Upton Tea Imports

Smells good in the bag, I keep sticking my face in there and enjoying the aroma. It actually kind of smells almost more like a Chinese tea to me. The leaves are cut very small, and expand greatly while steeping.
Taste: it has a somewhat typical UK breakfast flavor, but i’m getting spice-like notes that remind me of clove. Pretty refreshing iced.

This one surprised me with a surprising smokey/bbq flavor that I was not expecting (that is not a negative). Very robust and strong. From the smell i was thinking it’d be very Yunnan tasting, but this tea kind of has its own thing going on. I think it is good on it’s own, but I can see why they recommend milk with it, which I am going to have to try.

Oh snap, first tea review in a year! I took a long tea buying break to try and drink down my supply, and a year later my cabinet is still overflowing with tea…a good problem to have I guess.
I got this and a bunch of English/Scottish/Irish breakfast style teas for iced tea during the hot days of late Summer (if you read my old reviews, I turned into an iced tea fiend the past couple of years). This is the first one I’m trying of the batch. It’s a winner. Brews up strong nice and quick. Smooth for it’s strength. Tastes nice and malty to me, which I expected. Kind of gives my mouth a drying sensation on the tail end. I’d definitely buy it again, if there isn’t anything similar selling for way cheaper.

This was 2014th pick given to me in a swap and I must say that it was a rather disappointing 1st flush tea, regardless of time elapse between plucked and drank. Drinkable, but not wanting to sip through this again. This tea misses out on all the high notes that give a tea its name and fame.

For my third cupping of this tea, I reduced the temperature as well as the steep time. This brought out a pleasant smokiness in the flavor, but seemed to leave the overall flavor underdeveloped. Having run through my entire sample of the tea, at this point, I still feel that there is potential in this tea that I have not fully explored, so I will probably purchase another sample in order to continue attempting to bring out its full characteristics.

Overall, I felt this tea was very promising. The dry leaves had a pleasant scent; the tea brewed to a rich deep red color and had a delicious flavor, but in this steeping, there was just a shade too much astringency for my taste. I will slightly reduce the steeping time in my next steeping. I hope that, with that minor adjustment, I will be able to recommend this tea.

Just a morning cuppa.

a great tea!

when i smell the leaves dry, they have a musty peachy smell.

when i smell the leaves wet, they have a sweet peachy smell.

when i smell the brewed tea, it has a sweet peachy smell too.

when i taste the brewed tea, i taste sweetness, floral and peaches.

i rate this tea a 100 because its just awesome.

My second steeping of this tea was a significant improvement over the first. I reduced both the temperature and the time, resulting in elimination of the unpleasant burnt flavor that ruined my previous pot. Piping hot, the flavor was extremely good; like many blacks, this tea increases in astringency as it cools, which resulted in my last half-cup being quite difficult to swallow, the only negative note in this otherwise very enjoyable pot.

After being thoroughly impressed with the scents of this tea as well as the flavor of the first few sips, I quickly encountered disappointment—not with the tea itself, but with the fact that, in steeping with boiling water, I seem to have burnt the tea. In spite of the burnt flavor, I could tell that this is a great tea; I will have to wait until I find a better steeping temperature before I can recommend it, however.

The luscious scent of this tea never ceases to amaze me. My current batch seems a bit weak in flavor in comparison with the previous one, but it’s still highly recommended!

This delicious tea really hit the spot on a damp fall morning!

One of my all-time favorite teas. As soon as you open the package, enrapturing scents of chocolate and cardamom wash over you. One of a handful of teas that I keep in my cupboard at all times!

After my highly disappointing first tasting of this tea, I decided to try using a reduced steeping temperature this time around. The results were a marked improvement—the astringency was reduced significantly, allowing me to get a much better sense of the flavor of the tea. I was still not particularly impressed, but it was much more palatable than my previous tasting.

I accidentally purchased two samples of this tea (I purchased a sample of it, not noticing that the “Introduction to Fine Tea Sampler” that I ordered at the same time also included a sample of this tea), so I was very much hoping that I would like it. Unfortunately, I was severely disappointed with my first tasting—the flavor was bland and boring, and the beginning of my second cup was quite bitter. I hope I can find a brewing method that produces better results; otherwise, these samples may sit in my cupboard for a very long time.

From dry leaf to final sip, this tea evokes all the best of autumn campfires. The dry leaves have a strong and wonderful aroma of wood smoke. This odor passes directly through to the cup with very little modification. The smoke odor and flavor are strong but never acrid. I did find this infusion to be a bit watery and plan to extend the steeping time to 4:15 for my next tasting. A hint of sweetness is left on the palate for a pleasant finish. I will certainly purchase more of this tea when the sample packet I ordered has been depleted.

not to good of a tea.

too green and vegatal for me is all i will say

I think I finally found the right preparation for this tea. Unfortunately, my sense of smell is severely compromised due to sinus issues at the moment, so I still can’t fully appreciate this tea. From what I can tell, the flavor is much better-developed than in my first tasting, but the astringency of the second tasting has been avoided.

In my first tasting of this tea, I noted promising flavors that seemed underdeveloped after steeping for 3:30. For this tasing, I steeped for 4:00, which seems to have swung the pendulum too far in the opposite direction—those underdeveloped flavors were completely masked by an unpleasant bitterness that was completely absent in my previous tasting. I will continue to experiment with steeping time and temperature for this tea, but for now, I still cannot recommend it.

I chose this Darjeeling for my first tasting of a tea from Upton’s “Introduction to Fine Tea” sampler. My steeping time of 3:30 seems to have been a bit too short for this tea—I detected delicate hints of greatness that seemed not to have fully developed. For my next tasting, I will give the steeping a bit more time.

The dry leaf has a fruity scent with robust nutty undertones. The wet leaf had a fairly weak scent when hot, but cooled to a pleasantly sweet, fruity scent with floral notes. The cup was a light reddish brown; the mild taste hinted at delicious fruity and nutty flavors that I hope will develop more fully with a longer steeping.