Upton Tea Imports

I kind of want to reserve judgment on this, because I’m drinking it not long after a workout and I’m feeling a bit dehydrated, but.. for as slowly as I’m drinking it, it’s very tasty. I was expecting more of a cocoa taste, but this cup seems to be more spicy and sweet. That’s fine by me; I love anything with cardamom.

Thanks to JacquelineM for this sample! More to come.

You all would be proud of me – I took my tiny cheesemaking thermometer (smaller than a pen!) to work so I could make greens and oolongs! It wasn’t any trouble at all. This was my first one (and I do mean first one – I’ve never brewed green tea myself!).

It brewed to a beautiful golden color. It’s not very vegetal or very smoky. It’s not bitter. It’s a very solid tea :) but it’s not blowing me away. I would drink it again but probably not go out of my way to repurchase. I’ll be able to give better reviews once I’m familiar with more greens.

Needed something sweet after dinner, so I made chai drinking chocolate! 1tsp chai steeped in 1/3c milk (the hottest you can get it w/ scorching and making a mess), then added 3TB drinking chocolate mix. Sooo good…

New leaves. White chocolate spiced rum chai latte. 1tsp chai/1TB white chocolate creamer/1TB spiced rum creamer/3oz milk. I was hoping the white chocolate would bring out the complexity of the spices and the spiced rum creamer would increase them, but it didn’t work. Basically a sweet, slightly spicy milk w/ a very light tea taste.

Same leaves from last nite. 2nd steep, 7 min, 6oz water + 1TB spiced rum creamer. I added spiced rum creamer instead of milk because I’m hoping it will give the chai the depth it was lacking clean. I increased the steeping time by 2 min instead of one to make sure that the chai stood up to the creamer since the 1st infusion was lighter than I expected. Disappointed. I think I might be getting a hint of warmth from the chili, but beyond that it’s just watered down spiced rum creamer.

Got a bit of this from Carolyn!=D A lot have you have probably heard me talk about this one. I love a chai w/ chili and this one is even better because it doesn’t have any licorice or fennel. My only beef is that it’s decaf. Caffeine and tea to me are kinda like alcohol and beer (except I don’t drink beer lol) to me, unless there’s a medical reason or religious conviction not to consume the 1st, I don’t see a reason not to:)

I tweaked the steeping parameters just a bit. Because some of the weight is spices, I used 1tsp (~2.5g) and heated the water to just below boiling because I didn’t want to kill the health benefits of the tea.

Taken clean. Inspite of using slightly more tea than suggested the liquor is a dark reddish brown, lighter than I expected. The aroma is typical of a chai. Hmmm… Interesting… The tea base is quite strong and spice is the chili. The other spices provide a light warmth, but are lighter than in most chais I’ve had. I’ll have it w/ milk tomore before giving my final decison.

This tea is very highly rated on the Upton website so I purchased a sample. Its a good tea but for the price its not something I would purchase again. I can get 800g of Z010 ‘China Oolong Se Chung’ for the price of 125g of this and I find the ZO10 to be a tastier tea…easy shopping choice.

This is a tea made for milk, it is quantifiably better with than without. There is a definite tomato taste and scent, in the very nicest of ways and I think I caught a whiff of mint. Very, very nice tea.

Trying to finish up the sample tin (can’t bear to just pitch tea.) Drank with warm milk and a scant teaspoon of brown sugar. This combination helped to mute the artificial cranberriness, making for a reasonably palatable drink. Not changing my rating, however, as the base blend, on its own, is not good.

Heading for the red yucky face, I’m afraid, with this one. Dry leaves have a very strong medicinal aroma—like red cough drops. Found 2 dried cranberries in the sampler tin, so artificial flavoring seems to be the culprit. Liquor also has strong off-putting aroma. The liquor itself seems syrupy and has an almost cloying aftertaste. I probably won’t even finish the sampler tin. Most unfortunate.

I’ve been trying to branch out from my regular Ceylons and try teas from less established tea growing locales like Sumatra and Kenya recently. The teas have been generally good quality, so far.

Liki OP is a good tea, comparable in a lot of ways to your standard Ceylon. The molasses notes are there, but more subdued than something like my usual Kandies. The flavor in general is very slightly milder – the Upton description says to take it without milk, but I think it holds up nicely. Overall the flavor is a bit brighter than your average Ceylon. It doesn’t hit you in the face with some crazy aroma, but it’s a solid and well rounded tea.

Very rich and malty, with a peaty/earthy smell.