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Opened my day up with this little beauty. Tasting a new tea is so exciting, nevermind when it’s amazing… what a delightful thing.

Quite a dark and moody little scoop of nuggets, the charcoal notes coming off the steam took me aback a bit. Poured a light tan, scents of pine and woody perfume; the flavor of cedar followed up in the first sip. Reminded me at the top here of What-Cha’s charcoal roasted Taiwan oolong. Second steep saw some floral poking through, with just a whisper of tar.

I was surprised by the tannins that came through in steeps 3-5 or so — not unpleasant at all, and not very drying, but definitely present. Leather here in the 3rd, too.

Some fruit started opening up in the fourth, which was so fun. I was half-expecting the tannins to pour out into wateriness, but this little gem had waaaaay more surprises in store. Pear, wheat crackers, dry grass in this steep.

Tannins are still present; bay leaf in the fifth.

And then! Baby powder in the top of the sixth steep, and then sweet, thick-syruped cherry pie, I kid you not… stuck around for 3 steeps before we watered out.

Lovely journey, not only in terms of intrigue but just in straight-up delicious dawdling. Looking forward to more of this!

I worked my way through a few teas while studying today, and this was my third. I forgot about a later steep (5? 6? 7?), poured it, and to my delight… found pineapple at the top of the cup and jasmine at the bottom. I am really coming around to some of Red Blossom’s teas. I find myself reaching for this one a lot as something that feels easy and light, but still very interesting, delicious, and full of joy. Upping my rating!

I chose this tea — instead of scotch — to gong fu after dinner with a luxurious piece of vanilla cake. What a perfect pairing. These little snails stood up perfectly to the sugar and fat, coming through with that bold but gorgeously smooth cocoa flavor. It took me almost an hour to eat my cake because I didn’t want to rush my tea. Just lovely… better than any scotch I could have paired, truly. Absolute joy.

I was ridiculously excited to get this open and in my cup yesterday, but I don’t think my palate was quite settled for it. Trying it again today and I’m finding it just lovely. I’m not sure what the base of this tea is… yesterday I’d thought it was Tung Ting and felt sad that I’d bought the big bag, hehe. I still am finding some of that earthiness today, but it’s not flat or uninteresting by any stretch. Maybe someone here knows?

Pours a light brown, maybe on the redder/pinker side of brown, but definitely brown… increasing in saturation with every steep. Color didn’t really peter out with the taste. There is a lovely light floral on the nose here… I can’t tell if it’s going to get perfumey or not.

Hints of nuts and toast, with just a whiff of floral, on the first steep (no rinse).

Second and third steeps kept the nuts, added sweetness, bran flakes. Maaaybe sweet potato, but I’ll wait to tag that until my next sitting.

Fourth. The nose is really something, my best guess is lily. It’s a round, sweet floral. Not perfumey, smells really fresh like a tiny spring bouquet. Mouthfeel has been fairly thin the whole time; I wouldn’t call this creamy or buttery, just light. There is some twiggy/woody arriving here in the fourth steep. Never a bad taste, but a sign that the big exciting flavors and scents are probably mostly gone for this session. Some cocoa on the nose, which is remaining a bit more interesting than the taste.

Steep 6 or 7… I think that’s about it. Looking forward to more time with this tea, as there is certainly more to find. The scent profile is so full, with the taste lagging just slightly.

I am on my second steep of Melody and have already had scents and flavors fly by me that I couldn’t identify in time, before they flew away. Charcoal-roasted and aged for 15 (17 by now?) years will do that, I suppose.

Lots of perfume on the nose, concentrated florals. Gardenia, maybe? I am not great identifying specific florals yet, but this nose is deeper, heavier scents… florals that kind of want to punch you in the face and also that would be fine, thank you.

This is a Li Shan. I would like to start comparing different Li Shan (Li [Pear] Mountain) and Ali Shan (Ali [a Taiwanese folk hero?] Mountain), and further educate myself about Gao Shan (high mountain/elevation) teas in general. I stumbled on this post (https://tillermantea.net/2019/07/gaoshan/) and need to revisit it when I have more free time on my hands. I am very slowly starting to tuck away and recognize words as I taste more teas and try to wrap my head around all the naming conventions and jargon. I recognize more understanding here will help me navigate to teas that I will love. That said, I am certainly finding I don’t really share the enthusiasm so many have for Tung Ting/Dong Ding, the old “high elevation” tea… but my spirit is really captivated by these higher-high elevation (and, I just learned, newer) varieties. What a time to be alive and have tastebuds.

My fourth steep is going in the pot and I just really am being astounded by this tea. I’ll write up a proper-something from a later session, but for now… gods.

This has been my favorite tea from Upton so far. I wasn’t expecting much based on the smell of the dry leaves — very similar to the China Oolong Se Chung I had right before it. A little cardboardy and stale, if I’m honest.

But woooo… first steep was a little longer than is typical for me — maybe 15-20 seconds (how I so frequently forget to pour the tea after pouring the water is one of life’s great mysteries). But WOW, it was perfect straightaway. Cocoa right out front, with grandpa’s smoky basement fireplace right behind. Then Christmas plum pudding across the room — dark spicy dough, raisins, brandy. It was every piece of memory from that paneled Ohio basement that I could hope for.

The charcoal roast is VERY prominent, and while I appreciate a roast that disappears into the melange, this one held a really special gift and I wouldn’t want one less iota of smoke and dank than it brought me.

This explosion of nostalgia and complexity didn’t last terribly long — even by my second pour (which I think would normally have been my third, in terms of steep time) it was starting to fade. Still — some nice little cups that trickled out, and I look forward to drinking this one again. Happy to have found it.

My second Upton tea. This is so different from other oolongs I’ve had; there is a sort of flat and familiar feel to it. I don’t necessarily mean this in a bad way — there is something comforting there — in the way my grandparents’ weakly-brewed Folgers coffee was comforting. Simple, predictable, reliable. It actually reminded me a LOT of Eden Organic’s Hojicha, which I used to drink all the time and had quite forgotten about until I took a sip of this today.

The note that struck me most was a distinctly dry-leaves-and-twigs taste, versus the wet-leaves taste that I feel is a lot more common in the teas I’ve been drinking lately. The third and fourth steeps opened up to more astringency. This is big, dry, crackly autumn days; radiator heat and static electricity hair.

I moved on to the roasted version immediately after, so I’ll get that note knocked out now, too.

My first order from Upton’s. Interested to see how I feel about the teas. They seem perhaps a bit less fussy in terms of descriptions, and I like fussy… but that’s just a first impression. This first order (just a Darjeeling and their oolong sampler) will probably dictate whether I order from them again or not. This was a late-night impulse buy when I realized my What-Cha order was stuck in the British post due to some nefarious cyber activity. The stateside quick shipping from Upton is definitely appealing.

The first couple steeps of this Darjeeling were all peach pit — light wood with some nice stone fruit stuck around the edges. A glorious whiff of cotton candy at the bottom of the second cup. Some tanginess.

I picked up some camphor in the third or fourth steep, which is where the fruit started dropping off as well. I don’t love that menthol/camphor thing that some teas have, I’m learning. It can be interesting, but makes my stomach feel empty and sort of bashes everything else out of the way. Tanginess stuck around with some tannins throughout further steeps — reminded me of a refreshing and simple iced tea profile.

Darjeeling was one of the first tea types I realized I enjoyed way back when. I may brew the last few grams of this western style and see how all these layers sit on top of one another. Probably not a reorder for me, but an enjoyable session here.

Pouring this again for another try, and you know what? It’s better this time. It’s funny to me how this happens.

I didn’t take full notes, but I actually said, “Whoa,” during the second steep. Roasty notes and nutty notes coming through big. Still dissipates pretty quickly, though.

I have cut out a lot of sugar over the past week or two; I feel like that may be having an impact on how much I’m getting out of my tea. Some of them are really tasting so much better over the past few days.