Simpson & Vail

There aren’t too many red rooibos blends that I have liked in the past but this just sounded so intriguing in the Simpson and Vail catalog – plus peach seemed like it might have gone really well with the roobois…

I was pleasantly surprised by this one. It did still have that slightly weird rooibos smell when brewing but after I steeped this for 5 minutes and let it cool down slightly, I was delighted to discover the marigold and the peach flavor seemed to complement the rooibos so nicely. I can even drink it plain without any additives which is something I don’t often do with a red rooibos tea. It’s peachy! :)

I might even try some other S & V rooibos blends after this!

Tea of the morning here and a sipdown…

I have really enjoyed this tea. I love cardamom and the rose is also really nice in this blend because it’s subtle and not “in your face” perfume-y or girly. This is great with a splash of soymilk. Might need more of this…. it isn’t that easy to find a cardamom tea.

Happy Valentine’s Day Steepster!
I thought I’d try to drink something flowery this morning due to the holiday. I steeped this for 5 minutes with no ill effects to the tea. This is more strongly cardamom flavored than rose flavored which is fine with me, as I love cardamom. I hope everyone has a great day, I have a sweet evening planned with my Valentine. :)

Tea of the afternoon here… I’ve been feeling under the weather but am trying to rally myself to go to an art gallery walk today.

I love the cardamom here, it really transforms the rose congou into something slightly more elegant. Of course I also really like cardamom. I also have an entire tin of the rose congou from S & V that I’ve hardly touched – I should get working on that!

see previous notes for more info.

I knew I had to try this tea when I first saw it. I love cardamom and roses so it was definitely calling my name!

I steeped this for 3 minutes at 212 F. I may have accidentally used too much leaf because it seems very strong (but yummy). The rose is very prominent in this blend, at first I thought maybe it was too much but as the cup is cooling off I like it more. The cardamom you pick up more so in the finish. The base of this tea is a rose congou, which I’ve never had before but now I’m inspired to try the plain rose congou, evidently it is fermented with rose petals. Doesn’t that sound a bit indulgent? I love it. hee hee.

Anyway I thought this was lovely, with a touch of soymilk. It got very dark and rich with both a floral and spicy aroma. But it is definitely strong on both the rose and the cardamom so if you’re leery of either of these things you’d better steer clear of this one.

I did manage to get a second steep out of it, still good although quite a bit milder…

I thought I was all out of this but I found a little bit left in my stash and decided to brew it up tonight with some plain honeybush — that is a pretty nice combination of ingredients. I wish this tea had a bit more almond flavor and I’m not thinking this will be a repurchase for me ’though I have enjoyed it.

For me, this is a sipdown… this is a very nice dessert tea and I have enjoyed it a lot! It’s good this evening with a bit of soymilk. I have been feeling a lot better today, thanks for sending some good vibes my way, people!

Tonight was a happy accident – I discovered this tea makes a nice dessert drink when mixed with the liqueur Tuaca, a sweet vanilla citrusy combination.

I just checked the Tuaca website and they have a Moroccan Mint cocktail made with this stuff so perhaps I will try that soon. :)
http://www.tuaca.com/recipe.aspx?id=1804

TGIF! See previous notes for more info on the tea.

I got this as a night time dessert tea, so that’s why no caffeine…

Steeped it at 212 F for around 4 minutes. WooT! The smell is heavenly and exactly what I recall marzipan to be like, sweet and almondy. Sometimes decaf tea has a bit of an “off” flavor but I’m not really noticing it here. I added soymilk to this because that’s how I plan to drink it. I didn’t feel it needed sugar. That really made it delectable for me, rich and satisfying. Yum – I’m a happy camper with this blend for sure! I wish I had gotten more than 2 oz.

I did try cold brewing this yesterday and I think I like it better this way, however the hibiscus just kills it for me. Another tea that tastes like fruit punch as well. If anyone would like to swap for this I’ll be more than happy to let you try it…..

My first order from Simpson & Vail and I’m already a fan. From their catalog they look like a cute, family owned business that’s been around for 82 years.

My order arrived quickly and I was THRILLED to discover the tea I did not order in tins came in 100% biodegradable bags! These things are important to me from an environmental standpoint and I love to discover companies who feel the same. Yes!!! – I will be back to you soon, S & V.

Anyhoo onto this tea. I have grown to like green roobois fairly well and I thought this sounded like a nice afternoon/evening blend. I used about 2 tsp. in an infuser mug @ 180F at 3 minutes. It is very colorful and smells kind of fruity.

This one brews up kind of pink, there is hibiscus in it, but thankfully not too strong in this blend. This reminds me a bit of green and fruity from David’s Tea. I am getting a lot of papaya/orange flavor and it is a bit flowery as well. I think this would make a great iced tea so I’ll have to try it that way. Overall I am pretty pleased. It’s nicely balanced for an herbal but it’s hard to tell there’s any roobois in here. I’m a little annoyed at myself for not noticing the hibiscus when I placed the order though. It’s a wee bit tart.

This morning has been extremely sub-optimal. I’ve been sneezing with an incredibly runny nose all morning, which I hope does not mean I’m getting sick (sometimes I just have yucky, sneezy mornings but they don’t turn into anything), but it does mean my head feels clogged up and awful. I forgot my lunch at home so we had to turn around and go back, and Siri set my timer for this tea for 10 minutes instead of 3 like I told her. On the plus side I got a big box of tea last night from brandy3392! This is one I requested in our swap and she was kind enough to send me a nice big sample of it.

The dry leaf smells very tropical, like some mango/passion blends I’ve had even though this doesn’t have any passion fruit in it. I’ve had jackfruit before but not in a very long time so I don’t remember much about it. The black tea base really comes out in the scent after steeping; it’s strong but it smells really good to me, which is odd because I often dislike the scent of stong plain black tea. Wish I knew what the base tea for this was! The tropical fruit scents hang out in the background.

The tea base is strong but malty and smooth. I am actually getting the tiniest hint of bitterness as it cools, but it’s not too bad. I get a distinct mango note in the flavor but the other fruits seem to blend together. That’s fine, it’s like any tropical blended drink really. I finally realized what the black tea base reminds me of, and that’s the base of Upton’s Rose Congou. This tea seems a little darkly floral to me too, but I don’t know if that’s because I’m associating the base with the Rose Congou. Overall a very nice tea and a good way to start the morning. Thanks again, brandy3392!

This is a fabulous Oolong – quite different, but then again, so similar. It almost tastes like a cross between a Formosa Oolong and a high grown Ceylon. I started out with some strong apricot-peach tones, and then as I continued to sip (and I’m on my combination of infusions five and six now), I taste hints of citrus-y tones too, and there is a hint of flower in the background. A wonderful Oolong – I love it.

Awesome!

My first couple of sips were a little disappointing because I didn’t taste much chocolate or caramel. The black tea was delicious, but I wanted chocolate and caramel. But this tea requires a bit of patience from the taster… and after the first couple of sips, the chocolate and caramel notes developed into a very delicious, decadent treat.

Sweet, rich, and delicious! It’s like a favorite candy bar in a teacup.

Revisiting this tea today, and finishing off the last that I have of it. It was yummy while it lasted. Definitely one of my faves from Simpson & Vail!

The scent is so delicious. It smells like freshly baked apple cake. A nice amount of apple flavor, not too much cinnamon (not overdone), and a delicious tea background. Yummy!

This tea is incredibly aromatic. I set it to brew in my Breville, and then left the room for a bit, and when I came back, the scent of apple cinnamon cake had filled the house! I could smell it not just in the kitchen, but in the living room, hallway and all the way into the bedroom!

And it tastes as good as it smells, with a good amount of apple flavor, just the right amount of cinnamon (not too much!) and even a buttery cake-y kind of taste in the background. The black tea is there too, not as strong as I guess it could be, but what I’m enjoying here is that the flavors are very unified. It is difficult to distinguish where one flavor stops and the others begin because it is so harmonious.

And incredibly delicious too. YUM!

Yum! Yum YUM Yummy yum yum!

Yeah, that about covers it.

Buttery rich and with a lovely burnt-sugar flavor underneath… a really delightful English Toffee blend. This tastes like English Toffee that has been dissolved in a cup of black tea. Sweet, rich and delicious.

This tea reminds me of Christmas at gramma’s house. The warm, nutty scent and flavor … YUM! What a terrifically cozy black tea.

I’m off to write a review of this one…

Got this in a swap (I am terrible at keeping my swaps straight) at just the wrong time to be able to tear into it right away. But I think my tea cabinet had a plan. It knew that today would be the day my husband would try to get us out of the house on time. It knew that another cold front would be making its way to us giving me a headache. It knew I would have a 2 hour meeting at 9 am that makes me want to bang my head repeatedly against a dull rock.

This tea might be enough to pull me out of this Wednesday slump. Sugary and wonderful this really is like creme brulee in a cup.

What’s nice about this tea is that a little goes a long way. This would have been useful knowledge before I dumped the entire baggy into my teamaker. I tend to err on the side of using too much tea because I like a really strong brew and knew that there was more there than I needed, but not quite enough to get two pots full so I just dumped the whole thing in. Then again there are worse things than having your taste buds smacked on their hypothetical faces by creme brulee flavors so I’m certainly not going to complain. No, instead I’m just going to close this review and click on the ‘add to shopping list’ button, then add it to my wishlist.

Yum. Tastes mainly of caramelized sugar to me, with a decent black tea base that does peek through.

Good hot and lukewarm. I am not a milk with tea person but this is excellent with a little bit of sugar and some cream. Can easily take the place of a dessert without either, but with? Yumtastic.

I bet it would make a good infusion for ice cream or for some mock clotted cream with scones. Ooo… I’m doing a tea this weekend with pumpkin scones. I think I’ll try infusing my clotted cream with this tea.

This would make a nice addition to a Thanksgiving meal.

I thought I had logged this one previously, but I guess not.

This is an incredible cup of Assam. Very malty – one of the maltiest Assam teas I’ve encountered. Rich and thick … it has that biscuit-y/bread-y kind of taste to it, it is very satisfying and and while it satisfies it energizes. This is one HEFTY Assam!

Yummy! Tastes like baked pumpkin pie custard (no crust) and black tea. The tea base is not overwhelming, but it does provide a pleasant tasting base. Smooth and even-tempered.

It takes a few sips for the pumpkin flavor to really develop. The first couple of sips were flavorful, I could taste the spice, but, the pumpkin tasted a bit distant. But now that I’m halfway through my mug, the pumpkin flavor tastes amazing. Rich, flavorful, savory yet sweet. YUMMMMMMM!

This was a very cloudy looking brew, more like coffee than tea. This has a very “thick” feel. Sweet and tasty. Can definitely taste the almond. This begs to be had after a Chinese meal. Reminds me so very much of the almond cookies – only better! Second steep was not as flavorful, though I may have, as is my tendency, brewed pretty strong on the first steep.