Upton Tea Imports

As noted in another review, the leaves have an interesting contrast in the bag. This tastes a little more like that classic tea flavor I have in my head than other white teas I’ve tried thus far. I am also getting just a little bit of a nice earthyness to it. Overall a nice tea, takes sugar well.

Help! Too much black tea today! I wanted to drink and write about Anxi Fo Shou from Verdant. But it tasted weird and sour. I think either the water is off or my tastebuds are off. Then I opened up my bag of Laoshan Black thinking I’d get one good cup of black, but had the same weirdness going on as for the Fo Shou. I had two steepings of each. Now I’m cold brewing them cause if I have more caffeine now, I think I might explode. But there’s so much flavor left in those leaves! I’m freaking out! I think it’s a good day to try that banana caffeine cure I read about. But first, this tasting note.

So I didn’t actually have this Earl Grey Creme Vanilla today, thankfully. I had opened this packet for the first time at work a couple days ago. It’s been crazy stressful and busy so I haven’t had time to write a note before now. But anyway, this tea smells amazing. So sweet and delicious. Like an orange creamsicle. It was always my favorite from the ice cream vending machine when I was a kid. Of course, I managed to spill half my sample onto the floor when I ripped open the packet, so I got to smell that deliciousness all day long as my rolling chair kept going back and forth on those leaves. Eventually, I figured out I could pick up the leaf bits with the lint roller I had in a cabinet, but then I could still smell it from my trash can.

Anyway! I can’t concentrate when I’m over caffeinated like this! So the tea! Tasted pretty good, but left an odd aftertaste that I associate with artificial flavors. Upton doesn’t always use natural flavoring, but I don’t make a big fuss about it since the majority of my diet is pretty natural, I figure a bit from the occasional tea can’t be too bad. But when it tastes funny like this…well, that’s when I wish they had gone for natural flavoring.

Overall, not bad, but I’ll be looking for a better EG Creme. The one from SpecialTeas was quite tasty. Alas…

Now for that supposed banana cure!

EDIT Okay, so, skeptical as always when hearing a vague scientific claim, I googled the banana/caffeine thing. Turns out the “science” behind the banana cure is pretty shady. Ah well, at least my banana blueberry smoothie was delicious.

This tea tastes like a nicer version of the english breakfasts I drank before getting into loose leaf tea (twinings and the like, bagged). It’s good, but gets pucker-your-mouth tart if you oversteep. I’ve had it plain, with sugar, and with milk and sugar, and it is most palatable with milk (sugar optional). I prefer a milder tea than this, but, I’m having a drowsy day when I need to be having a productive day, so I chose it from among my other curl-up-with-a-book choices.

1 1/2 tbsp for 18 oz water.

Very light on flavor and just a tiny bit astringent. I think, though I can appreciate this tea, that my personal preference is leaning toward teas in the middle of the oolong spectrum.

Has a refreshing taste and pleasant, smooth mouthfeel that coats the mouth nicely. Has some light notes in the background that remind me of ripe green grapes (maybe melon too?), in addition to the classic white tea taste.

As advertised: crisp, gentle, light.

I only steeped 2 minutes rather than the recommended 3 minutes, though, being nervous about bitterness with such a small broken leaf. Nice, mellow and inoffensive. Nothing I’ll be replacing but with so many cups possible with the smallest size available to purchase, it will take awhile to work through this one. I suspect it will become a candidate for plain old iced tea over the summer. That’s where most of my good but not awesome blacks end up. :)

Sencha time, woot! Can anyone recommend a good Shincha for me to order? :)

Not my favorite sencha so far but drinking it this afternoon because I am in the mood for something predictable and soothing. ignores immense pile of teas I need to taste :P

Mmmm, sencha! I like this pretty well but I think I prefer the sencha from Den’s tea. I will have no problem finishing the sample of this I ordered though! :)

This is an interesting Darjeeling. I gently brewed three minutes and it seemed a bit mild for me. I will try brewing a bit longer and cooler next time. It doesn’t seem as complex as other 2nd Flush Darjeelings I’ve had, which disappointed me a little bit; however, its still a tasty middle of the road Darjeeling. I think I prefer a recent Thurbo estate more than this. This tea is sort of a tea equivalent of a Sauvignon Blanc; smooth and mild with touches of crispness and floral notes. There is a bit of vanilla and tropical fruit on the nose and a terribly smooth mouth feel with no astringency.

Excellent morning tea, no bitterness. Less expensive than the other morning tea

Kind of has a bright, refreshing flavor. There is this flavor in the background that slightly reminds me of… plantains maybe? Also, it reminds me of some of the darjeeling teas I have tried. Hard to describe beyond that. The cooler the temperature gets the more I’m enjoying it.

Little bit of smokey, little bit of sweet in the background, no bitterness, and it steeped 3 pots worth today at work. A decent Yunnan, a good black, and not expensive.

What more could you want?

This one was surprisingly just above average for me. A smooth and tasty cup to be sure, but I’ve had better Yunnan and Fujian teas than this one. The leaves are huge with quite a few golden tips. It has a nice dose of cacao and maltiness in the flavor with a lingering bit of honey on the palate. It is definitely quite smooth and I’ve enjoyed drinking it, but nothing makes it really stand out for me from any other high quality Chinese black tea. I would say the most exceptional thing about this leaf is that it stands up to quite a few brewings. I was still getting a lovely mild tea flavor even on a fourth brew.

This is one of the finest China teas I have tasted. It has no distinctive quality – rather it combines the very best elements of other China teas, particularly the Keemun varieties. Very smooth on the palate, rich but mellow, not bitter at all (I brewed for about 4 mins), earthy & a touch smoky, a slight hint of fruitiness & floral flavour but hardly any at all. Very well balanced.

My house is empty tonight, with my husband on a 75 mile backpacking trip with one of our sons in the Carolina foothills. I did my own 2 hour urban hike with the Atlanta Outdoor Club today, and having been gone most of the day, I’m feeling that pull to the tea cabinet. I’ve been neglecting my Darjeeling teas lately, and had forgotten about the Upton Premium Darjeeling Sampler I had purchased. The company offers quite a few sampler sets which consist of 4 tins, each holding 35 gms. They also offer all of their teas in individual samples. Upton describes this as one of the finest from the 2011 first flush season, so my expectations are high. Right off the bat, before even tasting it, I enjoy the nice aroma of this golden amber cup. The delicate sweet liquor has an elegance about it with its layers of flavor and accents of tropical fruit. So very different from an Assam or a China Congou, yet amazingly, still a part of the black tea family. There is so much variety among all the different teas, even though they are all from the same plant. This Darjeeling is quite nice and one that I would recommend trying.

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me a bit of this tea. I can’t find this on Upton’s website anymore so I’m guessing it’s sold out.

I disagree with my Sister on one point regarding this tea … it doesn’t look like fannings to me, but it is a very finely cut CTC. It is a very rich and flavorful tea, nice amount of malt and a wine-y quality to it as well. A nice Assam … it definitely does have a harsh side to it and I think if it was left to steep too long it would have been bitter (I steeped it for 2 minutes and that produced a really flavorful cup with minimal bite)

A good Assam … I’ve tasted better, but, this one certainly would work as a good jump start in the morning when you need one.

Long flat green leaves in the bag. Slightly buttery taste mixed with vegetal notes that are a little different than the typical vegetal/grassy notes I get in green tea (in a good way). It kind of reminds me of the taste of fresh off the vine snow-pea pods. Kind of mellow and mild.

Love this blend. It is brisk as promised and leaves this sweet after taste in your mouth. I would recommend it to those that are fans of bold black teas.

Smells roasty, nutty and a little like fresh linens in the bag. The description the company had about apricot and peach notes is pretty accurate; I picked that up both on scent and taste. Speaking of taste, I’m also picking up the traditional oolong taste, which makes me think of minerals and roasted nuts. On re-steeps it stays good, and the roasted nut-like flavors I picked up earlier come to the forefront. This is something I’d order more of.

The leaves of this tea are black with golden tips. They expand to reveal pretty-decent quality leaves, although I’m honestly not very impressed given the supposed FTGFOP1 rating.

The liquor is a red-gold color. I was quite surprised to see how orange it was. The color is somewhat in between what I’d expect from an Assam and a Darjeeling. (This would turn out to be the case in terms of flavor, as well.)

The leaves have a fresh, malty, complex scent, but the scent becomes a bit simpler and heartier in the liquor.

The tea has mild to moderate body and mild to moderate astringency. The astringency is less than I would expect for an Assam.

The flavor profile on the first steep is primarily malty with some soy-like flavors. It’s relatively hearty, but there’s also a difficult-to-capture complexity.

For the second steep, I reduced the volume of water to 6 ounces from 8 and steeped for four minutes. I was very surprised. I much preferred this steep. It has a much more Darjeeling-like taste. There’s still some maltiness and body, but now it’s more floral and slightly sweet.

This is a thoroughly decent tea, but I don’t think it quite captures the strengths of an Assam (ie strength) or of a Darjeeling (floral complexity). I suspect the flavor is similar to a second-flush Darjeeling, although my experience with Darjeelings is primarily first-flush since I prefer light, vegetal, floral, fruity teas with minimal astringency. For the price, I wouldn’t buy this tea again, but it’s not bad at all.

I just grabbed the packet out of my tea collection and hadn’t read anything about it.

They are not kidding about melon taste to it. Strong.

The tea is medium-light in the darker tones of white tea, the melon flavor fills your mouth on sipping and stays in the finish.

I’m usually anti-melon very strongly… but this is a nice change in whites, something that surprised me. Seriously, I took a gulp and went WOAH MELON and went and got the packet to look it up.

I’d recommend it to at least try by folks. I’m torn on whether I’ll put it down as one to buy in the future as I can’t see me drinking it a lot… but it is really good for variety. We’ll see.