Simpson & Vail

Wow, I actually finished this! I was worried that I’d never get through the 100g since it’s not that great, and figured my only review on this would repel people from wanting to get any from me. But I made it, largely thanks to David’s Pink Passionfruit, with which I have been blending this.

If you like really sweet fruity drinks, this may actually be up your alley. I hardly ever put sugar in my drinks, and like sugary ones for that matter, so I don’t really speak for the majority.

The dry “leaf” smells like strawberry fruit leather. Smells oh so promising. I finally got around to cold brewing a jug and this is one freakishly sweet fruit blend. Yikes!

The bounty of berries look really plump and juicy after they’ve been sitting in the fridge overnight. The blackberries especially glisten and look so scrumptious.

Simply put, it tastes like a piece of berry Hubba Bubba chewing gum, aspartame and all. I’m the first one to log this so I wonder what others would think of this, especially since I’ve noticed quite a few Steepsterites mentioning that they add sugar to their iced teas. Maybe this would be well-liked to others? I never ever add sugar to iced tea so I wouldn’t know if I should recommend this to the sugar adders.

Sip down. I now officially only have my Violet tea from last year’s S&V order. Go team.

Trying this as a cold brew because I figured the apples would be cool beans in a cool environment and the dictatorial base may take a backseat. It’s much better this way, I think. I get more of the apple and spices this way.

As I was taking the first sip, the smell of the base had me worried but it all worked out in the end, folks.

As previously mentioned, the teas I ordered don’t seem to be very fragrant, save for a couple, and this is one of the ones which lack in fragrance. Maybe a touch of spice but giving the plethora of positive raves about S&V, especially regarding the aroma, I’m surprised this doesn’t have more oompf.

Taste-wise, it’s pretty tasty. A definite apple cinnamon. It reminds me of sitting at the counter as a kid whilst my grandma would make cinnamon twists, rolling the dough in a bed of cinnamon and brown sugar. It’s like that with a touch of apple. I’m not really getting cakey notes from this, though.

Some Steepsterites have suggested overleafing S&V teas so I’m going to start doing that after the first round of sipping is done.

I am always on the hunt for the perfect almond tea, almond cookie, almond cake… you name it. I like almond. So when I was placing an order with Simpson & Vail, I had to try the two most promising almond teas that they had. Dry, this tea smells super cookie like and less almond like. Once brewed I get a really tasty smooth black tea base, but the almond is kind of in the background leaving me wanting more flavor. I steeped it for only three minutes, not wanting to over do it and turn it bitter, but I may have underdone it for this tea. I’ll have to play around with it a few more times before I give up on it. As it stands it is decent, but far from impressive and wowing.

I’m sipping on this while I’m impatiently waiting for my supper to be ready so I can scarf it down and get back to work. Mmm, violet. It could use a better base, though.

Finally trying my first violet tea! I love the smell and taste of violets so it’s about time. Before now, I only ever smelled Kusmi’s violet tea and wasn’t impressed so I never bought it. The violet here smells a little stronger and sweeter.

Taste-wise, it’s like sipping on a violet candy. The base is quite nice and not too distracting either. Now I want to douse myself in violet perfume and wear purple.

ETA: A couple hours after I finished my cup, I kept smelling violet and wondered if the violet was coming out of my pores or something. Then I realized, wait, this morning, I washed my hair with my mom’s Daddy-o, which is a rich violet shampoo for blonde/grey hair. Totally unplanned.

Far out, it’s a sip down! Cold brew style too. Maybe now it’s time to turn to their chocolate mint. Keep on going.

Hmm, I think this is even better as a cold brew than hot. I was hesitant to try it out since I wasn’t sure how the chocolate note would translate, but it works here. The orange wakes up a bit more and the base seems to prefer the cold.

Now to figure out what to steep over the next two days since I’ve helped organize a conference and will be running around all weekend. I think the caterers are going to bring either Stash or Two Leaves and a Bud or something but I need a backup plan. :)

On the hunt for the perfect chocolate orange tea, I thought I’d give this one a shot. It has a delicious scent. Not your typical chocolate orange, but slightly earthy and true orange.

I think I let it steep a little too long so the base is quite robust, but in a positive way. There’s slight astringency too but it goes well with the orange. I’m not tasting any chocolate but it may be due to steeping parameters.

I couldn’t help but add some milk and Cointreau to my cup, which is sort of cheating, but why not! It reminds me of the chocolate orange truffles I made with Cointreau for Christmas a few years ago.

Although it’s not quite the chocolate orange I’m looking for, I’m looking forward to playing around with this one. This one definitely has potential.

Final sip down on this one, too. Cold brew, and I got a lot of cacao nibs this time around. In flavour, that is. It tasted like I was drinking them. It was even stronger than the coconut. The first few sips were kind of bitter, but then after my taste buds adapted, I think it identified that slight bitterness as the cacao.

This is one of the few S&V teas that I would reorder if I were to make another order in the first place, but I feel like there aren’t enough repurchase-worthy ones to truly justify ordering from S&V again.

And now for something completely different.

Now this cold brew was just what I needed to quench my thirst. Very fresh coconut with mild green rooibos. I’m forever perplexed why there aren’t more green rooibos blends out there.

This is one of the very few S&V teas that I would probably reorder (although overall, there just doesn’t seem like enough awesome ones to justify ever placing another order with them).

I whipped up some cold brew earlier today and, unsurprisingly, it’s tasty and refreshing. One thing I noticed this time regarding the dry leaf though is that it smells classically herbal to me. Pesto? Kind of like there’s some basil in there. So odd, but then you have the coconut anyway.

Luckily it doesn’t taste anything like pesto, hot nor cold. I like this both hot and cold, but if I had to choose, I’d go with this here cold brew. Sweet and refreshingly coconutty.

It’s always nice to see green rooibos.

Ooh, this one is yummy. I normally don’t like rooibos, but green is usually a winner. And coconut? It sounded like it would make a good cold brew. I’m trying it hot for now and it’s really tasty. Truly like a coconut macaroon. The base is really mild and contributes to the freshness of the blend. I don’t really taste much chocolate from the cocoa nibs, but granted, I didn’t get a lot in the spoon.

And now for my mom’s input. She just said that it reminds her of these energy squares you can purchase at nuts.com. I know that doesn’t really help anyone here, but they make a coconut one that kind of tastes like this. Sweet, coconutty, and “healthy” tasting.

Starting the day off with a sip down. As potent the scent of the root beer flavouring is, I wish it came through more in the actual flavour, or that they used a different base. This one kind of gets a little dry-tasting, especially when you cold brew it.

But I’m so glad I ordered this one.

Just polished off another 2 litre of cold brew. I kind of wish the base weren’t as strong. I’m sure peeps would like adding sugar to this one.

Just had another 2 litres of this cold brewed. Definitely better this time around using a large filter. The base isn’t as strong as it was last time, and the root beer flavours come through more. I wouldn’t call it a creamy root beer, but rather a sharper, more herbal root beer. Pretty good but I’m not crazy over the base.

I definitely prefer Butiki’s Root Beer Float honeybush.

Ha, Steven Tyler is on Dr. Oz right now. It’s weird seeing him on TV since I met him a few years ago. He stopped in at our store at WEM and the manager asked me to help him since she thought I had the best product knowledge, so it was an interesting experiencing hanging out with him for nearly an hour. He seems like a totally different person.

Anyway, I left this in the fridge to cold brew for nearly two days since I wound up with a brutal headache yesterday afternoon, which led to popping a couple Tylenol when it wouldn’t go away after a few hours, which led to side effects such as fatigue and nausea since acetaminophen and I don’t get along. So long story short, the cold brew just sat in the fridge until now.

Consequently, the base is quite strong. It leaves the mouth feeling rather dry, but it’s not astringent. Root beer lingers in the background. It’s creamier cold than hot, but the wintergreen that was prominent hot has died down. I hypothesized that this would be better cold, but right now it’s still hard to tell since I might have oversteeped it.

Time to try out the most strongly scented tea in the box. I had my mom open the order before I flew home and she basically had to quarantine this one because everything around it smelled like root beer.

The cool part is it reminds me of better quality root beer too, not the syrupy mainstream root beer. A brewery on the Island brews their own root beer and it smells similar to this: heavy on the wintergreen with the obligatory heavy shot of sarsaparilla, creamy vanilla, and spices. This is mostly wintergreen and sarsaparilla for sure.

Brewing it up, it smells just as awesome. But it kind of screws with your brain because when you take a sip, the black base is in the forefront, and reminds you that this is tea and not pop. It’s pretty good, but not as flavourful as it smells. I still can’t wait to try this cold brewed though. I have a feeling brewing it that way will bring out the flavours even more and tone down the base.

S&V did a great job on this one, really.

This is a coconut black tea. No hidden agenda. Coconut and black tea – and you can actually taste the coconut! None of this, coconut black tea with coconut flakes but no coconut taste. It’s awesome when a tea truly delivers on the name.

Slowly making my way through the sip down reports so as not to overwhelm everyone with thirty tasting notes at once rambling about everything I sipped down while I’ve been MIA.

This was probably my favourite of the Simpson and Vail bunch, especially due to the surprise coconut note buried underneath the caramel, but ultimately, their bases weird me out so I’m never ordering from them again.

This one turned out better today. I wish I knew what I did because I was distracted getting things done while it was steeping. Maybe I let it steep longer due to the distraction and it brought out the flavours more? With half and half, it’s especially good.

I’ve gotten coconut before and there it is again. I swear.

Hmm, I’m getting more sugary caramel than chocolate today, but I’m not complaining since I’m not too crazy over their chocolate note. The half and half smooths out the astringent base. But don’t expect a lot of caramel from this. Kind of muted, like a golden brown sugar.