Simpson & Vail

I thought I would buy some of this jasmine and add it to whichever tea I choose, whenever I’m having a craving for jasmine. The dry leaves look like full flowers and also drier looking single petals. I tried these brewed on their own, a ton of leaves went into the brew basket. I brewed them for around ten minutes close to boiling. Sadly, the scent and the flavor isn’t as much of a jasmine explosion as I would have liked. I knew from the scent from the pouch that the flavor wouldn’t be what I was hoping. Really, it seems more of a vegetal flavor somehow… really really vegetal. It seems more like chrysanthemums to me, but that could be that in both instances, you’re brewing flower petals without tea leaves. Maybe I’m just not using the correct parameters. (S&V suggests brewing for five minutes at 212 degrees.)

This is a nice blend, very much in the tradition of an Irish Breakfast. I think it’s a little lighter, and not quite as brisk as the Irish Breakfast I’m used to (I usually get Twinings), but it’s still very flavorful.

Sipdown. This tea was incredibly astringent hot, but delicious iced.

Tried this one as an iced tea as well, and it’s not nearly as astringent as when I tried to drink it hot. I’m still not tasting coconut per se, but the overall flavor is very tropical. Glad I saved this one for the warmer weather.

Peach and green tea are so great together. I really like that they used a gunpowder green base for this, it gives the green tea flavor a little extra punch. I don’t taste coconut, or see it in the mix — or even listed in the ingredients — but I do get a lot of tropical fruit flavors backing up the peach, and it’s a really nice combination.

The only downside is that this tea is powerfully astringent, so much so that my whole mouth and throat feel dry, so I’m going to chase this tea with a glass of water and brush my teeth now.

Dry, the leaves smelled a bit like cinnamon. Steeped, they smelled like perfume, which gave me a bit of panic, since I really can’t take those perfumey teas. Happily, it doesn’t actually taste like perfume, but it definitely has some floral aspects. And I do taste a light spice note, though not cinnamon necessarily. I think it’s a reach to call this coconut, though. I get a tiny hint of coconut way in the background, but it is faint compared to all the other flavors.

Cold steeped this one too, but ughhh, that was not a good idea. The chocolate notes, which I couldn’t taste at all when I steeped at 180F, are now very strong but also very bitter. The hay notes are still there, and the astringency is somehow stronger than ever. I do get some of the strawberry, but it is overwhelmed by everything else happening in the glass. Welp, experiment concluded. This is NOT the way to prepare this tea.

Really great strawberry flavor to this, but I’m not getting any of the chocolate notes mentioned in the description, and I do not like this base. It’s green tea, but it tastes like white, a very hay-type white. I thought my water was fairly cool for this, but I will probably go even cooler next time, or maybe even a cold steep, as it’s quite astringent.

Hmm, this one’s not bad but not particularly memorable. I get some vanilla and maple, but nothing I would call a cream flavor. Also the base has notes of hay, the kind you usually find in a white tea, which sort of works against the smoothness I’d expect from cream.

A savory tea, slightly reminiscent of long jing. This is still turning out more astringent than i would like (an aspect that doesn’t really sit well with its delicate flavor) but otherwise it’s very good, lots of nice vegetal green notes.

Light bacon notes. This kind of reminds me of Teavivre’s Xin Yang Mao Jian, but it’s not nearly as strong. Sort of falls between the Xin Yang Mao Jian and a light dragonwell. This doesn’t seem as astringent today as the first time I had it, though I’m still getting a little of that effect.

This one smelled a bit bacony in the tin. The leaves are very wiry; I had to pull them apart to measure a teaspoon, and even then, it was more of a guess. Steeped up, it tastes mostly vegetal. A note of chard, I think. There may be just a hint of bacon in the flavor, but I can barely make it out. This is definitely a savory tea, though. Also on the astringent side.

I notice there are several teas out there called “Cloud & Mist” but I haven’t figured out yet what this is referencing. Do they all come from a particular region? This one doesn’t taste anything like the Teavana Cloud & MIst I tried, though they are both good quality.

Welp, polished this sample off. The combination of chocolate and maple was really good. The base was fairly ordinary, but didn’t get in the way and really let the flavorings come through. This tea also went well with a little cream.

S&V kindly included this as a sample in my order, and it’s really delicious. I’ve come to assume that any tea that hints at Christmas in the name is going to loaded with spices, but this is actually a chocolate maple tea. Tastes best with sugar and a little cream.

This blend has a pleasant fruity flavor, a bit sweet, but doesn’t pack quite the punch I was expecting. I guess I just assumed it was a breakfast tea, but it’s really more of a light afternoon tea. I get a lot of grape from this, though the label says currant. I guess the flavors are sort of close.

One thing I’m picking up from all these Simpson & Vail teas is this after-effect, more a sensation than a flavor, that I usually associate with decaf tea. It’s hard to put my finger on, kind of a drying of the mouth. I know that’s usually associated with astringency, but none of these teas taste astringent, so I don’t even know what to call it. It’s weird though, because the bases in these teas aren’t even the same, so I don’t know why they would all share this trait.

Sipdown, and my 500th tasting note! I haven’t even reached that milestone on my (several years older) blog, so it’s clear where my obsession lies :) Here’s to many more notes and cups of tea!

A pretty straightforward version of Moroccan mint; still, it’s a good balance between the green tea and mint, does the job nicely.

This has grown to be my favorite of the S&V teas. I know because I’m nearly at the bottom of the tin :)

I think 3 minutes really works better than the recommended 2 minutes for this tea; it just needs a little extra time for the flavors to come together. I didn’t completely know what to make of the taste at first, but now I’ve decided it’s a lime ginger ale tea. There’s something about the flavor that reminds me of soda, and it would probably pair perfectly with some sparkling water for an iced drink.

Drank this again earlier today, and it turned out a little better than the first time, though I’m not sure why. I thought I was steeping it the same. Maybe I accidentally gave it a little bit longer, or maybe the flavor has settled down a little now that it’s escaped those paper bags. It still seems a little rough around the edges, and the lime note tastes fizzy somehow, like a Sprite taste. But it’s an improvement on the first cup.

I can’t help comparing this one to H&S Bangkok, as they hit a lot of the same notes — citrus, coconut, ginger — and smell remarkably alike. The Bangkok’s citrus is a lemony citrus. I wanted to try this one because the description mentioned lime and I thought that sounded like an interesting variation.

I do get the ginger, the coconut, and the lime, but for some reason they’re not really coming together in the cup for me. The blend isn’t blending, if that makes any sense. I’m going to do some experimenting with steep times before I rate this, as I think I may have just not hit on the correct way to prepare it yet.

Sipdown! I think for me ATR’s Brioche edges this one out, but there are still a lot of nice aspects to this tea, and I definitely enjoyed it while it lasted.

Had this one again because I wanted to try it with the cream, but it turns out cream is not so great in this one. I mean, it doesn’t taste bad, but it’s overpowering the other flavors, so I think I would have to steep the tea at double strength at least for it to stand up to the cream.