Upton Tea Imports

The aroma of this tea is slightly fruity and very rich, the color is a beautiful dark amber with a tint of red. The flavor is delightful, slightly earthy and bright with absolutely no bitterness. I would describe this tea as both rich and mellow.

This is the second time I’ve tried this tea, with very similar tasting notes. Rich smoky nose, with perhaps a touch of cedar. Compared with the Harney Hao Ya B, this tea is less smoky but more refined.

In the mouth, the smoke is less obvious than the tea flavors. It is smooth and not overly powerful. The finish kind of sneaks up on you: doesn’t seem like much at first, but grows, and lasts forever. I want to say there is some chocolate in the taste and finish, but if so it is just barely there.

(5 min re-steep): Weak nose. Good taste and finish, but there is a slight hint of bitterness in the finish.

This was another from my swap with Azzrian (my, that was at last Christmas and I’m still working through it all… Must remember to clear cupboard then swap…). I’m sure I’ve tasted this but not logged it before too.

I made this to take to work this morning. Its fine. Tasty, not bitter, berryish. Just not mind blowing. I’ll happily finish it off but not something I’d love to order. But I do like how my sample bags came printed with my name on it, lovely touch!

a green puerh!
oh ancient forest!
it’s the usual sweet wood and muddy tasting while adding a tinge of greener freshness. that slight green bitterness you might be used to. totally still a puerh.
it’s an overcast day and this tea is very very warming. the earthiness of a good puerh is unparalleled.
it’s gonna be a good day.

i really dig this tea.
it’s perfect for my morning cup. especially on the days when i’m feeling a bit sullen and full of stillness on the inside. the quiet, cloudy mornings.
the radio on low and moving slow.

I’ve been kind of bummed lately, because I have too much tea, which is actually a good problem to have, but it also means no new reviews/teas to try for awhile while I drink my collection down. Then while going through my tea tonight, OH SNAP YO, I found this unopened sample hiding in my cupboard.

Smells great in the bag, nice and balanced. I hate it when chais have one or two ingredients overpowering the rest. Taste is quite good. I think this might be my second favorite chai, and perhaps a contender for the first spot…we’ll see. I have to experiment with it a little more to know for sure.

Really surprised by how much I liked this one. All of the previous green teas that I’ve tried were too vegetal for my tastes. So, I was expecting this one to also be this way. But it’s not like that at all. Very smooth flavor with a brownish-green liquor.

This is the third Ceylon I’ve ever tried and two out of three have been great. This is one of the wonderful ones. Like most Ceylon the leaves are twisted wiry tendrils that are a bit dark. This one has chestnut colored leaves interspersed. The smell of the leaves is dark like dried currants and raisins with a touch of aged leather smell. The tea is an explosion of flavor with vanilla, spice and fruit and wisp of smoke. Tastes great sweetened or unsweetened. There is a lovely orange spice to the smell of the brewed leaves. I am not sure whether I like it more or less than the Malikkanda that I have a tin of . . . very close. I’m starting to swing away from Darjeelings toward the lovely Ceylons.

(1.6 grams, 6 oz water): Powerful aroma of a new-mown lawn, with hints of straw. Fairly powerful grassy taste, with hints of something else underneath. The finish lingers. As the tea cooled, the flavor changed from grass to straw, but stayed pleasant and relatively strong. This is my favorite green decaf. I drank it immediately after the Harney’s decaf sencha, and the proximity emphasized how much more powerful this tea is. However, in going back and forth between the two teas, I found that this tea lacks the crispness of the Harney’s, which I really like.

Alright, time to deviate a bit from my 52teas habit. I bought an Upton iced sampler a while back and it has been waiting patiently for me to have a go.

I am a huge iced tea drinker. I drink iced tea more than hot tea, actually. Especially in the summer. I made a half gallon of this using 15 g. leaf, my normal amount of sweetener, and steeping for the below parameters.

I think it’s the darjeeling in this giving it a more delicate taste. It doesn’t have the typical briskness of assams or straight ceylons. This would be fine if I’d held back a little on the sweetener, but I feel like the sugar overwhelms a bit here. It has the potential to have a stronger flavor, so maybe a 4 minute steep with less sugar will do the trick next time.

Withholding a rating for now, but I will be revisiting the rest of the sample relatively soon I’m sure!

This is the nicest Jasmine I’ve had in a long time. It has the beautiful scent in the cup and leaves, but it doesn’t follow into the taste. You know how with a bad Jasmine you feel a bit like you’re swallowing perfume; good news is this is the opposite of that. A good clean, smooth green flavor that is light and not overpowering. The leaves are rolled snail style and unfurl into little yellow ribbons.

Not bad but quite weak, I’ll not try the decaf Assam again.
I knew that the decaf may not be as strong as a regular Assam but this one is just too weak to me :(

this is my 6th puerh today.
i still have 2 more puerhs in my collection of samples but i just can’t do any more. i feel crazy! like euphoric tea drunk awesome crazy!

buuuuuut even with the giddy feelings this puerh is not so exciting. i’ll probably only do 4 steepings and leave it at that.

my sister is watching anime today and the baby is out of the house and we’ve taken over the kitchen with baking and tea and we watched some more episodes of Attack on Titan and that show is totally efficient and pretty awesome.
also i saw Pacific Rim on friday and didn’t even say anything about it?!? wtf?! who AM i?!

yesterday i read a fan fic in which Phil Coulson (of the Avengers) is drunk and he calls himself and leaves a message for his future self and it was good times. consent is always sexy. amiright?!?

“Hi, Phil? It’s me, you. From the… past? I’m drunk and Clint won’t kiss me cause he doesn’t believe you like him? I don’t know. You have to ask him, he says. Right?” – loud noise, the next part muffled – “Will you talk to him?” – another voice – “Sure.” – a click and the muffling goes away – “Hi, Phil. Drunk-you tells me you want to make out with me but I told him I gotta get permission from sober-you. So when you listen to this, if you haven’t died from embarrassment I guess you should maybe give me a call? Although if you don’t bring this up I guess I’ll keep it to myself too. So don’t worry.”

mmmm i like this one.
upton has some good mini cakes.
earthy sweet and with malty caramel and a creamy fluid note that makes it blend so evenly. plus of course that dark wet complex flavor of puerh. not bitter or bland.
i am TOTES tea drunk now.
like TOTES.

oh and also Doctor Who’s 12th doctor has been announced!
it’s totally my birthday month.

Perhaps Pu-erh is not for me. The fannings are finely ground and look a lot like coffee grounds. The smell is very rich and dark with sort of an earthy twist. Brewed the leaves smell faintly fishy and fermented with a sort of loamy, mossy aftertaste. It doesn’t taste strong in the generic Assam tea sense, but brewed it is a dark chocolate that looks more like coffee. I can’t quite put my finger on the taste as its somewhere between a fermented peat and a malt. The smell is remarkably soy sauce like. It doesn’t quite taste like tea to be honest. Almost like coffee with none of the bitterness or caramel sweetness. I think what I don’t like is that it tastes almost savory to me though the addition of sugar helped. I have heard pu-erh is an acquired taste and I’m not sure right now if it’ll grown on me or grate on my nerves.

It has been far too hot around here to drink any hot tea until now. Sad but true and I haven’t had time to make anything iced either. Shame on me! Today is very cool and we’ve also had rain off and on since 3am. Perfect tea weather in my book! So I figured I’d dig into some of the Upton samples I purchased a month back. This was the first one out of the box.

I love that there is that touch of malt to the tea and I’m getting a slight hint of something darker too. There is also a fruit finish on the end that makes this a lovely cup for afternoon tea taking. Good to be back!

Finished off this sample today – bringing me down to 71. But then 52teas and that Turtle Cheesecake! So that plus a S’mores chai and I’m back to 73. Under my goal, though, so that’s something!

This was one of the teas I sent to a friend and it was one of her favorites of the lot. “Damn good” was the description I got. Along with “loose leaf tea really is better”. This was from a person who two months ago decided she was not a tea person at all. I am quite proud. :)

I will miss this cup, though. I feel like you can never have too many black teas and this one is one of Upton’s best. Doesn’t hold a candle to Frissy, but it’s not a bad option. And it’s super cheap, too. Judging by the lower rating I have here it must have grown on me, too, so if you have this and weren’t wowed – maybe a second cup will change your mind?

Oh, and does anyone know what distinguishes a Scottish blend from an Irish or English one?

Okay, I know I have drank and logged this before. When I made it today I even remembered the gist of what that tasting note said because I was going to reaffirm it:

Still caramelly, still a close second to my Frissy tea. Still good with milk and a bit of sugar and biscuits for a weekend morning.

I know I’m not the only one to have lost tasting notes lately – I wonder if there’s any hope of getting them back?

I enjoyed a pot of this tea with my breakfast this morning. I’m still getting to know darjeelings. This is bold, a little floral IMO, but also kind of earthy & gutsy, if that makes sense to anybody, LOL.
This is a sample from the first package Sil sent to me, & it was a generous sample. I still have enough to drink it one more time. Thanks Sil! You Rock!

I’m still working on some of the teas in the box Sil sent to me awhile back. This one is a nice cup, which I brewed for driving around running errands (including the PO, & you know what that means Sil).
This has a kind of ‘cheesy’ flavor, as in it reminds me a bit of aged cheese. I don’t really know how else to describe it, ha!

Welcome to Day 2 of Little Terri’s Sipdown Extravaganza!
(Sil & Cavo, I know you are both laughing at me, but THIS is for REAL!)

First Sipdown of the day is this Sweet Honey Black, which I acquired in a wonderful trade awhile back with TastyBrew, thanks!

This really is lovely tea, & although it lacks a bold bass note, & gratefully there is no crazy high end, it is very full & rich through the middle, kind of like a Keemun. However, in my opinion the taste is nothing like a Keemun, but more like a refined leafhopper black, like Mi Xian. It is sweet, honeyesque, with a fruity apricot taste & the smallest hint of coriander. A really pleasant cup!

This tea is from my awesome black tea swap with TastyBrew! Thanks!

I was looking at the Upton website recently. It’s rather overwhelming, they have so many teas! So this one is a pleasantly sweet honeyesque cup. Not particularly bold, but definitely tasty, with a little roastiness, a little bit of that Keemun even-ness & earthyness, but the aftertaste also reminds me just a little of the leafhopper bitten teas, & I guess that is due to the honey taste.