Upton Tea Imports

This one has been languishing unopened (that’s so wrong. Not opening new tea?) because my luck with Upton flavored teas has not been very good to date.

In this case, the advantage goes to Upton because I wouldn’t know a lychee if you bounced one off my forehead.

The unpleasant sticking point with the flavored Upton stuff is that it tastes very artificial and syrupy. This tastes floral, not artificial and not perfumey. Decent black tea base. Whether they’ve nailed lychee flavor, another expert will have to decide.

Could have good iced tea potential.

Backlog:

This is a good tea. Once again, a yunnan. A good yunnan, but a yunnan. Pretty much all i can say about it.

I had this throughout the afternoon. Put a bunch of leaves in my test tube and sort of used it as a gaiwan so I had a lot of short steeps while I started the new episodes of Arrested Development. I can’t say that I absolutely loved this, but I definitely enjoyed it. The flavor is very strong and dark chocolatey. Reminded me of eating dark chocolate with red wine, the flavor was so rich. I wish it was a little roastier, but I overall a very nice tea.

Tea of the afternoon is this refined, sophisticated tea that really blossoms in the back of the throat with a blend of cinnamon, chocolate and citrus.

This is a delicious tea. The first sip may not wow you, but after a few more the cinnamon, pepper and chocolate flavors blossom in your mouth to form a complex and beautifully smooth tea. It seems to combine the best aspects of yunnan, keemun and other congous. Sometimes the best teas, like the best music and books reveal their greatness slowly and through repeated encounters.

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http://steepster.com/teas/upton-tea-imports/10202-arya-estate-ruby-second-flush-darjeeling

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>The leaves have a heady aroma,
>yielding a cup with flowery aromatics,
>a pleasing level of tannin and a light, crisp finish.

all of these seem to be true.

it also reminded me of the last year’s jungpana ex- ff.

Just finishing lunch after spending the morning at the courthouse with my daughter. This was our 2nd day in court over custody of her son, who’s father is a control freak & all around @$$#0!3. He has repeatedly tried to use their son to control my daughter & cause her pain, & today I think the judge & lawyers got a view of his true nature. Because of his antics we’ll have to go back AGAIN at the end of August, but today we did get some things ironed out, so that’s an improvement.

Needless to say, I’m behind on my tea drinking! I did have 2 cups of some black tea at the restaurant we went to near the courthouse for breakfast, & that was acceptable (can you tell I’m a grumpus today? LOL)
I also brought my thermal cup & sipped on Bilbo Brew until it was gone.

Now I’m having the last of the Russian Caravan that Sil sent to me on our first trade. It’s a pleasantly bold blend, & although I initially expected smoke, it is not a smokey tea. Thanks again Sil!

It’s been a nice day! I made an awesome breakfast, we ran a few errands, then we went to the pool hall. We played 9 ball, I won 3, Tony won 6. I’ve been shooting pool since I was young & I’m a pretty good player, but Tony is amazing. He shoots more than I do. I will continue to strive to be a worthy opponent.

Now we’re home, watching Cardinals baseball & working on fixing dinner.
I’ve been putting off sampling this tea, sent to me by SIL because I though it would be a potent Lapsang Souchong type, & although I have grown to enjoy some smokiness, I thought it would be really smokey, & I’m more of a light smoke person. The funny thing is, it isn’t really smokey! It’s a nice bold blend of teas…Keemun, Darjeeling, & maybe some Oolong. A nice full flavor & mouth, if you know what I mean.

What wimps we are. Storms again (sigh); this time just wicked lightning and torrential rain—5" in 2 hours, give or take, power out for 2; Internet out for several; you’da thunk it was the end of the world. So hard up for entertainment, I was reduced to tying newspaper scraps to string and teasing Tazo with them. (He is still officially an outdoor cat, but I needed a diversion desperately.)

So grateful for a “normal” morning, a functional heating source, and decent tea. This one has been hard to pin down. Decent, but not stellar; something a little sweet and cedar-y or raisiny going on, too. May be the first entry in my “Junk Yard” tin I intend to start.

Good morning, all. I’m about halfway through this Upton sample packet, and I like it little better than I did at first. This morning’s cup has a little sweet pastry character to it.

Or maybe it’s just a pastry craving. After 48 hours of weather-induced anxiety and halfheartedly gnawing on fast food in various basements the past couple evenings, I’m hungry! (And safe, for which I am much more grateful. Son and husband are threatening to sell our worldly goods and move to a cave.)

Do your cuppa cravings taper off some as the weather (finally!) warms up? Here, Memorial Day pretty much marks the transition to one decent cup in the morning, then use up all last winter’s mezza-mezza scraps for iced tea until there’s a nip in the air again.

This one is decidedly mezza; one-dimensional. Maybe just a hint of copper in the sip. Eh.

Sipdown!
This is yet another sample sent to me from Sil :D
A tasty blend of black tea, a little cocoa, & spices, most notably Cardamom.

Another Sil’s Samplebox Sipdown.
This is a very nice lightly roasty oolong. There is an undercurrent of fruitiness, a tongue tingle, & although it’s not a true Wuyi, it does have some of the rockiness to it.
Thanks again, Sil!

Funny, I didn’t get any astringency from this cup, even with a 4.5 minute brew time with near boiling water. Instead, like El Monstro, I found this to be a fruity yunnan with medium body, a nice change from the very rich yunnans I’ve been drinking lately.

Back from a weekend of too much beer and too much food at the cabin. Detoxing with salads and pu-erh today! :)

sometimes I regret my favorite hockey team being my favorite hockey team. I had an AWESOOOOOME time w/some people originally from Montreal last night (I’ve been told I can just tell people I am from there too so I don’t have to answer why I’m a fan of them ever again ahahaha) but it was kind of overshadowed by a terrible hit that pretty much busted the face of one of my favorite players b/c of a bad pass by another of my favorite players and all I see everywhere is the blame on the guy who passed and IT’S MAKING ME SO MAD.

But I have gotten two people’s phone numbers in a week! FRIENDS.

I figured I’d come home last night and drink tea, I have no idea why I didn’t have any earlier in the day…but anyway coming home last night turned into 1:30 in the morning. And poor Sebastian was so sleepy I did not want to keep him up.

So finally this morning I could have my tea! Especially because it’s suddenly really windy and cold (ok it’s 62 but that’s way cooler than it’s been). I got this from JoonSusanna awhile back and I really wanted to try it as close to how Frisian tea is made as I could. I didn’t have the right kind of sugar but I used demerara sugar and then coconut milk creamer.

I am pretty sure I did not make the tea strong enough, I probably should have checked on that because that would have helped. Just maybe a teaspoon max more would have helped. Still. I didn’t completely overpower the tea.

It is good, still could get malty notes, I think that sugar made it really kind of caramel-y. Definitely a hearty tea that’s a good choice for waking up. Actually I still don’t want to be awake.

It’s the last day of the month, AND Halloween, & in between practicing sessions & food, I’m trying to manage a few sipdowns.

This one is from the very first box my tea sister Sil sent to me! And an awesome box it was, full of wonderful little packages! This is a black tea with citrus, cinnamon, vanilla, & other spices. It’s a little heavy on the cloves for me, but otherwise it really reminds me of ‘Constant Comment’. It’s been years since I’ve had a cup of that!

Another awesome tea from Sil!!
I filled my 16 oz thermal cup with this & brought it along on my gig, so that I’d have something to drink on the way back home. That cup stays hot for SO long that the tea was STILL hot after I played!

This reminds me of Constant Comment, only way way better! It’s really a tasty blend! Thanks Sil!

I haven’t had this in a while and I forgot how well-balanced and enjoyable this is for an everyday tea. More spicy than sweet, with a hint of raisin and cinnamon. Seems immune to bitterness.

Good morning Steepster! Happy first day of May!!
Ms Theresa printed up our “Tea Collection” list this morning. It looks like my total teas is 243 (256 if I count straight out herbs like Astragulus, Elder Berry, etc, but we’ll leave those off the list.)
Of course, some of those are samples, & I’ve decided I need to get through the samples & quit hoarding!!
This one came from Sil, & it really is a tasty blend of yunnan & assam, somehow allowing the tastiness of both to shine in a really nicely balanced way! I have truly enjoyed it, & someday when I’m allowed to order tea again (today I have 12 days ‘clean’), it’s on my list to order from Upton! Thanks Sil!