extra dose of caffeine.

Lately the heat has been so beastly that I’ve been drinking hot tea only at breakfast (one of my customary Assams) and quaffing gallons of decaf iced tea (made from Trader Joe’s decaf Irish Breakfast, which I just learned is 100 percent Kenya — it pays to read the back of the box!) the rest of the day.

But today when I got home from the supermarket, I was tired from toting bags and damp from a sudden thundershower. And when I looked up at the kitchen clock, it was a little after four. Clearly, it was time for a nice pot of tea. The organic China Black played its role of Perfect Afternoon Tea … well, to a tee! It was comforting and reviving and, with the addition of unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze, even revealed a hint of chocolatiness that it had never shown me before. (I must also acknowledge the rice cake with peanut butter and the perfectly ripe peach, both of which performed their supporting roles admirably.)

This was a very good teatime indeed!