Simpson & Vail

First cup last night. The dry leaf is really pretty — that’s the first thing that struck me about it. The red and white petals made me think of a candy cane, and I guess a little psychological prompt doesn’t hurt!

I gave this 4 minutes in boiling water, and came back to a cup of candy cane! The smell met my nose almost as I walked into the room, and it actually really cheered me up (because I need cheering up — apparently I’d only be entitled to a week’s notice with my new job, and as a result I’m not sure that I’m going to be able to accept it. Boooo!)

To taste, this is no different. It’s pretty strong on the mint, which reminds me powerfully of a candy cane, while also leaving a very cold sensation at the back of my throat. I could really see this as an iced tea in the summer, so I’ll have to remember to keep a bit back until then! The mint is accompanied by a sweet, creamy vanilla flavour, and then the sweet, slightly herbal taste of the green rooibos lingers in the background. This is going to be a great holiday tea, and hopefully one I can drink in the warmer months as well thanks to its cooling characteristics! Definitely my favourite tea so far from my S&V order :)

I’ve been looking for a good green chai for a while so I thought I’d check out this blend from Simpson and Vail with my recent order. You can see small pieces of spice in the mixture and it smells pretty good.

My first impression of this is it’s somewhat light on the flavor. The green tea is slightly vegetal and nutty and I’m also getting some faint spice but it isn’t nearly as strong as some chais I’ve had. I guess this could be a plus or a minus depending on your point of view. I liked this better after stevia was added.

I think this blend needs more cardamom, it seems quite strong on the cinnamon and ginger. I think this will be a good afternoon time tea, especially on a dreary and cold day like the one we’re having. Overall it’s fairly enjoyable but I may use more leaf next time.

Sipdown! Enjoyed two cups of this on friday, and then packaged the last up to send out in a swap. This is definitely my favourite of the teas I tried in my first Simpson and Vail order. It’s the only one that’s kept its flavour, at any rate. The rest just taste of paper now. I should have re-packaged them when they arrived, but I didn’t realise they’d deteriorate so rapidly. Still, lesson learned!

I haven’t had a cup of this in far too long. Put an end to that at work today with a cup in the afternoon. I remembered finding the flavour a little muted last time, so I added a couple of small pieces of crystal sugar. It’s much improved. The apple and cinnamon come out clearly, and there’s a sweet, almost spongy aftertaste. Definitely one to remember more often!

Yuuuuuuum! I brought this one to work with me as another black tea to have on hand. I’ve said it before, but this is my favourite of the Simposon and Vail teas I’ve tried so far. It taste just like its name leads you to imagine, and that’s what I really want from a flavoured tea.

The apple here is quite subtle, but the cinnamon and cake elements are really prominent. I added a small piece of crystal sugar and some milk, and that’s brought out a creaminess that’s making me think of buttercream frosting. The apple develops a little more in the aftertaste, leaving behind a flavour reminiscent of apple crumble. I love it when a flavoured tea lives up to its name and description, and it’s brightened my day to find one as good as this!

Really liked this one — probably my favourite of the Simpson and Vail teas I’ve tried so far! The dry leaf smells gorgeous, and actually looks really pretty. It tastes wonderful, too. The apple and cinnamon come out really clearly, almost like apple pie. I can taste a slightly artificial sweetness, but it seems to help create the “cake” flavour, so I can forgive it that.

Yum, yum! A perfect tea for autumn!

After my success with S&V Candy Cane, I decided to cold-brew the last of my Carrot Cake Cupcake Green Rooibos for work today. I’m reasonably pleased with it — I think on balance I can taste more carrot cake, and certainly more cream cheese, than I could when drinking this hot. It’s still quite delicate, though. In the initial sip, it doesn’t seem like there’s much flavour to be had, but it does develop quite wonderfully in the aftertaste. There’s a delicate carroty freshness, a hint of spice, and a slightly tangy sweetness that really is reminiscent of cream cheese frosting. This will be an easy cold brew to sip on today, and it gets one of my languishing teas out of my cupboard. Not a restock, I don’t think, but enjoyable enough.

Another great cup today. I think bringing this one to work was the best thing I ever did, because I do actually and genuinely get carrot cake from this when I make it in my smaller work cup. I think I’m actually getting some papaya today, and it adds a fruity sweetness that fits nicely with the carrot. The cinnamon adds just a touch of spice, and somewhere in the middle of the two flavours a rich, sponginess develops that really does taste like cake! There’s even the tiniest touch of cream cheese icing, although it’s so fleeting I almost feel like I might have imagined it. I don’t think so, though. The green rooibos is pretty muted today, even though this had a pretty long brew time. I was worried that the flavour had faded due to me storing this one in its original paper packaging, but it looks like I needn’t have worried. I couldn’t have asked for a more carrot cake-like tea than this!

This one surprised me this morning. I’ve been drinking a lot of green tea over the last couple of days, attempting to sip down a couple of smaller amounts I’ve got left at work before I go on leave (only for a week, but I’ll take what I can get). I reached for this one because I wanted a change, but I remembered my last cup at home, and how I couldn’t really taste anything but rooibos anymore. I was pretty convinced it had faded in its poor paper packaging.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I took a sip of my freshly brewed cup and found it actually tasted like carrot cake again! I use a smaller cup at work, and I did forget about it for a good few minutes while the left was still in, so maybe both those factors have something to do with this improved cup. It smells like carrot cake, delicately spiced and slightly creamy, and it tastes like it too. The spicing comes out first, cinnamon, maybe nutmeg, then a slight frutiness that reminds me of raisins. The spongey, vanilliary, cream cheesyness comes out last, and is very fleeting, but it’s there! It’s there! The whole thing is subtle and delicate, and I’m sure this was stronger when I first tried it, but I’m really pleased to have coaxed any flavour from it at all. I’d pretty much written this one off!

Had a cup last night, but I can’t actually taste anything remotely carrot cake like here. That’s odd, because I could last time I had it. Maybe I’ve neglected it too long? I do worry about S+V’s paper packaging. I’ll give this another go tonight, because I really want to taste whatever it was the made me think of carrot cake last time. All I got today was green rooibos, unfortunately. Not that it’s bad, but I wanted cake small tantrum

Ah. I didn’t realise this was green rooibos. I tried it last night and was expecting normal red rooibos, which is probably why I thought it tasted a bit odd. Now that I realise it was green rooibos, it’s risen a bit in my estimation. This is another one I’m going to have to try again before I’m really sure of it, but I definitely got carrot cake spices and cake from my first cup. I’m not really getting any cream cheese frosting or creaminess, but you can’t have everything. The base tasted a little too strong and prominent for my liking, but I’m looking forward to giving this another go. Definitely a better experience than Strawberry Cupcake!

I’ve been drinking this at work recently, and have more or less given up on it. Whatever I do, I can’t get it to taste of strawberry. Today’s cup actually had two pretty large pieces of strawberry in it, but they made absolutely no impact on the flavour. Surprisingly. I get the tiniest hint of strawberry if I brew this at a lower temparature, but it’s not very satisfactory.

I have to admit feeling disappointed. I thought this would be my cup of tea, literally, but it’s tasteless and not very inspiring. A shame.

Tried this with a piece of crystal sugar last night. It didn’t make this taste of strawberries. Not that I was expecting it to, but you can hope. It did, however, make me think more of chocolate cake. I don’t know why, and nor do I know why I thought of vanilla originally. So, yeh. Not doing that well with this tea so far. All I really want is for it to taste even slight of strawberry! Back to the drawing board again!

A little confused by this one at the moment. I’m not getting strawberry at all. I mean, not even slightly, and yet I can see little pieces in the dry mix. Huh? The cake’s there, although I was thinking more vanilla than chocolate, so that’s thrown me again. There’s something rich and bakey about this, though, and it’s kind of nice. I do find that this becomes astringent as it cools, though. I let it a bit on purpose in case that helped the strawberry to develop, but instead I just got a cup of bitterness, more or less.

I’m going to try this again later with some crystal sugar, I think. At the moment, though, I feel like I’m getting something wrong here…

I got this blend last year during cold/flu season and I thought I’d break it out today, guess it can’t hurt. I am getting concerned because I have a concert to go to tonight and my tickets are already paid for, need to make a speedy recovery soon! Heal me, tulsi!

Tea of the evening here. The weather took quite a dip tonight in temperature and I was really chilly when I got home. Put on a sweater, some slippers and decided I would make a cup of this tisane from S & V I got a few days ago.

I like the taste of tulsi but sometimes it can be pretty strong. this is a good herbal blend, slightly minty, slightly herby and slightly sweet. the mix of herbs is really well done and tones down the tulsi flavor quite a bit. They added stevia but you could always add more sweetener if you wanted. Personally I don’t find the stevia to be overdone here at all, it’s very mild.

I got a 4 oz. tin of this in the hopes that it would fortify me through the winter cold and flu season and I wasn’t disappointed! This is a good herbal which is comforting and grounding. Nice for winding down here.

This is a sipdown, finally. You’d think since I have been spending so much time at home I’d be sipping more stuff down but I really have a lot of tea :)

I won’t miss this too much, it doesn’t quite live up to the name although it smells incredible. S & V used to carry a good apple rooibos tea but I think it was discontinued because I can’ find it on their site any more.

This blend is growing on me for some reason, I didn’t think much of it when I first got it but now I really like it for breakfast. I did accidentally add too much stevia to mine this morning so it got a bit on the sweet overkill side. The sweetness helps to bring out the cake notes and I am getting a lot of apple and cinnamon today. Upped the rating a few points.

mmm… this seemed to taste better than I remember this morning but maybe I’m just getting my sense of taste back. I added soymilk and stevia and it was indeed very apple-y.

I’m a bit frustrated having this cough that I want to stay away from my friends and also not push myself by going to the gym. Guess I’ll be resting and drinking a lot of tea this weekend, life could be worse!

Tea of the morning here.

the dry leaf smells so amazing and I had such high hopes for the tea itself.

It isn’t bad, it’s just a lot lighter on flavor than I was expecting it to be. I am definitely getting apple and cinnamon but nothing I would really recognize as cake. Better with sugar and soymilk added but not at the top of my favorite Simpson and Vail teas. It smells really good even when you’re drinking it, the taste doesn’t quite live up to the aroma.

I love the scent of this one dry. It’s so fresh and clean. It’s supposed to be an earl grey, but I can’t detect bergamot at all. Instead, the main note is grapefruit. It’s almost sweet, but there’s an underlying twang of sharpness, just like the fruit itself.

The bergamot emerges while this is brewing. Not too strongly, just enough to know it’s there. The liquor was pretty dark after 3.5 minutes, so I added a splash of milk. Fortunately, it withstands it rather well.

I like this. The grapefruit is clear in the initial sip, more so as it cools, and tastes clean and fresh. The bergamot is surprisingly strong and a little bitter in the aftertaste, but the citrusy aspect pairs well with the grapefruit. I’ve not tried an earl grey quite like this before, so it’s been an interesting experience. I think I’m coming to like fruit flavoured EGs, though, so this is definitely a tea I’d revisit in the future. My first Simpson and Vail, and a pleasant cup. Shame it’s just a sample!

Sipdown
Finally finished this off today along with a bag of Teavana’s rock sugar I got as a Christmas gift. I don’t have much to say about this one, it’s one of my older teas so I’m glad I was able to drink it finally. It does still have some toffee flavor, which is brought out nicely by this rock sugar. I hope everyone is having a nice Sunday morning so far!

Tea of the afternoon here. I have had this for far too long, it seems to be the never ending tea but I think I’m close to finishing it off! I’ve been doing really well lately at not buying any tea, now I just have to get my other spending under control. :)