Upton Tea Imports

This one was a sample someone sent me! It smells delicious. The taste is nice. It’s creamy, smooth, has a nice base, and has a lot of natural tasting vanilla.

MzPriss’ Unflavored Tea Box – Tea #7
Another nice keemun! Again, not really smoky… I could swear keemun is supposed to be a little smoky but it seems none of them are. I love the scent of dry keemun leaves. The flavor is on a mid level – tangy again. It seems only keemun have this tangy flavor I’m talking about. I wish I could describe it better. It was almost like the Andrews & Dunham Spring Keemun I had a few days ago. I also had this tea a couple days ago, which is why my note is more terrible than usual. Whoops. Not a bad two steeps (the second cup was similar) but I’d prefer my keemun darker.

These cute but eminently stinky Tuo Cha from Upton Tea Imports were my very first purchase ever of this type of tea. That was more than a decade ago. Seriously. They sat in a drawer alone, neglected and scorned for all this time, never to be infused until today. They aren’t nearly as stinky as I recall, but I figured, how can pu-ehr go bad, really? Perhaps they have improved with age!

The strong scent of the initial sample (which contained 6 tuo cha, now 5) left such a lasting impression on me that I completely avoided this entire category of tea. Why would I want to drink such a thing? I asked myself most logically.

After seeing the throngs of pu-erh devotees out there in the world wide web, some of whom spend time here at Steepster, I realized, at last, that first impressions might deceive. Perhaps it’s really true:

Don’t judge a book by its cover or a tuo cha by its stench!

I tossed the first short infusion and proceeded to brew this tea using near-boiling water, which swiftly produced a dark brownish amber liquor with not a trace of its former stinkiness lingering in the air. To be honest, and a bit surprisingly (or not!) the flavor strikes me as a cross between a Yunnan black and a Lapsang Souchong tea. Does anyone else find similarities between pu-erh and Lapsang? Or is it just this particular batch?

Anyway, it’s good, and now I’m off to the races for many new adventures in the vast land of pu-erh! I needed to clear this hurdle before I could try any other pure pu-erhs. Mission accomplished, and happily, too!

The leaves smell soooo vanilla with sweet bergamot… reminds me a lot of Paris from Harney. But when steeped, there isn’t much vanilla or bergamot. It is however, massively Darjeeling. Deeply muscatel with stone fruits and some grassyness. I got zero astringency as well. I quite like this one, even if it wasn’t quite what I was expecting.

This has darker leaves than the Yunnan Black Buds from Upton. It also has more of the flavor I expect. Hay, dust, minor hint of smoke (or maybe it’s just my super paranoid smoke detector tastebuds), some sharpness. I normally would expect sweetness rather than sharpness though. While this is better than the Black Buds, it is still a wholly unremarkable Yunnan. Still, better than no Yunnan, but nothing I’ll get more of.

This was a fairly plain Yunnan to me. I steeped for 1 minute and then for 3. Not much change and the flavor didn’t really deepen or expand at all. At 5 minutes there was more classic Yunnan flavor. It’s better than no Yunnan, but aside from the dry leaves being very pretty with a goldeny mix, this is not a standout for me.

Super old sample, I think from Tastybrew!

Was actually a decent caramel black tea. I will have to make it side by side with teaG’s caramel tea just for fun :)

I got this sample from KiwiDelight. I’m not really going to go into the dry leaf, because I think most of us know what dry sencha looks and smells like (at least, anyone who reads my notes will know by now). Steeped for 1 minute as per usual.

The aroma is pretty standard but still nice – a mixture of spinach and alfalfa with a buttery edge. Tasting this, I assumed that this was a heavily steamed variety because it has more intense flavors. However, it’s actually because it’s not harvested until autumn (I don’t know how steamed it is, it didn’t say). It’s a nice balance between the intense and sweet flavors of gyokuro and the more savory flavor of sencha. I get notes of spinach, zucchini, and butter with a little touch of savory seaweed. Overall, quite tasty and I would definitely drink it again. :)

This, like most Ceylon teas, just doesn’t do it for me. I carefully followed Upton’s brewing directions (1 tsp/3 min/212°) and came out with a tea that was mildly tannic, mild all around, and with no aftertaste to keep me interested. Even sticking my nose deep into the gloopy mass of freshly steeped leaves didn’t give me much of an impression. Nope, I’ll pass on this one. Perhaps it has redeeming qualities, but I’m not finding them. Might a bit of milk help?

I was surprised at the number of sticks that were mixed in with the leaves. Is this typical of this style? It made it hard to measure, so I had to make my best guess (I really need to get a scale).

I did three 2-minute gaiwan steeps of this tea. The first was almost too subtle. Sort of herby with a clean finish, but nothing really jumped out at me. The second had a darker liquor, with less herb flavor. The final steep seemed slightly more astringent (though not much) and had a bit more forest-floor-dry-sticks flavor.

Overall, I liked this but was not wowed. I’d recommend it for when you’re in the mood for something subtly warming and comforting.

Oh no, I’m the first to review it. Pressure!

Haha. Okay, so this 88th Night Shincha is kind of magical. It’s traditionally picked on the 88th night of spring , 88 nights after the Vernal Equinox (which puts it somewhere around June 17th most years if I counted right).

This shincha smells a lot like a high quality matcha to me. It is very rich. I’m getting lots of green leafy notes, some pistachio and a hint of green bean in the scent. In the taste it is vegetal and nutty like pistachio, mellow and has a nice sweetness to it, not a sugary sweetness mind you, more of a mild sweetness like you might describe some vegetables as having (carrots for example). There are delicate hints of mint. It’s lacking the mineral and ocean qualities I’ve tasted in other senchas, which is a nice parting from what I’m used to. The color is a beautiful green-yellow.

I’m gonna have to say this is the best sencha I have had yet. I have only had maybe 4 or 5 so my experience with them is not too broad, but this one is definitely the most enjoyable to me, for its mellow sweetness and hearty vegetal taste. Oh, and if anyone is curious, shincha is a first flush (first harvest) sencha, so that’s why I am comparing the two. :3

Edit: I served this tea at an event I held at my house where I served night-themed teas and it was a favorite among the guests. They said it tasted like a green smoothie. I can’t argue with that!

Dry leaf smells malty and a little earth-like. Liquor is golden, clear, a little astringent, and surprisingly light-bodied. The malt and honey flavor, too, are light, and are roughly equal in strength. A cup of this tea is nice yet stimulating to drink during a summer’s mid-morning.

It’s refreshing to have another one of Upton’s African teas after months of running out of my last. The dry leaf aroma smells unpredictably – and pleasantly – of apricot. The instructions suggest to allow the leaves to steep for 3 minutes, but I’ve found that I enjoy the cup more when I let them steep for only 1. In case of the former, the liquor is rusty gold, clear, medium-bodied, and astringent. It’s also quite malty, but so much that I felt I had to add milk and/or sugar. Following the latter steeping parameters, the liquor is truly golden. The malt is much, much lighter, even barely there. A bright muscatel flavor is able to emerge, and it lingers lightly on the tongue in the aftertaste.

T&C TTB Tea # 18 Backlog May 28

I didn’t get any vanilla out of this, I guess it wasn’t strong enough for me. It was a boring old straight black tea with nothing exciting standing out. I drank it at night and promptly decided it wasn’t worth the caffeine. Zero vanilla coming out of it and the base didn’t impress me as being overly tasty either.

Very meh.

Butiki Taste Testing Traveling Tea Box – Tea #4
Not sure if this is the right tea.. I’m pretty sure it has a #66. Anyway, this is a decent Darjeeling type tea (but not Darjeeling since it is from Nepal.) I’ve found that these sorts of teas can either be the most amazing cup of tea or the most boring cup of tea. This is sort of middle of the road. These types of teas also have touchy steeping parameters. It’s tough for me to tell flavors on this one. A little sour, kind of tastes like autumn. The color of the cup is amber.

I brewed up another glass of this Namring Estate 2nd Flush Darjeeling from Upton by way of Steepster Select. I’ve been exploring the second flush darjeelings from Golden Tips and was wondering how this would measure up in comparison. I think that it’s not as good, but it’s true that I used only half of my envelope, so 2.2 grams (it contained 4.5 grams) for about 8 ounces of water. I kept the temperature cooler (82C rather than the Steepster Select recommendation of 100C—which is a big mistake, imnsho), and I brewed for about 3 minutes.

The resultant liquor was amber colored and pretty good but not great. I do not believe that darjeelings can be successfully re-steeped, but I tried last time (Steepster Select says on the envelope that it’s good for 3 re-steeps!). It tasted like dishwater, so I’m not bothering this time.

Does anyone in the universe, aside from Steepster Select, recommend that darjeeling be re-steeped? I’ve never read it anywhere. It seems like a ploy to make the program seem to cost less than it does. You do not, my tea-infused friends, get four 12 ounces cups of tea from this envelope. No, you do not.

I am surprised by some of the negative reviews of this Namring Estate 2nd Flush Darjeeling sourced for the Steepster Select February sample pack from Upton Tea Imports. Perhaps some of the reviewers do not like darjeeling? It’s also easy to ruin by oversteeping…

My batch tastes very good. The packet contained 3.6 grams, for the record, so perhaps that’s why the liquor was a bit lighter amber than the darjeelings I imbibed yesterday. No matter, I kept the steep time short and found no bitterness whatsoever in the glass. In fact, this was good enough that I am now contemplating placing an order at Upton, which I have not done in quite some time, but in truth they were the company which opened me up to the higher echelons of tea!

To be honest, I quit Steepster Select because 2 out of 5 of the samples of that pack were from Upton, which sells fully curated tea samples of 10 gram for $1 or $2! It seems wrong to claim “curation” credits for pre-curated teas. I don’t need samples which are smaller than the ones Upton offers for triple the price! I expect true curation to involve some factfinding missions beyond visiting the Upton Tea Imports website, which I am perfectly capable of doing all by myself. Steepster didn’t even bother to say whether this is FTGFOP or TGFOP or SFTGFOP1! This information is readily available at the Upton website for all of their teas. Go there and search for Namring, and you’ll find a whole slew of good darjeelings.

The good news is that I have been inspired by this Steepster Select “curation” to pay a visit once again to Upton Tea Imports, all of whose teas are fully and impeccably curated and sold at very reasonable prices. I used to love how the labels came printed with the customer’s name. I wonder whether they still do that? We shall see…

second infusion: I am not at all convinced that darjeeling tea is supposed to be reinfused, but it said so on the Steepster Select packet, so I tried. it tasted like dishwater, so I tossed it.

(Blazing New Rating #69)

This is a more like it. After an unfortunate bout with the Z11 Keemun this morning, I chose this one next. This is kind of the opposite end of the spectrum from the Z11. There is a barely-detectable smoke note, way way back – a nice antidote to the intense smoke/creosote of the Z11. This is far more delicate and well mannered. There is a hint of cocoa, a slight whiff of malt and a little yeasty graininess. I like the little floral, winey waft in the aftertaste. This is nice enough, but not very distinguished.

I am up far, far too early. I started off this morning (at 3 am) on a sweet cloud of Shang’s Golden Needle (thoughtfuly provided by TeaTiff) and then decided since I have all this morning time, I would dive into my Upton Keemun samples. I wish I had picked a different one to start with.

This is aggressively smokey- almost acrid. I don’t mind some smoke, but this is unpleasant to me – leaning toward tar/creosote. I might not finish this cup.

Toasty and sweet, that is this tea. I have loved every cup of this, and I love that this was my introduction to Jun Chiyabari Estate teas. I am partial to Single Origin Teas JCE tea more, but this one is still excellent.

Another happy sipdown.

September Sipdowns: 8