Simpson & Vail

S&V Advent Day 19! I really couldn’t be sure what flavor this is supposed to be. Maybe I would say creaminess/nuts with a hint of mint? But it could be anything. I’m drinking it cool with milk and sugar, and it tastes desserty and nice, but not super special.

Advent Day 17

Love that it steeps up red. Slightly smoky. I get a pu-erh earthiness in the aroma.

Advent Day 18

Smells slightly medicinal, which thankfully doesn’t translate to the flavor. Kind of a generic fruity, candy, spiced flavor.

Advent Day 16

Love the aroma of this tea. It’s such a lovely, subtle creamy vanilla mint. The flavor is also quite subtle, and I wish I was getting more of that creamy mint flavor. The black base is quite mild.

Advent Day 20

It’s been a busy week, so I have a lot of tasting notes to catch up on!

This is a bit disappointing. Chestnut blends so often have a mapley flavor that just doesn’t read as chestnut to me. This does have a slightly starchy chestnut quality, but it’s drowned out by the maple.

Simpson & Vail Advent Calendar: Day 18

Clooooves ahoy!

My partner tried this one blind and instantly detected apples and clove; he pegged it as a mulled apple cider-inspired tea. I can see that, although I get more of an apple juice vibe than a cider one.

I don’t really notice anything too plummy, though. It’s more generic fruit juice with a little hibiscus tang and a lotta clove. It’s OK but not really something I need to drink again!

(Re: the cloves, it probably doesn’t help that I’ve simultaneously got a simmer pot going on the stove, and it’s very clove-forward! I love cloves as a scent far more than cloves as a flavor.)

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – December 2024 Tea #4 – A smokey tea 

As a Sherlock fan, I really wanted to try this one!  I guess the PBS show led me to eventually read some of the books.  I really should read the others at some point (I have a big ol edition of all the Sherlock novels in one.)  To the tea! I was intrigued by a smoky cherry tea.  I would say the dry leaf smells more cherry than smoke.  But then the flavor is more smoke than cherry.  But what cherry here is pretty good.  I’d say it most reminds me of maraschino cherry, which certainly could be interesting with smoke.  It’s not a LOT of smoke.  Just enough to be hinting at it.  My main problem with this blend is that the black tea is too light for me.  Doyle really deserves a nice murky black tea with some depth to it.  Needs that caffeine to solve those mysteries (or write them anyway).  The second steep, really just seemed like a plain mild black tea… somehow even the smoke notes were gone, definitely the cherry.  Maybe a hint of smoke when it cooled. That’s a shame, as the first cup was enjoyable. I entirely forgot that hibiscus was included in EITHER steep, so that’s nice.  I guess with this one, I won’t have to resteep, which I usually don’t miss on most other teas.  Overall, the flavor of the first steep is enjoyable and unique. 
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 21 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep

S&V Advent Day 17! This tea is a bit smoky, and it steeped up pink from some fruit that’s in the mix, but I don’t taste too much of that. I’m drinking this at room temperature with milk and sugar, and it’s a bit different, but not something I’d seek out. At the very end of the sip, I might catch a hint of fruit.

Sipdown! (31)

From the January subscription.

I had the pleasure of trying this in the advent calendar, so I already knew I liked it. It was nice to have a chance to try it a few more times, though! A very mellow and well-balanced blend, with a nice amount of smoke that isn’t overwhelming. The bergamot is subtle but adds a welcome brightness to the earthy base. I’m not sure I would order the full size, just because I have a somewhat similar blend in my cupboard already. But really enjoyed my three cups!

Advent Calendar 2024 – Day 17

Two literary black teas in a row? Interesting choice. Sometimes I wonder how much thought tea companies really put into the order of their advent teas ha ha. But we haven’t seen many holiday teas yet, so they must be saving them for the end, which does imply they thought about it…

Anyway, I wasn’t sure what to make of the ingredients for this one, but it’s actually quite nice! I was a bit afraid of the puerh, but luckily it’s quite mild and blends well with the black tea. The balance of black tea, puerh, and lapsang is very good – a nice mix of smooth, satisfying, earthy, and savory smoke without anything overpowering the other elements. I do think it needs a touch more bergamot, as all that is a lot to compete with ha ha. I can taste some bergamot, especially in the finish, but would like more to better offset the hefty base. My sample must have not had enough beet pieces in it, because my cup is a reddish brown at best.

Still, quite a nice one! Would happily sip again.

The jam today is… strawberry and strawberry ha ha. It’s Strawberry-Wild Strawberry Spread. I don’t have a concept of what wild strawberries taste like, the ones I tried when I was young mostly tasted like water. This was delicious though, very punchy and intense strawberry flavor and not too sweet.

Simpson & Vail Advent Calendar: Day 16

Someone over at S&V must’ve been so pleased to realize that Jane Austen’s birthday is in December!

I’m a huge Austen fan and reread the canon every few years, and I was also lucky enough to take an Austen-centric class during undergrad (English major reporting for duty!). Her dry, understated humor and boundless wit always delight me, and I love how keenly (and often mercilessly) she captures the foibles of human nature.

Anyway, I was happy to see this one yesterday, although I only steeped it up this morning (while reading some Ursula K. Le Guin, haha). It’s a pretty sedate black base with bright, cooling spearmint predominating, and then some and creamy, pillowy notes from the vanilla — it’s more marshmallow-y than vanilla-y, in my opinion! I get a smidge of lavender on the back of a sip, but I could honestly do with more.

This is somehow refreshing and cozy, which I appreciate. I might consider purchasing it and adding some additional lavender from my own garden.

Simpson & Vail Advent Calendar: Day 15

I’m getting behind on my advents… I blame my long internship days without a kettle, plus the surfeit of caffeinated teas that have popped up lately. But I’ve got a home day tomorrow, and I plan to be VERY well caffeinated as I work through the backlog (which isn’t actually THAT large, but we all know how these things snowball).

Anyway, this was yesterday’s S&V tea, but I had it this morning on my commute. I really enjoy both this one and its French toast counterpart. I stocked up on the latter when I purchased the advent, but now I’m kind of wishing I’d bought some of this one, too! I think a blend of both teas would actually be lovely… you’d get the maple sweetness of the French toast blend with the pastry, cake-y notes of this one.

All to say that this blend is solid as hell! It’s true to its name and is just so tasty.

S&V Advent Day 16! I quite enjoyed this! The floral flavors go super well with the smooth black base, and the mint is an interesting addition. I’m having it room temperature with sugar and milk, and it’s one I wouldn’t mind having again! That bright hit of mint makes this one stand out to me, and of course I’m a big Jane Austen fan, so I definitely came into this wanting to like it.

Advent Calendar 2024 – Day 16

Yay, more literary tea! Not sure if it’s just the distribution of ingredients in my sample, but I’m not getting the lavender at all here. I think I could smell it in the packet, but didn’t pay that much attention ha ha. Mostly I taste spearmint and the earthy/woody/musty black tea base. I smell a lot of vanilla, but only taste a little bit, and it’s more of a smoothness/creaminess than specifically vanilla.

Not bad, but I wanted more of everything ha ha. I’m sure this one is in the literary sampler, so hopefully I’ll get around to ordering that one of these days, and then I can try it again. :P

Today’s jam is White Nectarine-Peach Spread. To me, it’s like why even add the peach at all when those two things are so similar ha ha, but I digress. It’s a very tasty stonefruit jam, and delicious with a bit of butter as well. Nectarine is a nice variation on the usual apricot!

Advent Day 15

Another okay blend. Mostly getting cinnamon, not getting any apple. Slightly cakey.

Advent Day 14

Interesting to have this included in an advent, especially when S&V has so many festive blends. It’s fine. Not a huge fan of the fake chocolate flavor, but it’s not too egregious. I do like that it’s distinctly raspberry, rather than the usual chocolate/strawberry blend. The aftertaste is quite tart from the hibiscus. Slightly astringent.

I like chai, and I don’t mind seeing it in an advent (though I’d prefer something a little more interesting, like a special take on a chai). This one was not great. Steeped it the same way I’ve been doing all of these for the advent and it felt thin and watery. There is clearly chai spice, but it feels like an afterthought.

Simpson & Vail advent day 5

“Sour” is certainly a choice for this name. I don’t know that I get anything that strikes me as sour, and certainly nothing potent enough to be American lemonade. It is a solid candy strawberry though, and given I’m picky about both strawberry and rooibos I was surprised to like it so much! The woodiness of the rooibos was covered well with the strawberry flavor. I wonder if it would translate well iced.

Simpson & Vail advent day 4

Simpson & Vail Advent Calendar: Day 14

I wish S&V included just a liiittle more tea in each packet, because I think some of the blends I’ve tried so far would really benefit from overleafing. I had a feeling that would be the case with this one, so I brewed it up with less water than usual. It still feels weak, though!

I’m mostly getting a zippy raspberry, with a noticeable tang coming from the hibiscus. I can pick up the scent of chocolate, but I don’t taste it… which is probably a good thing, because I suspect it would be that awful faux chocolate flavoring.

Meh, this isn’t doing much for me! The raspberry is verging on too sour without chocolate to balance it.

Simpson & Vail Advent Calendar: Day 13

I was not looking forward to this one after seeing y’all’s reviews today! But when I first opened the package and took a sniff, it didn’t seem THAT bad. Aggressively minty, sure, and with an undernote of organic matter on the verge of being too ripe, but not horrible.

And then I brewed it up. And took another sniff.

WELP. It’s like a wet dog rolled around in toothpaste and moldy marshmallows. Ugh!

Advent Day 13

I love white chocolate/peppermint flavored things at the holidays, so was really excited for this blend to come up. But, the dry leaf stinks like sour gym socks. Smells a bit better when it starts to steep, but still has this lingering sour stench. Yeahhhhh….this is a no. It’s just weirdly sour and footy.

Advent Day 10

This reminds me quite a lot of Forever Nuts from DT. It has a similar pink hue, but the flavor is also vaguely similar. Cinnamon, cakey, candy fruit I guess.

Advent Day 11

Another blend that I wouldn’t have purchased for myself, but it was actually quite tasty. It’s really reading as Eggo waffles to me. Not getting any chocolate.

Advent Day 12

Nice to see a black tea! This is just okay, though. Super mild berry flavor. Black base is pretty mild.