Upton Tea Imports

A Very nice smooth Assam tea.
medium tannins, light copper color. Nice traditional black tea scent.
A great afternoon tea

TTB tea! The scent is so fresh and reminds me of grapefruit. I taste more black tea than anything else, and it’s a pretty hearty base. I guess I wish it were balanced a bit differently, but this isn’t bad!

A Bit stronger than I remember their “standard” Lapsang from several years back, but good.
medium-dark brew, slightly smoky /peaty smell. A bit lighter on the “tea” flavor.
I’ve had better, but its OK.

— Color of liquor: Reddish copper brown

— Aroma: Slight muscatel, slight floral

— Flavors: Muscatel, slight cherry, slight astringent

About five years ago, I had a wonderful second flush Darjeeling from Goomtee Estate from another tea company that had an excellent apricot base to the flavor. I have been thinking about this tea and hoping to find one that is similar in recent pickings, so I thought I’d try this one purchased from Upton, hoping the terroir of the estate is what gave my previous tea that apricot flavor. This one is lacking the apricot base I was hoping for, but does have a pleasant muscatel flavor, with a hint of cherries. Astringency was low, but enough to give it character.

This is a nice enough second flush Darjeeling, but it isn’t what I was hoping for. I’ll enjoy the remainder of my order but will keep searching.

Color of liquor: Orange-golden

Aroma: Fruity, muscatel

This tea is perfection. I cannot think of anything else I would be looking for in a Nilgiri frost black tea. There is no bitterness at all, and just the right amount of astringency to bring you back for more. Forward flavors of fruity muscatel, with a slight petrichor/wet rock flavor that I have always found highly appealing in many Indian teas from the Nilgiris, Darjeeling, and Kangra districts.

I am disappointed that this is now sold out on the website, but will watch and hope it shows up once again.

Honey brown color, nice light scent, very smooth and drinkable, with good flavor.
Very nice decaf tea.

Fruity, tart, citrusy; a nice uncaffeinated change of pace.

Similar in flavor to Teavana’s Indonesian Gold. Just a solid mid bodied black tea. Perfect for a cup in the morning.

Our go-to for morning tea with milk. This is a nice strong black tea blend, but a bit more rounded in flavor than a CTC Assam.

We tend to steep it pretty close to instructions: 1 Tablespoon per 18-oz teapot, 4 minutes. Do not oversteep (more than 5 minutes).

I am somewhat disappointed with this tea. I typically enjoy black/red teas very much, but Ceylon Kandy Silver Tip is an exception. Having tried to enjoy this tea multiple times, I admit my pursuit was not worthwhile.

Once the leaves were wet and hot, they exuded an indulgent, malty, mushroomy aroma. The first steep was acceptable: thick, full-bodied, and cozy with earthy flavors similar to the aromas. But each subsequent infusion became more bitter and dry, with an ever-increasing soaplike prickle on the back of the tongue. The maltiness and earth notes slowly waned throughout while the unpleasant sharpness heightened. The tannins in this tea seemed extremely sensitive and would dominate the tasting experience no matter how gentle my preparation was.

This tea was far better than nothing, but I would not intentionally return to it.

Sipdown that I never reviewed. The best oolong I had from Upton, though I won’t order from them again. This was nice grandpa style at work, but the fact I took it to work in the first place means I wasn’t much impressed. Still — drinkable and I did have a brief pleasure-pause moment with this one.

Sipdown. Meh.

This black (or rather, red) tea is hearty and entrancing. The dry leaf smells of dark chocolate, toasted wood, and cooked sugar (like dark caramel or toffee). I found the wet leaf aroma depends mainly on the water temperature. Boiling water draws a pungent fragrance delightfully suggestive of soy sauce. Slightly cooler water (approx. 95°C) yields earthier, woodier notes.

I have prepared this tea in both Western and gongfu styles. Western-style preparation gives a mahogany brew with prominent notes of smoke and balsamic vinegar. With this tea, I obtain four solid infusions with Western brewing parameters (1 tsp leaf per 6 oz boiling water). The first two steeps are robust and mildly astringent, while the last two tend to be more subtle and earthy with mustier forest flavors.

Gongfu brewing produces fuller smoke and dried fruit notes in the first 2-3 infusions. Later steeps unfold into toasted nuts and woodchips with hints of dark chocolate. 75 mL of boiling water with 5g of leaf provided 9-11 substantial infusions with brewing times of 10, 15, 21, 28, 38, 53 seconds, etc.

This is one of my favorite teas to enjoy after an evening meal. Additionally, it blends very well with cream and would probably make an excellent bubble tea base.

This black (or rather, red) tea is hearty and entrancing. The dry leaf smells of dark chocolate, toasted wood, and cooked sugar (like dark caramel or toffee). I found the wet leaf aroma depends mainly on the water temperature. Boiling water draws a pungent fragrance delightfully suggestive of soy sauce. Slightly cooler water (approx. 95°C) yields earthier, woodier notes.

I have prepared this tea in both Western and gongfu styles. Western-style preparation gives a mahogany brew with prominent notes of smoke and balsamic vinegar. With this tea, I obtain four solid infusions with Western brewing parameters (1 tsp leaf per 6 oz boiling water). The first two steeps are robust and mildly astringent, while the last two tend to be more subtle and earthy with mustier forest flavors.

Gongfu brewing produces fuller smoke and dried fruit notes in the first 2-3 infusions. Later steeps unfold into toasted nuts and woodchips with hints of dark chocolate. 75 mL of boiling water with 5g of leaf provided 9-11 substantial infusions with brewing times of 10, 15, 21, 28, 38, 53 seconds, etc.

This is one of my favorite teas to enjoy after an evening meal. Additionally, it blends very well with cream and would probably make an excellent bubble tea base.

This was an unexpected tasting packet that came with an order I made ages ago, and it sat on my shelf, unnoticed for a while. I grabbed it for a quick trip since it was sealed and could be trusted not to spew leaves inside my backpack, and brewed it up when I figured I had time to brew a different pot if I didn’t like it.

Pleasant surprise – I liked it quite a bit! I don’t usually go for smoky teas, so it was lovely to find one where the smoke was there as a pleasant accent instead of being the entire point. It also had a nose of slightly caramel scent to me.

Like most of my teas, I did not brew at 212F/100C – much too easy to stew at that temperature – but instead at 185F or so. Dash of milk, and I’m good to go.

Our tea cabinet is too full right now, but hopefully sometime soon we’ll get space and I can pick up more of this one.

I almost used the Cherry Bakewell tea earlier for ‘C’ but that was for another prompt and IMO would be cheating. Since I have a billion ‘C’ teas, I found another for the alphabet challenge. This was a solid black tea!
2023 sipdowns: 59

This was from Meowster a while ago — thanks! I have almost finished with the leaves but have not yet written a note. The leaves are smallish and most remind me of keemun — the flavor is like keemun too. All those keemun qualities. It’s a rich, satisfying cup. Overall, a Good Black Tea. It might even be a better tea that I have tried from Upton? But I have only had a handful of Upton teas. Always meant to order from them, but other orders are usually happening instead.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 24 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3-4 minute steep

Beautiful smell to the leaves, but the flavor is not quite as complex as I would like.

Low astringency.

I feel like this tea would probably be amenable to cold brewing, but I do not care to order more to try it honestly.

Dry leaf: chocolate, malt.
Wet leaf: same.
Flavors: honey, sweet, hazelnut, bitter.

Not a bad tea. My first TGY. I have tried the sample twice and dont feel like the tea tasted the same each time, but perhaps that is just my memory.

Dry leaf: smoky, floral.
Wet leaf: malty, smoky.
Taste: floral, smoky, bitter.

Smooth tea with a bit of bitterness starting at the third infusion. Very nice smell and flavor throughout. Medium-thick mouthfeel to first infusion.

Dry leaf: Floral.
Wet leaf: Earth, floral, wood.
Flavor: Floral, honey, citrus.

This has been my favorite tea from Upton so far. I wasn’t expecting much based on the smell of the dry leaves — very similar to the China Oolong Se Chung I had right before it. A little cardboardy and stale, if I’m honest.

But woooo… first steep was a little longer than is typical for me — maybe 15-20 seconds (how I so frequently forget to pour the tea after pouring the water is one of life’s great mysteries). But WOW, it was perfect straightaway. Cocoa right out front, with grandpa’s smoky basement fireplace right behind. Then Christmas plum pudding across the room — dark spicy dough, raisins, brandy. It was every piece of memory from that paneled Ohio basement that I could hope for.

The charcoal roast is VERY prominent, and while I appreciate a roast that disappears into the melange, this one held a really special gift and I wouldn’t want one less iota of smoke and dank than it brought me.

This explosion of nostalgia and complexity didn’t last terribly long — even by my second pour (which I think would normally have been my third, in terms of steep time) it was starting to fade. Still — some nice little cups that trickled out, and I look forward to drinking this one again. Happy to have found it.