Upton Tea Imports

I got to bed a little late last night so I decided I needed some heavy duty breakfast tea to wake me up, so I grabbed this. Amazingly, I actually steeped this for the amount of time it is supposed to be steeped today and got an interesting smoky note out of it.

The second steep was really weak though. I guess breakfast blends front-load a lot of their taste. Or something.

Tried this right after the River Shannon this morning to confirm its place as the front runner for my morning tea.
Odor: No icky oversteepedness
Brew: Fast
Kick: Whoo boy, yes.
Taste: Not root beer
Win: I’d say so, yes.

Naturally, it WOULD be the one that I’m nearly out of.

Since the Earl Grey proved ineffective, it was up to my travel tin of Scottish Breakfast to save the day! Help me Scottish Breakfast Blend, you’re my only hope!

Oh yeah, this is definitely more what I need in the morning. Nice and strong, a little bitter, very aggressive tea. There is an odd undertone to it this morning that I am having difficulty placing, however. It’s not exactly the oversteepedness that I got in my other note…it seems almost…woody? I don’t know, but it’s there, and it’s driving me crazy!

Deliberately oversteeped because I am VERY sleepy.

This is the tea that I drank this morning instead of the Irish Breakfast that I had originally brewed. It’s what I had in my trusty “portable loose leaf tea kit.”

Well, besides the fact that it was in a tea bag and a paper cup and neither of those are going to do a tea any favors, it was perfectly serviceable. I think the Irish Breakfast packs more of an early morning punch though. Note: that may just mean that the Irish Breakfast comes out more bitter.

Upton Sampler Buying Spree Tea #12:
Time for a break from the Earl Grey/Earl Grey-like teas!
This stuff is really fine, it almost seems ground – is it pretending to be coffee? It brewed up quite dark and very strong. I think I may have used a little too much – too used to the more leafy teas. On the other hand, this would be perfect if it’s morning and you’re running late and you forgot to leave enough time to boil water and steep your morning tea and you are in danger of going to Chinese class tea-less and WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO.
As far as taste goes, as expected it’s a strong black tea flavor. Not subtle at all, this stuff. It’s got a sort of undertone that I’ve never really been able to describe well, but appears especially in oversteeped teas – like, super-saturated tea-ness, I don’t know. Anyway, this is definitely a good morning tea, especially if you have trouble waking up. (like me!)

Last of this packet! Unfortunately started a super long boss fight right after setting it to steep and forgot all about it. Stupid Frost Giant.

Well, at least it woke me up!

Another of the previously dismissed Upton samples…and the verdict is…I continue to dismiss it! Didn’t have an infusion fail like last time, but even when it infuses fine it just doesn’t move me. It needs to pop! have ZING! or something.

So the problem with Darjeeling as a base for Earl Grey is that I habitually oversteep Earl Greys – most of which are pretty forgiving, but oversteeping an Earl Grey flavored Darjeeling just seems to bring out the incongruity of the flavor. Or something like that. There’s definitely something off about the taste this time around.

Rating go down! I kind of wish I hadn’t left some of the more lackluster (for me) samples with my brother, since it seems my second tasting impression is quite different from the first. Oh well, at least this saves me from trying other Earl Grey/Darjeeling crossbreeds.

Upton Sampler Buying Spree Tea #11:
Slowly reaching the end of the Upton samplers, although I’m sure I’ll do multiple tasting notes for some of them at least. Good thing that 31 tea sampler from Golden Moon Teas was on sale today, or I might run the risk of having to drink the same tea twice! Sigh. Will…so…weak.
This is super tasty. On my sample packet it says that it is a “scented darjeeling” rather than a flavored one, or a straight Earl Grey, which is an apt description. The scent of the additional flavors is much stronger than their taste, although the taste is still noticeable. The vanilla is definitely more noticeable than the bergamot, but I think they blend together well. And there’s that little kick from the darjeeling underneath it all, acting as an offset. Very effective balancing act.

Upton Sample Buying Spree Tea #10:
This was the bonus sample Upton sent along with the buying spree, and let me tell you, this tea? It is wasted on me. Anything with that many letters telling you its identity in minute detail is. I just do not have the patience or inclination to be that discerning about tea flavored tea. Other people do! But I do not.
Disclaimer out of the way, it brews up very light, but that doesn’t affect its flavor at all. Tastes quite tea flavored, although I am getting a kind of nutty undertone. Interesting.

I’m liking this a lot more than I did at first. It’s easy and uncomplicated, which this morning is a good thing. Oh, and I said I would report back—it does make a nice iced tea, though this morning I am drinking it hot.

The tea is nice, but not as peachy as I’d hoped. I actually bought it to drink iced, and will report back once I’ve tried it.

Upton Tea Sampler Buying Spree Tea #9:
Accidentally oversteeped this because I was distracted by reheating pizza. (That’s right! Pizza and tea! Tea goes with everything! EVERYTHING.) It came out a little more bitter than I think it’s necessarily meant to.
This is definitely another one of those subtle teas. There is only a very light hint of bergamot, a slight tease of citrus, an am I even there of flavor. I’ve already mentioned my preferences regarding Earl Grey flavors, so I won’t go into it again, but honestly, at this point wouldn’t you be better off just drinking tea flavored tea? If this is the level of Earl Grey that you like, why are you bothering to drink Earl Grey at all? Just drink unflavored black tea, then you never have to worry about the Earl Grey you’re drinking having too much flavor.
Besides that, it is, naturally, quite tasty.

Getting into the home stretch of this sample packet. I still find it too perfumy. Definitely prefer the Earl Grey Special.

Going back through some of the Upton samples that I’d previously dismissed just to make sure I didn’t do it wrong the first time around or something.

My description of this tea is pretty spot on though. Highly aromatic, weirdly floral, and kind of acidic in the back of the throat. I think I don’t mind the acidity as much this time around, either that or it’s lighter. Since this was my morning tea and I was running late as usual, I’m pretty sure it steeped for a maximum of three minutes. Apparently shorter steeping time is the secret to me enjoying this tea, although I’m not a huge fan of it’s over-floweriness.

I’ve been thinking of getting some of the frou-frou Rosy Earl Grey because Rabs’ notes have made it sound really nice, but considering my reaction to this stuff perhaps that is not a good idea.

Upton Tea Sample Buying Spree Tea #8:
More than halfway done with the Earl Grey’s – Hurrah! Specifically, all I’ve got left of the Earl Greys is the Premium, Green, and Sacher Blend – which is technically a “flavored Darjeeling,” but, since it was in the Earl Grey section at Upton, I will assume that one of the flavors is, in fact, bergamot or something bergamot-like.
This leaves are quite aromatic, probably on the level of the Blue Flower, although different in nature, of course. It smells properly Earl Greyish with a bit of extra…something thrown in.
It brewed up quite light, and on my first few sips tasted almost creamy, although that faded as I got further into the cup, to be replaced with a general floweriness that I’m not certain I approve of, although the base ceylon is VERY tasty. It leaves a rather weird taste at the back of the throat – possibly the result of too much acidity from the double citrus punch of the lemon and bergamot? I’m not really sure what I think about it, I started out quite enjoying it but that feeling faded the more I drank, until I just wanted some water by the time I was finished.

Wewt, finished another sample packet! I really want my Earl Grey Special sample to get here now though….

(Extended) Weekend Backlog One Sentence Logs: XTREEEEEEEEEEME!

Hey, I said I was making an effort to finish this.

(Extended) Weekend Backlog One Sentence Logs Continued!

Making a semi-concerted effort to finish this off – mostly it makes me miss my earl grey blue flower.

Now that it is no longer Geek Pride Day, my inner geek is safely back in its box. (don’t worry, there’s wifi! oh yeah, air holes, too)

I’m glad people enjoyed yesterday’s themed posts – they were fun to write, although they required a bit more brain power than I really want to put in the average tea note. Shout out to my pals in S Crew (yes we are very immature) who, although they do not read Steepster, deserve credit for the Star Trek technobabble which I could not have managed without their input :D (I knew I had to reverse the polarity of SOMETHING, but was kind of lost as to what).

And now, for your regularly scheduled morning tea note:

Decided to try this again since it’s been a while since the regrettable papery soap earl grey incident. While I didn’t have the negative reaction to it that I had last time, I still have to say I like the Earl Grey blue flower more – it just seems more balanced.

I still miss having a morning breakfast blend, though.

On the plus side, got notification of my Teafrog order shipping! Can’t wait!

I woke up five minutes before class, oops! Grabbed some of this on the way out to have later. This was my favorite of the Earl Greys from my first go around, so I thought it would be nice to have on a morning that started out…not optimally.

So I wrote in my first tasting quote that I love Earl Grey But Moar teas, which is why I thought this stuff was great. This time though….I got soap! I blame Tippy Earl Grey. Or perhaps the water wasn’t hot enough? I was using water cooler water, which I assume does not go all the way up to boiling. It’s kind of tempting to say that going through all of those tastings with the Golden Moon sampler has refined my palate or something, but I refuse to accept the idea that in the space of a couple of weeks my tastes have completely changed regarding Earl Grey.

I guess I’ll bring my rating down. Maybe next time it will taste good again!

In other news I have the Robot Unicorn Attack song stuck in my head. This has nothing to do with my Earl Grey tasting like soap, but it’s not making me feel any better about it.

Upton Tea Sample Buying Spree Tea #7:
I freely admit it, I am a sucker for these “Earl Grey but MORE” type of teas. Name something Earl Greyer? I’m THERE. Name it Earl Greyest? Well you better be able to back it up, is all I’m saying.
The aroma of the leaves themselves wasn’t nearly as strong as some of the others – like the Blue Flower, for example. Even the Lavender was stronger, I’d say. It brewed up a nice reddish-gold, not too dark. Although I use an ingenuiTea, so often times the color kind of accumulates on the bottom which I’m pretty sure was happening here. (I drink most of my tea in pottery mugs, rather than teacups, so I can’t generally make color judgments once it’s been poured.)
This stuff is really tasty. And has no problems cutting through my congestion. Very citrusy, maybe even a bit smoky…well, I got some hints of smoke in the aroma anyway. Very neat. I could see it being too much for those who like their teas to not stray too far from the “tea-flavored” category, but for people like me who can’t get enough Earl Greyness, it’s wonderful.

Ok, so I thought I’d try this again since I couldn’t taste anything the first time I tried it, and also tried a longer steeping time, just in case that would help.
HO-LEE SHAZBOT. I don’t know if all the lavender fell to the bottom of the pouch, if I really WAS that congested, if I let it steep to long or what, but WOAH – the lavender is overpowering this time. It gives the tea at once a perfumed and peppery taste. Looking at the leaves, there DOES seem to be quite a bit in there, so perhaps it got clumped up. Looks like this is gonna need a third tasting.

Upton Tea Sample Buying Spree Tea #6:
Chosen because my brother, with whom I have been jointly doing these tastings, is not here and this is the tea that made him make the most grossed out face. Honestly, his worries were completely baseless since (and I freely admit that this COULD be the result of congestion – although I am at least able to breath through my nose this morning so it’s not THAT bad) I couldn’t get ANYTHING out of this tea.
Seriously, it just tasted like tea. Tea-flavored tea. Perhaps lavender has the magic property of canceling out bergamot! Maybe if you made a tisane that was JUST lavender and bergamot you would get something that tasted like water! Somebody must do this…FOR SCIENCE! (I volunteer someone who is not me)
I did start to get some citrusy hints toward the end of the cup, and it certainly brewed up nice and fragrant – although fairly light colored. Definitely need to do another tasting of this one.