Simpson & Vail

I have figured out how to make this tea drinkable, agave nectar and honey mixed in. This tea is great for helping me sleep but leaves something to be desired in flavor. By itself it is bitter and sour to a large degree. The agave nectar and honey correct that nicely.

The reason to drink this tea is purely for the effect. It is very relaxing and tends to make me want to sleep. On nights where my Ambien doesn’t seem to be working I have used this as a booster with good effect.

I brewed this once in an 14oz mug with 4tsp leaf and boiling water for 7 min.

The puerh I drank earlier is keeping me from sleeping so I am drinking this. The unpleasant tasting Valerian Root in this tea has a mild narcotic effect and has helped me sleep in the past, sometimes. This tea desperately needs sweetener to counteract the Valerian root. I added honey and agave nectar. They seem to work better than sugar. We will see if the tea has the desired effect. I will know in the morning, or in two hours if I am still awake.

The rating I give this tea is entirely on effect. Taste wise it rates about a 10 out of 100. It is perhaps the worst tasting tea I have ever drank. That being said if you go on the Simpson and Vail website they have obviously fake reviews of this tea on it. They both describe how great the tea tastes. I reviewed this tea for svtea.com and gave it it an overall good review that said it didn’t taste very good. They did not publish that review. They apparently only publish completely favorable reviews.

This tea is sour and somewhat bitter, more sour than bitter. What it does have is a nice effect. It relaxes me a lot. This is why I bought this tea twice. I recommend this tea if you have need to relax I don’t recommend it for taste. It is a very relaxing brew in a way we wish that normal tea was. Valerian Root has a very nice effect on the system even though it does not taste good.

I brewed this tonight to try to relax in a way tea, no matter how relaxing can’t relax me. This tea has worked for me before. This is the second time I have bought this tea. The herbal ingredients have a nice effect even if it does not taste so good. By itself the taste is downright unpleasant, even somewhat sour. I added a nice amount of hibiscus to the tea which dulled the flavor and improved it somewhat. I also added agave nectar to it as well. The resulting taste is spicy, sour, and sweet as well. All in all it does not taste too bad. I recommend this tea for its relaxing properties, but remember I don’t recommend it for the taste.

I steeped this once in a 14 oz mug with 4 tsp leaf and 3 tsp hibiscus and boiling water for 7 min. I am going to rate this tea at an 80% but may change it in the morning to a higher number if it helps me sleep.

I decided to raise my rating for this tea because it had the desired effect. I was out like a light last night. I think that alone in a tea is worth a 90%.

This tea is good but is a little too sweet. It is not bitter or astringent. The wild cherry flavor and hibiscus flavors go nicely together. I picked this out to order almost by chance and picked it out to drink in my quest to watch my caffeine. If it weren’t just too sweet it would rate a 90 or so. It did get better as it cooled.

I brewed this once in an 18 oz teapot with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 3 min.

As far as pumpkin spice teas go, this is more pumpkin than spice. In fact, there doesn’t seem to be any spices in the mix; no pieces of cinnamon, no cloves, nothing like that. It doesn’t smell particularly spicy either. Just the faintest whiff of them under pumpkin.

The spice comes out in the taste, but like others have said, it’s subtle. It’s got a definite pumpkiny flavor though. Not bad for the fall at all, and probably nice mixed with a little chai.

There are two listings for this tea, both with one rating so I wasn’t sure which to use…

This tea is nice enough. It’s certainly not anything special but it’s perfectly drinkable and I think it’s something that will appeal to many palates. Probably a safe choice if you’re brewing a pot for a group. SV says this has a flowery bouquet which I don’t get at all. But it’s a little sweet, a little malty and it has nice body. Overall it comes off as totally inoffensive though not especially memorable.

This tea is not half bad for a decaf, pretty bad when compared to regular green tea. I am avoiding caffeine tonight and chose this one. It has a vegetal taste which I don’t mind and a fairly sour aftertaste which I do mind. This is not one I would recommend, unless you are really looking for decaf green tea. There just aren’t that many available from decent tea vendors and Simpson and Vail is excellent.

I think I would like to try this with a 1 min steep time and see if the sour flavor goes away.

I steeped this once in an 18oz teapot for 2 min with 175 degree water and 3 tsp of leaf.

This is a tasty blend of jackfruit, apricot and mango flavors. It is slightly astringent as many of Simpson and Vail teas are. I brewed this in a large iced tea pot and put it in a thermos to bring to work. There is just a small amount of bitterness as well. It is very good, although not the very best. It definitely ranks as a very good tea.

I brewed this once in an 64oz iced tea pot for 4 min with 8 tsp leaf and boiling water.

Also, it seems we need to add jackfruit to the list of authorized flavors as the computer won’t allow you to add one not on the list.

I brewed this in a 64 oz iced tea pot and put it in a thermos for work. I did not end up finishing it but I had plenty of tea. It is slightly sweet from the Lychee flavoring, slightly, very slightly bitter, and very slightly astringent. It is a fairly good mix, no one flavor is overpowering.

I brewed this once in a 64oz iced tea pot with 8 tsp leaf and boiling water for 3 min. I then put it in a thermos and brought it to work.

Got this tea from…Mandy I think??
Well whoever it’s from I definitely owe them some tea because as skeptical as I was over Creme Brulee teas lately, I actually thoroughly enjoyed this tea. I can’t even place what I like about it so much….
I’m getting a crap load of caramel from this tea right now, and it’s amazing. It’s strong and sweet. Don’t even need to think about adding anything to enhance the flavor. It’s delicious! Definitely a win!
If I ever place another Simpson & Vail order, definitely getting this one!

I brewed this in the morning before work in a big 64oz iced tea pot and put it in a thermos for work. This is an excellent tea. It is mildly sweet from the orange peel, but not too sweet. There is a little bit of bitterness but not much. It is purely on the back burner, the orange flavor dominates.

I brewed this once in a 64oz iced tea pot with 8 tsp leaf and boiling water for 3 min. I proceeded to drink it all day and shared it with some of my co workers.

This tea is an excellent Green Tea. The person who originally entered it classed it as white tea by mistake because the green tea that is the primary ingredient is called White Monkey Tea. Strange name for a green tea. It is excellent. My stock of it has begun to lose its flavor but is still good. It is sweet, but not too sweet. There is a slight aftertaste that I would describe as neither sweet nor bitter nor sour but perhaps savory. I don’t know how else to describe it. In short if you like flavored green tea this one is good and worth buying.

I brewed this once, western style, in an 18oz teapot with 175 degree water and 3 tsp leaf for 3 min. Good stuff from an excellent tea seller who sells very reasonably priced teas. There teas may not be quite as good as Whispering Pines by reputation, but they are excellent and much cheaper.

This tea I would categorize as not bad simply because there is simply too much sweetness to it. The gooseberry flavor, which like the other reviewers I can’t pin down as gooseberry, is too strong. There is a little bitterness to this tea, but not much. There is no noticeable astringency or malt flavor.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot for three minutes with boiling water. I used 3 tsp of leaf. If you like really, really sweet flavor teas you may like this.

L&C TTB

Tasty!

kinda sweet, a little roasty tasting.

Easy to drink.

Nice after it cools. (Work was crazy yet again today, and I had a couple of infusions of this that wound up sitting longer than planned.)

Additional notes: My sample from Ost that is at LEAST five years old (when I wrote the note) is aging AMAZINGLY. Wow, it still tastes fresh. And if I use more than one teaspoon much more chocolate and raspberry peaks through. The coconut isn’t in the flavor but it also isn’t rancid yet… I’d call that a plus. >FIVE YEARS. A S&V essential for me. Raising the rating from 88.

Thank you Ost for the sale! I picked up some good ones. Now when I’m not drinking new teas, it must be sipdowns! I think I have all three of S&V’s cupcake teas now. Whoops. This one smells heavenly, just as the description sounded: cocoa, coconut, raspberry. I’m not exactly SURE what red velvet is, but I did make a red velvet cake a couple weeks ago for the first time… but from a box. Also, the red velvet Pop Tarts are the BEST Pop Tarts. Anyway, the taste is the same as the scent. Sweet, chocolate notes, hints of coconut, not a huge amount of raspberry. The dry blend is mostly rooibos, which completely makes sense for red velvet and of course actually makes the color red, but if there had been more of the ingredients that aren’t rooibos, I think it would have been even more cakey. S&V seems to have some pretty darn nice teas.
Steep #1 // just boiled // 1 min

This has to be my favorite green rooibos blend. It is both sweet and savory is the best way I can describe it. No one flavor seems to dominate it. It definitely tastes of the raspberries and the papaya. I don’t really notice the hibiscus that much but then again I do not dislike it or like it in particular. This is one tasty rooibos tea.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 5 minutes.

Today my insomnia is acting up on me and me medicine is not working. So I thought I would makle some rooibos in hopes of relaxing. This tea is nice. It’s got both a sweet and a savory character. Added some raw honey to this so it tastes really sweet.

Brewed this once in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 5 min.

This is perhaps my favorite rooibos tea. It is sweet, it is savory. It has a nice depth of flavor. If you have never tried rooibos and want to try a good one, this is the best. Rooibos is at its best when the sweet meets the savory in a good way. There are a lot out there that fail and make people dislike rooibos. This tea will convert a lot of people. That being said, I wouldn’t have chosen this tonight but I am again watching my caffeine. I would much rather be drinking puerh.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 5 min.

I think this is perhaps the tastiest sweet rooibos tea I have ever drank. I needed something tasty on my palette after a horrible shou puerh from Aliexpress and this fits the bill. I also didn’t want any more caffeine tonight having had a nice sheng session earlier. The flavor of the berries is predominate. It somewhat overpowers the savory character of the green rooibos. If you like sweet rooibos you will like this. If you hate rooibos you will hate it. I guess that sums it up. I brewed 3 tsp of leaf for 5 min in an 18 oz teapot. Its very hard to brew this tea wrong. There is a lot of latitude to it.

This tea is quite good. I brewed it with 6g of tea in an 18 oz teapot for 3 min, one steep, 185 degree water. The flavors of the apricot and mango really come through although the tea has a slightly smoky flavor too. I can’t properly describe this other flavor but it is not an off taste. This tea is sold by Simpson and Vail, an excellent tea shop with reasonable prices at www.svtea.com.

OK admitting that I really neglected to pay attention to steeping parameters. This might have steeped for 15 minutes or more. OOOOoooops. I’m blaming the cat – somehow this must have been the cats fault.

Not sure that this is carrot cake, but it does have some of those spices. What I am getting though is the icing – cream cheese icing. Yep spice and icing – and I like it. All the other cheesecake teas, or cake teas – I never really get the “tang” of the cheese cake – this one really has it. Fun little tea, not sure I need to keep it in my cupboard, but was a nice experience.