Upton Tea Imports

mmmm i like this one.
upton has some good mini cakes.
earthy sweet and with malty caramel and a creamy fluid note that makes it blend so evenly. plus of course that dark wet complex flavor of puerh. not bitter or bland.
i am TOTES tea drunk now.
like TOTES.

oh and also Doctor Who’s 12th doctor has been announced!
it’s totally my birthday month.

Perhaps Pu-erh is not for me. The fannings are finely ground and look a lot like coffee grounds. The smell is very rich and dark with sort of an earthy twist. Brewed the leaves smell faintly fishy and fermented with a sort of loamy, mossy aftertaste. It doesn’t taste strong in the generic Assam tea sense, but brewed it is a dark chocolate that looks more like coffee. I can’t quite put my finger on the taste as its somewhere between a fermented peat and a malt. The smell is remarkably soy sauce like. It doesn’t quite taste like tea to be honest. Almost like coffee with none of the bitterness or caramel sweetness. I think what I don’t like is that it tastes almost savory to me though the addition of sugar helped. I have heard pu-erh is an acquired taste and I’m not sure right now if it’ll grown on me or grate on my nerves.

It has been far too hot around here to drink any hot tea until now. Sad but true and I haven’t had time to make anything iced either. Shame on me! Today is very cool and we’ve also had rain off and on since 3am. Perfect tea weather in my book! So I figured I’d dig into some of the Upton samples I purchased a month back. This was the first one out of the box.

I love that there is that touch of malt to the tea and I’m getting a slight hint of something darker too. There is also a fruit finish on the end that makes this a lovely cup for afternoon tea taking. Good to be back!

Finished off this sample today – bringing me down to 71. But then 52teas and that Turtle Cheesecake! So that plus a S’mores chai and I’m back to 73. Under my goal, though, so that’s something!

This was one of the teas I sent to a friend and it was one of her favorites of the lot. “Damn good” was the description I got. Along with “loose leaf tea really is better”. This was from a person who two months ago decided she was not a tea person at all. I am quite proud. :)

I will miss this cup, though. I feel like you can never have too many black teas and this one is one of Upton’s best. Doesn’t hold a candle to Frissy, but it’s not a bad option. And it’s super cheap, too. Judging by the lower rating I have here it must have grown on me, too, so if you have this and weren’t wowed – maybe a second cup will change your mind?

Oh, and does anyone know what distinguishes a Scottish blend from an Irish or English one?

Okay, I know I have drank and logged this before. When I made it today I even remembered the gist of what that tasting note said because I was going to reaffirm it:

Still caramelly, still a close second to my Frissy tea. Still good with milk and a bit of sugar and biscuits for a weekend morning.

I know I’m not the only one to have lost tasting notes lately – I wonder if there’s any hope of getting them back?

I enjoyed a pot of this tea with my breakfast this morning. I’m still getting to know darjeelings. This is bold, a little floral IMO, but also kind of earthy & gutsy, if that makes sense to anybody, LOL.
This is a sample from the first package Sil sent to me, & it was a generous sample. I still have enough to drink it one more time. Thanks Sil! You Rock!

I’m still working on some of the teas in the box Sil sent to me awhile back. This one is a nice cup, which I brewed for driving around running errands (including the PO, & you know what that means Sil).
This has a kind of ‘cheesy’ flavor, as in it reminds me a bit of aged cheese. I don’t really know how else to describe it, ha!

Welcome to Day 2 of Little Terri’s Sipdown Extravaganza!
(Sil & Cavo, I know you are both laughing at me, but THIS is for REAL!)

First Sipdown of the day is this Sweet Honey Black, which I acquired in a wonderful trade awhile back with TastyBrew, thanks!

This really is lovely tea, & although it lacks a bold bass note, & gratefully there is no crazy high end, it is very full & rich through the middle, kind of like a Keemun. However, in my opinion the taste is nothing like a Keemun, but more like a refined leafhopper black, like Mi Xian. It is sweet, honeyesque, with a fruity apricot taste & the smallest hint of coriander. A really pleasant cup!

This tea is from my awesome black tea swap with TastyBrew! Thanks!

I was looking at the Upton website recently. It’s rather overwhelming, they have so many teas! So this one is a pleasantly sweet honeyesque cup. Not particularly bold, but definitely tasty, with a little roastiness, a little bit of that Keemun even-ness & earthyness, but the aftertaste also reminds me just a little of the leafhopper bitten teas, & I guess that is due to the honey taste.

This one has been languishing unopened (that’s so wrong. Not opening new tea?) because my luck with Upton flavored teas has not been very good to date.

In this case, the advantage goes to Upton because I wouldn’t know a lychee if you bounced one off my forehead.

The unpleasant sticking point with the flavored Upton stuff is that it tastes very artificial and syrupy. This tastes floral, not artificial and not perfumey. Decent black tea base. Whether they’ve nailed lychee flavor, another expert will have to decide.

Could have good iced tea potential.

Backlog:

This is a good tea. Once again, a yunnan. A good yunnan, but a yunnan. Pretty much all i can say about it.

I had this throughout the afternoon. Put a bunch of leaves in my test tube and sort of used it as a gaiwan so I had a lot of short steeps while I started the new episodes of Arrested Development. I can’t say that I absolutely loved this, but I definitely enjoyed it. The flavor is very strong and dark chocolatey. Reminded me of eating dark chocolate with red wine, the flavor was so rich. I wish it was a little roastier, but I overall a very nice tea.

Tea of the afternoon is this refined, sophisticated tea that really blossoms in the back of the throat with a blend of cinnamon, chocolate and citrus.

This is a delicious tea. The first sip may not wow you, but after a few more the cinnamon, pepper and chocolate flavors blossom in your mouth to form a complex and beautifully smooth tea. It seems to combine the best aspects of yunnan, keemun and other congous. Sometimes the best teas, like the best music and books reveal their greatness slowly and through repeated encounters.

next

http://steepster.com/teas/upton-tea-imports/10202-arya-estate-ruby-second-flush-darjeeling

next

>The leaves have a heady aroma,
>yielding a cup with flowery aromatics,
>a pleasing level of tannin and a light, crisp finish.

all of these seem to be true.

it also reminded me of the last year’s jungpana ex- ff.

Just finishing lunch after spending the morning at the courthouse with my daughter. This was our 2nd day in court over custody of her son, who’s father is a control freak & all around @$$#0!3. He has repeatedly tried to use their son to control my daughter & cause her pain, & today I think the judge & lawyers got a view of his true nature. Because of his antics we’ll have to go back AGAIN at the end of August, but today we did get some things ironed out, so that’s an improvement.

Needless to say, I’m behind on my tea drinking! I did have 2 cups of some black tea at the restaurant we went to near the courthouse for breakfast, & that was acceptable (can you tell I’m a grumpus today? LOL)
I also brought my thermal cup & sipped on Bilbo Brew until it was gone.

Now I’m having the last of the Russian Caravan that Sil sent to me on our first trade. It’s a pleasantly bold blend, & although I initially expected smoke, it is not a smokey tea. Thanks again Sil!

It’s been a nice day! I made an awesome breakfast, we ran a few errands, then we went to the pool hall. We played 9 ball, I won 3, Tony won 6. I’ve been shooting pool since I was young & I’m a pretty good player, but Tony is amazing. He shoots more than I do. I will continue to strive to be a worthy opponent.

Now we’re home, watching Cardinals baseball & working on fixing dinner.
I’ve been putting off sampling this tea, sent to me by SIL because I though it would be a potent Lapsang Souchong type, & although I have grown to enjoy some smokiness, I thought it would be really smokey, & I’m more of a light smoke person. The funny thing is, it isn’t really smokey! It’s a nice bold blend of teas…Keemun, Darjeeling, & maybe some Oolong. A nice full flavor & mouth, if you know what I mean.

What wimps we are. Storms again (sigh); this time just wicked lightning and torrential rain—5" in 2 hours, give or take, power out for 2; Internet out for several; you’da thunk it was the end of the world. So hard up for entertainment, I was reduced to tying newspaper scraps to string and teasing Tazo with them. (He is still officially an outdoor cat, but I needed a diversion desperately.)

So grateful for a “normal” morning, a functional heating source, and decent tea. This one has been hard to pin down. Decent, but not stellar; something a little sweet and cedar-y or raisiny going on, too. May be the first entry in my “Junk Yard” tin I intend to start.

Good morning, all. I’m about halfway through this Upton sample packet, and I like it little better than I did at first. This morning’s cup has a little sweet pastry character to it.

Or maybe it’s just a pastry craving. After 48 hours of weather-induced anxiety and halfheartedly gnawing on fast food in various basements the past couple evenings, I’m hungry! (And safe, for which I am much more grateful. Son and husband are threatening to sell our worldly goods and move to a cave.)