Upton Tea Imports

I’m very disappointed with this one.

The description sounds very enticing, the dry leaf looks absolutely beautiful and the price is high enough to expect good quality tea. I don’t know, it might still be of great quality but it tastes close to Snow Bud and has no aroma whatsoever. It’s flat, boring and totally forgettable.

I brewed it according to Upton’s recommendations and think they are about right because the tea didn’t seem to be over-steeped at all.

Particularly good

Upton’s organic Yunnan Shui Jiu is one of those Yunnan congous (Chinese black teas) that answers the question, “What the hell are those tea reviewers talking about when they refer to a Yunnan as spicy or peppery?” This tea definitely has a peppery finish (think black pepper, not cayenne) that’s attributed to so many Yunnans, but which seem to never be there when you taste the taste the tea for yourself.

This is available from Upton’s utilitarian website at http://www.uptontea.com/shopcart/item.asp?from=catalog.asp&itemID=ZY65&begin=0&parent=Teas%3EBlack%3EChina&category=Yunnan&sortMethod=0&categoryID=14

The tea’s catalog number is ZY65, an important thing to know since Upton imports a whopping 22 different Yunnan teas, five of them organic like this one.

From what I could guess from an online translating website, “shui jiu” means “black jade water,” although, because Chinese is a tonal language where intonations can change the meaning of words, the transliterated name can also mean “chronically diseased handkerchief” or “to sleep with your maternal uncle.” (And my friends want to know why white boy, yours truly, has given up any hope of ever learning Mandarin despite spending much of his weekend hanging out in New York’s Chinatown.)

Yunnan produces a big variety of teas — green teas, pu-ehrs, and congous — all from the same type of plant, the large-leafed assamica varietal. Even among the black Yunnans, the variety is diverse, encompassing everything from caramel-like golden tips, rich malty teas made from two-leaf, one-bud pluckings, and Shui Jiu, which is rich and smokey, with a smooth peppery finish.

While Yunnans are well-regarded black teas, among the best in the world, they live in the shadow of Darjeelings, the so-called champagne of teas, and Keemums (Qimens), the so-called burgundy of teas, largely, I’m convinced, because those other teas are the darlings of the British tea-drinking set, who traditionally shaped the black tea market. That said, however, I think Yunnans are right up there in quality.

Yunnan may be the oldest tea-producing region in the world, with tea production going back more than a thousand years, some of it today harvested in the wild from full-grown tea trees that are more than 1,300 years old. Nevertheless, the region has only been producing black teas since about 1939, almost all of it to satisfy foreign markets. The locals themselves gravitate more toward pu-ehrs — aged, fermented teas — or toward green teas (think Rishi Emerald Lily). http://www.rishi-tea.com/store/ancient-emerald-lily-organic-fair-trade-green-tea.html

While Upton doesn’t mention a pekoe grade for this tea, it’s tippier (has more buds) than an FOP Yunnan I have at home, although perhaps not as tippy as a TGFOP Yunnan I also have. I’m guessing then that it’s probably somewhere in the neighborhood of a GFOP. It looks nothing like the photo from Upton, by the way, which makes it look very green. It’s actually a deep brown.

Upton describes the tea as having a medium concentration of golden buds, but I’m not sure what “medium” means in this case. Teas are plucked using prescribed methods — finely plucked using two leaves and a bud, imperially plucked using one leaf and one bud — so the bud to leaf percentage should always be theoretically known, 33 percent, 50 percent, whatever. Your guess is as good as mine what “medium” means.

I steeped Shui Jiu for the recommended five minutes with water straight from the boil. The liquor was a very dark brown. The infusion (the wet leaves) was medium dark. (I’m not sure why it’s customary to note the color of infusions in tea reviews. The color doesn’t always correlate to the liquor and, hey, we don’t eat the infusion. I mean, at least I don’t.)

The smokiness was for me a departure from the malty quality I associate with Yunnans based on others I’ve tried. (I regularly drink Rishi’s Golden Yunnan and Itoen’s all-tip Yunnan Gold). The taste was pleasant, and not overwhelming the way I find the smokiness in Lapsang Souchong, a tea I’m not fond of at all).

The smokiness did, however, obscure most of any malty notes, but the texture was smooth, a quality that I think differentiates Yunnans from other often-malty teas, such as Assams. Shui Jiu was a nice change-of-pace from the other Yunnans that I drink almost daily, but it lacks that comfort food, malty quality that makes Yunnans so good.

There’s enough body in the tea to stand up to milk, soy milk or Rice Dream, but I’m not sure the smokiness of the tea would really lend itself to a creamer.

If you like a smokey Keemun or searching for that Yunnan that really has a pepper finish, this could be your tea. As for me, I’ll enjoy it while I have my sample, but it’s not going to eclipse my other Yunnans.

Got a sampler of this recently and gave it a try in a head-to-head taste test with two other recommended assam teas from Upton. This one had beautiful colors in the leaves, with orange, yellow mixed in with the black. The brew is dark and a bold flavor. It has some spicy notes, some astringency, some maltiness and fruity notes. It’s a good blend of flavors and a bold assam. Their description says the dry environment in India this year resulted in strong teas. So you may want milk with yours. I tried it black with raw cane sugar as sweetener.

This is very Silver-Needle-like tea. It’s mellow and sweet with a hint of Darjeeling flavor. I can definitely taste first flush here and catch spring flowers aroma.

The reason I didn’t give this tea 100 rating is that only the first 2 infusions really shined. I did 4 and upped the steeping time accordingly but still couldn’t get the intensity of flavor I appreciate. By all means it’s exquisite tea and really deserves attention but I just don’t feel it’s 100% worth the price, maybe next year harvest will live up to it.

I’m adding this to my rotation nevertheless, it’s too good to pass on.

This is my favorite tea from Upton and among my favorite of all teas. It’s so reasonably-priced relative to how complex and interesting it is. The aroma has woody tones, a hint of skunkiness, and at times seems a bit like a red wine. It has a pleasant bite to it, and the aroma is more than a bit unusual. Although I liked it the first time I tried it, it has grown on me a great deal.

This tea can be brewed many different ways, and I always brew it for multiple infusions. I think connoisseurs of oolongs would do well to try this one…in my opinion it ranks among the best of the greener oolongs.

Trying this once again and finding it too strong and at 2:15 steep time it does have some very noticeable astringency in it. I am realizing I’m putting too much leaf in my brew or this tea really does need some dairy to tame it down. I’m not enjoying this very much. Rating is going down some more as a result.

This morning I’m drinking this tea. I’m not sure if I made it too strong or what but it’s tasting pretty poor to me. It’s strong and more astringent than what I noted before. It’s almost a sour/bitter aftertaste. I came close to tossing it out but hung in there. I may have to go get another mug to offset this unpleasant experience. Not really sure what happened given my previous tasting note. The rating is dropping as a result.

I’ve been into assams teas lately. Early on in my “turn on” to loose leaf teas I didn’t like assam teas. I found them bitter. Then I discovered that not all Assams are equivalent. And I discovered that if you steep for 2 or at most 2 1/2 minutes you prevent most of the bitterness. What little is left can be masked with a splash of milk. Take a good tippy assam, steep two minutes, add some sweetener and you can have a really delicious tea.

I was recommended this particular assam by the Upton Tea CS manager. I recommend this tactic for any tea shop. Find an experienced tea buyer or someone who knows the shops teas very well, tell them what you like and ask for suggestions. It works quite well.

As the description for this tea states, it’s a strong assam. The leaves are thicker than most assams, with tight kinks in it. It’s partially broken but still large chunks remain. I like a chunky leaf tea. The brew is dark and bold. I steeped a tad over 2 minutes and I don’t taste any bitterness. This is a great strong assam. I am trying it with just some Stevia sweetner, no milk. It’s really a great flavor. It has some malty character to it but the flavor it has is very good. I am

Having a cup of this as my after lunch tea. It’s a darker Yunnan with small broken particles and a golden Yunnan leaning in it’s flavor.

Just got this new (for me) tea in from Upton. I was looking for a replacement to a Yunnan I had from last year (2008) but it too was a seasonal pick and therefore no longer available. The friendly CS dept manager at Upton pointed me to this tea as a possible replacement.

Like some other teas, Yunnans seem to come in various shades (amounts) of golden colored leaves. I was looking for a darker less golden version to offset my collection of golden leaf Yunnans. This tea surprised me in that it’s a more broken leaf than I was expecting. It says FBOP grade but I’m not always sure how broken is “broken”. This has small particles. The color is darker with some tips mixed in. The flavor for me is more golden flavored than the appearance would suggest. So the distinctive flavor of a golden Yunnan is stronger than I was expecting but it’s a very good flavor… just not quite what I was looking for in a darker leaf Yunnan.

My after lunch tea today is this fine varietal. Opening a new bag of this, I was then surprised that I had already sampled this tea from a small sampler bag. Once again I find this tea is outstanding! The leaf is med-long, finely twisted and beautiful with it’s golden tips. The aroma of the dry leaf is wonderful. The light smoky caramel is nicely pronounced. I brewed for 3 minutes and sweetened with one Splenda packet. The brew is golden amber, medium darkness. The flavor is outstanding, clearly rivaling my all-time favorite golden yunnan from Tao of Tea called Emporer’s Gold. It has the slight smokey but caramel flavor with spicey notes thrown in. I will have to do a taste test between the two to determine the champion. In the mean time I’m going to really enjoy this mug of tea on this cold cloudy winter day. If you enjoy golden or tippy yunnan teas and you get a chance to try this congou from Hubei, you won’t be disappointed!

My order from Upton arrived today so even though I don’t usually drink black teas at night, I was anxious to sample at least one of the teas I had purchased. I selected this tea from the batch.

It’s a Chinese tea, my favorite country source of tea, from the province of Hubei. I’ve had Congou tea before but I don’t recall ever having a golden tipped tea from there. This particular tea was recommended by Karen Park in the Upton CS dept. She stated it was currently an office favorite there and brewed up every day. I can see why! This tea is outstandingly yummy.

The aroma from this tea is wonderful. It smells almost good enough to eat. Once brewed, the liquor is darker golden color and the flavor has a slight smokey-bacon flavor. That may sound odd and even distasteful, especially to a vegetarian like me but the flavor is really good. It reminds me of a green tea I used to be able to get called Chinese Beauty Rings… green tea wrapped around chop sticks and having a slight hint of smokiness like this one. This one is a similar flavor but stronger and more complex. I highly recommend this tea!

Tastes of honey and pineapple and a bit of earthines. Really enjoyed it

This is quite nice – White Peony with a kick.
Smokey, with a hint of spices but still on the mellow side.
Holds two infusions easily.

Unbelievable.
I just did the 5th infusion of this tea (I usually don’t go beyond 4 even with oolongs) and it’s only starting to loose the flavor. I was not very generous on the leaf either, I like my teas light.

I can’t get enough of this tea… and used leaf smells so good I feel sorry to throw it away.

I just received my order of white tea samples from Upton. This is the first tea I fished out of the box.
The description says it was grown in Assam region so I was very curious to try it because I really enjoy white Darjeelings and like the idea of white tea having characteristics of black tea.
The aroma coming from the bag is intoxicating, it smells like black tea with a touch of honey. The dry leaf is similar to Silver Needle but a bit darker in color and is bald, doesn’t have any hairs at all.
I brewed this in a Gaiwan. The brew is darker as well and tastes exactly like it smells – black tea, notes of honey and almost no Silver Needle sweetness.
I’m on the 4th steeping right now and it’s still flavorful. Amazing.
I’ll be adding this tea to my regular white tea rotation, no doubt here.

Quite excellent with just a little sugar. Nice tannins, and good, robust darjeeling flavor. Be careful of oversteeping, though, as the muscatel flavor can become overpoweringly grapey.

Bold and robust. Perfect on a cold evening or cloudy day.

Finishing up my sample. Totally forgettable. I can’t even say I’m drinking white tea, it tastes not only like green but like cheap green.
The second infusion is even worse, it lost all the lightness and fruitiness this tea had initially.

White tea that looks and feels like a light version of green tea.
Fruity aroma and vegetal taste.

The tea is a brilliant chartreuse with little pieces of bright green popped rice and roasted rice kernels. It brews up into a pale cloudy green brew that smells delightfully roasty and has a light rounded roasted, slightly salty taste. There are other notes that have a very light sweetness to them as well.