Simpson & Vail

Trick or Treat! This is another sample I had stashed from the Here’s Hoping Teabox, thank you tea-sipper and participants! Decided this would be my desserty herbal of the night.

Plain ol’ cocoa shells. They smell delightfully chocolately, semi-sweet with those slight bittersweet notes I like in a good chocolate, and I always notice that tea blends that include cocoa shells rather than nibs or chips or flavoring are always so much creamier, so I’m hoping that will come through here. I used boiling water and gave it an extra long steep of around ten minutes.

The steeped aroma smelled like home-made hot cocoa, and a bit like warm chocolate dessert topping. The flavor tastes of semi-sweet chocolate or a bittersweet dark chocolate rather than a sweet milk chocolate, and as a fan of chocolate with a little bite, I am all about that! I was also getting some very subtle notes of nuts and coffee. Honestly, I enjoyed this just fine drinking a pot of this steeped plain, but am curious how this would taste in latte form (I’m imagining mixed with milk it would taste just like hot cocoa, since the milk would add that creamy texture), and I can also imagine this would be nice to have around just to add to other “chocolate” teas that just never seem to taste chocolatey enough.

When I have room in my tiny apartment for more tea again, I’ll definitely have to keep some of these in stock!

Simpson & Vail Advent Calendar – Day 10

(originally written November 10th)

Yassssssssssssss I love this tea! This is one that I picked up 2 ounces of in order to reach the free shipping threshold when I ordered the advent box. So I’ve already tried it, but am happy to see it in the advent as well!

Today it’s actually making me think of apple cinnamon oatmeal with maple syrup, as opposed to French toast. But I love oatmeal too, so it’s wonderful either way! The apple cinnamon is lovely, like cooked apple pie filling. This time I’m tasting oats in the place of bread, but there’s still a nice touch of maple to tie it together.

Love it, love it, love it. It does have its flaws though – mainly tasting rather thin and the touch of artificiality from a lot of added flavoring.

Home – 8:30 PM

Okay, now this is a tasty tea!

It definitely tastes just like french toast mixed with apple pie. There’s a lovely buttery maple syrup flavor. The cinnamon makes it lean toward french toast, but really it could be pancakes or waffles as well. The apple is more of a cooked apple flavor, like apple pie filling.

My only possible complaint about this tea is that it’s a bit weak, even though I used a lot of leaf. Next time I may try using boiling water (as instructed) to see if that brings out any more of the base tea’s flavor.

I would love to see a version of this tea with blueberry (and maybe some lemon) instead of the apple cinnamon, like blueberry pancakes! ❤

Home – 6:00 PM

First tea of the day! We had a house walkthrough this morning (we’re currently building a house), and then we went to lunch. When we got home, I took an accidental nap… XD

So no tea to be had until this evening!

I had an epic mail day today. Isn’t that just the best? It’s like getting surprise gifts from your past self. There were a couple of tea orders, some yarn, a couple of snacks, some clothes… Among the tea was a Simpson & Vail order. I mostly ordered for the advent tea box, but I added a few pouches of flavored black teas to reach the free shipping threshold (because their shipping prices are just silly).

To be honest, it was foolish of me to order this tea. I never fail to be disappointed by chocolate teas – it’s just a flavor that I feel can’t really be captured well without adding milk (which I never do).

But for some reason, I ordered this anyway, so here we go!

It’s not bad, that’s for sure. The base tea is fairly light, and the main flavor is chocolate. It’s a tad artificial in my opinion, but we’ve already established that I’m unreasonably picky when it comes to chocolate teas.

I do wish there was more caramel, which is one of my favorite flavors in tea and in food. Really, I feel like I’m getting more of a chocolate-coconut tea than chocolate-caramel. Odd, since coconut isn’t mentioned in the description. It’s definitely there, though!

I’ll likely pass this one along to someone else who will enjoy it more. I’m confident that I’ll enjoy my other (non-chocolate) Simpson & Vail choices much more.

Trick or Treat! Strawberry Cupcakes for breakfaaaaaaaaaaast! Hey, we’ve all been there. I had a sample of this from the Here’s Hoping Teabox, so thank you to tea-sipper for organizing and all teabox participants!

2.5g in 350ml, steeped for 3 min. The tea is a chocolately brown, which is fitting, since it smells very chocolately; I guess these must be chocolate cupcakes with strawberry frosting? My coworker makes some with chunks of strawberries inside too, which are so good… There is a hint of a sweet strawberry smell in the aroma too, and it is sort of a sugary-sweet, candied sort of smell, rather than a juicy or fruity sort of smell.

The flavor of the tea reminds me of a lot of other choco-strawberry teas I’ve had in the past, though thinking back, I believe all of those had a pu-erh base, so they were a bit darker and richer than this, with those deeper earthy notes beneath the sweetness. The chocolate note is really good here, it’s coming off a lot stronger than many chocolatey teas I’ve had, and something about the subtle briskness of the black base is making it taste very much like a rich bittersweet dark chocolate. Yum! The strawberry is very much that sort of light, artificial, sweet candied strawberry flavor, which always makes me think of strawberry frosting or marshmallows, and it comes out toward the end of the sip. There is a touch of briskness/bite to the black base that is used, but all the natural sweetness of the chocolate notes balances it out a good deal, and the astrigency left after the sip is relatively mild. Overall, a solid choco-strawberry dessert blend, that especially delivers in rich chocolate notes.

Trick or Treat! I had a sample of this from the Here’s Hoping Teabox, so thank you to tea-sipper for organizing and all teabox participants! I’ve been excited to try this one since I quite like rootbeer blends. I steeped the 3g in 400ml boiling water, steeped for four minutes, and then set that in a mason jar to chill, since I felt a rootbeer tea would be nice as an iced brew. But since I didn’t want to wait to try it (patience, who has that?) I reused the leaves as a second steep, making a 350ml cup steeped for five minutes, hoping there would be enough flavor left to enjoy a cup while my iced tea was getting icy.

The hot tea was still quite nice, even for a second steep (and yes, confession, I rarely do second steeps when I western brew because I usually find they just don’t have the “oomph” I’m looking for). It had a nice root beer flavor, tasting mainly of sarsparilla and sweet vanilla. It was quite naturally sweet, and I didn’t notice any bitterness or astringency from the black tea blend.

The iced tea was equally nice as far as rootbeer flavor, but did seem to have a little more black tea briskness and a slight astringent quality left on my tongue and the roof of my mouth, and I’m not sure why the difference, other than the fact the leaf was more “used” on the hot cup and thus a bit more mellowed out. It wasn’t too abrasive in my iced tea, but it detracted just enough from that syrupy-sweet feel of rootbeer for me that I did something I don’t do by principal with my teas, and added just a teaspoon of liquid sugar, which took that problem right away and really made it hard for me to think I was drinking tea rather than rootbeer that had lost its carbonation. If I had the chance to make this again, knowing what I know now about adding that touch of sweetness to curb the astrigency of the black tea base a bit, I would’ve added a teaspoon of honey while it was still warm before icing it instead, which I think would’ve been even better.

This was a free sample from S&V which was super awesome because it was wavering in my cart for a while there. This blend is extremely unique. Such an odd blend of ingredients: Green Rooibos, currants, beetroot, organic cinnamon, sweet blackberry leaves, flavoring, organic lemongrass and malva flowers. But the resulting brew actually tastes as it should. A lovely flavor of blueberry cinnamon crumble with an aftertaste that just blooms… which I don’t think I’ve ever described a tea as blooming before. I feel like Violet Beauregarde chewing that gum. A teaspoon and a half for a mug really results in the perfect flavor that isn’t too sweet but has a really great balance of elements that should be here. Hints of cinnamon. Not sure how there is blueberry flavor… what I thought were tiny blueberries in the blend are actually currants. The beetroot gives the mug a rich red color (and it ain’t hibiscus so I’m happy!) I thought the lemongrass and blackberry leaves might make the flavor taste odd, but they don’t. And the blue flowers really seem to go with the blend. The second steep has a ridiculous amount of flavor. Where does that flavor even come from? I’m very impressed with S&V as usual!
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug// 15 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep

It seems like teas that were recently added aren’t showing up in the search? I added this one a couple days ago.

Simpson & Vail can be kind of hit or miss for me. Their shipping charges are high and their packaging is often not airtight. However, there are definitely some gems mixed into their offerings. (Try the hazelnut coffee!)

This is definitely one of those gems. It tastes like a mix between spiced apple cider, French toast, and pecan pie. Heavy on the delicious syrup and pecan. I know that sounds like a lot going on, which it is, but it’s more like a symphony than a cacophony. It’s perfect for those mornings when I’m grumpy about having to adult. Cheers me up and gives the morning at least one pleasant thing to enjoy. Get you some.

Additional notes: Alright, I could drink this one every day. And I probably have never said that before for any tea. It’s my new favorite tea. If you thought S&V’s Apple Cinnamon Coffeecake was delicious, this one is even MORE delicious. I just got an e-mail today from S&V that a few of their caramel and apple teas are 15% off if anyone is interested: https://www.svtea.com/FEATURED-PRODUCTS/products/144/ Raising the rating from a 97.

Also, you know it’s autumn when five of the last ten of my tasting notes were for apple or pumpkin teas.

This blend was divine right upon opening the bag. The scent is SPOT ON apple cinnamon french toast! The flavor is as well! Liquified, exactly that. I also think I steeped this perfectly both times. Even the second steep had fantastic flavors (I thought it would be a bit more faded in flavor). The brewed black tea isn’t strong and actually has the color of maple syrup that would go on these lovely french toast slices. Not much else to say, as this one is spot on to the description. I taste the apple, cinnamon, hint of butter, syrup. This blend exceeded my expectations, which were already pretty high as this is a S&V tea. I adore this blend… and I’m a PANCAKES person, not a french toast person! This tea is better than french toast!
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug// 10 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep

Sipdown no. 108 of 2018 (no. 464 total).

I am not sorry to see this one go. I’ll forever be haunted by memories of its smell — not that the smell is bad, just that it glommed on to every other tea in my order and would not… let… go….

Ending my tasting notes for the day with this — apparently the last Simpson & Vail in my cupboard that had been noteless until now.

I had some of this yesterday, but was rushing around and didn’t get a chance to really think about it much less write about it. To the extent I thought about it, I thought annoying thoughts.

First, I am fairly sure that this is the tea that single-handedly overpowered all the other teas in my Simpson & Vail order and made them all smell pretty much the same to me in the dry leaf.

Second, this tea should never be made in a tea maker. It was impossible to get the smell/flavor out of the Breville simply by rinsing. I basically had to wear it out by steeping other things for a couple or three steeps. All of which had a hint of this in them. Shudder.

This tea is the planet eater. It brings every other tea in its orbit into its smell and flavor.

I recommend an isolationist policy with this tea. Keep it somewhere far away from everything else. Don’t make it in anything you can’t put through the dishwasher to completely banish all traces before making another tea in those implements.

The fact that this tea is such a pain in the ass made me biased against it from the start. Normally, I quite like rose teas. And I’ve enjoyed violet ones as well.

If done well, I’d think the combination could be quite marvelous. But to be marvelous, I’d think at least three things would need to be true:

1. The rose would not overpower the violet or the tea. The violet would not overpower the rose or the tea.
2. Neither the rose nor the violet would be soapy or lotiony.
3. The tea base would have to have enough character on its own to stand up to two strong florals, and to integrate both of them in such a way that they aren’t warring with each other or the base, and don’t taste like they were painted on top of the base as opposed to working with it to bring out the best qualities in all the flavors.

As you may have guessed, the smell in the tin did not achieve any of these three things. But I’ve been drinking tea long enough to know that dry leaf aromas can be a harbinger of what a steeped tea will be like, but can also be completely different after hot water enters the picture.

In this case, hot water alleviated my concern with item 2. The tea no longer smelled like it might taste like bath products. It was orange-brown, a sort of standard tea color, and slightly hazy. But the jury was out with regard to 1 and 3.

Tasting brought back a bit of an issue with no. 2 — there is a sort of soapy quality to this. It’s not as bad as some, but still there. No. 1, however, gets a passing grade. I taste equal parts rose and violet, neither overpowering the other.

The real issue for me is no. 3. Part of the reason I get the soapiness is, I think, that the base isn’t the best for this type of tea. There’s a distinct quality of the flavor sitting on top of the tea, as though the tea is just a delivery vehicle and not expected to be a contributor to the flavors. The tea does have a flavor, but it isn’t particularly well integrated with the other flavors. I think of some of the French blends, or the Samovar or ATR blends that accomplish this particularly well, and this is just OK by comparison.

So I don’t hate it, despite my annoyance with it. But it’s far from a love affair, either.

So, a migraine I had a few days ago returned on me today, and I ended up using my last triptan (I have no idea if the pharmacy will let me refill so soon either, crossing my fingers they will tomorrow, but for today they are closed, sooooo… nothing I can do but hope this one works and sleep it out). It takes a while for a triptan to work even if it’s going to, so to try to get myself drowsy for a nap I figured I’d drink this lavender and mint blend that I got from the last Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox (thanks tea-sipper and all who participated!) Lavender is (tasty!) quite relaxing and mint and cinnamon are quite calming on the stomach.

The smell is wonderful! It’s minty, with a rich cinnamon aroma, and a touch of floral lavender. The flavor is incredibly relaxing. It’s subtly minty, so it doesn’t have a strong menthol cooling sensation. A lot of the minty note come out in the lavender flavor, which is pretty strong, and quite nice since I’m a big fan of lavender. There is a really nice sweet cinnamon note that comes in late in the sip and settles into the aftertaste at the back of the tongue. There is also a slight citrusy note to the tea. I never really thought lavender and cinnamon could work so well together, but they do; this is one of the nicest herbals I’ve had in some time. When I’m no longer on a self-imposed tea-ordering hiatus (seriously, my cupboard is waaaaaaay out of control at the moment!) this is definitely a blend I’d happily restock from Simpson and Vail.

That nap was bomb, too; when I woke up my stomach still felt nasty, and all I wanted was another cup of this.

This is a pretty nice tea. It is quite smoky, but I think a medium smoke as Lapsang Souchong goes. This is not a tea I drink straight. I added sugar and just a splash of creamer. It is the only tea I take with any sort of creamer. I believe it is still the only black tea from Simpson and Vail from Taiwan.

I brewed this in a 36oz Cobalt Betty teapot with 6 tsp leaf and boiling water for 3 minutes.

Had this at Tea Time in Scottsdale, AZ and it was delicious! A warm comfortable cup of tea.

I’ve been sipping this one a lot but it’s tough for me to describe. I LOVE Earl Grey Cream teas. It might be my favorite, but they have to be perfect and EGCs have been tough to track down as of late. I wouldn’t describe this EGC as perfect, but it certainly has unique qualities that other Earls don’t have. (If you are looking for a vast collection of unique and delicious teas that no other shop seems to carry, you NEED to check out S&V! They are consistently great!) But again, I’m always finding it tough to describe. The bergamot is different from most bergamot. The cream quality is different than most cream teas. The second steep is lacking in the cream quality though. The black tea is of a medium strength that works with these flavors. This one works because it is unique so it’s craveable.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug// 10 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep

I’m glad the description for this tea says “delicious in every season” because I’m reviewing it in summer. Here we have a rare green rooibos base with plenty of flavors that when thrown together are delicious. Simpson and Vail says this blend has: cacao and cinnamon and flavored with Bavarian chocolate, cinnamon and hazelnuts. (There are also pretty flowers that make the blend look fantastic.) I love these late night dessert blends….even if I have them with dessert anyway. To be fair, this tea was purchased a few months ago in January, and though S&V does an amazing of keeping their teas fresh, I DID purchase this after the holidays. Of course, this tea would taste even more amazing fresh. As is, this has plenty of flavor, being a true dessert tea. With the cinnamon, it does remind me of S&V’s Snickerdoodle tea which I love. I’m not tasting much chocolate, which adding cocoa shells to the blend would remedy. Maybe just hints of the other flavors. It’s good to have a change with green rooibos once in a while. When I hear Winter Wonderland, for some reason I’m thinking marshmallow. It would have been fun to have marshmallows thrown into this crazy blend. Let’s have ALL the flavors!
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug// 10 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 minute steep

Sipdown no. 88 of 2018 (no.444 total).

I tried this on the stovetop a couple of different ways, in iced form, and as a hot black tea steeped western style, some of which I’ve already written notes about. It was actually pretty good cold, too. Cold chocolate tea can be a little strange at first, but it grows on you (or at least it grows on me). Nothing else to add to previous notes.

Trying this again today because I am pretty sure that I didn’t make it concentrated enough last time. I was doing the stovetop steep method from memory and I was short a tablespoon of tea.

This time I used two tablespoons of the chai plus one tablespoon of black tea to one cup of water and one tablespoon of splenda. Boiled for 3 minutes, then added one cup low fat milk. Brought back to boiling, then removed from heat and steeped for 5+ minutes.

That’s the method as stated on the Samovar chai tin, except of course they recommend sugar rather than splenda and whole milk rather than low fat.

It’s better like this. Spicier. For sure more clove, a little more cardomom. Maybe a tiny bit more chocolatey. And it doesn’t affect the anise, which I still can’t discern (and which is cause for relief).

Weekend 2 of project chai sipdown. I made this on the stovetop with Golden Moon French Breakfast as the additional black tea.

It’s tasty — a mild, chocolate chai. I don’t find the chocolate overly strong. In fact, it could be stronger. That might be a function of what parts of the blend ended up in this spoon.

The chai spices are more prominent for me, particularly the cardamom. Fortunately, I’m not tasting the anise.

I wish that this rocked my socks off but it’s not doing that. Still, it’s pleasant and enjoyable as my last tea of the day.

Sipdown! Finished this off to make my stash look a little less out of control. I have SO MUCH to review between samples people have sent me, Sips by, and my latest Harney & Sons order. Gotta get on it!

This might be the third time I’ve had this in my stash. I don’t know why I’ve never reviewed it. I guess I’ve only had it during times I’ve been inactive here.

Anyway, the fact that I bought it a third time should say a lot. There’s just something about it. It’s lightly spiced, but smooth with sweet vanilla and apple. There is an actual cake note, too. But my mind never translates it as “cake”. No, this tea tastes exactly like Apple Jacks to me. In the best way. I love Apple Jacks, and if I can get that flavor in a zero calorie, caffeinated form, I’m going to!

A Berry Frui-tea July! This came from the Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox, thanks very much to tea-sipper for organizing and all who contributed teas to this teabox! I had a single-cup sampler of this tea and brewed up a late night cuppa.

The aroma of the steeped tea is surprisingly sweet and does have a nice plum aroma. The tea is fantastic! It’s so smooth… I wish I knew which black teas were used in this base, because it is so nice, without the typical bitterness I get from an overload of assam or ceylon. Whatever the blend is here, it works. It’s a little malty, nicely dark without becoming biting or bitter, and has some nice notes of cinnamon and cocoa. On top of that is this really becoming plum flavor, that is flavorful enough to give the cup a nice fruity note, but not overpowering as the base still has this really nice taste… it’s just the right amount of fruit flavor in a tea. The cup also has a somewhat creamy aftertaste.

This is a tea I would happily add to my cupboard! Such a nice blend of both black base and fruit flavor.

I’ve tried this one before and didn’t think it was good (it was from a traveling teabox, so probably old.. or too much time on the road). BUT I received some of this in S&V’s holiday sampler and love it, so that just goes to show the power of a fresh blend. This blend is extremely minty, and I love extremely minty blends. The leaves are incredibly festive with red rooibos, green rooibos and red & white flowers. (I’ve already been thinking today that the holidays will soon be here, but mint is also a lovely blend to have in the summer.) This blend also has stevia in it, which might be why I didn’t like it before. Possibly stevia is not so good as it ages? But it seems to be okay in the blend this time around. Now to the flavor: both steeps are amazing. It actually has that perfect proportion of flavor qualities that a candy cane has: extremely minty, very sweet, with that hint of creaminess. So the name for this tea is VERY accurate. All on the ever unobtrusive rooibos base that S&V uses in their blends. (Even rooibos haters could love the rooibos that S&V uses in their blends.) Yet another amazing blend from Simpson & Vail! AND oh my gosh, I just noticed S&V has two new dessert blends!! Baklava! Blueberry Cinnamon Crumble! SVtea.com
Steep #1 // 1 1/4 teaspoons for a full mug// 10 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep