Upton Tea Imports

For all of my black tea drinking, I’m a relatively newbie to Ceylon teas. But I decided to break out of my Yunnan, Assam, or Darjeeling rut and give this one a try.

http://www.uptontea.com/shopcart/item.asp?from=catalog.asp&itemID=TC56&begin=0&parent=Teas%3EBlack%3ECeylon&category=Uva&sortMethod=0&categoryID=24

Koslanda has been an organic and biodynamic estate since 1992 and is located in Sri Lanka’s Uva’s District, famous for its teas and often used in blends.

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:TgdgQqD7RPsJ:www.transfairusa.org/pdfs/profiles/Koslanda-Sri%2520Lanka_04.pdf+koslanda+sri+lanka&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESg4VtXmI1NtppCt7rnAS1_Ko6SJ00x3HUauKTslJEqvzf7VM7GA1xyeMX6Mhyfh75CDiNeApjgi4S1I_Y0Y6oJYt9xZMfJHMH7tgu1lG9zKZd1TH3A-7zqS0uFtQSIDvqX0gaop&sig=AHIEtbS4ds9vRVtV6bh3u0QXvK40G-r8AA

The recommended steep time for this tea is relatively short for a black tea, three minutes, not because it’s delicate like a Darjeeling, but because this is a broken-leaf tea and with all that additional leaf-fragment surface area, this baby infuses quickly.

The liquor is rich and dark, but what’s missing is flavor. It’s not an unpleasant flavor, mind you, it’s just completely lacking. It sort of hints at being Assam, with a glimpse of maltiness, with a bright nuance reminiscent of Darjeeling, but they’re all vague hints. And the clean finish that Upton’s description mentions is really a euphemism for when you swallow, any flavor immediately disappears from your mouth — there’s no after-taste whatsoever.

That said, because the liquor is smooth and rich, it holds up to creamer and sweetener fairly well. After trying it neat, I added vanilla rice milk and agave syrup and it tasted, um, sweet and vanilla-y. But the tea was doing very little of the work here. Disappointing.

I’m finally finishing off this sample… it actually took me a few weeks because I opened it, tried it, didn’t find particularly interesting and put it away.

It’s one of the higher priced white teas that Upton offers but it just doesn’t deliver the way others do. The leaf looks like a regular Silver Needle but is shorter and partially broken. The smell is pretty generic but strong.

I’m really missing out on “velvety cocoa tones”. The flavor is somewhat dry and powdery, without sweet-mushroomy taste I usually find in most Silver Needles. Maybe it is the promised cocoa but I just don’t feel it should taste like this.

On the positive side it is quality tea, it brews very aromatic and holds 4 infusions easily. Just not my cuppa.

Having not liked this tea as much as the Ceciliyan Estate and Golden Kenya I bought with it from Upton, I put it aside while I drank those two. Now that they’re almost gone, I’ve come back to Tea Bank, and I’m getting some different flavors from it.

This tea now reminds me an awful lot of a Chinese black tea. It’s hard to characterize exactly what this means, but if you’ve had any Chinese black teas, you’ll know how different from Assams and Ceylons they tend to be. Tea Bank seems to be halfway between Ceylon and China. It also has a smokiness that I never noticed before. It has a more interesting flavor than I was getting from this tea when I first bought it, but it still isn’t as rounded and yummy as my mainstay black teas.

I used a bit more leaves than I usually do for black teas this time, and gave it 4 minutes, but it’s still not producing much flavor. Even with a normal amount of milk, it is overmollifying the tea. I may have to try this tea without milk. Still, it’s not bad, and there is some subtlety to it – slight notes of licorice and honey.

The dry leaves smell like you’d expect from a Ceylon black – smooth, with molasses as the primary scent. There is a hint of (real) black licorice, like the Panda kind. The actual brewed tea is pretty much in line with the leaf smell, and there is a very slight bready flavor in there as well. One the whole, the flavor is somewhat weak, so I’ll try steeping this for longer than 3 minutes next time and see how it works. Still, a pretty good tea.

This is another great tea. It’s spicy flavors are strong and true. Visually very appealing, the dry leaves conjure up aromas of hearty holiday good cheer. I need it because my default mode is grumpy, so it’s nice to have a transformative moment inhaling this tea.
The aroma reminds me of a strongly mulled red wine (good as far as I am concerned).

The taste does not disappoint at all. It tastes vibrant, spicy, and without having any piny odor at all, makes me feel as if I’m in an evergreen forest wassailing my heart out without irony.

This hearty, robust tea is great on its own; I added a bit of sugar and milk as I approached the bottom of the cup and the tea was still just fine—it does not really need the addition, however.

I’m tempted to use these tea leaves to experiment with adding them to heated red wine, to heated apple cider, to heated eggnog—I think that this tea is divine on its own but could be used to cook up some seriously December-y potent potations!

This tea has very strong notes of orange creamsicle. Opening the bag of dry leaves instantly brought me back to those times at Grandma’s when we would eat creamsicles on hot summer days.

It’s a pretty distinctive smell for a black tea – the sweet citrus freshens the rounded black tea flavor profile. My girlfriend said the smell remided her more of Chinese black teas than my usual Ceylons. All in all, it’s a tasty tea and a novel experience. Still, it’s not a staple tea like a Kenilworth estate – more of something to bring out once a week or to pair with food.

This tea used to be so good! A solid black tea, not too weak, with bananas!

Now, it is lemons. It is bitter, and it is bad. Milk doesn’t help it. I don’t like this anymore.

If you like lemon tea, though, it might be your thing.

This tea is bananas. I don’t know how they did it, but it’s just full of banana flavor. The smell of the leaves is like the fresh fruit, and with milk added it’s more like a dried or pureed banana – more rounded than vegetal. Add milk for an even creamier experience.

Even though it’s decaf, I might believe someone who told me that it wasn’t, if prepared carefully. It’s only a bit weaker than a regular Ceylon black tea for the same amount of leaves, and it doesn’t lose much flavor while retaining harshness like lower quality decaf teas. Recommended.

Having a cup of this one again – after my last tasting I was pretty excited to see if I got the same flavors out of it.

To my surprise… I’m getting really different vibes from it now. The dry leaves are hitting me with more of a squash aroma than a tomato one. Taste is your standard Ceylon base tea, with squash or pumpkin notes and a hint of chocolate. Overall character is bright, on the lighter end of Ceylon blacks. Still good.

Go out into your garden, pick a ripe purple heirloom tomato right off the vine, and bite in. The rich and savory smell of the tomato mixes with the vegetal scent of the vine.

Somehow, this experience is captured in the dry leaves of this tea.

As with most black teas, the actual flavor of the tea gains more “regular black tea” flavor and aroma than the dry leaves, but the rich tomatoey smell still comes through. It’s a very good tea.

Alas, poor Upton Organic Yunnan FOP Select. If I had this tea in a restaurant, I’d be delighted with it, just grateful that they served me a decent tea instead of the tannic bagged crap that’s usually served after dinner, even at good restaurants.

http://www.uptontea.com/shopcart/item.asp?from=catalog.asp&itemID=ZY54&begin=0&parent=Teas%3EBlack%3EChina&category=Yunnan&sortMethod=0&categoryID=0

But, unfortunately for Organic Yunnan FOP Select, above-average doesn’t quite cut in a world of overachievers. I’ve tasted Rishi’s Organic Ancient Tree Golden Yunnan. And, FOP Select, you’re no Rishi Golden Yunnan.

I’ve tasted Ito En’s Yunnan Golden Tips. And, FOP Select, you’re no Ito En Golden Tips either. Why, I’ve even tasted FOP Select’s brother, Upton Season’s Pick Yunnan TGFOP. And you’re not that either.

Yeah, FOP Select, you’ve got that great smooth full-bodied Yunnan finish, without that smoky quality that makes some Yunnans taste like Keemun wannabees. But where’s the malt, man? Where’s the caramel quality that comes from the tips — the buds — in the tea? Where are the qualities that make Yunnans taste like Yunnans?

FOP Select, you’re O.K., but your nothing special. You’re a C+ student in a class of A scholars. You’re the journeyman utility infielder who occasionally sees some action as a pinch hitter, but who will never start a game, let alone make “the Hall.” Yeah, they’ll come out for your retirement party, say nice things about you while you’re handed your gold watch, but your portrait will never hang in the executive dining room, the dining room in which, by the way, they serve only really fine teas (yeah, in my dreams).

FOP Select, you’re a swell tea, a tea that would delight any restaurant-goer who’s resigned himself to the fact that while upscale restaurants will serve only the best coffees, they’ll serve whatever crappy tea their distributer hands them. But, alas, in my kitchen, I get to do the tea buying and I’m afraid, FOP Select, you not only lack the pesticides and artificial fertilizers I avoid in my tea, but you also lack the taste I seek. We’ll let you know if we have any openings.

I drank what I had left of this today, and while I’m not going to move the rating down because I still think this is pretty awesome, I definitely like it better hot than chilled.

To be fair, part of the reason that I like this so much is because it reminds me of that hot chocolate I was talking about before, and drinking this cold removes that comparison. And it’s not that this tastes bad cold or anything. It’s more that the sensations become very dissonant.

There’s that spiky heat from the chilis, clashing against the cool bite from the…well, the cold. And something about those two butting heads and not really melding results in a striking sensation that I don’t really find pleasant. Spiced chai cool, I find almost calming. That feeling was absent in this cup.

This is in no way going to deter me from continuing to drink this. I’ll just be doing drinking it hot.

There’s a place in DC near the U Street Corridor called ACKC that is filled to the brim with chocolate. Their chocolate is pretty good, but the real reason I find myself trekking out there during the cold season is for their hot chocolate. It’s a good walk from the nearest metro station, which is a good thing because though I’ve never asked for the nutritional information [mostly out of fear] I’m positive it’s not the healthiest thing in the world. One of my favorite things to do when it’s chilly out is to get a cup of this stuff and wander up and down 14th street, because they have all kinds of fun, boutique-y shops over there.

They have a lot of different kinds of hot chocolate, but a quick front runner for me is what they call the Lucy, named after Lucille Ball because of her fiery personality. They add a little chipotle and cinnamon, and it gives it a nice kick that becomes especially enjoyable when the cold starts to bite at you.

Decaffeinated Chai Agni reminds me of the Lucy. It doesn’t taste so much like chocolate, which makes sense [though I do taste chocolate notes], but it is freaking good. It’s got that heat from the chili pepper and it marries well with the spices they use in the chai.

I made this like I make all of my chai – 2 cups water, 2 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp chai, 2 cups milk. I let it sit for as long as I could until the smell filled the house and I couldn’t take the waiting any more. I also stuck half of it in the fridge, so I’ll likely log my thoughts on it chilled once I drink it. It’s different from my favorite – Samovar’s Masala Chai – but not in a bad way.

So, here are my final thoughts. First and foremost: the chili. It can’t be ignored and it’s both a blessing and a curse. I’d say that more often than not, I’m going to want it without, but there are definitely times that I am going to crave that kick. The chai base is solid and good enough to stand on its own in my opinion, but that spicy heat is what makes it special.

Secondly, the fact that it’s decaffeinated is rather brilliant. Chai is more of a mid-afternoon to evening fare for me, and caffeine will keep me up longer than I want it to if I don’t time things carefully. [Funny that Carolyn just posted that stuff in the forums that mentioned that Asians metabolize caffeine more slowly.]
http://steepster.com/discuss/89-what-is-your-tea-of-choice-for-night-time

This is not only more easily accessible than hot chocolate in DC, it’s very likely better for me and cheaper both by the cup and because I avoid spending money at stores. I’m not saying that it’s a complete replacement, as there is definitely something to be said for the experience of window shopping with a friend and hot chocolate in hand, but am I going to buy some so I have it at hand when I want it immediately? Absolutely.

There’s an amazing difference between this tea plain and with milk. It’s very fresh, has a little oaky taste. Much better with milk. An all around good tea for you Ceylon-istas

Not exactly the one I have, I have Darjeeling FTGPOPI Diwali and I love this tea.

This is wonderful. Great for after dinner. Blends well with other teas. You get alot for your money, so buy the smallest amount.

This is a really messy tea. No matter how I have brewed this…a mess in the infuser. I not a fan of Chamomile. It is a beautiful tea, just not my cuppa.

Apple pieces make for a delicious cup of herbal tea. I use this at bedtime, very refreshing. Tart but not too sweet.

12/09/09 I added 1 teaspoon of cinnamon fire. Brewed for 3 minutes and I have a wonderfully smooth cup of tea. I don’t seem to like this tea by itself anymore. I am on my second infusion and will try for a third before the evening gets too late.
12/28/09 Smooth. Tasty. Great with chocolate

LOVE it Love it. what more can I say

Very nice, gentle green with a vegie/floral/new dried grass scent, a slightly sweet, somewhat asparagus taste

Brewed in a pot this time.
I’m definitely getting more promised fruitiness now, even light aroma is present. Better but still far from great.
Looks like this tea isn’t supposed to be brewed in a gaiwan, too much heat dissipation which affects the taste.
I’m upping the rating a bit.