[Andural]

Originally Posted by rhadin

Has anyone purchased tea from Upton Tea? The company advertises in two magazines I subscribe to (Smithsonian and The Atlantic), but I've never bought from them.

I am a regular upton customer. They are the best importer in the US that I have worked with so far. The shipping costs are quite reasonable. They have a nice wide range of quality (and cost). If you take the time to read about each tea, it's like a fine wine catalog with good tasting info. I do purchase some of the expensive stuff, but that is more for guests or when I need an emotional boost. My morning cup does not need to be as good, since the taste buds are not any more awake than I am. Check out upton's "season picks" which are their high volume products and, as such, are reasonably priced. The Tindharia estate that they are selling at the moment is pretty nice. (smooth, delicate flavor and a wonderfully aromatic finish)

The trick to making the jump to loose tea is in the making. Make sure you have a good teapot that holds heat well. You MUST preheat the pot, so that the water temperature, when you go to actually make the tea, remains constant so you don't lose 10 degrees into the walls of the pot. Different kinds of tea require different temperatures. Black teas should be right at the boiling point. Oolong about 190-200, Green about 180. (sorry about the Fahrenheit) This is not just some snob thing. There are so many compounds in tea. If the extraction happens at the wrong temp, an unappetizing blend of muck is all that emerges in the cup. Also, watch the time. Experiment with different lengths (black 3-5, oolong 2-4, green 2-3) of time. An over-extracted cup is just terrible (particularly from the "stronger" tea regions like Assam). It will be bitter, and require way too much added sugar. Oh, and let the tea float loose in the water. Don't constrict it with a device that makes cleanup easier.


What most companies offer are blends of tea. Blends have their place, because they are designed to be consistent. You know what you are going to get. However, no blend can have the ultimate subtlety of a single estate. (same for wine too) I will say that you Brits have much nicer blends in the shops than we do. That is mostly because the majority of American tea drinking is iced, which is almost always served extremely sweet. (and since it is cold too, flavors are not as subtle) When I visit the family in Dundee, I am always blown away by the fact that the cheap store bags are actually drinkable!

The worst part about tea is the lingo and the snobbery that goes with it... (check out the info about tea grading some time!) My tea snob friends (I am not too bad) like to refer to an FTGFOP (a pretty nice grade - fine tippy golden flowery orange pekoe) as "far too good for ordinary people." Don't let the snobs turn you off from making the jump to extraordinary tea. And the fact that tea regions are still referred to with the colonial names...

Last thing: If you do go decaf, expect to pay A LOT more money for it. Just as with coffee, the process of removing caf from the tea is expensive and complicated. It also removes quite a bit of flavor. Since it is more expensive to make, often, cheaper leaves are used. Not a good combo. There is good Decaf out there, but it has to start out as really good tea to stay good tea after the processing.