Upton Tea Imports

Second try, this time with a lower temperature thanks to the suggestion from Amy oh. Also this time I won’t let it cool off too much. I completely forgot I have a 3 page paper due tomorrow but I’ve got one page down and I haven’t even written half of what I’ve thought about…and I’m doing this all without the book. I’ve also got an exam already…and no book…and I only have gone to the class one full day…so that will be interesting. I’ve at least got all the notes but yeah, note to self to never get sick and take summer classes.

So this is much better with a lower temperature water. It’s fruity, almondy, just like the description. And although it says it’s good with a buttery dessert, I think it tastes just a bit buttery. Since I just got some butter cookies, I am trying one with it. It almost makes the cookie taste more like an almond croissant. Dessert upgrade magic!

It still has an astringent quality to it, but it’s that good kind of astringency that makes Darjeeling so delicious.

This is definitely a keeper. Too bad I have no money. I’m doing a marketing study the last week of the month and I’ll get at least $85 (possibly $125 if I’m chosen to stay an extra hour, either way $40/hr is AWESOME), and my mom yelled at me for wanting to buy a yixing teapot with it. Not all of it necessarily, since I only want it to be like 6oz max, but I suppose eating might be more important. She told me to live like a college student. Hahahaha. Are we allowed to drink first flush Darjeelings?

I’m more of a fan of second flush Darjeelings both because of taste and price. This one is a serious exception. At $12.60 for a 125g bag, I might reconsider! I only got a sample of course though which isn’t bad ($2.50 for 15g).

As its cooled though it has become very astringent. I steeped it for 3 minutes exactly and it was good for the most part. It’s weird because the almond flavor in here is almost playing on the astringency, and it tastes like a burned almond. Before this happened though it was a bit buttery and mostly fruity, with just a bit of astringency. This is kind of undrinkable now…so at least I have plenty more to now remember this: drink quickly!

And of course, if I can crack whatever it is with this tea, the 125g packet is a definite possibility. Otherwise I’ll stick to those seconds.

Last year’s Castleton second flush was one of my favorite teas ever, so I had high expectations for this one. I’ve been careful brewing first flush darjeelings, using water under the boiling point and not letting the tea oversteep. Still, with this cup, there was some bitterness and the muscatel and floral notes were a little subdued, even with my penchant for using a hefty amount of leaf. Overall, it’s a nice, gardern variety first flush, but it didn’t impress me like the Thurbo and the Sungma did.

http://www.pauladeen.com/index.php/food_section_articles/view2/peach_tea_cupcakes/

This is not so much a tasting note as it is a note on how this tea works steeped in butter. I made the above cupcakes and used this tea rather than an Earl Grey like the recipe calls for. I figured these cupcakes have the flavors of what I’d consider iced tea and I don’t have 30g of EG sitting around, so why not?

This was the first time I actually used tea this way, I put tea into muffins before (but I messed them up) and I kind of did something similar for the butter in a tarte tatin, but that’s definitely not the same as all the steps for this butter, it was hard to save 2/3 of it in the end! I was kind of surprised.

I let the butter sit overnight hoping that might give it time to really meld in its flavors. I could definitely smell the tea and you could see it in the color of the butter, but the other flavors in the cupcake were a bit overpowering so maybe EG would be better in this particular case.

I have some peach Torani syrup and I think I’ll be cold steeping a pitcher of this tonight and mixing some of that syrup in for a nice summer drink to take to lunch tomorrow. And this definitely has made me want to bake more with tea. I see some fun experiments ahead with tea infused butter, especially because the frosting recipe w/those cupcakes made WAY too much so I need to use it up with something else!

Iced tea time again! Although my head’s still pretty messed up, I can kind of taste things again. I can’t tell that it’s somewhat hot outside. Feels so good to me because inside, I’m cold and it’s 74 in here…hahaha.

It’s been awhile since I’ve had this one though it feels like I went through at least 1 1/2 oz of it last year. This is definitely going to be my staple iced tea though. I have 3 pitchers and I’m ready to make iced tea out of them all summer long.

I’ve had my Takeya pitcher since last year and I realize it’s quite difficult to make sure all the tea actually infuses. When I took the infuser tube thing out, the tea up top was bone dry. Anyone have a preferred method for preventing that? I was thinking of just dunking it in the water I put in the pitcher before attaching it to the lid. I really wish I had one like the one DavidsTea is selling where the filter goes down much further into the pitcher :(

Anyway! This is like my ideal straight black iced tea blend. And it’s so cheap! Not even $6 for 125g. It does get a bit plain, I really should just try sweetening it a tad. But honestly I don’t know if I can taste things still, I kind of gave up and have only eaten bread today. Still tastes like Darjeeling and Ceylon to me though so that’s good.

Mostly it’s just thirst quenching, you know. Just refreshing. If the sound of cars didn’t make my head spin, I’d sit on the patio with the pitcher and enjoy being warm.

Is anyone watching the transit of Venus? So cool! I wish I knew sooner than yesterday morning so I could have gotten some of those eclipse glasses, but at least I can see it online. NASA oddly enough has on someone from my university right now! I didn’t know there was even an astronomy program, although it looks like it might be graduate studies only and that’s why I had no idea.

I got a new bottle for taking tea along with me to summer classes, 28oz and it’s supposed to stay cold with this cold pack inside of it…didn’t really work yesterday and it wasn’t even hot outside.

So I filled it up with this yesterday, but I didn’t finish it so I’ve been working on it today too. I made it a bit weaker than last time, but it’s still really good. I almost want to try a different Darjeeling cold brewed since this one works so well, but for the price this seriously cannot be beat, even if it’s a blend.

If you’re looking for a good, cheap black tea for iced tea, this is definitely something to consider…one note though, you might never want to touch unsweet tea not made at home ever again. I may have gotten some earlier today while out and immediately tossed it because it just tasted gross after having this lovely tea.

On my way home, I was thirsty so I stopped at a QT gas station for a quart of soda for $.69, horrible. But $.69 for that much fountain Coke Zero, count me in. The cups they have are so nice I can’t imagine throwing them away; it’s a nice sturdy plastic cup and blue lid, so I thought it would be perfect to reuse to make iced tea. I cold steeped 4 teaspoons of this overnight and am now enjoying it with my mall pretzel. I went to return pants for my mom and returned with lipstick, a candle, and a pretzel. Oops.

This is delicious without any additions. I thought I may need to add like a flavoring syrup for a bit of a punch, but no way. Definitely needs no sugar. It’s very refreshing, and I’m glad I got 125g of it because I can see myself going through the quart cup of this a day! I can taste both the Darjeeling and the Ceylon and they really make a great iced tea combined like this. Sometimes you just need an iced tea that isn’t flavored, and I think I found mine without really trying…of course it helped that they label it as an iced tea blend.

I would have to compare this tea to one of those hard rock ballads that start out slow and sweet and then build to an emotional crescendo (“Stairway to Heaven” would be the archetype). In the first flush of adolescence, at those high school dances, these songs struck the perfect balance—the slow dance at the beginning and the air guitar at the end. The honey and tropical fruit flavors explode in the back of the mouth. I can’t imagine a better first flush experience.

I still have about 5 or 6 FF Darjeeling samples that I haven’t tried yet. I got pretty discouraged when I didn’t really like my Thurbo. I enjoyed a FF Thurbo from RtR earlier this year, so I expected to like the new crop. Maybe the flavor changes that much 9 months after picking and I only like it as it gets a little older. Maybe the drought affected the flavor. I don’t know.

Anyhow, this has been the best of the ones I have tried. It’s beautiful collection of green, light brown and dark chocolate colored leaves. Dry leaf aroma is less floral and more fruity. I don’t love it, but it’s not unpleasant. The liquor is a nice golden yellow.

There is something fruity in the flavor-perhaps pineapple-and that helps. One thing I have noticed in all the Darjeelings I’ve tried is a type of weedy flavor. Maybe like a dandelion-not sure. It’s hard for me to overcome that flavor, though this tea does better at that than the others.

I tried this about 3 days in a row and thought I was really coming around to it, but I didn’t have any over the long weekend, and now today, I am not sure how much I like it. I have been constant with brewing parameters. I still have a couple more brews worth in my sample, so I will try some more to see how it goes.

I’m not going to give a number rating to any FF Darjeelings unless I find some that I am sure that I like.

I’ve been wanting to try this for a bit but having so much tea doesn’t make that easy. So finally, I have a cup, yay.

This is okay, I’d rather have a second flush Darjeeling. This tastes a bit like one, but a bit more nuanced in flavors. It seems more fruity than the other ones I’ve sampled from Upton, but at the same time it doesn’t have the same bolder flavors I like in those.

It seems like the main difference is the astringency is very muted, at least in the first steep. I don’t like it enough to steep it again, I think. My mouth just hurts because I went to the dentist and got prodded all over the gums. Did you know it is possible to have a very strong lower lip muscle? Apparently I don’t suck at brushing my lower front teeth, it’s my lip being a jerk and pushing the toothbrush up.

And now hopefully this posts since when I look at Steepster and don’t want to post a note, it works just fine. When I want to post this, it’s taken forever.

Even with a five-minute steep, this tea is so smooth. I’m being parsimonious with my 50 gram stash; this is one of the special ones.

As I get older, I find that one of my big challenges is to hold on to the ability to get excited by the little events and experiences in life that are the links in the chain of happiness. Having young children helps because you get to see the first flush of the world through their eyes. But I often find that my reaction to events is more muted than it was when, for example, I first read the short stories of Andre Dubus or first heard Bob Dylan wafting up to my attic bedroom from my parents’ turntable.

My discovery of tea has been the catalyst for some of my present-day stimulating moments and none more transfixing than drinking this Jun Mee from Upton. It’s listed as a Keemun and has the same general flavor profile (chocolate, red wine), but it’s more nuanced and delicate than most Keemuns I’ve tried. And because the Keemun qualities are not as pronounced, other amazing flavors come into play, notably an amalgam of spice that reminds me of cardamom, coriander pods, nutmeg, and cinammon.

Yes, this tea is expensive, but if you really love black teas from China as I do, you’ll want to try this. Even at $45 for 50 grams, you’re only looking at a few bucks per cup.

Hrmm…

The coconut and licorice in this tea do some weird magical trick to almost end up tasting like nutmeg. It’s a little interesting.

Not good, necessarily. Just interesting. As it cools a little bit, the coconut becomes more prominent, which makes me think this might be a completely different tea once it’s iced.

(a few minutes pass)

This really is getting better as it cools. My rating of it ‘hot’ would be way lower than my rating of it ‘luke-warm’. Which, well, makes very little sense in my head. So, I’m not giving it a number until I try it iced.

We ordered two ice tea samples with our latest purchase and when the husband requested I make ice tea before dinner and I saw the other was recommended as a 6 hour cold brew, this was the obvious choice. The sample had a little over 6 teaspoons worth of leaf which was not quite enough for a full 64oz pitcher, but it was about 3/4 full.

I could smell the tea as it was steeping and it was quite lovely. The liquor came out a striking orange that was toned down to copper when diluted. I was smart and tasted some before the food, husband was not and thus said it had no taste. I actually liked it, more than any recent hot Darjeeling experience, it had a slight natural sweetness that lent itself well to cold tea, but it is mild and floral. I would try to resteep if ice trays didn’t take so long freeze. Will update if I decide to make two hot cups tonight.

Not as fond of this one as I feel like I should be. Withholding rating for now. Will give the sample another chance in the future :)

I’ve never done First Flush Darjeeling sampling when the crop was fresh before. In fact, I’ve only had two FF Darjeelings ever. They tasted decent, and so I decided to buy several samples from Upton. BTW-Upton ships so fast with standard shipping!

The white and silver tips in the dry leaves are beautiful. Dry leaf aroma is more floral than I expected, but not unpleasant. Indeed, there was a lot of foam as this tea steeped. The brewed leaves were mostly a pungent floral with maybe a vegetal note stuck in.

At this point, I am tending to agree this has oolong characteristics. The liquor is more yellowish with orange mixed in. The floral notes in the flavor remind me of a green oolong-not my favorite. There is one floral note that reminds me of a specific flower-unfortunately I cannot recall what that is just yet. I do detect a hint of pineapple which is nice.

I don’t think I liked this much on the first sip, but was starting to get used to the flavor before it cooled too much and became overwhelmingly floral. Not sure just yet how I feel about this. I’ll try this at least once more before giving it a numerical rating.

Second tea of the morning…… (SRP #28)

This one is very interesting! It is a green and black blend. The green leaves are the most prominent as they are a long and somewhat twisty pale green. I steeped it up at about 190. The liquor is a light amber. The taste is brothy. I get a little salt and pepper, even! There is a slight nudge of a vegetal note at the beginning, and it finishes smooth like a black tea. Very interesting and well done. It probably is not something I would drink on a regular basis (they are out, so it really doesn’t even matter if I would!), but I am glad they had a few samples left when I last ordered.

Usual teapot method with a 2.5 minute steep. No additions.

I’m sure a lot of women I know (and some men) will not be able to relate to what I’m about to say, but I’m always looking for the holy grail of shoes, one pair I can wear for most occasions—work, a night out, at home in the country and city. I guess this is a quest that spans many areas of life: skiers want one pair of skis that will excel in powder, ice, moguls, and trees; motorcyclists want one bike that can go touring, race through the back roads, or putt around town. It is this impulse in humans that is the genesis of the Desert Island list (what is the one book/album/food/famous person you would take to a desert island?)

Now I know it would be heresy to suggest that there is only one tea that would satisfy all tastes, but there are those teas that I regularly turn to when I’m not in the mood for something specialized. A good mid-priced Assam or Ceylon, or now, this Yunnan from Upton, back in stock due to popular demand. It’s fancy enough for an elegant night out (chocolate and fruit) but unpretentious enough for a trip to the corner pub (malty, frothy, cherry pipe tobacco).

I wish I had found this earlier, but I guess I was too busy being wooed by the flashier golden-tipped Yunnans I love so much. But as every romantic comedy has taught us, sometimes the best partner is the guy or girl next door who has unobtrusively been there the whole time.

I’ve never had straight gunpowder tea before-always mixed in a Moroccan Mint blend. Since I bought the mint and the tea separately this time, thought I would try the tea straight.

The dry leaves unfurl very nicely (although I did not watch). The liquor is a golden yellow. The brewed aroma is slightly vegetal and slightly floral. The flavor is pretty similar. The floral taste is not that strong, but strong enough (meaning too strong). Reminds me a bit of a green oolong-which I don’t really care for. Straight, this tea is not for me. Fortunately, I have a giant bag of spearmint to blend with it and I would not hesitate to buy this tea again as long as I was blending it.

I returned from my uncle’s funeral service and was compelled to have a cup of this tea as it represents the rebirth of nature after a long cold winter.

Word has it that the first=flush season is not a good one, so I’m glad I have some of this stellar tea left. It has held up well—a heady mixture of honeysuckle, peach and freshly-mown grass, with that singular muscatel essence that makes tasting first-flush darjeelings the non-pareil experience in the tea world.

And the reviews of the first flush darjeelings begin! Luckily it’s still freezing and gloomy here in Maine, so a hot cup of flowery goodness really hits the spot.

This Sungma was shaping up to be a classic first flush until I tasted it and was surprised to find how fruity and effervescent it is. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it does lack the deeper honey notes that I usually expect to find in a first flush. Maybe it was more lightly fermented, which results in something closer to an Oolong or a Nepalese tea. Anyway, these are mere quibbles, and will not prevent me from enjoying this top tier tea.

One does not immediately think of Ceylon when looking for green teas, but this is a wonderful selection. The dry leaf has a nice apricot aroma which turns to apple when the leaf is infused. The taste is a mixture of hearty/earthy and flowery. It actually reminds me of a raw pu-erh in many respects. This green definitely stands out from the crowd!

This is the first Vietnamese tea I’ve had in years and only my second overall.

Maybe I got a little overexuberant in buying this tea-only one review here (over a year ago) and none on Upton’s site in the past year. The dry leaves are short, tightly rolled and dark brown with a just a few golden tips. Can’t really describe the leaf aroma-just kinda a generic woods-ey type smell. It brews a coppery liquor and tastes very similar to Assam (which I was kinda expecting). However, this tea is off. Seems stale to me. I assume the tea hasn’t been sitting in a foil sample pouch all this time waiting for someone to order it. This is why I have started to gravitate toward companies that can give me a harvest date on their teas. Hope this is just an aberration. Too bad-it was a promising tea.