Upton Tea Imports

a great tea! tastes like matcha :D

a really good tea! tastes/smells like brandy :P

Sipdown no. 84 of the year 2014. Holy basil, Batman!

Apparently, I never wrote an initial note on this, though I’m now sipping down the end of this sample packet. It was opened, so I know I tried it once. I also have a memory of having a mishap and spilling a bunch of it all over the counter. Perhaps I got distracted and never made it to the note.

Upton is a class act. I love how they personalize what they send with your name and the date on which it was packed. The date on this is 3/29/10, which is shortly after I joined Steepster. However, there wasn’t a ziplock on the sample packet and I neglected to treat this sample well. I may have been mad at it for spilling. ;-) And since I don’t have an original note, I have nothing to compare the taste of this aged sample with from when it was fresh.

On top of that, it seems I only have enough for 3/4 of a cup. Here goes.

It has a spicy savory scent that is reminiscent of cooking spices. I smelled it against some dry basil and it’s similar, but not anywhere close to identical in fragrance.

The steeped tisane has a slight anise-like scent along with the savory spice. It makes a light brownish orange liquid with particles suspended in it.

The flavor is also somewhat savory. I get a cooling note, which is the anise-like one. It has a vaguely medicinal taste, but not in a bad way. It’s the cooling aspect, which is sort of a menthol/eucalyptus sensation. Rather like one of those fancy cough drops though not as sweet.

Supposedly this can do all sorts of great things for you from lowering blood sugar to inhibiting cancer. If I knew that was true for a fact, I’d happily drink it every day as a sort of tonic.

But as a flavored beverage for pleasure, I’m not so sure. I have some Tulsi blends I’m more eager to try now, but plain it’s sort of plain.

The leaves were broken up more than the Special Organic (SW58). A good mellow tea, not as many fruit notes, but not musty like the first white I tasted either.

Very nice. This is the second white tea I’ve tasted. The first was a bit musty compared to this one, which is much more smooth and stable.

Earthy, but not too bitter. After the first couple of sips, I added a dash of milk to give it some sweetness. (Thank you to shmiracles for sending the sample!)

2/8/14 Sipdown. 3g/60z/212F/3min. This is the first CTC tea I can remember having loose, though I’ve seen plenty in tea bag dissections. It’s made a good pot of tea, properly brisk, pleasantly colored, good scent. But the physical tea is a little disturbing to me. It looks like very fine mulch, and when I picked out a bit of the steeped leaf to examine, it sort of smeared away into just a kind of smudge of mud on my finger tip.

Pros — 3 minute steep time made an wicked strong liquor. This tea would be great for iced tea, for cooking, for anytime an intense traditional English style black tea flavour is wanted. It’s a good cup of tea.

Cons – mulch.

Side note – 15g is the perfect sample amount for me. It’s exactly the right amount for one pots worth western brewed, and one gaiwan session.

TTBB #2. I’m not going to add these to my cupboard unless I keep more than the cup I drink so there won’t be any sipdowns for a while.

I’ve never tried green rooibos before, though I’ve been meaning to. I have some….somewhere in the tea tubs but I couldn’t even tell you what brand it is. This smells very strongly of fruit, mostly pear as other commenters have mentioned.

Just took a drink and it’s reminding me of SOMETHING very very strongly. I’m having a sense memory but I couldn’t tell you what. Maybe…root beer? Something in root beer is twigging at me. Pear up front but this mystery flavour in the back. In the middle is something vaguely horrible that I think is the green rooibos. What is that?? Anyway, aside from the visceral shudder reaction, I think this tastes good. I would never buy it, but it’s good.

I am getting a quick onset headache since drinking this so I might have found another food sensitivity. Crap. I suspect the rooibos but I don’t have enough data points to tell. Possibly a flavouring.

In other news, my kidneys have been sore all day and I’m not sure why. It’s very irritating.

So with all the snow we’re getting here in NY, I felt today was a spiced tea sort of day. Since I have a sample on-hand, I figured this tea fit the bill.

It tastes and smells mainly of cinnamon and apples. There was a nice big piece of apple in the scoop, so that probably helped. I guess the vanilla’s what’s giving it that little bit of creaminess. No bitterness at all. If you add sugar though, I’d advise moderation. This gets VERY sweet if you add too much.

Such a nice blend for an afternoon cup of tea. I was watching a mini marathon of 1954-55 Sherlock Holmes TV programs yesterday, so of course had to have a pot of this. The blenders created something really special here with just a touch of smokiness that does not cover the base of keemun and darjeeling. Whole leaf blend actually holds up well to a second steeping and tastes good iced as well.

Got this as an extra sample with my first Upton order. It reminded me of Twinings’ Irish Breakfast which I also enjoy, so this little free sample went a lot quicker than expected.

I don’t normally add milk to my tea, but I added a splash to this along with sugar and it made all the difference. Still not something I’d buy on a regular basis, but maybe once in a while. Bumped up my rating a little because of this.

I have a love-hate relationship with vanilla teas. Sometimes I love them, far too often they taste like canned cake frosting and I hate them. Figuring I might have better luck with a tea that just had vanilla pieces in it as opposed to all sorts of added flavorings, I decided to try this.

I’m glad I only bought a sample. I wouldn’t say I hate it, but it’s not exactly great either. It’s…alright. Drinkable, but not remarkable, and not something I’d buy more of. The vanilla gives it a sweet note without being obnoxious, but the tea itself had a nasty bitterness when it cooled. Maybe I’ll change my mind with different steep times and some sugar, but for now I’m really not impressed.

Made a cup of this at least half an hour ago and then couldn’t taste it because dinner was strongly spiced. Oops!

It’s cooled down now but it’s really nice: lots of cardamom with a dry, solid cinnamon/cocoa taste in the background. The aftertaste is sweet and aromatic. This is not much of a chocolate tea—the cocoa taste is definitely more like powder than a chocolate bar, but it works. I’m so happy I picked this up in MissB’s sale! I’ve found over the last few days that cardamom even beats out cinnamon as my favorite spice in tea. I’ll have to keep one around constantly to get my fix.

Oolong literally translates to ‘black dragon’. Who knew!

Oolong teas, typically from China, are semi-oxidized teas meaning that after the tea leaves are picked, they are rolled and allowed to wither in the sun and thus oxidize in the aire libre. Oxidization produces the floral notes that characterize many oolongs. Se Chung Oolongs are oxidized for a shorter time than most other oolongs, thus lending itself more to a green tea style than a black tea.

The tea pours a golden yellow, constant throughout with grains of sediment collecting at the bottom of the cup. The tea shields its aroma through a floral coat like Poison Ivy, impenetrable yet irresistible to the casual tea purveyor. If you were to place the unfurled leaves onto a table and then roll your face in the leaves as if you were engaging with intimate areas of the temptatious super villain, you could better interact with the malty, almost caramel smells layered within the leaves themselves. Not that I would know, though.

Raising the mug to your speech-hole, you let the tainted water penetrate the cavity that is your mouth. The perverse liquid teases your taste receptors but, as the droplets trickles down the back of your throat, your buds on the tongue are left feeling unsatisfied. It has yet to be known whether this tea can finish or not. This is a sexual tea. Music pairing suggestion: the Yeezus album by Sir Kanye West.

Se Chung translates to ‘colorful variety’. How fun!

I’ve had this sample around for months, opened and clipped shut with a binder clip. As such, I wasn’t expecting much when I brought it out on a bit of a whim.

I was pleasantly surprised! Quite flavorful, with notes of honey and something floral or fruity that I can’t put my finger on. Seems to pack a nice caffeine kick as well. May have to bring this into the rotation.

Finally got it right! Don’t give up people. It is hard to get it to taste right (at least it was for me), but when you do, man is it good! A slight nutty taste and milky. Love it.

No. 1 Tippy Orthodox GFOP Darjeeling. What the hell does that mean?

First, “Tippy”: tips, or buds, are the small unopened leaves of the tea plant – they are considered higher quality than the larger leaves of the plant and thus may be more expensive.

Next, “Orthodox”: recognizing how the tea is picked – either ‘orthodox’ (by hand) or ‘crush-tear-curl/CTC’ (by machine).

Third, “GFOP”: meaning Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe. -FOP signifies the highest grade of orthodox tea. The prefix Golden may be swapped with Tippy, Finest Tippy, etc. and usually depends on where the tea was grown.

Lastly, “Darjeeling”: simply a designation that the tea was grown in the Darjeeling district in Northern India. Darjeeling teas are usually, not always, black teas and may be categorized by their ‘flush’, which is determined by when in the year the tea was harvested.

Having said this, the tea pours an amber base with a golden gradient around the rim of the mug – a typical black tea coloring. The tea’s distinctive vegetal aroma reminds the taster of a time before the distractions and responsibilities of technology, a time when we took up our plows and returned to find a pot of this delicate, leafy tea on the woodstove next to the neatly stacked pile of logs from the prior day’s work.

Upon the first sip, the tea glides over the tongue, careful not to injure the tastebuds, and then leaks down the back of the throat. Akin to the popular Samuari chai blend at Teavana, the gentleness of this tea may appeal to a broad range of palates and may be comfortably used as an everyday breakfast tea. Lastly, the tea finishes just as neatly as it enters, providing a satisfying wetting to the mouth, and leaves the taster reaching for his next sip.

I received a free 15g sample from my first order from Upton Tea. Que buenísimo.
Note: I recommend erring on the smaller side of the teaspoons (if you use said units of volume to measure your tea) as the CTC tea is a little more dense than other loose leaf teas. Thus, the Irish Breakfast Blend can quickly become bitter if you are generous with your servings or steep time; furthermore, it may help to let the water cool to about 205F before steeping as this may relieve some pressure on the tea and save it from bitterness towards you!

Drinking the tea neat:
The Irish Breakfast Blend pours a coffee black that emits a golden gradient halo along the concave meniscus of the cup. The tea, neat, produces a defensive odor akin to a lone cactus in the middle of the desert warding off thirst-hungry wanderers. The first sip aggressively fills to the roof of the mouth and seemingly attacks both the front and back of the tongue simultaneously. Waiting a few seconds, you find that the astringency of the tea swells the lips and inner cheeks – leaving you with a finish as if you had suckled on the Gumball seeds from the Sweetgum tree. The tea therefore tastes similar to coffee but with a more watery feel in the mouth. After having cooled down, the tea loses its biting potency and allows for a more gentle swallow.

Adding Milk:
Throw a splash of milk into the Irish tea and watch the thick liquid swirl as clouds do in a lightning storm until the reaction settles into a misty, ubiquitously caramel color. This tea with milk tastes just as coffee does with milk but retains its distinctive punchy smell.

Overall, this filling little tea when drunk neat may overwhelm those unaccustomed to black or assam teas. However, one or two teaspoons of milk helps to neutralize the astringency and bitterness of this tea and allows for a sweeter and calmer experience. Aside, this tea pairs perfectly with thick, creamy sides: I recommend a honey greek yogurt to go along with this breakfast tea for your morning.

It’s a lot less rosy than I thought it would be. There’s very few rose petals in the mix, and what it has are small. The taste is less rose more than it is just soft and sweet. That certainly doesn’t make it a bad tea, and the fact that it doesn’t turn bitter if you oversteep it is definitely a plus.

It’s nice if I want a subtle, mellow rose tea. If I want something that really tastes rosy, I’ll go for Adagio’s Summer Rose instead.

Backlog:

Yum! Some of you may have tried my Sweet Caramel O’Mine tea when I was a blender … and this one is good … maybe even almost as good as mine, but mine is (or was) better. :)

Sweet, caramel-y … this has a really good, clear caramel-y note.

I love Earl Grey, and I’m usually happy to try variants thereof (lavender Earls in particular I’m a sucker for). I’ve never come across a chocolate-flavored Earl though, so I purchased a couple of samples out of curiosity. Couldn’t hurt, right?

It’s certainly a tasty tea, even if it doesn’t seem much like Earl Grey to me, since I don’t get that much bergamot. More like a chocolate tea that’s a little citrusy. In fact, as far as chocolate teas go it’s one of the better ones I’ve had.

Purchased October 2013 from Upton. This was the only Pu-erh I ever had prior to finding Steepster. Now look at my cupboard! My taste buds thank all of you Steepster-ites who have since expanded my horizons. My wallet silently curses you.

Steeping Western style, per Upton’s recommendations, does not do this tea any favors. Gong Fu style at 10/20/30.. seconds, however, brings out a few interesting notes. The main aroma and flavor centers around shiitake mushrooms, with hints of wood, mineral, pepper and citrus making guest appearances in the cup.

Although this sounds interesting my final note reads “Overall not a bad shu, but not one I’d stock.” Compared to the various shu I’ve been introduced to here on Steepster this is just average at best and no longer holds my interest. As an entry point into the world of Pu-erh, however, it served it’s purpose.

Note: the crop reviewed here was purchased from Upton in late December 2013.

This tea is OK steeped Western style, but seems to really shine with Gong Fu treatment. All experiments used 1 tsp (2.3 grams) of leaf.

I tried two forms of Western steeping, both with 6 ounces of water. The more traditional 4:30 steep produced a powerful aroma of raw honey with an undertone of chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven, but was somewhat less impressive in the cup with just a muddled note of the underlying sweetness that was hinted at in the aroma. Two subsequent 6 minute steeps brought faint reflections of the first cup along with a hint of pepper in the final steep. Modifying this with 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 minute steeps produced a better cup, especially in the early steeps, with the honey aroma translating into a nice honey sweetness in the cup. Pepper again made an appearance in the later steeps. The liquor varied across the spectrum of red-amber.

It was the Gong Fu treatment, however, that made me order more of this tea. I pulled out my 90 ml pot, skipped the wash and jumped right into a series of 15 second steeps until the flavor started to fade around the eighth one, whereupon I lengthened each steep considerably. Early steeps smelled and tasted like raw honey, with Yunnan spice slowly increasing as I went. The sweetness morphed from honey to something less distinct out through the 16th steep (a hail-Mary at 10 minutes), but never left. The liquor was a beautiful golden color that seemed to glow in my little clear glass teacup. This was an outstanding session which I’ve repeated several times since.

I’ve never tasted legendary teas such as Golden Fleece. Until I get that chance this stands as one of my favorite Yunnan blacks.