Simpson & Vail
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My brother is a senior in high school and he has no idea what he’s doing, but he has big plans. So, I sat with him today, and gave him the bad news—that he’s going to have to spend a ton of time doing stuff he doesn’t want to to do to get into a decent college. We worked on paperwork all day. I cheered him up later on by baking him banana bread, and watching “Ratatouille” with him. Sometimes, he’s easy to please. That movie always makes me reach for a cup of tea, and I needed something french—something to go with the theme for the evening. Hence, this French Vanilla tea, which brewed something a bit more pleasurable than usual.
Oh, I wish I had planted that zucchini plant so I would have the one ingredient I’m missing to make ratatouille. Until then, I have a nice cup of french vanilla to cheer me up, and help me forget that I have finished nothing for myself all day.
I’m not getting a lot of bergamot from this blend – I can definitely taste the peach flavor, though. The bergamot IS there… lingering in the background, but this is definitely not a typical Earl Grey – not the strong, ballsy bergamot kind of Earl Grey, anyway.
But it’s not a bad tasting tea either. I wouldn’t call it a peach flavored tea – more like a peach-y, citrus-y, flower-y kind of taste. Not quite bergamot, not quite peach… but definitely interesting!
Preparation
Ooooooo…sounds like I would like it…with the Peach, I mean!!!!
Oooh sounds delish!
As it cools a bit, I am getting more bergamot from it. It’s still a softer, gentler bergamot though. I like it, it’s definitely different.
I’ve got to try this out. I’m forever in a quest to find an Earl Grey blend I like, and this seems perfect. Thanks for the review – I’m on it! :)
Trying this one again. It is an enjoyable cup. Bold and brisk and somewhat woodsy. I am enjoying this with a Italian fig cookie (cuccidata), and it’s a really nice pairing. The tea brings out some of the delightful fruit notes in the cookie, while the sweetness of the cookie brings out hints of honey and flower in the tea.
YUM!
Bold and lively! Nice woodsy note to it. It has a really rustic kind of flavor – strong and sturdy. Very full flavored.
This is a really bold Estate tea that would make a really good breakfast tea. I like it with a drizzle of honey to soften the edge, and it would also probably be quite nice with a drop of milk too.
Preparation
This was my second time trying it. Poured my first cup out of the pot after 5min 30sec, and the average time between cups was about 13 minutes after that, especially since some things came up. 1 pot was about 11 of my little cups, and the pot took about 2 hours to drink all of.
At the beginning, the pepper was the most noticeable thing, but the berries and flowers did become stronger after a couple cups. The 6th cup was sort of weird, but the flavors started blending and getting along after that. After a while, I started noticing the floral tastes more and, after a while longer, I noticed the pepper more again. As with any pot of loose tea I have, the last little partial-cup was bitter, but the rest was yummy. Definitely different. When the pepper is in the foreground, it’s not sweet, but it gets sweeter as it tastes more floral. As with any tea, your mileage may vary, but I did find that I liked it the second time I tried it.
Preparation
This is surprisingly good!
It has a bit of a spicy kick (ginger is strong in this blend) and it nearly mimics a chai tea – but not quite. I love the anise in this tisane… it tastes licorice-y and sweet.
I didn’t think I’d like this one at first, but, I’m really glad I decided to try it because it’s good!!!
Preparation
Do not expect Earl Grey from this tea. It does not taste like Earl Grey. To me, it tasted more like peach-flavored black tea, which I like the taste of. As they say, your mileage may vary. I liked it once it got cold, too, but, again, your mileage may vary.
The steeping time I put in was for a pot (2 or 3 cup pot) of it.
Preparation
Can smell Anise, Ginger, and Cinnamon…I’m afraid…
It’s herbally tasting but surprisingly pleasant. It’s actually quite good
I’m saying this based on my normal displeasure for such ingredients. BUT…this is ALRIGHT. I think the lemon peel cuts the other spice and herbal flavors so that’s good!
WOW!
This one has me flabbergasted but in a VERY good way!
I thought I had YUMBERRY before from a different company and I thought I remember not liking it – I thought it was too tart…well, what I thought was YUMBERRY was actually YOUTHberry and I think it was Teavana. ANYHOW…
YUMBERRY by S&V is AWESOME! I’m giving this one many points for knocking my socks off and proving me wrong. I was expecting it to be tarty and hibiscus like but BOY was I wrong! I am drinking this HOT right now and liking it alot!!! I really want to try it cold!!!
YUM
YUMBERRY!
I’ve only had one other tea with “yumberry” flavor – and I really liked it, so I was pretty sure I’d like this one too. And I was right.
The fruity flavor is strong but I can taste the white tea too – it is a gentle, sweet white tea flavor – very fresh with a slight hint of vegetal taste. The fruit flavor is also a bit sweet – a nice, refreshing afternoon treat!
YUMberry is right!
Preparation
I started my day with this and a more lengthy review at SororiTEA Sisters!
http://sororiteasisters.com/2010/11/01/java-kertasarie-estate-tea-from-simpson-vail/
Check it out!!!
Upped the rating, too!
SIPDOWN #3 for the day!
Okay…so…I really lost track of the whole Sipdown grand total so I will do it by day! LOL
Having the rest of my stash of Blue Mist today! It’s quite smooth today! I’m tasting the mango more. This is nice. Sorry to see it go but I have so-much tea and so-little time! teahee!
pretty good…still shocked I like it considering I hate bananas! The other ingredients sure do make it!!! Woot!
This sounds very interesting…does jackfruit taste anything like banana or just smell like it?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackfruit
Here is a little something I found…
Thought I would step outside my comfort zone with this one. I HATE Bananas!!!! I mean HATE them! When I read this had Jackfruit in it – which is supposed to smell like Pineapple and Bananas – I thought I would try it! Here goes…
It smells nice…you can tell Mango and Pineapple but there is a little hint of something else which I will ‘chalk up as’ that banana illusion. Nothing is too over the top to make me change facial expressions but it does have a different sort of aroma, that is for sure!
It’s VERY dark in color.
It tastes like a HOT tropical smoothie. No really floral but fruity and not like Pina Colada but truly unique. Almost like a tropical drink with NO Pineapple, Coconut, or Flowers in it…if you can picture that. It’s much different than ANY flavored black I have tried to date. If you are looking for something different this just may be it.
Thumbs up for creativeness and it tastes pretty good too! A fun cuppa!
I have about enough of this left for another cup or two (big cups… when I drink tisanes at night I go for the 16 oz size as all that heat is bound to make me sleepy), and it has grown on me some over the course of drinking way more of this than I probably should have ordered (S&V doesn’t have samples, so you sort of have to buy the smallest size they have and for this one that size was 4 oz.). I was pretty optimistic about this one from the description so I happily bought 4 oz of it.
I gave up on the experimentation described in my previous note and just focused on getting the proportion of mixture to water right, and it turned out that more was a lot better in this case. I’m putting in about double the amount I’d ordinarily expect per cup, and that gives it a good bit of flavor. It’s still missing a sweetness that I’d like to see in a lemon tisane and it still has an edge of bitterness that I could do without, but in between is a decent amount of lemon flavor.
Though it has grown on me, I don’t feel like it has grown enough to justify bumping up the rating. I likely won’t buy more when I decupboard, which I expect to be sometime this weekend.
Luscious Lemon. With a name like that, how can I not be at the end of my perfect lemon search? And let’s look at the ingredients, shall we? Is there anything in there that doesn’t have the word “lemon” in front of it? There’s even a cute story on the bag it came in.
In the bag it does smell incredibly lemony, and steeped, it still maintains its lemonyness in the aroma. But alas, the taste. It’s lemony, but it seems… not really weak, but light. And I can’t decide if it is sweet or whether it needs sweetening. There’s a hint of sweetness to the aftertaste, but there’s also a bit of tart vegetalness and a slight bitterness in the finish. I do like a little sweetness in my lemon flavor, not that it has to taste like candy.
This is the second night I’ve tried this. Last night it was really disappointing; it tasted washed out. Tonight, I made it in a smaller cup and I must have gotten the tisane/water ratio better because it has more flavor and tonight it’s actually somewhat sweeter. I think it tastes better a little cooler, too.
As an experiment, I made another cup to which I added some Upton Peppermint. I thought that might tame the tartness and approximate what I like about I Love Lemon a bit more since that also contains peppermint. It really does help with the tartness and adds some depth to the flavor as well, except that I don’t love the Upton Peppermint. It has an earthy, dirty taste to me. And I think I put too much in, too. So there is a downside as well as an upside. Note to self: try with another peppermint. I have a sample from Adagio, and I opened it up to take a whiff. It doesn’t have that same earthy smell the Upton does, so that may work better.
Last variation: Luscious Lemon plus the last of the Upton Peppermint (decupboarding after I finish this note) plus my all purpose sweetener, two bags of Tazo Honeybush. Not good. The peppermint must have been a bit dusty at the bottom of the can and I have this strange coating on my tongue now. Mostly, I seem to have overpowered the lemon almost entirely. I’m going to try this one more time before I give up on it, with the Adagio peppermint and less of it.
Not perfect, and not as close as the Harney & Sons Lemon Herbal or the Teavana Strawberry Lemonade. But it does show promise, if I can get the steeping and peppermint right.
Preparation
You know in the movies and tv where there’s an EMT desperately trying to resuscitate someone? Well, that’s the image I have of you trying to make this poor tea work. :)
Hahaha! Yeah, I’m really trying to find a way not to admit defeat here. Of course, I could just admit that I really like I Love Lemon even though it’s a plebeian, grocery store brand that doesn’t even come in loose leaf. Then again, it’s been February since I had it and I’ve had a lot of tea since then so I may not even like it still. If I didn’t have to buy a whole box to find out, I’d find out. :-)
Haven’t been here long, so don’t know the lemon saga from the start, but just jumping in to say I had the most astonishing lemon myrtle rooibos from the Cultured cup (part of a tasting on the egullet.org tea forum), and was so amazed by the lemonyness (alone as well as the fabulous combination with the rooibos) that I looked up the lemon myrtle. It’s an australian tree whose leaves have a unbelievable percentage of some key lemon flavor thingie by weight when dried—check wikipedia on this.
You might want to try a lemon myrtle tea if you’re trying for death-by-OD-of-lemonyness.
Heya, thanks for the suggestion. I did have a lemon myrtle experience that wasn’t so great. I made it too strong and got a soapy taste, which I have never since been able to avoid thinking of when drinking lemon myrtle. :( I haven’t had it in rooibos to my knowledge, though, so I might get up my guts to give that a try. I have since had at least one experience where I didn’t taste soap while having lemon myrtle in a blend, but it can go either way for me.
Don’t recall any soapy taste to this one; it was so perfect that I’m going to order a bunch to stash at home and at work.
