Upton Tea Imports

I can smell the tropical fruit in this before, during, and after the infusion. The coloring of the liquid is a medium brown with orange hues. I can taste more floral than fruit but you can still tell the fruit is there…enough to make it sweet…but the aftertaste goes more back towards the floral linger. This is fairly good.

Finishing up my sample from the TTB…FULL Strength tea today…just want I need! Woot! Woot!

Another TTB Tea…yay!

This reminded me of one of Adagio’s…but for the life of my I can’t remember which one! LOL

Anyhow…it’s bold and full…a little bitter, but by design…Not much for scent but it makes up in the full and busty taste! Pretty Good.

The nose on this is a little spicy, but the actual flavor is not. It’s a nice rounded taste that appeals to me even though I am usually not a huge fan of Chinese black teas. There is a hint of bitterness but no astringency to match, which is a little out of the ordinary for a black tea. There is some cedar in the smell and it is reminding me of Christmas past; the old chest my family kept the Christmas ornaments in was made of cedar.

As the tea cools a bit, I’m even getting a little more bitterness and a bit of spicy heat on the finish. Like… straight cinnamon. There’s a little dissonance going on in the aftertaste now – like a very mild version of drinking OJ after brushing your teeth. It’s not quite as nice as it was when it was hot.

A pretty interesting, yet solid tea. Just drink it before it gets cold.

When I opened this, I just went “Who-ho-hoa!”. This has a really interesting smell. It’s complex but not at all understated. Really, extremely smoky for a (presumably) non-smoked tea. Sort of like creosote. The actual flavor is something like a pumped-up green or oolong. This tea has woody notes and a respectable amount of bitterness and astringency. If you have been wishing that greens or oolongs could take milk, this one might be worth a try for you.

All in all, I’m glad I have this tea, but it’s definitely an interesting tea more than a purely delicious one.

I think I’ve figured this tea out. If you were to smell the leaves after they have been put in boiling water for only a few minutes, you might find them to smell low-quality or even a little bit disgusting. Kenilworth OP is just not good for longer steeps, and definitely not second steeps; the leathery, morning-breath stench of spent leaves becomes dominant.

That said, this is not a bad tea at all, if you work within these constraints. It’s very fresh, invigorating, and somewhat full in flavor if you are careful to keep the steep under 3:30. If you do wind up with an infusion that feels oversteeped, try giving it a minute. As it cools, much of the unpleasantness and some of the astringency will go away.

If treated right, this is one of the best black teas I’ve had for its low price.

Kenilworth Estate OP has long been one of my favorites, and its very reasonable price makes it my first recommendation to anyone who wants to try a good black tea.

To me, this is the dictionary definition of black tea. It’s slightly molassessy and very smooth. It’s also got that “brisk” flavor that Lipton likes to talk about. This briskness is a very nice thing, and relatively few black teas have it. So if you have drank Lipton Hot Tea and liked parts of the flavor but wished it was a bit richer and didn’t burn your throat from the astringency or taste like dirt with lemon juice when it got under your tongue… you should try this tea.

The things I don’t like about this tea are that the brew is a little bit thin, and a hint of the “spent leaves” flavor was coming out after just 4 minutes. Playing around with the timing can probably come close to getting rid of these problems, though – I recall preferring a 3 min steep and a little bit more leaves last time I had this.

I hadn’t had this for several months, so I’d been really looking forward to getting it in my latest Upton order. Since Kenilworth is such a large producer of tea with apparently few varieties, I think that a fair portion of the reviews for other Kenilworth OPs are reviews for this exact tea.

I’m not sure what’s up with me recently, I’ve been craving a lot of chai. Since it’s a bit of a PitA to make, when I don’t feel up to making it I have my standby instant tea (so I haven’t been logging much).

So I’ve been looking for a chawan to properly drink matcha and finally found one that I liked at Upton Tea Importers. Since I was placing an order, I HAD to buy some tea… right?

Opening the bag and smelling this one, I knew I was in for a treat. I usually don’t write about dry leaves (oh, yeah, tea leaves; they smell) but this blend made me want to jump in the bag with them. SO GOOD – mostly like chocolate. Yum.

This simmered on the stovetop (with milk and sugar) longer than I normally make chai for – I was puttering about in the kitchen making a pitcher of iced tea for the husband and doing other random things.

The taste…. it’s a tossup if I prefer this or Adagio’s Masala Chai. Adagio’s has a strong spice “bite” to it, while this is smooth and rich. I’ll probably end up keeping both in my cabinet for the foreseeable future and pulling out whichever my mood calls for.

The chocolate is still there, though it’s no longer dominant. It’s allowing the other flavors to play (though I’m not tasting cinnamon). So good!

As with Upton’s Lychee Black tea, this makes a fabulous iced tea.

The lychee flavor is quite strong—as a hot tea, I would only want it once in a great while. However, it makes a wonderful iced tea, cold brewing method recommended.

Resteep for a scant 3.5 min, 180F. What a difference 30 sec makes. No bitterness, a pale liquor and fresh, mild taste. Resolution to get it right on first steep next time. Would like to get a bit more flavor.

My first pi lo chun. The liquor was still very pale at 3 min, so I let it go 4 min, which yielded bitter tea — but not too bitter to drink. I’ll try 3.5 min next time. This tea looks and smells very promising, in spite of my mistake.

Not feeling well today. Didn’t go to work, but I must go to school for a test! Making this tea to help me study :) Light on the bergamot, but sweet (the one teaspoon of sugar I added was almost too much!), with a touch of smoke which is really nice on such a cold day.

All gone now!

This is really, really nice, especially for a decaf. I had it with some vanilla soy creamer and sweetened it just a little bit. It is a little weaker than a non-decaf, but has a strong bergamot flavor and was just right for evening.

This has a delicious flavor, but as another reviewer mentioned, I’m not getting the creamy notes. I like this quite a bit. It has strength and richness. I will probably buy some more of this when there is room in the cabinets again.

I first tasted this tea as part of a sampler set (British Blend Sample SB11) that I purchased last year. This tea alone was good enough to convince me that I ought to try some other teas from Upton. I have a hard time explaining why I like this blend so much. I remember saying something uninspired along the lines of, “It tastes like tea!” So many mild afternoon blends are so bland that they end up tasting like slightly stagnant tap water. The Richmond Park Blend tastes like tea. It still tastes like tea if milk, honey, or sugar are added, but I usually drink it with a splash of soymilk and no sweetener.

I had this last night, prepared the traditional way boiled in a mixture of water and milk. It is well worth the trouble to prepare chai this way! It brought out the spiciness of this tea very well.

I brewed this as I normally do a black tea. Put in freshly boiled water from the microwave and guess how long it’s brewed. Taste and let brew longer if not strong enough.

Enough about the technicalities. After adding a dash of soy cream and a little sweetener I proceded to taste. The first taste wasn’t real spicy, but by the second or third sip, it had quite a kick to it!! I enjoyed it a lot and I will definitely use up the rest of my sample. I’m thinking that I should try preparing it like a traditional chai, but that sounds like an aweful lot of work for tonight, so that might have to wait for another day.

This is a wonderful dessert tea, nice with some sugar cookies or other simple pastry.

A great cuppa even after it has been sitting around in the pot for 10 minuets. Takes a bit of milk and sugar just wonderfully. One of my favorite get up and go cups.

Rainy windy day – came into work SOAKED. I thought drinking multiple steeps of an oolong sounded pretty much perfect on a day like today

Leaves smell much like a green tea. Crazy wavy looking leaves (much like my HAIR after getting stuck in the rain!!!!)

1st: 3 minutes – Beautiful golden color – I LIKE :) Sweet and smooth. Just the slightest bit woody – a bare hint. Nothing like the strength of the woody nutty flavor I got from the Formosa Amber Oolong from Upton. As it cools, this touch of woody dissapears.

2nd: 4 minutes – more of the same – slightly sweeter and the wood is gone. Still a brilliant golden color. Still delicious!

3rd: 5 minutes – can’t believe how golden the tea still is! I am tasting more floral and sweetness. Really nice. I think I’m going to have lunch after this cup, but plan to make more this afternoon :) I’ll edit this post with what I taste!

EDIT: 4th: 8ish minutes (with a student and lost track of time!) Very nice but lighter. I can sense that the flavor is fading but it’s very enjoyable still. I’ve had enough for today, but I could see going at least one more time!