Upton Tea Imports

Very pleased with this one. It’s earthy, with a kind of mushroomy sweetness. I’m having a hard time picking out individual notes, but the overall flavor is robust and comes across as natural and wholesome. So far I’ve steeped it twice and it’s still going strong. As per the instructions, I used a whomping tablespoon, but as the leaves are very large and loose, this wasn’t so much tea after all. This is the third Upton oolong I’ve tried, and my favorite so far.

an ok tea, probably wont buy this again

Initially leery of this tea because it smells like the perfume counter at Macy’s – overly floral, overly sweet, overly everything. Fortunately, the flavor isn’t nearly as overpowering, though there is something a bit artificial about it. I think David’s is still my favorite of the jasmine greens I’ve tried.

This is the last of it! It’s extremely similar to Upton’s Jade Formosa Oolong, but there’s something rough about how the flavors come together, especially when you compare it to the jade, which is extremely smooth and mellow.

Trying this hot on the heels of the last oolong (China se chung) to see how they compare. (They’re both from the Upton oolong sampler . ) The flavors have a lot in common – they are both darker and seem more oxidized than the oolongs I’ve had before – but this one smells and tastes a bit sweeter. It has a bit of a honey tang, and overall tastes a little more complex than the se chung (wish I knew a better way to describe it). Overall, a robust but non-astringent oolong.

I have the worst track record steeping this tea. For some reason I always forget about it and leave it stewing for like 15 minutes before it comes to me that I made Se Chung and left it somewhere. So today I made a big effort to steep it correctly, but to my surprise it didn’t really make much difference. It is slightly mellower, but that’s about it. The mystifying licorice flavor is still there.

Steeped this too long and now it tastes like licorice? There is not the least bit of licorice in this tea, it’s just oolong leaf.

This tea tastes exactly like the house tea I’ve had in several Chinese restaurants (I don’t go to many, but those I have eaten at all seem to serve a similar tea). While it’s not extraordinary, I am very happy to have some because now I don’t have to go to the restaurant to drink it (not a huge Chinese food fan; my favorite part has always been the tea and the almond cookies).

2/20/14 Another Steepster Select tea. Brewed as per the packet instructions,
1 packet/12oz/212F/3.5min. A nice black tea. Very dark in the cup, with an aroma of brown sugar and wine/grape. Pleasantly astringent without being bitter. I’ll probably add milk to future cups, as suggested.

its an ok tea. has a hint of green tea taste. i’m not much for any earl grey anymore

Sipdown :( I’ve gotten used to having this tea around. I wouldn’t say it’s an amazing tea, but it’s good and comforting. If I liked more of Upton’s teas, I think I would reorder it, yet it doesn’t quite seem worth the hassle all on its own. Speaking of re-ordering, ALL the green teas in the stash are looking frighteningly low. I’ve whipped through Teavivre’s green tea sample pack a lot faster than I meant to. It contained:

Organic Superfine Dragon Well Long Jing Green Tea,
Huang Shan Mao Feng Green Tea,
Premium Dragon Well Long Jing Green Tea,
Xin Yang Mao Jian Green Tea,
Bi Luo Chun Green Tea

The long jings were my favorite, with the Huang Shan Mao Feng a close second. I wondered if anyone had any other Teavivre greens that they would highly recommend?

I needed something soothing after dealing with the headache of a company that is UPS.

I steeped this up with the idea of comparing it to TeaVivre’s dragon well, as when I first tried the dragon well it reminded me a lot of the phoenix bud. But now that I’m drinking it I realize there is no comparison because they’re just completely different teas. Now that I’ve gotten used to the dragon well, the phoenix bud tastes quite sweet and floral. They’re both pleasant, just in different ways.

My fondness for this tea is growing. There’s nothing showy about it — it’s just an unadorned whole-leaf green — but there’s something vastly comforting about it. I think the caffeine level is just right for making me feel focused and grounded.

Trying this out for the first time, I’m getting none of the notes suggested in the description (melon, orchid) except for the ‘buttery smooth’ part. It is extremely buttery and smooth — reminds me actually of steaming buttered spinach — and to my surprise, I really like it. It’s so nice to find a non-astringent green tea, and the vegetable notes are relaxing. The leaves look beautiful brewed up, but due to their size were very hard to measure, so basically I used whatever amount I could balance on top of the teaspoon.

There’s one thing in particular I look for in a vanilla tea. And that’s vanilla. Wish this tea was more vanilla-y.

The vanilla is light but makes a smooth blend with the black base. While not extraordinary, this is a pleasant mellow tea.

The dry leaves had the scent of minerals and cacao nibs.
Brewed, the liquor is a deep auburn color and it is sweet smelling like dark raw honey.
The flavor is smoky with a lemon after taste which I wasn’t expecting!! There is a bit of a good bitterness (not bad) and astringency.
This is the first true black tea that I’ve had since I was younger with Lipton or something like that. Plus, when I had a cup of hot black tea back then, I always added milk to it. I have been limiting myself to greens, oolongs, and whites because I didn’t want a lot of caffeine jolt but rather an even and small amount of caffeine. Well, I have been wrong about you black tea because this had no more caffeine jolt than the Da Hong Pao Oolongs that I have been drinking!! I drank the entire 12 ounces and my head feels nice and even and not with a caffeine high.
So I had fun coming over to the “dark side” lol.
I am loving the Steepster Select club because it is expanding my tea horizons and I enjoyed this tea a lot. :)

From the Steepster Select Box, February 2014

Second steeping:
OK no wonder I enjoy this black tea, I have been reading about Darjeeling and found that although Darjeeling teas are marketed commercially as “black teas”, almost all of them have incomplete oxidation, so they are technically more oolong than black. Darjeeling teas are classified as a type of black tea. Modern Darjeeling style employs a hard wither (35-40% remaining leaf weight after withering), which in turn causes an incomplete oxidation for many of the best teas of this designation, which technically makes them a form of oolong.

I also liked learning that Darjeeling tea cannot be grown or manufactured anywhere else in the world (similar to Champagne in that region of France) .

Really enjoying the second steeping with more sweetness of the muscatel notes coming through and the astringency has mellowed out to be subtle though I enjoyed that lemon zest aftertaste with the first steeping, it was like I had added lemon to the tea!! I still taste a subtle amount with this second steeping. Very good!

Backlog:

A really tasty Earl Grey Creme. The sharp, tangy Bergamot is softened really nicely with the vanilla notes. This is more vanilla than it is bergamot though, I think it would be nicer with a more precise balance between the two flavor components, but as it was, I enjoyed what I tasted.

The black tea has a very smooth and even taste. Not an overly aggressive tea, but not one I’d call weak either. Sweet and creamy, with a nice punch of citrus tang.

A good Earl Grey Creme.

Had this once a long time ago, and steeped it up tonight in the hopes that it would be better than I remembered. It’s not. It smells like dusty alfalfa hay, and it tastes the way I imagine alfalfa hay would taste if you brewed it. It’s also kind of drying to the mouth, even though it’s not astringent. Upton lists this under their ‘bold’ teas, and I liked the sound of that, because I find all too often that white tea is weak and flavorless (and also, I thought, how bold can it really be?) But Upton is not kidding about this, the tea boldly and strongly tastes like hay. I guess I should see how the neighboring horses feel about it.

Dry, this tea smells exactly like alfalfa hay. Fortunately the taste is better than that, though for the life of me I can’t remember why I thought I had to have an extremely plain white tea. I guess I got overwhelmed by the massive Upton catalog. Oh well, there’s nothing actually wrong with this tea and maybe it will mix well with the flavored greens. I think I overleafed it this time; it was very stemmy and hard to measure, and I kept adding a pinch more because it looked so skimpy, but yeah, won’t be doing that again, it makes the tea too astringent. Also, not getting any of the walnut notes the description promised.

Delicious! I could smell this tea even before I’d unwrapped the packaging. Despite the strong aroma, the flavor is delicate and I did need a bit of sugar to bring it out. Almond and a hint of snickerdoodle, and the green tea does come through in a mellow way. Now I’m wondering if I have snickerdoodle ingredients in the house, because this would be a great tea to pair with cookies.

p.s. It’s sad, because the flavor is quite good, but it became apparent after I finished the cup that this tea inspires headaches. I don’t know what they put in it that I react to so badly, because normally I can tell from the scent alone whether something is going to disagree with me, and this one smells perfectly wonderful. But so it goes.

was a good tea, quite smooth.