Upton Tea Imports

Smooth and pleasant. Nice for any time of day.

Lovely tea. Not as strong as some, but very good.

I admit, this is not a great tea, but it is a pleasant blend of black China tea with spices that remind me of the coming winter. The aroma is worth buying the tea.

Transports me back to cool fall days in the midd of summer.

This sencha is ‘clean and green’ in flavor. I moistened it with cool water before steeping, as a buffer against my predictable lack of care in regard to water temp. I poured hot water and decanted after 30 seconds, yielding a pale green liquor which was only slightly bitter, with enough flavor to be worthwhile. I like spinach, which is fortunate when it comes to green tea. The resteep was also 30 sec, with almost no bitterness and more asparagus. Still, this is more exercise than enjoyment for me, as I continue my attempt to appreciate these fussy steepers. I kept wishing it were a white instead. I may never be big on greens, but this one has made it into my ‘okay’ category. It helps if I’m in a monkish, less self-indulgent mood and remind myself of it’s healthfulness.

Doesn’t really excite me but isn’t the worst tea I’ve had.

Decent Tung-Ting-style oolong, but not especially notable compared to Upton’s standard Jade Oolong (TT86) at ~30% less pricey. I didn’t really get the “creamy” notes.

Good, delicate white tea that isn’t too expensive but still tastes pretty good!

This is a good tea that is very smooth and flavorful

Dragonwell (Lung-Ching) is my favorite green tea, and this one by upton is pretty good, however I don’t think this one is the best offering around as it fails to completely capture the nutty accents that make dragonwell so good. It is best when steeped at 175 degrees for about 2 minutes.

One of my favorite breakfast teas. From day to day, I usually alternate a blend with a single-estate Assam. I prefer Irish Breakfast to English Breakfast, as it’s a little bolder, and I like to add a lot of milk.

Backlog:

thank you TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea. You know how I adore Earl Grey!

This a very citrus-y Earl Grey, beautifully aromatic, it seems to have a stronger note of lemon than of bergamot.

Overall, this is not my favorite Earl Grey, I feel that the Ceylon base was somewhat overpowered by the strong citrus tones, and while it was a good citrus-y tea … I found myself wanting more distinct bergamot (and not just generic citrus) notes.

Good, but not great.

this one is from CHAroma and she sent me a lot and even though i have had great luck with upton overall I do think this one is weird. maybe after more tastes it’ll grow on me. that is definitely a thing that has been known to happen. definitely.