Upton Tea Imports

Welcome to the first day of Seeking a New Dawn: Carolyn’s quixotic search for the tea that probably doesn’t exist any more. I’ve ordered several batches of trial black teas from various companies: from inexpensive to pricey. In truth I really don’t care how much the tea costs as long as it fills that Dawn-shaped hole in my morning.

Today we start with an inexpensive Yunnan. The leaves are somewhat pretty with little golden bits. It has a classic tea fragrance with something light and fruity in the offing. It darkened up reasonably fast in the cup so I removed it. I’ve had a enough of over-steeped bitter tea after yesterday’s shenanigans in which no less than 3 cups of tea were ruined by my over-anxious boss’ sudden demands, which caused me to ignore the tea until it had reached the toxic stage.

There is a slight astringency but not so much as to be offensive. I’m not getting any bitterness but I suspect that it would not stand up to much more time steeping before the bitter set in. There is a very slight raisin after-taste. Overall it is an average tea. I would’t toss it, but it is not the Holy Grail of teas. I’ll finish my sample today (hoping it gives me strength for what has been a very difficult week) and move on tomorrow. It’s not a re-buy tea.

This is really a very, very nice tea. It’s nice and roasty-toasty, not as green as some other tie guan yins, but still not too dark. It’s just light and full of character. A great tea that I would love to drink every day.

It’s pretty rare in my experience for a vanilla-flavored tea to taste as good as it smells. I’m glad I gave this tea a chance because I’m usually disappointed by vanilla-flavored teas. Maybe it’s the combination with bergamot that makes the vanilla flavor pop out. I got this as part of a sampler pack but I will most likely be ordering a full packet of it!

this stuff is just really good as a basic go-to tea – very tasty but almost neutral flavor, so it’s good no matter what you’re in the mood in – as opposed to teas which have particular fruity or floral or other flavors – which are good but you might have to be in the specific mood for them.

iced is awesome, cold brewed. i love this stuff.

yummy iced.

this stuff is really good – simple but very flavorful. just enough vanilla. YUM.

Really enjoyed this – nice taste of vanilla along with the rooibos.

This is a fairly strong and intense yunnan. It definitely benefits from some added sugar. With the addition of sugar, I can detect some cocoa notes midway thru the sip. Like unsweetened cocoa…not as cocoa-ey as Dawn- but promising….

creamy pears and green rooibos…very nice…see other notes…

I forgot I had tried this one but I received a nice new tin from Twiggles! Thanks so much! This aroma makes your nose-hairs dance (and my grandfather used to say). It’s really potent but I like it! This is MUCH different than I remember – after rereading my tasting notes from a while back! I really like this and am going to increase the rating! This time around I can taste the pear more but it also reminds me of another tea (from Drink T, I believe) that had Apricot Pulp in the loose leaf mix…perhaps it’s pear pulp!? Regardless it’s fruity and nutty and nice! I can really taste the fruit this time! YUM!

COLD or ICED the pear is more noticeable!!!!

I can taste the sunflower type notes and even green rooibos, and even a strong nuttiness! It’s falls a little short for the pear flavor altho you know something fruity is there. It’s a nice taste overall, however.

Re-steeping yielded a good result. I left the infuser in the mug while drinking and the resulting astringency was quite nice.

This is good. The smokiness of the dry leaves carry into first steep. Behind the smoky facade, there is a nipping quality to this that I like -sort of a touch of iron in your palate. Not sure whether it is the Keemun or Darjeeling, but it’s definitely welcome.

IMHO, second best of the British Blend Sample. Not sure if I should get the full size though.

Sadly, not impressed. Perhaps it was my preconception – I had expected a noticeably smoky RC, a Lapsang-Lite so to speak.

To its defence, after the initial dissatisfaction with the gulp a buttery and a very slightly pepperish taste lingers on the mouth.

But I refuse to give up, next time I will try this with 1.5 teaspoons of dry leaf. Let’s see what happens then.

The dry leaves are sweet-smelling, with a hint of chocolate. But I could not get that flavour from the steep.

Not a big fan, really. I’m not sure that’s because I drank this in the morning while still half asleep and slightly moody but nevertheless, it tastes dull.

Vey slightly astringent, which I like. But that’s all. Perhaps a slice of lemon would add some character.

I am not a big fan of the in-your-face attitude of most breakfast teas, so this was a happy surprise for me. With its round tiny bits, the dry leaves look like pepper and smell heavenly – I guess the Ceylon is the reason.

When infused, it does not give you a jolt, but gently nudges you into awakening. I had this with a standart cheese/olives/bread breakfast and was quite satisfied that, while brisk, its taste did not interfere with them.
The sample earned a place in my morning rotation.

Having fallen in love with Upton’s other LS (Imperial), I had high hopes for this. Perhaps I haven’t perfected the steeping process, but I found that the lovely flavour of the raw tea leafs (which was better than the Imperial) did not translate to the steeped tea. It tasted rather unfinished and lacks depth, a little metallic and not quite smoky for my taste.

I agree that this is a great Intro to LS 101 tea and especially good if you want a light LS. But those who love the SMOKE! in their LS might be disappointed. Perhaps mixing this with other, more smoky LS varieties will do the trick.

This is one mean LS!
Certainly not everyone’s cup of tea (pun intended). Left a very silky smooth aftertaste in my mouth, with very prominent but not overwhelming burning pine notes. As a novice steepster, this is the finest LS I have tasted.

Will try the second steep next.

This one is not as good as Adagio’s Golden Monkey. It is smooth. Sort of cocoa like. But does not have the caramel tones I come to to expect from Golden Monkey. But maybe this from a different region in China?

Weird stuff, really. After the first few sips I felt compelled to go the Upton Tea web-site to check if this tea was flavored with mint. I had a strong impression I was drinking a Darjeeling equivalent of Moroccan mint, only lighter tasting. So off I went and there was no mint in there. But the description said “mildly minty character and an interesting green pepper nuance”. Mildly? Really? I think it’s far from mild, it leaves a lingering menthol-fresh aftertaste that makes my mouth tingle for minutes and I am not exaggerating here. I’ve no idea how green pepper should taste like but there is some definite spiciness to the taste as well. And to top this off the brew has a sweet edge to it.

I wouldn’t say it is a bad tea and I appreciate the uniqueness of it but it kinda contains a mix of flavors that should not be mixed together. It feels like a mouthwash, I mean it. Thus a lower rating.

I was disappointed in this tea. It was touted by Upton as some fancy high end tea w a price of $20 bucks for 10 g. I was hoping this would have cocoa notes as Upton mentioned instead it is a Lapsang Souchong lite w/mild smoky overtones. Glad that I just bought the 5 dollar sample.