Simpson & Vail

Another tea from Miss B! After the butterbeer disappointment I decided to try this one because in the words of Dumbledore, “I think I could be safe with a nice toffee” (I’m still watching Harry Potter). I tried this plain first and I could strongly taste the tea base along with a subtle buttery, slightly nutty taste. While I wouldn’t exactly say toffee, I did find it pleasant. I decided to resteep and try with sweetener to see if it brought the toffee taste out a little more. Unfortunately, all that accomplished was to hide the base tea. So, I added some milk and it became nicely and predictably creamier. I prefer this plain though. It was a good tea, but nothing that leaves a lasting impression.

This tea reminds me a little of Della Terra’s Eight Candles with a punchier base tea, and a little bitterness provided by both the base and the chocolate notes. I think it’s because the vanilla in the caramel reminds me of those waxy air freshener vanilla candles, a scent and flavour which may come off as coconut to others.

Having said that this is a pleasant dessert tea with a base that is robust enough to welcome cream or milk. The tea smells to me of vanilla candles with hints of chocolate over a breast base tea.

I over steeped this tea slightly so the base is more dominant than I may of liked it. It seems that around 2 min 30 s is a sweet spot for this tea and I left it for 1 min more, because of this the bases flavours are the first notes apparent to me. It is a nice dense rugged tea that is breast and malty with light vegetal and floral notes, a cocoa note and a sharper red berry note. It is slightly tannic and astringent. While I appreciate a robust base I do think the base could be a little sweeter.

Once the base notes dissipate a little bittersweet cocoa is apparent as well as a vanilla caramel. The caramel doesn’t quite seem creamy enough, so when hot it seems a little waxy to me.

Thanks JustJames for the sample!

I just have time for a quick review of this tea before my meeting that starts in 3 minutes. I drank this while finishing my presentation for said meeting, which completed 15 minutes ago because I live in the land of procrastination where I rule as queen. Anyway, at first sniff I was like “Holy mint monkeys!”, but the taste was much more tame. It was pretty much exactly as you’d expect? Chocolate, mint, tea. It left a funny taste in my mouth, but that could have been adrenaline from trying to beat my deadline. I’d have to say in the rankings of chocolate mint tea, it’d have to go:
1. Read my lips- DT
2. Chocolate mint- H&S
3. Chocolate mint- S&V

This was my first S&V tea though! Thanks Miss B for putting it in the grab bag!

Oooooh, I just love this! It’s not complex, or subtle, but the name says it all: English Toffee . It doesn’t even need sweetener, although I’m sure adding some would make it even better. MissB, thank you for sending! :)

SSTTB: Pick #6

I think prior to this I’ve only had two Simpson & Veil teas; the rootbeer one and then a strawberry cupcake sorta one. You can tell neither really left an impression. I really wanted to keep exploring the company though, so I took advantage of the large bag of this one to make a cold brew of it!

Dry I didn’t smell a lot, but I do really enjoy green rooibos so I figured that if all else failed I’d just have a nice cold brew of green rooibos to sip on at work and it’d be another blend tried. But this definitely packed a powerful punch of flavour! It tasted exactly like a candy cane: not just mint but also a creaminess to it and a weighty vanilla flavour. There also seemed to be a smooth white chocolate vibe to this.

It was insanely refreshing and smooth to drink and I absolutely enjoyed chugging drinking it on break today. It was the perfect pick me up from a long, drawn out work day. Seriously, it feels like this week has been dragging on forever (but maybe that’s just because I’m super excited for Barcraft and seeing Tyrell again).

I feel this one has left a really positive impression with me and I think it was a needed push to not give up on Simpson & Veil just yet. Totally not ready to make an order with them or anything, but I’m feeling encouraged to look out for samples in swaps and such. And if I ever do feel like I have enough to justify an order I’m sure this’ll probably be included.

From T&C TTB: uh. Yeah.
Inject it into my veins.
Wait no.
I can’t taste it that way.

This is the second dessert tea I’ve tried from Simpson and Vail and the results were very similar. It’s a good tea But… be careful not to use too much tea as it’s potent, be careful not to oversteep, be careful not to oversweeten, and the second steep is much better than the first. Those few notes aside it is a very good dessert tea that tastes quite alot like it’s namesake. I don’t know what sort of base S&V use but it’s very temperamental, so if your first cup isn’t very good try for another with a little different preparation.

I actually quite like this one. Nice rich sweet chocolate. Not sure about caramel but this is a really nice chocolate tea.

I can’t believe this still tastes like Violet! It’s an old sample from Fjellrev, I think. :)

Still candy-soapy-violet. Decent enough with cream, but reminds me of Thrills candy with the soapiness.

Haha. Not really recommended, but interesting to try.

Thank you!

A sample from Fjellrev!

This smells intoxicating. Candied violets! So cool! Because of the sweet smell of the dry leaf and the steeping tea, I added a couple tiny rock sugar bits to it.

Taste-wise, it’s not quite there. It’s floral (duh), green, and soapy. Boo. Violet candies are not supposed to be soapy. Well, they are, but in a good way and this is kind of more the bad way.

Thanks for the sample, Fjellrev! Too bad this isn’t for me. Doesn’t change the fact that I want to try other Violet teas, though, so it’s not all bad. :)

This is a fairly strong tea, the black tea itself is very bold and the chocolate is almost overpowering in its intensity. Definitely not a tea to add too much of to your infuser or steep to long, but if you get it just right it’s delicious!

This smells fantastic, and it tastes good. I’m getting more brulee than creme. For me it’s caramelized sugar, almost to the point of burnt. I actually quite like that, but I’m not getting anything that I would call vanilla or custard. This is really sweet with a some burned caramel tones…..

Sweet, bakery-ish – not getting any almond (or nut). I’ve had a better “cookie” tea recently. This pales in comparison.

Out of my MissB box of insanely awesome tea, I chose this for my mid-afternoon cup (THANK YOU, MissB!!!). I didn’t make a true chai with it, but instead just added milk and sugar…and holy moley was it delicious.
I’m sure you could fancy it up, steaming your milk and all that (and maybe I’ll do that next time, since ifjuly taught me that neato frothed milk in a jar trick…), but this was so good.
I found that I had downed my first cup before I knew it, unable to hold back from the deliciousness. I guess I was in a chocolate chai mood…. So, I resteeped, and got to do it all over again. :)
Speaking of chocolate—the chocolate is really nice in this. I love how it’s balanced with the spice…nothing fighting, or arguing for center stage..everything just getting along swimmingly in your tea cup, to the delight of my taste buds.
Thank you so much for sending this my way, MissB!

The scent of this tea is a mix of apples, cinnamon and a bit of that “baked good” smell. The bakery scent mixes well with that of the black tea base. I can’t tell the difference between the two. I’m a little concerned that the tea base might take over when it comes to the actual taste and that the actual apple cinnamon coffeecake flavor will be lost.

Sipping… there is something in this that reminds me of the Simpson & Vail almond sugar cookie blend. I first taste a bit of the black tea which turns into that “bakery” flavor. The cinnamon seems to be woven in nicely – it’s not too strong or weak, but is definitely present throughout. My first sip was mostly cinnamon and apple – now it’s a little bit harder for the apple to come through. It’s there, though, if you look for it… not artificial, but like a nice fresh slice. A part of me wants to say that this is the almond sugar cookie blend without a whole lot of almond, but there is something that I can’t quite identify that makes it just a little bit different. To me, this doesn’t really taste like apple cinnamon coffeecake, but it is tasty and original. I can’t remember who sent this tea to me.. I’m just terrible at remembering some of these older teas I have left to try. So thank you so much to that person who sent this to me in a swap!

Sipdown!

I’m working on clearing out samples and sipdowns to make room for the Della Terra order I’m getting later this week, plus some stuff from Dexter to try soon.

This one is quite tasty, and I like the subtle toffee notes here. I did add milk which may have melded the flavours a bit more.

I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to buy this one, but it is good, so thanks to OMGsrsly for the sample to try.

’Here’s Hoping’ traveling teabox Round #2 // Tea #7
Now I usually don’t like ginger, but whoa, this chai could be on my Top 10 chai list… The dry blend itself looks really well balanced.. the black tea leaves, perfect amount of spices. Oh well, call me a tea nerd, I know! I see cinnamon, ginger, cloves. The flavor is perfect – the right amount of robustness to be tough but not over-power the spices, which is pretty strong itself, but there is also a sweetness.. I’m not sure from what.. maybe the flavoring that should be there? I wouldn’t call this particularly like gingerbread or an unusual amount of ginger. Ginger is my kryptonite, but with chai, it’s okay. I might take the last remaining couple teaspoons of this from the teabox. I think I’ve loved every tea I’ve tried from Simpson & Vail. There will be a S&V order at some point, but definitely not in the next year when I’m already planning on a couple orders.
Steep #1 // just boiled // 3 1/2 min
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 min

First thing I get is strawberry and then a hint of chocolate comes through. This is pretty light for a black tea. I’m not tasting much of the base, mostly just strawberry. It gets a little bitter as it cools. It is a decent tea, but not one that I will seek out.

“Holy crap, root beer tea!”

No, seriously, if you’re looking for a non root beer drink that tastes and smells (and boy does it smell strong) as much like root beer as something that’s not root beer could ever possibly taste or smell, you found it!

I had wanted to try this for awhile, so thank you Courtney for sending some!
I had to separate it from all my other teas because the smell is that potent! Nuts!

I drank this on a walk with my baby, hot, in my travel mug.
It was very tasty.

Though in hindsight, I’m not entirely sure I ever need to drink hot root beer. So the rest will be cold brewed.

I kind of regret not ordering this with my one and only S&V order but I probably wouldn’t drink it too often anyway.

Super delish though! Yum!

From the HHTTB2

Helloooooo, clove! There are lots spices here, but the clove is much stronger than the rest. It does remind me of gingerbread, and I can see how this would be nice to have during the fall and winter months. I can see myself picking up a sample size at some point around the holidays.

Another surprise in the tea swap from Marcel Duchamp! Thank you so much! This tastes basically exactly how I was thinking it would, so I obviously I love it.

Steep #1 // 10 mins after boiling (accidentally waited that long) // 3-4 min
The black tea base suits this perfectly – it’s mild enough, yet it pairs well with the flavors. First, there is an odd flavor from the strawberry leaves, but that is thankfully only at the top of the cup. There is definitely something here that makes this taste like CUPCAKE. A bit of strawberry and I thiiinnk a hint of chocolate. There should really be some more strawberry, but it might take away from the cupcake flavor. I love it – it’s perfect because I was craving a tea that was cakey today.

Steep #2 // just boiled // 4-5 min
This cup was also nice, but a little light on the flavor which was surprising since I accidentally waited 10 mins for the first steep. I love this though!

Since this arrived in my package from MissB I have been dreaming about it. The big success of almond in with the leaves and the thought of drinking almond sugar cookies….mmmmmm…… so I made this as my late morning brew. It is quite tasty, very almondy. It’s not quite as cookie as I would have liked, but it’s in the background. Maybe a touch of milk would bring that out more.

Sorry for the absence, Steepster, I haven’t had much time between work and my social life lately. Also, I’ve been blending my own chai and drinking that most mornings, so I haven’t had much to write about.

Anyway, I got this in a trade with JustJames a while back. It’s a pretty tea. Short, dark leaves with flakes of pale strawberry leaf and pink strawberry pieces. The aroma is just gorgeous. Tempting chocolate cake scent mixed with a hint of sweet-tart fruit. It really does smell like a cupcake.

Steeped, it starts to get a less-than-realistic, Tootsie Roll sort of smell. It looks lovely in the glass pot, however. Beautiful ambery red. From the aroma, I expected chocolate to be the most prominent flavor, but actually, it’s the strawberry! It reminds me of strawberry preserves, not strawberry candy, which is nice. Also, I can actually taste the black tea base. It’s mild and Assam-like with just a touch of astringency, but no bitterness. The chocolate is most noticable at the end, but I still feel like I’m smelling it more than I’m tasting it.

While chocolate teas aren’t really my thing, this one would be nice to revisit every once in a while.