Upton Tea Imports

Tea #2 from Traveling Tea Box C (I can’t find the first tea I tried in the database yet. Lol)
1 tsp/cup

I think the cup of sencha I had before didn’t completely wash out of either my cup or the steeper, because I’m getting strong impressions of that greenness smell, and it’s rather spoiling the whole cup because I tend to inhale the aroma before taking a sip. Lol. Not rating it because of this. If I pinch my nose and take a sip, I do get the vanilla in the tea, but really, it’s not that strong anyway. I would think a straight vanilla tea would have a ‘bam!’ sort of vanilla-ness to it, or at least that’s what I wish for. So while not bad, I’ve had better vanilla teas.

If anyone is curious, Tie Guan Yin Oolong is by far my favorite tea. I first discovered it my freshman year of high school when I worked at a coffee and tea shop, but at that time it was sold as Iron Goddess of Mercy Oolong and it took me a year or two to realize they were the same tea. Tie Guan Yin has the amazing properties to soothe my spirits and body whenever they are off, which is perfect because today I am certainly not on top of my game.

When I find a new tea store the first thing I do is look at its Oolongs ‘does it have Tie Guan Yin…does it have Tie Guan Yin I can afford?’ are the questions I ask. Alas I am but a poor tea lover and Tie Guan Yin is the most expensive tea in the world. Today we are exploring the ins and outs of Upton Tea Import’s Tie Guan Yin First Grade (not to be mistaken for their second grade, special grade, seasonal, and black) from China (and I am assuming Fujian). One of my biggest complaints with a lot of tea companies (Upton is sadly included in this one) is lack of information, what time of year was this picked? What region? Traditional or Green? It is the little things that my information obsessed mind craves and without these facts I have to try to solve the puzzle on my own.

The aroma is wonderful, a mix of orchids and chestnuts mixed with a gentle warmth and spice. The spice is not strong and is more of a memory of an aroma after the others have faded. The chestnut aroma gives the tea a sweet and roasted quality that is intoxicating when mixed with the floral notes. Overall the aroma is heady and lulls me into a relaxed state.

Once brewed the aroma just fills up the area…and I was sitting outside when I brewed this tea! In all seriousness I popped inside for a moment and when I came back the whole porch smelled of roasting chestnuts, orchids, honeysuckles, sweetness, and a hint of almonds. The roasted notes gave it an almost Hojicha quality. The liquid smelled much the same with more floral and less chestnut, and the liquid is beautiful.

The taste is ever so slightly honey sweet with a gentle floral touch. There is also a very vegetal taste to the teas as well, especially as it cools, similar to the way green bean water tastes. Only very mildly roasted tasting which was a tiny bit disappointing since I prefer my Tie Guan Yins to be roasty more than green, but the teas is still very good! It is also noticeably mild and relaxing, which is perfect for me at the moment. I think my biggest over all opinion is it reminds me of late spring time with blooming flowers and the air is warm, giving everything that sun kissed taste. I certainly recommend and look forward to trying all the other Tie Guan Yin Oolongs from Upton Teas.

This is just a really solid Assam that I enjoy more and more with each cup. It isn’t the least bit bitter and has a more pronounced cocoa flavor than most Assams I’ve had. Not a lot of leaf is required to get a tasty and memorable cup.

Another Sample from a swap from Stephanie. I had this one for breakfast. It was a nice subtle tea. I really enjoyed it. I got 4 beautiful steeping’s out of it and then remembered I had many more teas to get through. It was a nice tea to experience. Thank you Stephanie.

Busting my tail because last night in bed before drifting to sleep I was fantasizing about relaxing later today with a tray bearing a big ol’ pot of plain unfancy black tea, milk and raw sugar in my little spice caddies, and a spoon and hunkering down to watch more Venture Brothers (Puddy! The sound design!!) and PBS David Chang (when they showed how they make the ramen stock at Momofuku I almost died, little sighs of lust). Just learned Jesu’s coming out with a new album the week of our anniversary, and I still need to pick up the Scud Mtn. Boys one. Having things to look forward to is heaven.

This is the first Lapsang Souchong I’ve ever had and I’m not sure how it compares to non-organic Upton version. Its so interesting for me. I can’t smell this and not think of my grandpa’s cabin in the pines on the Olympic peninsula. My grandpa’s cabin had a wood burning stove for heat year round and during the summers we would help him split wood to get ready for winter. I can just remember sitting on his log splitter and splitting wood with the crisp damp Pacific Northwest air wrought with the smell of pine and smoke from his fire. He smoked a pipe and a bit of tobacco smell is also woven through this cup The tea is extremely smoky in the leaves with slightly less in the brewed cup. It is wrought with bits of mint and menthol and a touch of toasty sweetness. I don’t think I could drink this every day, but I want to drink it every time I want to remember my grandpa and the wonderful summers at his cabin.

Sipdown! 825.

You know – this isn’t too bad at all! However, I’m not sure what osmanthus is supposed to taste like (peach??), but all I’m getting here is an aged oolong (lighter than the other I tried today), which is quite tasty. I’m getting some fruitiness (as opposed to floral), but would be hard-pressed to describe it as anything specific, let alone peach. Anyhow, it’s yet another tasty oolong for me tonight. I really do adore oolongs – although the one downside (kind of) is that they halt my sipdown progress since I feel guilty unless I resteep them at least twice, which means 6 more cups of tea (between the three) before I get to empty those infusers. Oh well! At least it will be tasty :D

I have been more than pleasantly surprised by this tea. My wife and I are in the process of paying off all of our debt, and part of that means that I have had to cut back my monthly tea budget. Two months ago I was looking for the best quality tea I could get for the lowest price and stumbled across this in the “Seasons Pick” section at Upton. I am huge fan of Yunnan teas and so I went out on a limb and bought an entire kilo of this stuff without having ever tried it. I was a little terrified.

This has turned out to be one of the most enjoyable teas for daily drinking that I have had in a long time. It doesn’t have the same complexity as some of the nicer Yunnans that I have tried, but then I knew ahead of time that it wouldn’t. It did, however, surprise me with a depth and richness that I have fallen in love with. It is not at all bitter, but has the boldness I need out of a morning cup of tea. As I said, I have had one or more pots of this for two months now and have yet to tire of it. I am going to miss it here in a week or so when I run out.

Brewed this for 3 minutes with 180°F water and then put in the refrigerator to chill, since I drink most of my teas chilled.

I always want to love nutty flavored teas, but usually I just don’t. I love eating nuts, but for some reason it doesn’t translate into tea for me. That said, I was pleasantly surprised by this tea. It is very enjoyable. It tastes like baked almond cookies and the aroma is delicious. The green tea, cinnamon, and almond (think Jordan Almonds) flavors combine to make something that is sweet, baked like a cookie, and not over the top almond. I still don’t know that this is something that I could or would want to drink regularly. There is something that keeps me from gulping it and I know I’ll hit my limit before my thermos is finished. Funny that I could eat almonds all day long, but can’t drink more than a cup of almond tea at a sitting.

There is a slight offness to the aftertaste, but otherwise it’s sweet almond and cinnamon.

I pulled this out of one of the TTBs awhile back, & today I’m polishing it off. It’s a little malty, & the aroma & flavor of Rose is there, however today I noticed that the last sip tasted a little soapy. :p
324

I can’t believe I still have this tea. It was in the first TTB I was part of, over a year ago!
As far as rose teas go, it’d decent. I made a pot of it to share with one of my students today, & I think she really enjoyed it.

This is one of the teas that I kept from the Here’s Hoping Traveling Tea box. It makes for a nice cup to enjoy in the bubble bath!

This is from the HHTTB. I’m not always a big floral fan, but I do like some, & I enjoy roses from time to time in my tea. This one is not bad, although I have had rosier ones. Shortly after drinking this my face started itching. Now before someone from Upton starts shouting, ‘It can’t be the tea!‘, it probably isn’t. I don’t think this is suppose to have any artificial flavors, which I do sometimes react to, but that kind of reaction for me is usually in the form of itchiness in my mouth & throat, or sometimes a burning sensation. So more likely my face itching is from airborn allergies, because St. Louis is allergy hell right now, since we had actually had some rain on sunday.

Sipdown! 832. Thanks to Indigobloom for this one.

I found this to be a fairly decent black, but nothing super special. There were some cocoa notes (yum!) and it was smooth and malty, but it’s pretty tough for anything to beat Laoshan Black and Premium Taiwanese Assam, so although it was definitely good quality, it’s not a tea I’d pick up myself.

Smells nutty and chocolatey in the bag before steeping, like a Chinese black tea. Smells like a dark oolong after steeping. That oolong smell seems to come through on taste as well, kind of minerally tasting to me. Crisp and refreshing, good characteristic for iced tea. There seems to be a little bit of natural sweetness there too. I’m going to have to make a few more cups to be sure, but I think we have a winner here. I made a big cup to share with my girlfriend, and just realized I drank the whole thing while I wrote this, bahahaha.

I was surprised and excited to see that Upton had included a free sample in my order! I wanted something to go with my bagel and hoped this would be a good choice.

The dry leaf smells like a nice breakfast tea, not overly fragrant, but pleasant. I saw that there is Darjeeling in this blend and decided to cut my steep time down to 3 1/2 minutes snce Darjeeling and I sometimes don’t see eye to eye. It is listed last, so I thought perhaps there wasn’t a lot in here and I think I was right. I think this is mostly Keemun and Ceylon.

I am drinking it plain because that is my preference whenever I can possibly get away with it.

The tea has a bright flavor on the citrus-y side, no doubt from the Ceylon. The Keemun is not as apparent to me but maybe it got lost in the first sips due to the toasted onion and garlic of the bagel.
The Darjeeling adds a fruity and wine-y aftertaste.

It is very drinkable and pleasant, but not one I just have to have, but good and I am so glad I got to try it. I think if it were steeped longer with a little more leaf, it would be an excellent breakfast tea for those who like to add milk and sugar.

Thank you, Upton Tea, for the sample!

I bought a 100-gram package of this Yunnan Gen Ben Shi Imperial tea a couple of years ago, brewed it on three separate occasions, and then it sunk in my tea closet. I recently rediscovered it, and I’m finding it delightful.

I reviewed my notes for those earlier tastings, and my comments were generally favorable, but not overwhelmingly so. Then I noticed that I had used a 208° brewing temperature in those earlier tastings. That explains it. In the intervening two years, I have gradually learned to brew almost all congou teas at 195°F, regardless of what the vendor’s brewing instructions say. The only teas I brew at 208° are Lapsang Souchong and pu-erhs.

Anyhow, this tea is malty and lightly sweet — characteristics that are mostly obliterated by brewing it at higher temperature. (The 212° recommended by Upton is simply barbaric.) I brew 8 g. of dry leaf in 12 oz. of 195° water for 1:00 min. and 2:00 min. respectively for the first two infusions, and in 8 oz. of water for 3:00 min. for a third infusion. There’s not a lot of complexity in the liquor, but it’s a nice self-drinker with mellow flavor. No need for milk or sweetener.

It’s kind of a moot point now, though. Upton still has a page for this tea (“ZY47”), but the page contains a notice that the tea has been permanently removed from their catalog. Ah, well…it wasn’t a spectacular tea — just a nice Yunnan black at a very affordable price. Thankfully, there’s no shortage of other tasty Yunnan teas.

Sipdown!
Although this doesn’t get deducted from my total (305), because it’s from the Here’s Hoping TTB, still, there is a certain sense of gratification.

1 or 2/5…maybe 1.5/5. I didn’t puke or retch or anything, but there’s no way I’d voluntarily drink this again.

Harsh on the bergamot, and in an off-putting Pine-Sol industrial citrus (more chemical lemon than bergamot) bathroom cleaner way, ugh. Maybe steeping for less time will help—it calls for 8 minutes!—but I dunno, it didn’t seem like it was a leaf thing so much as a bad chemical flavoring thing. Now I appreciate American Tea Room’s version much more.

Kind of bored today and stuck inside because of hot weather, time to try some tea (iced to be exact, but I’m going to sip it hot first). This has Ceylon tea in it. I haven’t cared much for other Ceylon teas I have tried in the past. BUT WAIT…what?! This is good, definitely surpassed my expectations. Tastes pretty roasty, caramelly, and perhaps woody/earthy? Has a creamy mouthfeel. I gave some to other people and they all liked it as well. My re-steeps didn’t turn out as strong as i’d like though.

Tea of the morning here, I am finishing off this small tin from the Upton Assam sampler. The weather has been cold and rainy here and this assam was just calling my name. I definitely made this too strong! I had enough leaf for about 1 mug of tea + a bit extra so I put it all in here. Strong and malty, winey and slightly bitter, I think due to the overleafing. Still good with milk and sugar and hopefully it will wake me up! See previous notes for more details.

This tea is part of the Assam sampler from Upton I got a few months ago. I’m surprised that nobody has added it yet so I went ahead and did it.

This tea got brewed up in the For Life teapot for 3.5 minutes. I already decided to add sugar and soymilk before I got the chance to try it plain. It is malty with a bit of winey-ness, reminds me of your typical Irish breakfast tea which are made of assams as well. Good for the foggy morning we are having.

In my mind it isn’t anything exceptional but this is a good, solid assam.

At first I was excited to order this tea because of he uniqueness of it. Once I had it though, I was sort of upset that I’d ordered 250g of it. I ended up finding out that I don’t really love tea that tastes like Pops cereal…

After a day in the fridge the tea flavor in this did seem to get a little more pronounced. Still a pretty generic iced tea though. Eh, I’ll use up what I have but I doubt I’ll be buying more.