Upton Tea Imports

This is pretty meh. I purchased a sample on sale, and I probably won’t order it again. It’s just… meh.

Backlog:

This tea has a nice floral tone to it, reminiscent to honeysuckle. Notes of slightly underripe plum (sweet and sour), as well as hints of citrus. There is a nice earthy undertone to this cup, with notes of wood and leather.

Overall, a refreshing cup. I enjoyed it. Thank you TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some!

I just discovered Kundalini yoga a little while ago and it is changing my life, my lower back pain is getting much better and I feel more energized overall. I suggest giving it a try!

This is my post yoga darjeeling tea. I bought a few samples from Upton to try this year.

I tend to use water that is below boiling for my ff darjeelings because I find this helps to curb any astringency which might be lurking about. I used 2 tsp of tea in my beehouse teapot and I think this is really divine!

The color is a light yellow and the grape aroma is just wafting out of my glass cup. This really packs a flavor punch, is slightly floral but has lots of sweet grape flavor with a minerality essence and a slight astringent finish. I’m not getting a lot of pungency but that could be because of the lower water temperature I was using.

I’d consider buying more of this but I feel guilty about the 2012 FF darjeelings which are still in my cupboard and may never be finished before they go stale… :(

I would recommend checking this out if you’re in the market for a nice darjeeling.

AHHHH. Steepster hates me. I’m so behind on notes and whenever I manage to get on it manages to be down.

This is the most recent tea I’ve had and I made it iced like before. It smells GREAT dry and it tastes good with the 4 tbsp. of sweetener to 1/2 gallon (my typical ratio of sugar to tea when iced) but it doesn’t quite sing. Not quite sure what else to do, except go a little heavier on the leaf next time – I used 15 g. so I’ll up it another tsp. or so and see.

I think I have enough leaf for a few more cups so I’ll be revisiting this one soon!

I am so excited for all the iced tea that is in my future. This one, however, is in my present because I don’t have enough peach tea in my life and it smelled DIVINE dry – a very authentic peach note, with black tea lurking beneath.

I brewed this hot, added 3 tbsp. of sugar to 1/2 gallon of tea and steeped 15 g. of the leaf at the below parameters. It reminded me a bit of the Crystal Light peach tea, but minus this artificial powdery aftertaste. In other words, just the good bits! This is the first of the 4 iced tea samples I got from Upton, and I’m off to a good start I think!

First impressions are not great. I feel like I “don’t taste anything” and don’t really love whatever flavors are present. It’s not a bad taste, so I’ll keep experimenting with different parameters until something comes of it.

Dry, brewing, and in the cup this has a weird unpleasant aroma I can’t quite place. It’s gross to say this but it reminds me of that sort of urine-y aroma some rooibos has. The chocolate only comes out enough to notice in taste, not aroma, and it’s behind that other gross mystery element. Needless to say this is sadly not a keeper for me—too bad because dry it’s lovely, studded with gold.

The longer it sits: I think the smell might be a synthesis of lemon with the dark chocolate? Because now I can taste the lemon, it gets stronger and more distinct. But initially, the way it combines with the other elements it translates weird, a little chemical-y like Pine-Sol plus something else—>urine. Hmm. I will say that as it cools the weird offputting element recedes (or maybe I just get used to it?) and welcome flavors of chocolate and lemon come in, but even then I’m not crazy about it (and with so many delicious EGs out there that’s not really a problem!).

EDIT: Just looked at Steepster reviews for this. I seem to mostly be an odd man out, eek, but one person described it as like chocolate-coated wet nap. Yes! Perhaps that’s where I’m getting my urine/Pine-Sol bathroom-y evocation from.

EDIT 2: And now I see lemongrass is on the ingredient list, along with artificial flavors. I adore lemongrass (Thai’s my favorite cuisine probably) but I have a feeling that might be what’s grossing me out here, because sometimes stale or off lemongrass can remind me of pee.

This is as delicious as Steepsters hyped it to be! Has the balance and multi-component loveliness of Zen Tea’s EGC. Smells glorious, wonderfully floral and bergamot-y like Zen Tea’s (that smell dry and brewing that just makes you go “ahhhh”) with a rich, creamy texture nearly as buttery as Della Terra’s EGC. A definite winner I could easily see being one of my go-to regular Earl Greys.

A bracing malty cuppa!
Another tea sample I purchased from Upton awhile ago.
Just getting around to trying it.
You can certainly smell the assam.
I made as recommended by Upton.
212 @ 3 minutes.
I did not think 3 minutes would be enough, but it is plenty strong.
It would hold up to milk or cream well.
A great breakfast tea to have on hand.

This currently is my favorite Keemun, and one of my favorite teas. It starts out with a smoky nose. The smoke dominates the taste initially but than hints of chocolate begin to appear. By the finish, the chocolate is the dominant note, but there are still hints of smoke. This is a fine, complex tea. The finish is VERY long, and powerful. Great!

Very smoky nose. The flavor and finish are dominated by the smoke. This makes it a bit one-dimensional, though I like the taste. A good enough tea, but not my favorite.

(ZK27) Smoky nose with undertones of chocolate. Taste has medium body, but builds into a big finish. Not big or spectacular, but in perfect balance with a fair amount of complexity. Not very tannic. I liked this tea a lot, but it isn’t quite as good as some of the other Keemuns I bought at the same time.

The dry leaves have rich aroma; they are longer and more curly than previous Keemuns I have tasted. Less nose than I expected, which was a bit disappointing, but the flavor is very big, with chocolate overtones and lots of complexity. Very smooth and well-integrated. The taste flows smoothly into the long, slightly tannic finish. I really liked this tea.

Just what I needed last night. It wasn’t cold, but the wind was strong, the rain was hard, and I was working on my novel. The smokiness is less pronounced than I remember, but I like it that way. It adds dimension to the tea without overpowering anything. I should probably buy more of this, since I have one teaspoon left! I brewed the leaves a second time, for longer, and it was still delicious! Mmm…

My first lapsang souchong, enjoyed on a rainy late-spring evening. Not so much tastes like a campfire, but smells like campfire mixed with smoked salmon. I can imagine drinking this WHILE camping, or any time I need to warm up from the inside.

Decided to get this Arya Estate Ruby to try, I assume this is from 2012 since I don’t think the 2013 sf darjeelings are here yet. I don’t tend to like sf’s as much as ff’s but that doesn’t mean I will ever stop trying. :-P

This brews up to be a lovely medium orange color. This is exceptionally fruity for a sf and even has a bit of sweetness to it. I’m also picking up a bit of rose in the finish, very nice. This is one of the better sf darjeelings I’ve had in a while – it was also good with a touch of rock sugar to help bring the sweetness forward a bit.

This is another first flush sample I picked out from Upton in my last order.

I tend to like first flushes a lot but this isn’t anything terribly special to me. I’m getting a light muscatel with a nutty element and a slight bit of bitterness in the finish. I might need to try steeping this at a lower temperature to see what happens. Also Happy Earth Tea mentioned cold brewing their ff darjeelings so I may try it out with this one to see what happens. It’s ok but nothing to rave about. Perhaps my expectations are too high but I want my darjeelings to be truly sublime…

not pear but pineapple (c.f.
http://steepster.com/teas/upton-tea-imports/6219-tda4-arya-estate-pearl-organic-ex-15)

>honeydew melon
it is a melon, but not yuubari melon.

the same tea has already been on the database:
http://steepster.com/teas/upton-tea-imports/35717-arya-estate-ex-12-pearl-organic

Straight up breakfast assam for when you’re bleary eyed and still dusting the cobwebs out of your brain. Takes to milk and sugar well.

I’ll be honest – I bought the ceylon tea sampler from Upton teas and this was one of the teas in it. Out of the 4 or 5 samplers I got, there was 1 that had a distinctive taste. This one tastes exactly like the other 3 or 4 other teas in there, so I really don’t know what to say without sounding like I’m regurgitating what I wrote 3 times already, which was…

- Its subtle and mellow
- Steep longer because their teas tend to be kind of weak?
- Nice aroma, would go well with some desserts to balance out the sweetness
- Not too acidic and smooth, good for people who want neutral tea

Another sipdown! While this isn’t a bad tea it is for sure a winter tea. I’m not overly a fan of black spiced sort of teas in the summer. Still though, a decent enough blend that i could take or leave from upton.

Did a side-by-side with the Sakhira Estate Nepal and preferred this one—it was sweeter and more easy-going. Both were yummy though. Would elaborate more but I was busy on the couch watching the rest of Arrested Development Season 4!