Upton Tea Imports

I can’t believe I still have this tea. It was in the first TTB I was part of, over a year ago!
As far as rose teas go, it’d decent. I made a pot of it to share with one of my students today, & I think she really enjoyed it.

This is one of the teas that I kept from the Here’s Hoping Traveling Tea box. It makes for a nice cup to enjoy in the bubble bath!

This is from the HHTTB. I’m not always a big floral fan, but I do like some, & I enjoy roses from time to time in my tea. This one is not bad, although I have had rosier ones. Shortly after drinking this my face started itching. Now before someone from Upton starts shouting, ‘It can’t be the tea!‘, it probably isn’t. I don’t think this is suppose to have any artificial flavors, which I do sometimes react to, but that kind of reaction for me is usually in the form of itchiness in my mouth & throat, or sometimes a burning sensation. So more likely my face itching is from airborn allergies, because St. Louis is allergy hell right now, since we had actually had some rain on sunday.

Sipdown! 832. Thanks to Indigobloom for this one.

I found this to be a fairly decent black, but nothing super special. There were some cocoa notes (yum!) and it was smooth and malty, but it’s pretty tough for anything to beat Laoshan Black and Premium Taiwanese Assam, so although it was definitely good quality, it’s not a tea I’d pick up myself.

Smells nutty and chocolatey in the bag before steeping, like a Chinese black tea. Smells like a dark oolong after steeping. That oolong smell seems to come through on taste as well, kind of minerally tasting to me. Crisp and refreshing, good characteristic for iced tea. There seems to be a little bit of natural sweetness there too. I’m going to have to make a few more cups to be sure, but I think we have a winner here. I made a big cup to share with my girlfriend, and just realized I drank the whole thing while I wrote this, bahahaha.

I was surprised and excited to see that Upton had included a free sample in my order! I wanted something to go with my bagel and hoped this would be a good choice.

The dry leaf smells like a nice breakfast tea, not overly fragrant, but pleasant. I saw that there is Darjeeling in this blend and decided to cut my steep time down to 3 1/2 minutes snce Darjeeling and I sometimes don’t see eye to eye. It is listed last, so I thought perhaps there wasn’t a lot in here and I think I was right. I think this is mostly Keemun and Ceylon.

I am drinking it plain because that is my preference whenever I can possibly get away with it.

The tea has a bright flavor on the citrus-y side, no doubt from the Ceylon. The Keemun is not as apparent to me but maybe it got lost in the first sips due to the toasted onion and garlic of the bagel.
The Darjeeling adds a fruity and wine-y aftertaste.

It is very drinkable and pleasant, but not one I just have to have, but good and I am so glad I got to try it. I think if it were steeped longer with a little more leaf, it would be an excellent breakfast tea for those who like to add milk and sugar.

Thank you, Upton Tea, for the sample!

I bought a 100-gram package of this Yunnan Gen Ben Shi Imperial tea a couple of years ago, brewed it on three separate occasions, and then it sunk in my tea closet. I recently rediscovered it, and I’m finding it delightful.

I reviewed my notes for those earlier tastings, and my comments were generally favorable, but not overwhelmingly so. Then I noticed that I had used a 208° brewing temperature in those earlier tastings. That explains it. In the intervening two years, I have gradually learned to brew almost all congou teas at 195°F, regardless of what the vendor’s brewing instructions say. The only teas I brew at 208° are Lapsang Souchong and pu-erhs.

Anyhow, this tea is malty and lightly sweet — characteristics that are mostly obliterated by brewing it at higher temperature. (The 212° recommended by Upton is simply barbaric.) I brew 8 g. of dry leaf in 12 oz. of 195° water for 1:00 min. and 2:00 min. respectively for the first two infusions, and in 8 oz. of water for 3:00 min. for a third infusion. There’s not a lot of complexity in the liquor, but it’s a nice self-drinker with mellow flavor. No need for milk or sweetener.

It’s kind of a moot point now, though. Upton still has a page for this tea (“ZY47”), but the page contains a notice that the tea has been permanently removed from their catalog. Ah, well…it wasn’t a spectacular tea — just a nice Yunnan black at a very affordable price. Thankfully, there’s no shortage of other tasty Yunnan teas.

Sipdown!
Although this doesn’t get deducted from my total (305), because it’s from the Here’s Hoping TTB, still, there is a certain sense of gratification.

1 or 2/5…maybe 1.5/5. I didn’t puke or retch or anything, but there’s no way I’d voluntarily drink this again.

Harsh on the bergamot, and in an off-putting Pine-Sol industrial citrus (more chemical lemon than bergamot) bathroom cleaner way, ugh. Maybe steeping for less time will help—it calls for 8 minutes!—but I dunno, it didn’t seem like it was a leaf thing so much as a bad chemical flavoring thing. Now I appreciate American Tea Room’s version much more.

Kind of bored today and stuck inside because of hot weather, time to try some tea (iced to be exact, but I’m going to sip it hot first). This has Ceylon tea in it. I haven’t cared much for other Ceylon teas I have tried in the past. BUT WAIT…what?! This is good, definitely surpassed my expectations. Tastes pretty roasty, caramelly, and perhaps woody/earthy? Has a creamy mouthfeel. I gave some to other people and they all liked it as well. My re-steeps didn’t turn out as strong as i’d like though.

Tea of the morning here, I am finishing off this small tin from the Upton Assam sampler. The weather has been cold and rainy here and this assam was just calling my name. I definitely made this too strong! I had enough leaf for about 1 mug of tea + a bit extra so I put it all in here. Strong and malty, winey and slightly bitter, I think due to the overleafing. Still good with milk and sugar and hopefully it will wake me up! See previous notes for more details.

This tea is part of the Assam sampler from Upton I got a few months ago. I’m surprised that nobody has added it yet so I went ahead and did it.

This tea got brewed up in the For Life teapot for 3.5 minutes. I already decided to add sugar and soymilk before I got the chance to try it plain. It is malty with a bit of winey-ness, reminds me of your typical Irish breakfast tea which are made of assams as well. Good for the foggy morning we are having.

In my mind it isn’t anything exceptional but this is a good, solid assam.

At first I was excited to order this tea because of he uniqueness of it. Once I had it though, I was sort of upset that I’d ordered 250g of it. I ended up finding out that I don’t really love tea that tastes like Pops cereal…

After a day in the fridge the tea flavor in this did seem to get a little more pronounced. Still a pretty generic iced tea though. Eh, I’ll use up what I have but I doubt I’ll be buying more.

Sigh. So much for my 75 teas or less rule. I saw the rootbeer float tea from 52teas back in stock and found a few others I wanted and, whoops! Um, I think I’m at around 80 or so? I’ll have to double check my inventory but urgh. No self control!

I made this as my iced tea for the next few days – my 1/2 gallon method, so 15 g. of tea and 4 minute steep with my normal ratio of sugar. For a blend called Java, I was really nervous this would be dark and astringent at 4 minutes, but…it wasn’t. It was almost too light – I could have either added another tsp. of leaf or an extra bit of steeping time because when it was cold it was almost weak.

I’ve got to give it the overnight to let the blend settle a bit (and maybe then the flavor will get stronger) but honestly this was just a loose version of Lipton iced tea to my tastebuds. (that’s not an insult – I drink Lipton tea all the time – it’s just, well, I can get that bagged and cheaper.)

So I’ll post an update when I have some later today. As for now, though, not too riveted.

Had this for breakfast. It is good but I prefer green oolongs!

1.6 grams in 6 oz water
This is another example of how conflicted I am by Yunnan tea. The last time I drank this I rated it a 75, but now I’m thinking mid-80s (my rating here is an average of all my ratings, not just the last).

I absolutely love the nose – so rich and complex I could just smell it for hours. Surprisingly rich smoky aroma. The taste has a bit too much smoke/ash for my taste, but is rich and flavorful. As I drank the tea, I started to like it better; perhaps just getting used to it. The finish is also dominated by smoke, but in a nice way. However, by the end of the cup there was a slight bitterness in the finish.

This was part of an Upton Tea sampler set: Introduction to Fine Tea, which also contains Darjeeling, Assam, and Keemun samples. They are all good, solid teas, and an excellent introduction to their types.

I had the last of this sample pouch this afternoon. I measured out the appropriate amount but then saw that so little was left…so I just dumped it all into my brew basket. Did I mention that I rarely drink black tea after 11am? I just get so wired and it lasts till evening. I hate to lose sleep. Well, this cup of tea was strong! Strong but not tasting like bergamot. Well, just barely. A little citrus and a little creamy. Pretty meh, especially for the price. :(

Anyway, made a big pot of fresh tomato sauce from my garden tomatoes and tons of fresh picked basil. The tomatoes are the size of my face! Thanks to papa for the tomato seeds. :) And thanks to my friend, Jane, for the basil seeds. I’m hoping this huge pasta dinner will lull me to sleep later tonight.

Tomorrow is a new day for tea and harvesting. It’s a bountiful time of year.

Sipdown #3 for today, thanks to TastyBrew!

OMG, this is so good!! It’s malty, it’s rich, it’s making me think of pancakes with Maple Syrup & butter. I have never ordered from Upton, although I’ve had the pleasure of sampling several of their teas now, mainly thanks to Sil & TastyBrew, & this one is for sure a winner, & definitely on the list for when I finally place an Upton order…some day…
I want MOAR!

This is the best Irish Blend I have ever tasted, a bit of milk, sugar or honey and this is the perfect way to wake up anyday of the week, including days with rain, fog or snow. PS you don’t have to be Irish to enjoy this but it helps :)

This is one of my 3 favorites when having Chinese food at home , its also good for just a cuppa tea in the afternoon rest break

BLARGH I just wrote a note and it got eaten!

Okay, cliff notes version: bright and brisk like a typical ceylon. Some borderline astringence but I think I came close to oversteeping so that could explain that. Perfect for iced tea (I got this as part of the Upton Iced Tea Sampler) but nothing unique. Dry leaf was very fine, almost like coffee grounds and the smell was malty and earthy.

I made 1/2 gallon of this with my typical iced parameters. It’s tasty and cheap and I’ll drink what I have, but I won’t go out of my way to get more.