Simpson & Vail

Simpson & Vail Advent Calendar – Day 8

(originally written November 8th)

Ooh, another green rooibos blend. I’ve definitely been the most impressed with these blends so far from the Simpson & Vail advent. The candy cane one in particular was really good, and the dragonfruit version was tasty also.

Wow, this is really cookie-ish. The flavoring they’re using is quite buttery and really sells the snickerdoodle concept. There’s also a good dose of cinnamon, and it’s the powdered spice kind as opposed to the candy one.

However… This is quite sweet from the blackberry leaves. It’s sweeter than I would prefer. To be fair, it’s not overly cloying.

This really does taste like a snickerdoodle, though it is perhaps a tad heavy on the cinnamon.

Another unique blend from S&V. This is a black tea with plenty of lavender and a hint of fruit flavor… though I’m not sure I’m noticing much fruit flavor. It’s supposed to be apricot, and if I notice any it’s only the hint of a flavor in the first cup. It’s not surprising because there is SO MUCH fresh lavender here. So much. But it’s delicious. The black tea is very light, so if I had to guess with my eyes closed I’d say I was drinking a lavender blend, with no black tea at all. The black tea is a little light for me. Of course, I might not have steeped the second cup long enough or with boiling water. I’d really love that ‘nectar’ to be much more noticeable. But this tea is a win for lavender anyway.
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for a full mug// 10 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // few minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep

Simpson & Vail Advent Calendar – Day 7

(originally written November 7th)

Interesting, a smoked tea. I’m surprised they included this in the advent box, since smokey teas are often very divisive, and I would expect many people wouldn’t enjoy this because of that. Personally, I can go either way with smoked teas – it all depends on the tea and how strong the smoke element is.

This one is fairly smokey, but it’s not harsh. It reminds me of smoked meat, which is a bit odd for tea but there you are. Some smoked teas can be rather earthy and mineral, but this one is lighter with some maltiness. Perhaps that’s because it’s only partially Lapsang in the blend. I will say, I don’t think I can taste the bergamot at all, which is disappointing.

So to me, it’s just a fairly light but savory smoked tea.

Simpson & Vail Advent Calendar – Day 5

(originally written November 5th)

I’m finding Simpson & Vail’s teas to be very hit-or-miss for me, especially their flavored black teas. I really enjoy their Almond Sugar Cookie and Apple Cinnamon French Toast, but some of the others I’ve tried have just tasted very bland to me. So I don’t have high hopes for this one…

Well, I definitely like it better than the Baklava black tea I tried a couple of days ago, so that’s good. I do taste chocolate mint, perhaps with a hint of cinnamon. However, I definitely don’t get almond, orange, or cranberry. But that’s okay, it’s a perfectly nice chocolate mint black tea!

As with all other S&V teas, even with significant overleafing it’s still very light on flavor, for both the base tea and the added flavors. That seems to be a recurring phenomenon in my experience with their blends.

Simpson & Vail Advent Calendar – Day 4

(originally written November 4th)

I’m actually rather excited for this one. The other green rooibos blends I’ve tried from Simpson & Vail in the past have been quite tasty. Plus, this smells amazing in the packet – fruity, tart, and juicy.

It’s good, but not great. There’s a little bit too much hibiscus – it’s not overpowering but it is just a bit too tart. The fruit flavor is tasty though. I don’t know what dragonfruit tastes like, but this makes me think of strawberry-kiwi. There’s a touch of citrus as well, and maybe a hint of green apple.

It would probably be perfect with a touch of sweetener, but I prefer not to add anything to my tea so I likely won’t be purchasing this one. It’s close to being great, though! I’m definitely glad I got to give it a try.

Holiday Tea-son! I got to try a sample of this from the last Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox, so thank you to tea-sipper for organizing and any and all participants!

This tea really nails the aroma, as it has a very sweet, spicy aroma that does make me think of gingerbread cookies set out to cool, with perhaps a hint more emphasis on the clove. Steeped up, the tea had a lovely gingery orange color, and the aroma had a warm sweetness of cinnamon and clove wafting from the cup.

The body of this tea is a Chinese black (my favorite!) so I found it very smooth with no bitterness or astringency. The flavors are very rich in this tea! The tea itself is on the sweeter side, much like a gingerbread dessert, but the flavor profile has a strong spicy note. A medley of ginger, cinnamon, and clove tingle along the tongue with every sip. The start is a bit sweeter, tasting a bit stronger of the cinnamon and ginger flavors, but the finish holds a very strong burst of clove. It’s a spicy tea, but at the same time the subtle sweetness of the tea keeps the brew very balanced; it isn’t nearly as potent as your typical Indian chai blend, and while you probably could add milk to create a more creamy mouthfeel, I never once felt the need to (as I often do with chais!), as the flavors were so smooth.

While the tea does have a nice natural sweetness, I decided to try a small cup with a dash of sweetner for comparison (though I don’t really sweeten my teas in general these days), just to see if I could bring out more of a gingerbread feel from the brew, and that actually helped a lot! Just a small dash of sugar mellowed out the spices just a bit, allowing the sweet base a little more emphasis, and making the flavor profile feel a little more dessert-like. The spices just seemed to balance a little better with the slight addition of sweet. This is one where a small bit of sugar or honey seems to do it justice.

A tasty spice tea that does remind me of gingerbread with a little sweetner added and leaves a very warm, cozy feeling in the stomach, which is really perfect for setting the mood during cold winter weather.

Simpson & Vail Advent Calendar – Day 3

(originally written November 3rd)

I’m never very excited by fruit tisanes, as I just tend to be disappointed in them. A fruit tisane has to be really exceptional for me to want to drink it, and they’re usually full of hibiscus and are ultimately just sour instead of fruity. So I don’t have high hopes for this! To be fair, there’s not much hibiscus here – it’s mostly orange peel, by the looks of it. Wow, the dry scent is very strong and tart orange. It reminds me of Tang.

Well… It’s not sour, so that’s good. But it’s not that flavorful either. I taste mostly orange, and it does in fact taste like vitamin C chewables or Tang. But wow, there’s a huge pang of bitterness in the aftertaste here! I guess it makes sense since both orange peel and cranberry can be rather bitter, but dayum!

Nope, nope, nope. Can’t even finish my first small cup, let alone the pot! :(

Almond is my favorite tea flavor, so I had to include this one in my cart. It tastes like all the other almond black teas I’ve sampled, which is great! The flavor is like marzipan, but not in an over the top way, like with some teas. There’s a tiny bit of bitterness, but that’s probably my fault. I’ll be more careful on my next cup.

Additional notes: I think I’ll switch my opinion to say that yes I would recommend this tea. When you add milk, sugar, and vanilla, it actually tastes like quite a nice dessert tea. It is a bit cakey and chocolatey. And you can rebrew the leaves for a second tasty cup. I’ve tried this a few times, and I like it a bit more each time. Plain, still nah, but with the right additions, this is nice.

Red velvet is such a delicious flavor that seems to be difficult for companies to capture in a tea. Unfortunately, this is the case with this one. The flavor is primarily rooibos with maybe a bit of chocolate and a little berry at the end of the sip. I added milk and sugar to try to make it more cakey. It tastes good, but I wouldn’t be able to take a sip and guess that it’s supposed to be red velvet. I’d say go with the Stash red velvet tea instead if you’re looking for something slightly more accurate.

Simpson & Vail Advent Calendar – Day 2

(originally written November 2nd)

The way they put together the Simpson & Vail advent box is really interesting. The tea pouches are just layered in the box with some craft paper crimped filling stuff. But the way they’ve layered them makes it so that you can only see the topmost pouch well enough to read it, so you don’t spoil the surprise for future days when you open the box. I do make sure not to look as I pull the sample out, otherwise I would know what tomorrow’s blend is. It’s quite a nice idea and I really like their cute little pouches with bows printed on them. Plus they are conveniently the perfect size for my 16-ounce teapot.

Hmm… I was hoping for more from this tea. Baklava is generally very honey and nut-heavy, with some spices as well. This… I’m not even sure how to describe what it tastes like. I guess there is some light spicing, mostly clove. But otherwise it just tastes “flavored”. No like any specific flavor, but like there has been flavoring added… I don’t know how else to describe it. Artificial?

Definitely doesn’t taste at all like baklava to me. Just a mildly clove-y tea with a weak and slightly musty base and some form of flavoring added. Ah, well, you can’t win them all…

I almost gave this one away to a family member, but I couldn’t bring myself to! For once, I didn’t use sugar, and it didn’t need it! The main flavor was of course lavender, but it wasn’t at all overpowering. The second flavor was a mysterious creaminess. The other ingredients may be there in small hints to balance out the lavender, but I couldn’t pick them out individually. The reason I bought this tea was because one of the reviews on the website mentioned making this into a latte, and I have got to try that.

So this is a review of the recipe on the S&V website to turn this tea into sugar cookies…hope you don’t mind.

After a few cups of this tea, I gave up on it and decided to make it into cookies. There’s a sugar cookie recipe on the S&V website, and it turned out pretty well! You steep the tea in melted butter, which is fun. The tea flavor was definitely more obvious in the raw dough, whereas there’s just a hint under the buttery flavor of the cookies. The clove is too strong in the tea, but it works in the cookies, and the plum is tasty in there too. The cookies were pretty addicting when they were nice and soft, but once they hardened up, they weren’t quite as good. I don’t really like sugar cookies, so this was a big test that went…okay? I definitely prefer the tea ice cream recipe that I make, and next time I think I’ll try making an unloved tea into cake. Or maybe snickerdoodles? I definitely recommend cooking with teas though. It’s fun and makes the kitchen smell great.

Today was a long day at work, so I brought some extra tea to help me get through it. My boss’s kettle had some sketchy looking deposits in the bottom, so I used the Keurig instead. Apparently my travel cup, which is my smallest cup, is much larger than the biggest water option on the machine. Maybe I’m drinking too much…but it’s not caffeinated, so we’re okay!

Anyway, I love a fruity green rooibos blend, so I threw this one in my cart on my last order. Hmm. The first taste is sweet and fruity, but that’s followed by a tingly clove flavor, which I didn’t enjoy so much. This honestly tastes kind of strange, and the clove scent is very strong. Not bad, but I’d definitely choose a different fruity green rooibos. On the website, they mention a recipe for using this tea in cookies, and I may try that with the rest of this. I’ve had great success making earl grey ice cream in the past, and I’ve been looking for excuses for making other tea desserts!

This tea was advertised as pear, but to me, it definitely tastes like banana. It required sugar in order to be sweet enough, and I like it… it’s just not what I was expecting. Additionally, I’d say it tastes more like banana flavoring than fresh banana. I’ll totally drink more of this.

Hot, you can mostly just taste the spices. Once it cools a bit, you can really taste the carrot, and the spices somehow disappear so it tastes more like fresh carrots. This is an interesting one.

Autumn Harvest! This month I’ll be sampling teas out of my collection that feature flavors common of autumn harvestables like cranberries, pomegranates, pears, apples, pumpkins, grapes, sweet potatoes, beetroots, figs, dates, persimmons, nuts, and herbs, among others! This particular tea was a single-serving sample I got from the Here’s Hoping Teabox, so thank you so much to tea-sipper for organizing and all participants of the box!

Like the Plum Black which had a really tasty black base, this tea also has a very smooth base; it’s slightly malty with a lot of natural citrus notes. The pear flavor is very juicy and natural tasting, and on par with my favorite pear-flavored tea I’ve had yet, 52Teas Pear Chai (which I’d say I like just a bit more than this, just because I think the juicy pear flavor goes a bit better on a green base than a black base). I’m also getting a slightly honey/floral note right at the finish of the sip which is very pleasant. As a fruity black morning cuppa, this is nice and I’m glad I had a chance to try it.

I’ve got to up my rating for this one. I’m at the end of my two ounces, and I’m so sad to see this one go. The flavors are cinnamon and sugar, just like a real cookie. It makes a great second steep as well. I’m always in the mood for this tea. Definitely a new favorite!

Oh my gosh this tea smells so accurate, it’s crazy. It definitely tastes like snickerdoodles too! I’ll need to add more leaf and sugar next time, but I really like this. A tea that tastes like cookies. Can’t really get better than that.

This is another one I got from tea-sipper this summer. I remember quite liking this one at first, but I’m sad to say it’s lost some flavor in the ensuing months. I need to force myself to drink my green teas first! Totally my own fault. Anyway, the green tea is mild, not bitter or grassy. The fruit flavor is subtle, and it’s also hard to say what fruit it’s trying to be. I do like it though, even now.

I don’t usually allow myself to break into teas the day I receive them, but I’ve been out of decaf Earl grey for so long, and my life was incomplete! I think my mouth is used to the flavor of decaf Paris since I’ve had so much of that…I think I don’t like regular Earl grey as much as I like that. So anyway, this tea is pretty floral, and the black is light. It turned into a nice latte. I’d probably try some other brands before rebuying this one, but it was tasty.

Home – 9:00 PM

I added a 2-ounce packet of this to my order when I purchased the advent box from Simpson & Vail. To be completely honest, I have no idea what I was thinking… I’m not generally big on masala chai blends. I guess it must have been the promise of French vanilla that drew me in.

Is it just me, or do these Simpson & Vail teas always need to be overleafed? I feel like all of the teas I ordered from them are a bit weak with my usual amount of tea (a tablespoon for 16 ounces of water).

This one is just “meh” in my opinion. It’s somewhat weak, with a brisk and slightly astringent base tea. The spices are really mild and generic-tasting. And I don’t get any vanilla flavor at all, not even a hint.

I feel like a crazy person, the other notes on this tea are absolutely glowing…

Oh well.

I got two ounces of this yummy tea from tea-sipper, and I absolutely demolished them. Green rooibos is definitely the best base for herbal dessert teas since it doesn’t get in the way of the flavors. With this tea, I’d say it didn’t necessarily evoke the flavors it was meant to, but it did taste generically dessert-like and sweet. I’ve loved almost every Simpson & Vail tea I’ve received in exchanges, and I have a big order in my cart ready to go…I just have so much tea, I feel like I’m not allowed to order more. Such inner turmoil!

Okay, this tea is insanely delicious. It tastes like a very expensive cup of tea and it definitely is not expensive from S&V. Wow. Just the complexity alone amazes me, and I will not be able to capture that complexity here. The fragrance of the dry leaves is something very different from the usual plain black tea, that I have not noticed before.. the smell is almost like what heated raisins might smell like? A fragrance I’ve never noticed in any tea! The leaf is on the smaller size with an occasional gold hint here and there. The flavor is intoxicating: I think it’s most similar to a really good assam: that slightly brisk, slightly fruity, sweet assam that I love to keep in stock. But this tea is more unique than that. It’s just so tough to capture the complexity of this tea. It has bite, but it’s also very sweet. Slight fruity juiciness but also a bready quality. I love teas like that and I will be keeping this one in stock. It might be one of those teas that are the fresher, the more complex the flavor (but that probably goes for all teas.) Is it enough for me to say it is so good? You should try some!
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug// 13 minutes after boiling // 3 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // couple minutes after boiling // 4 minute steep