Upton Tea Imports

I love everytime I sample a new tea. Sometimes I am disappointed and times like today when I am pleased. As with all new teas I like to keep an eye and a nose on it while it steeps. The result was a pleasure. Dark and sweet with hints of darker fruits and dark honey. I can see where the lover of Keemuns would appreciate this but I feel it truly stands on its own. This one made me smile.

All I know is, don’t steep it for 4 minutes. Bleh! Smells so good in the bag, very strong on the grapefruit. I think it was a combination of that being far too long a steep along with the flavorings that just resulted in something purely gross.

Cold steeping it the next time around.

I don’t usually reach for Earl Grey teas, but if there’s some creamy vanilla added in there’s more of a chance I’ll try it. The bergamot is many times too overpowering.

So enter this offering from Upton provided by Alphakitty! The dry leaf smells a little chocolatey and creamy. Hmmm… that might be because there was a H&S’s Florence sample in the swap too. I’m pressing on anyway.

Brewed 2 tsp of leaf with about 10 oz of boiling water. The wet leaf smells a little like cream soda! Ok, now we’re talking! :)

I did try this without sweetener first and was pleasantly surprised there was very little bitterness. It’s very smooth, which is also something I find lacking in many EGC’s. A little rock sugar added and it brings out more of the creamy vanilla.

This is a really nice offering. I can’t say that I’ve ever had a more enjoyable EGC before. And it’s my first sampling from Upton. It’s going on my shopping list when I get around to building up enough of an order to justify a purchase – thanks Alphakitty!

Another sampler for my morning cup. This Assam brewed up dark and after 3 minutes I decided to give it a sip. It was pleasant even though I was expecting a stronger flavor. As I continued I was truly loving this cup. Nice sweet flavor of dark honey and cocoa. After reading Amys review I decided to steep it for over 5 minutes. This is where it opened up and shined. I can only imagine how nice a 5 minute initial steep would of been.

If Amy is correct about the pricing this tea is a bargain.

I thoughly enjoyed my morning cup. And today this was my choice. I have a dizzying array of samples to choose from and for some reason this one was selected.

I noticed the small leaf and I knew to keep a close eye to avoid oversteeping. I settled in on an approximately 4 minute steep. I was greeted by a dark red brew that was delicious. It was smooth and clean and a perfect tea for my morning. It was awakening. I did not notice any dominant or subtle flavors yet there is this balance, a ying and yang that seemed to be in harmony.

When all is said and done with my black tea samples I would have to guess that China is the clear winner of tea producing countries.

I have a theory that nearly all of the single-estate tea samples I got from Upton will be excellent mix-and-matchers. Didn’t have quite enough for a full pot this morning, so I spiked it with some Assam Gold from Tea Merchant. Can’t tell where one starts and the other leaves off … smooth and weighty, a little sweet fruit tang at the end.

Perfect for a cool and sunny morning.

When I do this one right—as in use a timer and actually heed the timer—this is very nice. Three minutes, not a penny more.

I’m still trying to figure out what the “fruity” notes remind me of. A little grapey, maybe.

Furthermore, this one just feels good in the mouth. Heavy and silky. Highly recommended.

Yesterday’s leaves; tossed in a scant half-teaspoonful to freshen them up, and left them longer than the recommended three minutes, which I think was a little long. The fruity zing I bragged on yesterday is more like licking a cast iron skillet this morning. Upton means three minutes, not five and a half :)

Still drinkable.

Looks a great deal like PG Tips, but with a much gentler personality! Strong enough for a morning tea, but has a sweet dried-fruit temperament. I think milk and sugar would be too heavy for it. A really nice change of pace.

Another sample of black tea from Upton {I got 14}. This is an incredibly strong and robust brew perfectly suited as an eye-opener. I can see this getting incredibly dark and gnarly if you let it steep past 3 minutes. I can imagine this as the espresso of the tea world. I brewed 2 steeps before I decided that this would make a nice iced tea. So today after the Bohea I am enjoying the rest of this and it turned out nice even after 2 steeps it remained strong and assertive.

This truly is an elegant tea. In my previous tasting I thought it was better suited as an evening tea. It does not have a robust flavor but it does have an intense energy that is capable of awakening any hardened tea drinker. I just wish it was not so expensive. See my previous notes and others who love this tea.

This is my second tasting of this sample from Upton. The first tasting I found it to be very mild in taste yet it had this captivating aroma of pine and a whisper of smoke. I could not stop smellling the wonderful aroma. Today I upped the steep time and the amount of leaf and it improved the cup slightly for my morning cup. I do believe this is better suited for an evening tea. It is very subtle and mild. This is a very fine tea that in my opinion is better for an evening tea.

Think this will pass the chill test just fine. I threw the leftovers after my original steep into a pint jar and tucked it in the fridge. Even with recycled apple chunks (yeah, doesn’t THAT sound appetizing?) it was passable. Ought to do nicely with fresh stuff right out of the bag.

I thought about adding a little sugar as I was drinking last night, but I figured that would just make it into apple juice and ruin the lightness and freshness of its tisane personality.

It wasn’t exactly a surprise, because I knew it was coming, but in my poor-me frame of mind, it was nice to come home to my little goodie box of samples I ordered from Upton. (I guess the surprise was how speedily it got here—props to their customer service.)

Big chunks of apple makes this look good and chewy; smells like fresh produce. After a honkin’ old steep time of eight minutes, the color was so light, I was braced to be disappointed. I braced needlessly. It’s delicate—doesn’t hit you in the face—but is pleasantly, mellowly crisp and fruity. Golden Delicious peel instead of Granny Smiths.

Not sure how well this will take to a second steep, but I’m going to give it an overnight shot—I think this would be great cold.

Used up the last of this leaf last night, and doing some last steepings this morning.

The past three weeks have been “Hatch season” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatch_chile) here in Houston and it has been a powerful reminder to me about how much our society has lost about not only living seasonally, but also in celebrating those seasons. I blogged about this earlier this week.

And so it is bitter sweet to drink the last of a pre-chingming. Sure, next year I could get more (for all I know, I could order more of this year’s right now), but next year’s leaf is not this year’s leaf. It will not be exactly the same.

But, I think there is a certain joy which can be found in embracing what is present for what it is, and letting the unknown of tomorrow not only wait its turn, but then be embraced for what it is and not as a “replacement” for what has passed on into history.

The 2012 pre-chingming da hong pao was a genuine milestone for me in terms of understanding tea. It may not even be a great tea, I have no idea. But not every great tea teaches you something. And not every tea that teaches has to be a great tea.

I will miss this tea. But if nothing else, it has taught me not to miss tea.

I did long steepings with this for the first time, yesterday.

I freely admit that at this point I am extremely spoiled by my semi-gongfu double gaiwan style of steeping most tea most of the time. Working from home, and so having access to the kettle, all the hardware, towels, etc. means I can make great cups of tea all day every day.

So, on those occasions I make larger batches and do longer steepings, I have to remind myself that of course the results aren’t going to be as dramatic.

The balance in this tea just amazes me. Whether steeped long or short, the roasted notes one expects in da hong pao are always playing this complex game of tag with the more lady orchid type notes.

I was pleased to discover that while a Western steep doesn’t sparkle the way a gongfu steep does, the result is still a well balanced, excellent cup of extremely refreshing oolong tea.

I finally put my finger on what this tea reminds me of.

Lady Orchid (Lan Gui Ren).

That ginseng coating sweetness, and the floral hints with the roasted oolong beneath it.

This is far more subtle, of course, since it is the natural flavor of the tea itself, but that’s what it is like.

Considering lady orchid is something I more or less never drink, I feel rather chuffed that I was able to make that connection. It only took, what, four tastings? ;-)

I have my tea tins in a line in the cabinet and the same variety is in the same spot in “the line up” all the time. This allows me to find tea when not yet awake. :-)

The problem is that if I make a substitution, it is easy to forget.

In the wake of my purchase of Golden Fleece I have been a bit tapped out on Yunnan golden. I need to forget before I can order another dian hong and enjoy it.

Meanwhile, this order of pre-chingming da hong pao is in the tea tin that usually has Yunnan gold in it, and I’ve been avoiding it because I forgot what was in it (the label is on top instead of on the front, which I now know to fix next time I fill it). So, this tea has languished.

I started an argument the last time I said this, but I’m going to say it again anyway. :-)

I really want to enjoy this tea with high quality dim sum. People forget, I think, that “dim sum” is the food, but when you invite people to eat that food, you don’t invite them to “dim sum” you invite them to yum cha — drink tea. The food is an excuse to linger over pots of tea without having to get fussy with gongfu.

There is something about these “in between” oolongs that makes me turn to food thinking that the pairings will help differentiate the various aspects of the tea. Pork fat to bring out the sweetness. Red bean bun to bring out the toasted notes. Shu mai bring out the brothy mouthfeel. Steamed bean curd skin wrapped around savory vegetables brings out the floral notes.

OK… now I have to make plans to yum cha…

(I don’t know why I can’t get the image to attach)

Well, it appears I am the first to get to talk about this 2012 pre-chingming da hong pao!

This tea is a real eye opener to the significant differences that time of harvest can make with a tea. After my rinse, when the aroma of the wet leaf reached my nose, I had to run back and double-check the canister. I thought I had the wrong tea! “It smells like tiguanyin” I thought.

An amazing balance is present here between a floral, green oolong, and an amber, roasted one. It really is almost like a blend of da hong pao and tiguanyin. The result really is a “best of both worlds” flavor profile.

My morning cup. The first steeping was deep, strong and dark. As far as energy goes, it failed. Or did I fail it? A 4 minute steep time with a bit over a teaspoon of leaf {the dried leaf smells awesome}. The second steep was somewhat weak and left me wanting something else. Maybe I will use more leaf and increase the steep time for the remainder of the sample. This is my second tasting of this tea since I received my samples from Upton. The first time it was better but unfortunetly it was a workday and my Steepster time is limited….

This is my second tasting of Holy Basil. I am going to make this and Celestial Seasons Tension Tamer my late-night relaxation brews. This is rich and complex in flavor and definitely something for later in the evening. I brewed this one day in the afternoon and I could not figure out why I was so mellow, bordering on sleepy. Thanks to all of the Steepsterites who turned me on to this herb.

After yesterdays first surf session since May I awoke tired and in need of something strong. This was the right tea. When I poured the boiling water upon the teaspoon or so of leaf I noticed that it gets strong quickly. I had to keep an eye on this one. After maybe 3 minutes I was awoken with its aroma and flavor. This is a good strong tea for beginning the day. It had that strong breakfast tea get up and go while retaining a clean briskness and it was not overpowering. I enjoyed this throughly.

I know several fellow Steepsterites said that blends were not their cup of tea. This may change their minds.

This is my first East Frisian tea. It is strong but it still has the complex flavor of a finer tea. I noticed immediately that the energy was coursing through my body. My eyes were keen and aware. In my quest for a coffee replacement this one does just fine. I also purchased the BOP version and 13 other samples to try for my morning cup. While laying in my hospital bed a month ago I decided that I was going to give up coffee and devote myself fully to my beloved tea. Morning, noon and night….