Upton Tea Imports

I love this tea. As it is getting warmer (well really hotter) , a dense , heavy Mountain Malt does not appeal to me in the AM right now. This tea is a whisper of smoke but again I don’t want to wake up w a roaring barbecue during the summer. It has a sweetness in the aftertaste so this is a nice light breakfast tea in the summer months.

At the price point this tea comes in at (5.80 for 250g) this is a fantastic tea. Its robust, brisk, and malty. It does have a slight bitterness and astringency but is still a great cup. I think it would make a great iced tea which I will try later on.
2.5g/8oz

This is a nice mellow fruity assam tea. While its not as strong as some assams I have had its still great. I’m not sure I have ever meet an assam I didn’t like. This tea is brisk and somewhat robust but the mellowness and lack of bitterness makes a good breakfast or afternoon cup of tea.
2.5g/8oz

This is my first and not my last foray into Ceylon tea. The only Ceylons ( I almost typed Cylons) I have drank have been in tea bag form. This is a mellow buttery smooth tea. The tea has a sweetness to it, not bitter, and has a light astringency. The label says to steep for 3-5 minutes, next time I try 3 to see If I can find some of the citrus notes this tea is supposed to have.

This is a very unusual tea for me. It tastes like a light yunnan with some fruity notes. It really leaves my mouth dry and does have some bitterness with a light astringency. As it cools I get a kind of medicine aftertaste. I usually like yunnan teas but I really don’t like this one. It may be the darjeeling. I’ll try some diferent parameters to see if I can make it drinkable.

This tea is quickly becoming one of my favorites. This tea is a blend of assam teas and steeps up very quickly to a strong, brisk, malty, delicious tea.

This tea is becoming my go to tea in the mornings since Mountain Malt is no longer available. Its a nice blend of assam teas that steep to a strong, brisk, malty, and chewy cup of tea in 3 minutes.

I really needed an assam to drink so I picked this one. It was also nice getting back to making my tea by measuring the tea, checking the water temp, and timing the steep. My tea horde is also getting low so I’m placing a couple of large orders this week. I love this tea as it is strong, malty, chewy, and delicious. I love vacations but its so nice getting back home. I also missed my dog (Kleo). I know I’m rambling but its nice to write tea tastings too.

Ahhh, this is what I needed this morning. This tea is brisk, robust, malty, and chewy. This tea is a strong and hearty blend of assam teas.

I really like this tea. Its robust, brisk, malty, and chewy. Its a blend of assam teas and it really hits the spot in the morning.

This is an excellent blend of assam teas. The tea steeps up a dark amber color and is brisk, robust, malty, and chewy. This is a great wake up tea and is a good substitute for coffee. Its got me awake this morning.

Yes, I am feeling better, at least well enough to drink tea and type. This is a blend of orthodox assam teas. What more could you ask for. This tea is robust and brisk and very satisfying. I just love the chewy maltiness.

This is a robust, brisk, malty, and downright delicious tea. Its an orthodox mixture of assam teas. It really is an eye opener. I detect only a touch of bitterness and astringency. Here in Maine its a very ugly chilly rainy day and this tea is just perfect for it. I like this tea and I’m happy I ordered 1/4 pound instead of a sample. Its right up there with River Shannon on my list.
2.5g/8oz

Bummer…I love smoky teas and this one just wasn’t. It tastes like a blend of oolong, keemun and darjeeling. I would say that this tea is an afternoon tea. It really wasn’t robust or brisk enough for breakfast. However, this is not a bad tea. It has a nice light mouthfeel and fruity notes. It has a sweetness to it and is a tea I would drink again, but not one of my favorites. I may add some Lapsang Souchong to it to see what happens.
2.5g/8oz

This is a nice bold, robust tea for breakfast. It has the nice malty, chewy taste that assam’s are supposed to have. A very tasty tea.
2.5g/8oz

This tea is in small little pellets like grapenuts. It is a bold, robust, and chewy tea with a caramel note at first sip. I was really surprised at this tea. There was no bitterness and a touch of astringency. I got more caramel notes as the tea cooled. Yes, this is a CTC tea but it just amazed me with the taste.

This is a very nice breakfast tea with the assam and ceylon teas mellowed out by the yunnan. Its brisk and robust with malty notes. I am getting a little bitterness and astringency this morning.

Now this is an interesting tea. Its brisk and robust without the bitterness or astringency. Its more mellow than River Shannon thanks to the added yunnan tea. This tea has plenty of malty notes. I have to agree with Morgana, she hit this tea right on the nose with her tasting note. Read her tasting note as I really can’t add any more.

I’ve actually had this several times the past two days, just been too busy to log it properly!

I dislike plain mate, so I blend it with Earl Grey usually. I’m out of my proper Earl Grey Creme that I prefer, so I’m using a blend that Teavana recommended, their regular Earl Grey with their Vanilla Honeybush. It’s not as good, but it makes a decent cup of caffeinated tea. I think I prefer the roasted with this black tea, though.

Mate isn’t really what I look for when I drink it, but I find that it’s good to blend with other strongly-flavored teas and then it doesn’t hurt it at all. I have a strawberry lemonade herbal tea that goes much better with this green mate than the green mate does with this Earl Grey. I think the green would probably match up well with an oolong tea—I’ll have to try that next time. Just make sure you use hot (nearly boiling) water so you can extract the most caffeine!

Doulton’s Shakespeare: A Tasting Note in 5 Acts
Act IV scene 4

O! for a muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention!
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
Henry V, Prologue

The last time I had a straight-up Keemun I was doing my basic black trio comparison in order to learn what Keemuns, Ceylons, and Assams generally taste like. Keemuns came out on top as being my favorite amongst the three. With this Keemun I didn’t have to focus on the comparison at all, but instead just enjoy a good cup of black tea.

After my first sip I knew that this tea would be one of Shakespeare’s histories. It just seems too earthy and real to be anything else. I had visions of a mud-spattered Kenneth Branagh with a bad haircut giving rousing speeches to an outnumbered army. Therefore this tea is my Henry V (the king formerly known as Prince Hal). In Henry IV part 1 we watch Prince Hal go through his “Lion King” type transformation. Well, now that he’s a king we get to watch him get his king on.

This tea seems to give me an internal speech that says:

Once more unto the morning, dear Rabs, once more;
Or close your eyes with your braincells dead.
In peace there’s nothing so becomes a woman
As modest snoring and humility;
But when the blast of dawn blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger. . .

Or something like that. NE

Sipdown no. 63 of 2018 (no. 419 total). Sample tin.

A very tiny bit left in the tin (1.5 spoons full) so I dumped it into a mix for cold steeping along with the Tea Table Keemun Hoa Ya A and some Leland Tea Snickerdoodle to see what that would do.

It’s a truly odd black iced tea, neither fish nor fowl and not as strong as I would have expected.

But I have nothing of interest to add to my original note on this one.

This is the fourth and last of the teas in the British Blend sampler. I have to say I really like the little tins Upton uses for its sampler sets. They’re very cute.

The darjeeling owns the smell of the dry leaves here, along with a little smokiness that must be from the Keemun. Fruity and smoky. Yum. The Ceylon seems to be coming out more in the steeped tea’s aroma. I am getting that sort of berry undercurrent I’ve found in other Ceylons.

The tea is flavorful and medium bodied bordering on full with a mouthfeel that is thicker than water but not thick enough to feel like it’s coating your throat. I didn’t try it with additives yet. It doesn’t really need it, at 3 minutes of steeping. There’s nothing harsh or bitter about it. It has some astringency.

It’s deceptively simple tasting. It seems to me sort of a Rorschach inkblot of black teas. If you want to find a chocolate note in here, I think you can. Vanilla, probably. Fruit? Definitely. Nut, I think so. Smoke? At tad. Wood? Some. Earth, probably. Name some other things you typically find in tea and if you let your mind wander during the tasting you can probably convince yourself it’s there. At least until you’re more highly caffeinated than I am this morning, as this is my first caffeine of the day.

Finished my sample yesterday. I ended up drinking it just to get rid of it rather than because I liked it. It’s not bad, it’s certainly drinkable, but it’s not to my tastes either. I’ve got myself a lovely new tin of the CTC Irish Breakfast and I will be sticking with that! mmm.