Tippy Orthodox FBOP Assam TA20

I had a cup of this earlier and it was fairly tasty but I will tell you it sure does make a difference BIG TIME with the temp of your water, folks! This time around I’m having a 2nd cuppa and it’s WAY darker, bolder, stronger, and an awesomely loud morning tea!

It’s a more masculine type assam – woodsy and bold – and I really like that!

1/4 of the Upton tea Assam sampler I got yesterday in the mail. Because I really need MORE tea, right?

Anyway I love drinking assams in the morning which is why I went for this sampler. Normally I would put soymilk and sugar in an assam right away but I wanted to at least try a sip of this plain first.

I like it plain which is a good sign, it’s very smooth, malty and has a touch of chocolate. I only steeped mine for 3 minutes and I noticed a lot of the other tasters went for 4 minutes, still I like it at 3. It’s good with a splash of soymilk and at this point doesn’t need sugar in my opinion, although you could certainly add some.

There is a slight tobacco or something in the finish although nothing bothersome. I am enjoying it, a good basic assam.

I’m drinking this tea with generic S’mores poptarts while my dog finds and eats all the stinkbugs in the house, cause we’re c-l-a-s-s-y.

I like my tea astringent, but following the brewing instructions on this one yields a tea that cools into some sort of paint-removing-acid. Don’t steep it for 4 minutes unless you need to have a chemical face peel or something.

This tea is nice, though unexceptional. It has a sort of dusty undertaste without sweetener or milk that isn’t great, but otherwise it’s a nice, full-flavored tea. With milk and sugar, it’s very good and has none of those pesky salad flavors I’m always complaining about. I have a relatively big can of this, and I’m glad because it will be a good tea for breakfast. I mean, it’s pairing with my fake poptart dinner smashingly.

As I’m new to serious perusal of tea, please take this review with a grain of salt. Or a couple teaspoons of sugar.

This is the first of my Assam sampler pack I’ve tried and I’m beginning to connect some dots. There is a sour tang in this tea that I have tasted in the Bond Street Blend that I reviewed a couple days ago — though thankfully much less in this tea than the Bond Street! This taste must be what is called “malty”. It makes the tea quite strong, and is a taste I associate with a similarity to coffee. It’s strong enough that my standard 2 teaspoons of rock sugar barely temper it. The tea is thick tasting, and after half a cup there is only a little astringency. This may change as the cup progresses, as I’ve seen it do so with other teas as they cool.

I also noticed a very faint hint of cinnamon in the dry tea before steeping.

All in all, I’d recommend 2 1/2 tsp rock sugar or cane sugar equivalent, to help temper the strength of it.