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Upton Tea Sample Buying Spree Tea #15 (Last One! sob)
So this is the first time I’ve tried a Green Tea Earl Grey. At some point, I read a review on here where the writer (think it was Jim) mentioned that they didn’t really get the point of green Earl Grey, and I think I’m going to have to agree. At least in this incarnation of the tea, the flavoring completely overpowers the green tea and makes it taste over-perfumed. As I get towards the end of the cup, the green tea starts to assert itself a bit more, though that might be because I’ve gotten used to the taste.
Oh, I feel so bad pushing the rating bar towards the “meh” face! But that is exactly the feeling this tea inspires in me!
Preparation
Very lightly colored brew. Excellent unfurling of the pearls and color change of the leaves from a flour white to a brown green. Very little to no residue/sediment on bottom of the cup. Very clean jasmine scent but not at all perfum-y or overpowering. Like a sweet note in the background. Viscosity is thin and slick; coats your tongue.
Preparation
The leaves of this tea have a powdery residue. If you have the habit of shaking your tin like I do, you’ll get a nice tea cloud when you open the top. I suggest you do not do this! This tea brews up slightly darker than a golden amber/caramel. On first taste, you get a hit of acidity though the intensity is not strong. Maybe very light meyer lemon. The main taste is tanin or bitterness but not any stronger than other black teas and perfectly delicious. I have always been against milk or sugar in my teas but this would go well with a scone or some lightly sweetened dessert or pastry.
Preparation
I am not used to drinking green tea from India but this is a nice departure. The brew is a very light almost champagne color and reminds me of a light oolong. The tanins are very light and the tea tastes slightly sweet which I like. The acidity is very light as well. I am having this as an afternoon tea and it fits the bill perfectly.
Preparation
Hey!
Based on this review of yours, which you seem to have written a long time ago, and your bio, I think you may like this tea from an Indian brand that directly ships some of the best Indian teas all over the world.
https://www.chaiandmighty.com/collections/greenteas/products/thequeenofgreens
Brews up nice and dark, almost like fresh motor oil. Note: I may have let it steep up to a minute too long (6 mins vs 5). Good amount of tanins. Not overwhelming but definitely a caffeinated tea. This is great for morning and anytime you need a pick me up. The flavor lingers for a good 3 seconds after sipping.
Preparation
This brews up a nice yellowish color. It is an excellent green tea with a great aftertaste. It reminds me of some Japanese greens. I am a sucker for different tea leaf shapes and this is a very unique one. They look like, well gunpowder. It even shimmers.
Preparation
I have taken to sampling green teas and I like this. I don’t think that green tea will ever be a favorite of mine, but I like to have it occasionally. I ordered some samplers from Upton Tea Imports—-they have earned my eternal gratitude by providing 15 g. samples for just a little bit of money. The tea is bright, vegetal, flavorful. It is not an exuberant green that tastes like rolling around in a spinach field or in a huge vat of freshly mown grass. It’s restraint is a virtue, however.
Curious, I looked up the meaning of Yamoto and the ever-reliable (:-)) Wikipedia informs me that: “The term was semantically extended to mean “Japan” or “Japanese” in general, and carries many of the same connotations as Americana does for the United States.”
While I think I like this tea better than the other reviewers, I also doubt that I will select it as a “go-to” green tea. I’m still seeking that one green tea that I will cherish above all others and want to keep in stock.
SECOND STEEP: The second steep was very well-behaved; was neither too weak nor too strong. It seemed to have blossomed a bit more towards a slight floral note. Very aromatic.
Preparation
Finding a Japanese style green that appeals to any given person’s palate is a completely subjective adventure. Some people love those “shredded kale” kinds of varieties and some people hate them. Anyone who can’t cope with any vegetal element at all should be drinking Chinese green, not Japanese (imho).
I think green, like oolong, is far too big of a spectrum to have just one “go to”. White and black teas this is not too difficult to do. But green and oolong can be radically different from each other, and “great” for completely different non-contradictory reasons.
I really do agree with you, Jim Marks. I have got some other greens that I like and I have enough samples to try out quite a few. I gather that the shelf life is no more than 3 months, so it does require a bit of a balancing act to have not too much nor too little.
Yeah, that’s the kind of thing when I miss living close enough to the TeaG retail shop to just go in and get “to go” cups of various things until I found what I liked.
/Accept Quest: Unimaginably Stinky Travel Mug
/Receive: (item)unimaginably_stinky_mug
/Travel: Campus Grocery Store
/Defeat Cash Register Mob (weak against: cash, credit cards, checks)
/Loot: (item)bleach, (item)banking_soda, (item)vinegar.
/Use (item)bleach On (item)unimaginably_stinky_mug For (time)8_hours
/Receive: (item)slightly_less_stinky_mug
/Use (item)baking_soda On (item)slightly_less_stinky_mug For (time)overnight
/Receive: (item)non_stinky_mug
/Complete Quest: Unimaginably Stinky Travel Mug
/Receive Quest Reward: 10 XP, (item)non_stinky_mug_full_of_delicious_breakfast_blend
/Rejoice!
(This was the last of my Bond Street blend, which means I am out of breakfast tea! Noooooooooooooes! My main feelings upon drinking it were: “this is nice, I miss Scottish Breakfast, though.” So…guess I’ll order more of that!)
Wow, you only got 10 XP for all of that? Was that quest grey to you? ;-)
Wow, that was an incredible amount of effort to write a great review, kudos, but what of the vinegar?
Well, see it turns out that the bleach and baking_soda actually have a 25% failure rate, so the vinegar’s just in case you’re super unlucky.
and yeah, it’s a low-level quest. I just did it because I like the quest reward so much.
::bows before your superior geekiness::
LOVED this note!!!!!
ahh, very good, congrats on the 10 XP and getting a the stink-mug clean!!
:D baking soda is seriously magic.
$&^%$&%$^ Mondays.
I was honestly in such a haze this morning that I have no idea if I actually grabbed this or if it was some other tea. I think it was this. Clearly the tea itself didn’t make an impression on me, I just downed it and hoped that it would keep me conscious through class. Unfortunately, it did too good of a job and I was unable to indulge in a post class nap ;_;
Anyone who says…and I quote…“$&^%$&%$^ Mondays” – gets a “like” from me! :)
Let’s get this day over with,eh!?
LOL
“Must be a case of the Mondays!!” lol ;) I’m having a tough Monday too!
@ Stephanie: LOL! You get that TPS report?
As I get older I find myself less able to take refreshing naps. Mondays and lack of nappage suck. I want to get that Onion mug that says “I hate whatever day this is.” At least you got yourself a nice Matcha blend this morning :)
I don’t even know what I meant to be theoretically “hidden” by those symbols. It’s probably incoherent cartoon swearing: “rassa frassa, rackin frackin Mondays”
And doesn’t it suck when you DO manage to take a nap but then you wake up and you feel WORSE? It almost puts me off naps altogether.
Also, that mug sounds awesome.
Second steep: note to self: do not assume I have rinsed out my tea mug. Especially if the last thing in it was chai.
That is all.
Addendum: Combining Bond Street English Breakfast Blend and Thai Chai = Fruit Compote! Makes no goddamn sense, but there you have it.
Yeah, so my alarm clock didn’t go off this morning. Good times! You can probably extrapolate what happened to the tea from there…
So I’ve been thinking that perhaps instead of a rude, slap me in the face breakfast tea, I should go with a (still strong) but nicer tea to help make me stop hating the world before noon rolls around. Therefore it’s back to this tea, which I still am really liking the taste of. Still nice and strong for the morning but much smoother than the scottish breakfast.
Bah, now I am waffling over which one to get, although the hilarious thing is that I may not be getting either of them any time soon since my graphics card died yesterday and not only do I have to get a new one (and better! if I’m getting a new card it may as well be an upgrade, amirite?) BUT apparently I was at the very edge of what sort of graphics card my power supply could support so now I have to get a new power supply as well. BAH! The end result is, I should probably hold off on more tea purchases until payday rolls around again. (it is a double shame because I really want to try the 52teas malted chocomate now that it’s back, too)
Oh no! I’ve been avoiding the 52teas website after hearing that a few blends were back….malted chocomate is my fave….
Yeah I was actually debating whether or not to mention it. “If no one knows it’s back, it might still be around next month when I have moneh again!”
I’m hoping it is, I already have my heart set on an order from Den’s later this week after payday. I guess if it is still around next month, I will know I’m meant to get it. But seriously the malted chocomate is really good – I’ve been hording my last 2 teaspoons for awhile now.
Man! Don’t tell me that, I have nearly no self-control as it is!
Whoops! Completely forgot that this A. existed and B. was a breakfast blend, so now I guess I need to compare it to the Scottish Breakfast to see how it measures up.
In terms of quick brewing it certainly seems to be fine, although I think it comes out a bit lighter than the Scottish and Irish breakfasts. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. The taste definitely doesn’t pack the punch of either of the above two, but it’s also more nuanced with a fruity aftertaste that I find kind of pleasant. It would be nice for mornings where I am actually feeling kind of awake, well-rested, and not full of hate for the world. Sadly, those never happen.
Preparation
That’s the perfect description of being a “non-morning person.” I like to think that I’m a nice person overall, but in the morning I just hate everyone and everything.
I wasn’t a morning person until I had children. Then it was thrust upon me.
LOL! One of the many reasons I do not want children ;)
Upton Sample Buying Spree Tea #14:
Just the green Earl Grey left!
Before anything else, I have to say that I really liked the color of this tea – it was such a nice reddish brown. Or was it brownish red? I’m sure there’s an official name for that color. Possibly to do with wood. Mahogany? No I think that’s darker. Once again the leaves are pretty finely crumbled (or whatever they do to them) so it brews up fast.
On first trying this, the astringency kind of slapped me in the face, but that faded as I drank. Still, I can definitely see why they recommend drinking this with milk. Tough luck, Upton Tea! Milk is for cereal! and oatmeal, I guess. and for making into cheese. mmmm, cheese. Anyway, I stand by my tea without milk stance! It’s very difficult for the human body to digest you know! In fact, the majority of people are lactose intolerant to a certain extent! I read that in Newsweek! Or possibly Wikipedia!
Ahem. Now that that’s out of the way. Nice black tea, certainly pretty to look at, think I liked the Scottish and Irish blends better, though.
Preparation
Reddish brown or brownish red would be “amber” or “chestnut” perhaps? Mahogany is darker. You’re possibly thinking of cherry wood, chestnut or cedar.
A splash of lemon or lime does well against astringency without having to resort to dairy. Just a splash, or you end up with flavored tea.
The majority of people are lactose intolerant because such a huge percentage of the population of the planet is either Asian or African, both of which are gene pools that are almost universally lactose intolerant. Within the broadly “white” (a useless word) population, it used to be extremely uncommon and is slowly becoming more common, possibly because of the mingling of gene pools in our increasingly diverse and mobile society.
Chestnut! Chestnut is totally what I was going for there.
I am suspicious of my ability to carry out this “add lemon without adding enough to get lemon flavor” plan. (I am pretty clumsy, you know)
Regarding lactose: even if you’re not intolerant it still does take extra effort to digest (lactose isn’t alone in this, of course. see: red meat). Most of the time, for a healthy non-intolerant person, this extra effort is not an issue, but if one is having digestive issues or energy deficiency it tends to be one of the first things to go. (note: this information comes from a store of knowledge that I like to call “dumbed down explanations that my doctors give me when I come in feeling icky and they have no other explanation for what is wrong with me and probably secretly suspect I am a hypochondriac”)
You could use a straw or basting bulb to add the lemon a drop at a time?
And yes, I agree, lactose is not the best thing for people to eat. But a few splashes in your earl gray is not likely to be the thing giving you digestive cramps. ;-) Especially if you are the kind of person who gets glassy eyed when someone mentions “cheese”, which it sounds like you are (as am I).
Just don’t like the doctor tell you that you’re allergic to gluten without insisting they do a biopsy that tests positive for coeliac/celiac disease first. It is an increasingly common “spectrum” diagnosis for people who just tend not to feel well most of the time and nothing else is helping, but the actual disease is still quite rare in spite of an explosion of products on the market to aid people who have it.
I subscribe to the slippery slope theory of milk drinking. From adding it to your tea it’s just a SMALL STEP to…I don’t know, guzzling entire gallons at a time?
Funny you should mention the gluten thing, my brother is actually gluten intolerant (not celiac though) so I am not about to be swept up by that hype. I have to say despite the paranoia about it now, at least there’s awareness. It took two years for my brother to be diagnosed in the 80s.
When you realize how much milk it takes to make some kinds of cheese, the idea of drinking a half gallon suddenly isn’t quite so weird. ;-)
So, he’s not celiac, he has a spectrum diagnosis?
Wow, great conversation about tea, huh? ;-)
hee hee, tea is the gateway to all kinds of discussion! And it’s about to get even MORE exciting!
He’s got dermatitis herpetiformis, which is another form of gluten intolerance, wherein the lesions formed by the gluten allergy appear on the surface of the skin rather than internally. It’s rarer, but it gives you more leeway in how much gluten you can actually have (some if you can take some itching, rather than none due to internal bleeding) and you can take something to give you a bit of a resistance.
From what I can gather from Wikipedia (I have a question to the on-staff MD at my office pending without response yet, we were just talking about gluten last week), DH seems to cause coelia, rather than being separate from it, and has its own symptoms in addition to the coelia symptoms. A big problem in diagnosing people with either DH or CD is if the patient is already voluntarily on a gluten-free diet before any biopsies are done, the biopsies may come back negative. This is part of what has led so many doctors to tell patients that they have “a gluten allergy” even with negative test results.
To get back to tea, I thought of a third option besides lemon or milk. Honey! If you get a grade A “dark amber” honey, ideally from buckwheat, it will actually not be very sweet at all, compared to the more typical bright yellow clover or orange blossom stuff. It will be sweet enough to take the “edge” off an astringent tea without actually “sweetening” the tea, and is easier to add in small amounts until you find the right balance compared to lemon. :-)
I just want to preface this by saying that I am not TRYING to be difficult.
I don’t like honey either!
Regarding the DH thing, from what I gather it is hypothesized to be caused by a mild form of celiac in the small intestine or something like that. The fact remains that it is some weird form of celiac that doesn’t involve the internal lesions.
In my brother’s case, since he doesn’t abstain from gluten all the time (you can’t expect a Polish person to not drink beer! It’s unnatural!), we have plenty of empirical evidence regarding the appearance vs. lack thereof of the rash to accept that it’s related to gluten in some way. He was diagnosed when he was quite young (4 or so) and basically refused to eat for a while until he was put on the gluten-free diet.
I’m not a big fan of sweet things, in general. Which is why I like dark amber buckwheat honey. It really isn’t all that sweet. If you can find some to sample before buying, give it a chance. Otherwise, just suck it up and drink your astringent tea in peace! :-)
As to the other, the only clarification I was trying to bring is that it is the coeliac that causes the gluten intolerance, and that the intolerance is itself a symptom of it, regardless of other symptoms present or not either from coeliac or DH. The upshot is, coeliac is the only known cause of gluten intolerance. Someone with DH doesn’t need a gut biopsy, clearly. :-)
Fair enough!
And now it is entirely possible I know more about Celiac than tea. Thanks, Steepster!
Thanks for the recommendation. That is an extremely specific kind of honey, but I will try and check it out! I don’t really mind the astringency, honestly, so I’m not going to be super sad if I don’t like it.
So in my Monday morning haze, I had this made and in my travel mug before I realized that my travel mug smelled like the armpit of hell because I’d forgotten to clean it after having a tea latte over the weekend. So…last bit of breakfast blend ruined, and mug set to soak in a variety of things that the intarwebs tell me will get rid of the terrible terrible smell.
Mondays!
(In case you are wondering, the intarwebs is mostly saying bleach, baking soda, and vinegar – not all at once – so nothing earth-shattering there)
Let us know if that’s a decent de-scenting combination…my travel mugs are getting a little gamey, too.
Yeah, be careful there. Wouldn’t want your travel mug to esplode!
I said I’m not gonna use them all at once! First bleach for a couple of hours, then move on to baking soda and vinegar is kind of a last resort.
Yeah, I know you said that. But don’t you have a bit of the rebellious streak? Like when the teacher said not to put the zinc in the sulfuric acid, didn’t you just have to know what would happen? Lol.
Man, I was raised by chemists. This is one area where I am always gonna follow instructions :P
LOL! I almost spit tea onto mah pooter from “smellin’ like the armpit of hell” :D Sorry about the crap start to a Monday :(
My morning tea for today. Actually got up at a normal hour but then got overconfident and ended up taking my time too much, meaning that it was a short steep (as usual).
This is still definitely lagging behind in the mini breakfast blend contest I’ve got going on.
Preparation
Had this for my morning cup in my ongoing scientific inquiry about which breakfast blend to get more of. Honestly, I had meant to grab the River Shannon and THOUGHT I had gotten the unrelabeled adagio tin (no, I didn’t label it from last time. this is because I am lazy) but it turns out that the tin HAD been relabeled just in very tiny letters. So….Irish Breakfast!
I’m back on the side of Scottish Breakfast after this morning. I just can’t stand that oversteeped smell and this stuff seems to get it no matter the steeping time. The only reason I can drink it at all is because my portable mug has a lid and therefore I can’t smell it. It continues to taste quite nice! I’m just not sure I can get past the smell.
Preparation
So I deliberately grabbed this this morning to see how it stacked up against yesterday’s Scottish Breakfast with the aim of picking one of them to get moar of so I can have quick brewing morning tea.
At first, I was firmly on Scottish Breakfast’s side – this stuff, other then looking hilariously like coffee grounds, smelled totally oversteeped, and there was a VERY strong bitterness to it that was a little TOO shocking in the morning. As I drank more of it, however, I started to get this really interesting (and unexpected!) fruity note. Fascinating! I hope this is not going to turn into one of those things where I basically just vacillate between whichever one I happen to be drinking at the time. (The solution is NOT to just buy both, dammit!)
On another note, I am once again doing a round trip down to LA and back today, so look forward to some half-drunk/half-exhausted tealogs in the evening! GOOD TIMES.
Preparation
So yeah, I made this this morning to take with me to class when I realized…I had left my travel mug in the car and I was ALREADY late! Yes, fellow steepsterites (do you realize that if you combine steepster with people, you can conceivably argue that you get steeple? I’m gonna call you steeples from now on. or maybe steoples?) I was going out to face the horrible, horrible morning tea-less. Fortunately, I have my trusty tea case, so I bought some hot water from the coffee stand and had my (different) tea after class.
Still, I had MADE this tea, and I’m not gonna make a tea and not drink it. So I am now drinking cold incredibly strong Irish Breakfast. And that’s…pretty much exactly what it tastes like!
Preparation
I love “steeples.” And now I’m trying to do a variation of that childhood thing where you go “here is the church, here’s the steeple, open the door and here’s all the steeple!”
Here is the tea, now let it steep(l), go on the ’net, and tell all the steeple!
…yeah…it needs a little work.
Oh! How ‘bout: Here is the tea, now let it steep y’all, go on the ‘net, and share with your steeple! Er, Here is the tea, be sure to steep well, hop on the web, and share with your steeple! Egads – I’m gonna be doing variations on this all night.
Hey, steeps!
Upton Sample Buying Spree Tea #13:
Oh noeeees, with this I’ll be on my last two teas! Get here soon, Golden Moon Sampler!
Brewed this up this morning for my “on the way to morning Chinese class” pick-me-up. Another very fine tea which, as expected (and as it says on the box) brews up extremely fast. I learned my lesson with yesterday’s Scottish Blend and was a little more careful with my spooning and diligently paid attention to the time. I have to say, the care was well rewarded; this came out as a great strong tea for the morning and didn’t taste oversteeped at all, although now that I come to think about it, I kind of miss the slap to the face I AM TEA HEAR ME ROAR that the oversteeped Scottish Blend gave me. As usual, I fail to show signs of either discernment or sophistication; although, honestly, people expecting that sort of thing in the morning are just insane.
Preparation
Yeah, that sounds like the Scots. I had a 6’4", 300 pound Scot for a roommate in college, and that’s exactly how he was, first thing in the morning. The only way I could ever retaliate was insisting on the top bunk and subjecting him to the “naked Gypsy dance” first thing.
My palate is undeveloped, but some teas give me a taste of greatness. I cannot put my finger on it absolutely and resort to some of those much-mocked ipsedixitisms of the soi-disant oenophile, such as “this cougar of a cabernet is a saucy seductress with a Meerschaum of criollo overshadowed by a wench of a plum and a slippery nuance of black current which dabbles in an unsullied yet impertinent side serving of a cumulous cloud of Pringles Potato Crisps.”
Well, I can speak like a pretentious snob if I want to, but my tongue is not as far reaching as my vocabulary. Like the truculent tourist from the mid-west, I’ll say only that “I don’t know if it’s art, but I like it.”
With this tea, I do know that it’s tea, but I am not sure why I like it. It has a very light, very subtle floral sweetness. And it makes me understand the devotion that many drinkers have to Darjeelings.
Sigh, last of the sample. And I am still waffling between this and the Bond Street Blend…both have good points! Ugh, I hope I don’t finish up all of my breakfast blends before next month rolls around. I really can’t justify any more tea purchases this month.
