Upton Tea Imports

I’ve been having a little bit of an end of the month sipdown party over here, & this is another one. I’m staying in tonight, so I can a few end of the month things done in my office, including updating my tea list & printing out the new ‘Menu’. I’d like to believe that I’m ending the month with less teas than I started with, but that may not be true, as I’ve received several care packages from friends.

Oh, & I’d like to publicly apologize to the people I said I’d send out samples to, and also to the people who have sent me teas that I haven’t gotten around to drinking & posting about yet. I haven’t forgotten you or your teas, I promise!

So the first steeping of this tea is very tasty, fruity, & satisfying. The resteep is just ok.

I really enjoyed this tea, especially the first cup. I was teaching at the time, so I can’t really remember much, but the flavor was rich & luckily, I’ll get to drink it again, & I promise I’ll try to be more present next time!

Here’s a sipdown from the Steepster Select Box. I’m no longer a member of that group, although the select decoration is still attached to my name tag.
Anyway, this is floral, musky, fruity, & woody.

I’m on the re-steep of this tea, & although I don’t always love Darjeelings, I don’t hate them all either. This one is actually pretty nice, with a musky fruity quality, & a tart aftertaste, like apricot. It comes from the Steepster Select box for February.
I’m still working at my desk, & have completed a few tasks that I’ve been avoiding (I don’t know why I avoid these things, they are never hard to do, & never take long either).
Now on to a few errands, & then more desk work.

i went to my friend’s house today. we had a campfire and we made some of this tea western style with a big cooking pot for boiling the water, a smaller pot and a big strainer to strain the leaves in. this tea has aged for about a year, (well i think it aged and they say it can). so i think it has aged a fair bit. i can tell because the smokeyness of the dry leaves is a lot weaker but more in an aged way. the tea also tastes a tad weaker but in an aged way. the water did not reach a full boil but steeped well

my friend’s wife did not like the smell of the dry leaves too much (nor did their kids, who really did not like it and thought it smelled stinky) but said the tea was ok but shes going to stick to her teas. me and her had a small discussion on how this tea is made too.

we had no marshmallows or wieners today.

i had fun!

note: the gram amount and water volume are estimates

so I had this tea with my friend at his house using boiled water from a campfire. I also had some chips and hotdogs :D

i’ll do a full review from the get go:

when i open the pack, the tea smells like campfire, pine, nike shoes and basketballs :)

when i steep the leaves, they smell is a tad bit weaker. (same with the steeped tea)

when i taste it, it tastes really good.

real men drink this smokey tea :)

Great Flavor. Good change over from Upton’s organic peppermint so I don’t build up too much of a tolerance to it’s strength.

I wasn’t a fan. It had an over powering sweet smell to me and that’s really not what I look for in a good cup of tea. My girlfriend loved it and I’m in no way a connoisseur of tea so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Great Flavor. Strong on the cinnamon. Light on the Chai. But still great with some sugar and milk!

I really love all things mint flavored. So just from that point of view this tea is great for me. It’s a strong peppermint without much of an earthy flavor to it. It just tastes like clean, pure peppermint to me. Id’ definitely recommend this to any peppermint tea lovers out there.

This was a tea that the wonderful MissB added to my BF shared order package.

I’m always hunting for my perfect chai. This isn’t it, but this is really good. I really like the spice blend in this one. The spices are really well balanced for me. This is really good. What it’s not is caffeinated – I LIKE caffeine – I drink it from the time I get up in the morning, until I go to bed at night. This also has a really thin mouth feel, for me chai should be thick and rich.
Really good chai, but not perfect…..

From The Traveling Tea Box

A very nice Breakfast Blend. I wouldn’t mind it if it was a bit more malty but its still very nice and soon to be come a staple.

I’m not a fan of OPs generally, and this did nothing to change my mind. I took it with me as a travel tea though and admit I was grateful to have tea that tasted like tea at all, since you just never know what you’ll get.

The taste reminds me of a green tea, like an oolong. But the color is white. Fruity strawberry notes at the end.

In some ways it’s funny that I prefer Upton Russian Caravan to Baker Street Blend. Since I much prefer darjeeling to oolong, and Baker Street switches out the latter for the former, it should be a blend made in heaven for me: lapsang souchong, darjeeling, and keemun.

It’s good, no doubt, but the grassiness of the darjeeling makes the unadulterated liquor of the brewed Baker Street (dark amber colored—a bit lighter than the Russian Caravan) just a bit less smooth and pleasant than the unadulterated Russian Caravan.

With cream, however, this is also very nice. I’d recommend Baker Street for those who like lapsang souchong straight, since it is more marked in this blend than in Russian Caravan. For those who find lapsang souchong too smoky, this Baker Street Blend might be as well.

There is one problem with my comparison, however. The Russian Caravan in my tea cupboard is Upton’s higher grade (T70 not T60), which they own is prepared using higher quality teas (presumably in the same proportions). So in some ways I may be comparing apple and oranges, except that Upton does not seem to have a higher-grade Baker Street Blend, which would be the fair comparison.

Anyway, this is still a fine afternoon tea—but much more of lapsang than keemun or darjeeling. I’d be interested to find out the proportions used of the three in this blend.

First steep reminds me of a very smooth English breakfast, with a slight bitter aftertaste that goes well with the tea. Second steep is a bit more complex with cinnamon and clove undertones. A very nice cup of black tea.

With scents of warm, comforting toasted kasha and a bright, woody flavor, I’m really enjoying this tea. It’s more astringent than some of my other favorites, and that seems to really work with its bright, lemon note. Unfortunately, this is the sort of tea that can dull my tastebuds for a couple of days, so I’ll have to lay off of it for a while.

Ahhhhh this is the type of black tea that is my happy zone. The kind that makes me take smaller sips just so that the cup will last longer.
Malty and rich, with just a hint of astringency. Not flowery, but perhaps hinting towards that edge.
It makes me sad that I’ve only got a sample, especially since none of my other black teas hit the bulls-eye of my preference so accurately. If I was to break my buying ban, it would be for this, or at the very least something that I hope could fill in the gap!
There is atleast one more cup’s worth, maybe two. Can I manage with just that until mid March??? I must…