Upton Tea Imports

>The cup is exceptionally smooth,
Does the “smooth” refer to the lack of thickening related to pectin and oxalic acid or something?

I’m not sure about this description at all.

>with interesting muscat and fruity nuances,
Somewhere over the muscat? I will try the China one for this.

On the other hand, its unique fruity nuance was more apparent to me, which was close to a sort of acid taste somehow.

>along with the balanced pungency of a top quality first flush tea.
pungency… maybe?

>The cup from the China jat is slightly sweeter,
I think so, too.

At the same time, this clonal may be “just” sweet. The sweetness of these two was quite different to me.

That’s supposedly because I can’t distinguish sweetness from China characteristic.

> while that of the clonal variety is slightly thicker.
Probably…? Is this that important factor, by the way?

>For comparison, consider buying a sample of one and a packet of the other.
No need for comparison, indeed. Buy the China! lol

>exceptionally smooth
It’s a bit different from China darjeeling, say Castleton’s or Margaret’s Hope’s.

I like its “exceptionality”.

Both of China jat and clonal variety have a repeated sweetness which is as if your tongue tastes sweet every time saliva passes through salivary glands. lol

I’ve also experienced the same kind of “repeated sweetness” with coffees of SCAA 85pts above before.

Well I wish I had known this would be so smoky. In the bag it smelled kind of spicy, which was exciting because it is a Szechuan grown tea, so now I’m imagining everything grows into spiciness.

It tastes great at first, it’s the mellow taste that got me in the description on Upton, but then it gets smoky and to me it doesn’t match the rest of the tea, and so it’s kind of gross. It’s not like lapsang smoky but it’s enough to make me surrender drinking after three sips.

I purchased this as part of Upton Tea’s Premium Darjeeling Sampler. Since my experience with Darjeelings has been limited, this has been a great opportunity to check out generous sized samples in tins. Today, after the excitement of sending my 20 yr old daughter on a full semester Georgia Tech Pacific Study abroad trip (Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji), I came home with a few hours until work and decided I would compare this TD74 1st flush against the TD54, another 1st flush from Thurbo Estate. As a sidebar, I read that Tumsong is known as the “garden of happy hearts”. With the Tumsong Darjeeling,the brew is gold and there are notes of tropical fruit, almonds, and a citrus pungency that I find quite enjoyable, despite an ever so slight bitterness.I am sensitive to bitterness,and though I made this according to instructions (boiling, 2 1/4 gm, 3 min. steep), there seems to be a hint of bitterness that I didn’t detect with the Thurbo. Perhaps this would be remedied by using a little less leaf or time on the steep. So,to sum it up, my 1st impression is that I favor the Thurbo, but I will hold back on rating it, and try adjusting the leaf and/or steeping time the next go round.

Random observations

a) I have way too many open half-packets of tea and tisanes. I have got to do some serious sipping down. (Surely this does not happen to you.)

b) Probably not a good idea to have a caramel Milky Way snowman before I tasted this. It’s messing with tastebud accuracy.

c) Hibiscus in peach tea? Seriously?

d) It’s bone-cold, cloudy, threatening to spit snow, I’m freezing; at the moment, the only flavor profile that matters to me is WARM. This is.

>a distinctive muscatel character
umm… not the grape one, I suppose. But there certainly exists something unique flavor/aroma in your breath.

>and delicate sweetness.
it’s quite obvious.

>an interesting note of rose petals
right

Mus(･∀･)catel!!

>with aromas of spice and fruit, and flavor nuances
of dark grape, spice and wood.
mus━━ヽ(ﾟωﾟ)ﾉ━━catel???

Anyway, I don’t care if I’ve really experienced a kind of muscatel or not, which was a faint “flavor nuance” at very least.
<del>mus(･∀･)catel!!</del>

(　ﾟ∀ﾟ)o彡°dark! grape!

Finished this off today. Upton’s description is on the money. Usually, Darjeelings are not my first choice, but this one is a nice change this morning. It is gentle but very flavorful, and I don’t find it to be astringent. The flavor is reminiscent of some leafhopper teas I’ve had, but since it is a 1st flush, not sure if leafhoppers are feeding on the leaves that early. Very nice way to start the day.

>hints of muscatel
the problem is…that I need hints for the hints of muscatel at first. lol

While I think the puttabong FF may be more tasty(sweet? or mellow?), this tea gives me the feeling that I would choose this one if I’m having a cup of tea with my friends. I don’t know why.

Hmmm…this is probably the best first flush I’ve had, but I’m still not feeling it. I don’t like how thin it tastes. It’s too light for my tastes, I guess, since it does slightly remind me of the nutty notes I like in second flushes, but way sweeter, and of course lighter with floral notes.

Other than it not being something I really go for, it is a really, really good tea. And when I looked it up to add on here, it was almost sold out for the year.

SOLD OUT><

fruity! i really miss it ><

>with an elegant floral aspect
sweet, mouthfeeling

>The liquor is light,
the opposite was the goomtee ex

>and hints of apple
esp. 2senme, which hinsts remind me of the jungpanaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh
(who bought the remaining 10-or-so jungpana samples at once?)

great, somehow balanced one

my note says “a rather strongest sweet flavor”?
nothing is sure about this tea…, so waiting for the new ones opened. :-P

I’m surprised that I wasn’t crazy about this tea as I was so anxious to try it given all the rave review I’ve gotten about it from fellow tea drinkers.
The tea itself is gorgeous to look at and smells fabulous in the tin. It remindes me of a really good darjeeling in smell. When I first smelled it I was actually more excited to try it!
I may have oversteeped it at around 5 minutes?
It had an almost “green” taste at first, but then I did pick up the caramel. I didn’t think it had any maltiness and I didn’t find it to be a medium bodied tea, I would say it’s a lighter tea. It is smooth, not bitter at all. I didn’t think it paired well with the cookies I had it with.
I am going to try it again with a lesser steep time and pair it instead with fresh fruit.