Upton Tea Imports

I really am glad I found this tea.

Know that an “entry level” sheng exists that I can point newbies towards without scaring them with either big price tags or overwhelming flavor profiles is comforting.

And let’s face it, you can’t drink “blow my mind” tea all day every day. If nothing else, the wallet won’t allow it.

So having a sheng you can consider a “daily drinker” is pretty excellent.

With modest leaf in a small gaiwan, this tea is mellow and almost sweet. It makes me wish I had a yixing for it. I have found the yixing I want to invest in, but this will take time. And money.

I continue to be impressed with this tea.

But I need to remember next time to do Western length steepings instead of gongfu.

As is the way in Houston, two weeks of daily rain have given way to crushing humidity and Summer heat. This afternoon I’ll need to go water the garden for the first time since my birthday, and if I can get the back yard mowed today, I’ll officially have the lawn “under control” and out ahead of rain growth for the first time since June.

Liz has been gone for six weeks and I still don’t quite have my life into any kind of new rhythm or routines, yet. Uncertainty about work and the chaos around the house have made it nearly impossible to settle down.

I need pu-erh to soothe the soul.

This leaf still amazes me. Neither the gnarled little nubs of a shou, nor the flat, hard sheng one picks off a brick, this tea looks like a high mountain oolong.

Nor orchids here, though. As Charles says: just SHENG.

Birthday ==> shipment of teas!

How can you go wrong with “ancient forest”?

This is an unusual leaf. I’ve never seen sheng leaf that looks like this.

Excellently, this lack of the every day translates into the cup, as well. A thick, brothy cup is easily achieved and the flavor profile is bold and bright without being too wooly or sharp.

I picked this up on a whim as I was placing an order and I’m glad I did.

It has been raining for a week solid and forecasted for a week more (when did I get transported to Seattle) and this is a great “cozy” cup.

Trying this one gongfu style for a change up.

Very vegetal. Quite pleasant.

Second steep is even stronger vegetal flavors and starting a hint of bitterness. Still nice, though.

Third steep and not any noticeable change. This seems a pretty one-taste-tea, though I’m going to steep it a few more times.

It is quite tasty if you like those vegetal tastes to your whites.

I’m on my iPad so can’t really do the rating and time and such with those darn drag lines, so: a rating of 50-60, 25sec steeps, water of 180 degrees.

I was pleasantly surprised with this one. It brewed up to an orange hue after 3 minutes and it has that intoxicating and mysterious Sheng energy that I love. I for whatever reason cannot place any particular flavor other than SHENG. Sheng is what it is. I am sure as with most Sheng this will be steeped multiple times even after a long initial steep. This is a winner and the price is resonable. It compares with some of the finest that I have had.

Wah Estate teas have been intriguing to me for quite a bit.

This is a very interesting cup of tea. It feels very thick on the mouth, but it’s light and sweet. First I thought the thickness came from what I ate before so I did everything possible to make sure it wasn’t me. It’s definitely the tea.

I don’t quite care for the way it smells. “Light pungency” is just kind of being nice in the description I think and it carries over into the aroma of the tea, not just the taste.

After the sweetness subsides, it kind of has the aftertaste of pita bread. I have no idea how I’m getting pita bread, but it really tastes like astringent pita bread, if that existed. Before that it’s kind of almondy.

Not sure I like it, but it was worth a try.

I am drinking this Western style in an infuser basket this morning, which I know is not optimal. Approximately 2g for a 10 oz. mug of tea.

Steep #1: about 3 minutes due to the leaf/water ratio. The tea has a very nice roasted smell and the tea liquor is a medium yellow kind of color. It’s a bit peachy and flowery, with a nice sweet aftertaste.

Steep #2: I tried for another 3 minutes but with less water this time (6 ounces?) The tea does seem more golden (as in yellow) than some other teas I’ve had from this region. Second steep is a bit weaker in flavor than the first, coming up slightly nutty.

I feel like I can’t really rate this properly until I try using the gong fu method at least once, although the sample size was only 4 grams to begin with. Right now I will have to say it is pleasant but I’m not too blown away by it.

Funny, first time I drank this I complained about it with boiling water, and I used boiling water again and definitely oversteeped it, and loved it. I loved a first flush! I had to go back and also double check it was a first flush, haha.

This is basically a hockey backlog and I don’t even remember the tea well now…just that it seemed a bit heavier than most first flushes. Or maybe age is good for it for my tastes? Ha.

Second try, this time with a lower temperature thanks to the suggestion from Amy oh. Also this time I won’t let it cool off too much. I completely forgot I have a 3 page paper due tomorrow but I’ve got one page down and I haven’t even written half of what I’ve thought about…and I’m doing this all without the book. I’ve also got an exam already…and no book…and I only have gone to the class one full day…so that will be interesting. I’ve at least got all the notes but yeah, note to self to never get sick and take summer classes.

So this is much better with a lower temperature water. It’s fruity, almondy, just like the description. And although it says it’s good with a buttery dessert, I think it tastes just a bit buttery. Since I just got some butter cookies, I am trying one with it. It almost makes the cookie taste more like an almond croissant. Dessert upgrade magic!

It still has an astringent quality to it, but it’s that good kind of astringency that makes Darjeeling so delicious.

This is definitely a keeper. Too bad I have no money. I’m doing a marketing study the last week of the month and I’ll get at least $85 (possibly $125 if I’m chosen to stay an extra hour, either way $40/hr is AWESOME), and my mom yelled at me for wanting to buy a yixing teapot with it. Not all of it necessarily, since I only want it to be like 6oz max, but I suppose eating might be more important. She told me to live like a college student. Hahahaha. Are we allowed to drink first flush Darjeelings?

I’m more of a fan of second flush Darjeelings both because of taste and price. This one is a serious exception. At $12.60 for a 125g bag, I might reconsider! I only got a sample of course though which isn’t bad ($2.50 for 15g).

As its cooled though it has become very astringent. I steeped it for 3 minutes exactly and it was good for the most part. It’s weird because the almond flavor in here is almost playing on the astringency, and it tastes like a burned almond. Before this happened though it was a bit buttery and mostly fruity, with just a bit of astringency. This is kind of undrinkable now…so at least I have plenty more to now remember this: drink quickly!

And of course, if I can crack whatever it is with this tea, the 125g packet is a definite possibility. Otherwise I’ll stick to those seconds.

Last year’s Castleton second flush was one of my favorite teas ever, so I had high expectations for this one. I’ve been careful brewing first flush darjeelings, using water under the boiling point and not letting the tea oversteep. Still, with this cup, there was some bitterness and the muscatel and floral notes were a little subdued, even with my penchant for using a hefty amount of leaf. Overall, it’s a nice, gardern variety first flush, but it didn’t impress me like the Thurbo and the Sungma did.

http://www.pauladeen.com/index.php/food_section_articles/view2/peach_tea_cupcakes/

This is not so much a tasting note as it is a note on how this tea works steeped in butter. I made the above cupcakes and used this tea rather than an Earl Grey like the recipe calls for. I figured these cupcakes have the flavors of what I’d consider iced tea and I don’t have 30g of EG sitting around, so why not?

This was the first time I actually used tea this way, I put tea into muffins before (but I messed them up) and I kind of did something similar for the butter in a tarte tatin, but that’s definitely not the same as all the steps for this butter, it was hard to save 2/3 of it in the end! I was kind of surprised.

I let the butter sit overnight hoping that might give it time to really meld in its flavors. I could definitely smell the tea and you could see it in the color of the butter, but the other flavors in the cupcake were a bit overpowering so maybe EG would be better in this particular case.

I have some peach Torani syrup and I think I’ll be cold steeping a pitcher of this tonight and mixing some of that syrup in for a nice summer drink to take to lunch tomorrow. And this definitely has made me want to bake more with tea. I see some fun experiments ahead with tea infused butter, especially because the frosting recipe w/those cupcakes made WAY too much so I need to use it up with something else!

Iced tea time again! Although my head’s still pretty messed up, I can kind of taste things again. I can’t tell that it’s somewhat hot outside. Feels so good to me because inside, I’m cold and it’s 74 in here…hahaha.

It’s been awhile since I’ve had this one though it feels like I went through at least 1 1/2 oz of it last year. This is definitely going to be my staple iced tea though. I have 3 pitchers and I’m ready to make iced tea out of them all summer long.

I’ve had my Takeya pitcher since last year and I realize it’s quite difficult to make sure all the tea actually infuses. When I took the infuser tube thing out, the tea up top was bone dry. Anyone have a preferred method for preventing that? I was thinking of just dunking it in the water I put in the pitcher before attaching it to the lid. I really wish I had one like the one DavidsTea is selling where the filter goes down much further into the pitcher :(

Anyway! This is like my ideal straight black iced tea blend. And it’s so cheap! Not even $6 for 125g. It does get a bit plain, I really should just try sweetening it a tad. But honestly I don’t know if I can taste things still, I kind of gave up and have only eaten bread today. Still tastes like Darjeeling and Ceylon to me though so that’s good.

Mostly it’s just thirst quenching, you know. Just refreshing. If the sound of cars didn’t make my head spin, I’d sit on the patio with the pitcher and enjoy being warm.

Is anyone watching the transit of Venus? So cool! I wish I knew sooner than yesterday morning so I could have gotten some of those eclipse glasses, but at least I can see it online. NASA oddly enough has on someone from my university right now! I didn’t know there was even an astronomy program, although it looks like it might be graduate studies only and that’s why I had no idea.

I got a new bottle for taking tea along with me to summer classes, 28oz and it’s supposed to stay cold with this cold pack inside of it…didn’t really work yesterday and it wasn’t even hot outside.

So I filled it up with this yesterday, but I didn’t finish it so I’ve been working on it today too. I made it a bit weaker than last time, but it’s still really good. I almost want to try a different Darjeeling cold brewed since this one works so well, but for the price this seriously cannot be beat, even if it’s a blend.

If you’re looking for a good, cheap black tea for iced tea, this is definitely something to consider…one note though, you might never want to touch unsweet tea not made at home ever again. I may have gotten some earlier today while out and immediately tossed it because it just tasted gross after having this lovely tea.

On my way home, I was thirsty so I stopped at a QT gas station for a quart of soda for $.69, horrible. But $.69 for that much fountain Coke Zero, count me in. The cups they have are so nice I can’t imagine throwing them away; it’s a nice sturdy plastic cup and blue lid, so I thought it would be perfect to reuse to make iced tea. I cold steeped 4 teaspoons of this overnight and am now enjoying it with my mall pretzel. I went to return pants for my mom and returned with lipstick, a candle, and a pretzel. Oops.

This is delicious without any additions. I thought I may need to add like a flavoring syrup for a bit of a punch, but no way. Definitely needs no sugar. It’s very refreshing, and I’m glad I got 125g of it because I can see myself going through the quart cup of this a day! I can taste both the Darjeeling and the Ceylon and they really make a great iced tea combined like this. Sometimes you just need an iced tea that isn’t flavored, and I think I found mine without really trying…of course it helped that they label it as an iced tea blend.

I would have to compare this tea to one of those hard rock ballads that start out slow and sweet and then build to an emotional crescendo (“Stairway to Heaven” would be the archetype). In the first flush of adolescence, at those high school dances, these songs struck the perfect balance—the slow dance at the beginning and the air guitar at the end. The honey and tropical fruit flavors explode in the back of the mouth. I can’t imagine a better first flush experience.

I still have about 5 or 6 FF Darjeeling samples that I haven’t tried yet. I got pretty discouraged when I didn’t really like my Thurbo. I enjoyed a FF Thurbo from RtR earlier this year, so I expected to like the new crop. Maybe the flavor changes that much 9 months after picking and I only like it as it gets a little older. Maybe the drought affected the flavor. I don’t know.

Anyhow, this has been the best of the ones I have tried. It’s beautiful collection of green, light brown and dark chocolate colored leaves. Dry leaf aroma is less floral and more fruity. I don’t love it, but it’s not unpleasant. The liquor is a nice golden yellow.

There is something fruity in the flavor-perhaps pineapple-and that helps. One thing I have noticed in all the Darjeelings I’ve tried is a type of weedy flavor. Maybe like a dandelion-not sure. It’s hard for me to overcome that flavor, though this tea does better at that than the others.

I tried this about 3 days in a row and thought I was really coming around to it, but I didn’t have any over the long weekend, and now today, I am not sure how much I like it. I have been constant with brewing parameters. I still have a couple more brews worth in my sample, so I will try some more to see how it goes.

I’m not going to give a number rating to any FF Darjeelings unless I find some that I am sure that I like.

I’ve been wanting to try this for a bit but having so much tea doesn’t make that easy. So finally, I have a cup, yay.

This is okay, I’d rather have a second flush Darjeeling. This tastes a bit like one, but a bit more nuanced in flavors. It seems more fruity than the other ones I’ve sampled from Upton, but at the same time it doesn’t have the same bolder flavors I like in those.

It seems like the main difference is the astringency is very muted, at least in the first steep. I don’t like it enough to steep it again, I think. My mouth just hurts because I went to the dentist and got prodded all over the gums. Did you know it is possible to have a very strong lower lip muscle? Apparently I don’t suck at brushing my lower front teeth, it’s my lip being a jerk and pushing the toothbrush up.

And now hopefully this posts since when I look at Steepster and don’t want to post a note, it works just fine. When I want to post this, it’s taken forever.

Even with a five-minute steep, this tea is so smooth. I’m being parsimonious with my 50 gram stash; this is one of the special ones.

As I get older, I find that one of my big challenges is to hold on to the ability to get excited by the little events and experiences in life that are the links in the chain of happiness. Having young children helps because you get to see the first flush of the world through their eyes. But I often find that my reaction to events is more muted than it was when, for example, I first read the short stories of Andre Dubus or first heard Bob Dylan wafting up to my attic bedroom from my parents’ turntable.

My discovery of tea has been the catalyst for some of my present-day stimulating moments and none more transfixing than drinking this Jun Mee from Upton. It’s listed as a Keemun and has the same general flavor profile (chocolate, red wine), but it’s more nuanced and delicate than most Keemuns I’ve tried. And because the Keemun qualities are not as pronounced, other amazing flavors come into play, notably an amalgam of spice that reminds me of cardamom, coriander pods, nutmeg, and cinammon.

Yes, this tea is expensive, but if you really love black teas from China as I do, you’ll want to try this. Even at $45 for 50 grams, you’re only looking at a few bucks per cup.

Hrmm…

The coconut and licorice in this tea do some weird magical trick to almost end up tasting like nutmeg. It’s a little interesting.

Not good, necessarily. Just interesting. As it cools a little bit, the coconut becomes more prominent, which makes me think this might be a completely different tea once it’s iced.

(a few minutes pass)

This really is getting better as it cools. My rating of it ‘hot’ would be way lower than my rating of it ‘luke-warm’. Which, well, makes very little sense in my head. So, I’m not giving it a number until I try it iced.

We ordered two ice tea samples with our latest purchase and when the husband requested I make ice tea before dinner and I saw the other was recommended as a 6 hour cold brew, this was the obvious choice. The sample had a little over 6 teaspoons worth of leaf which was not quite enough for a full 64oz pitcher, but it was about 3/4 full.

I could smell the tea as it was steeping and it was quite lovely. The liquor came out a striking orange that was toned down to copper when diluted. I was smart and tasted some before the food, husband was not and thus said it had no taste. I actually liked it, more than any recent hot Darjeeling experience, it had a slight natural sweetness that lent itself well to cold tea, but it is mild and floral. I would try to resteep if ice trays didn’t take so long freeze. Will update if I decide to make two hot cups tonight.