Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Simpson & Vail
Tea Description:
Chai Masala (Spiced Tea) is a tea blend with origins in India. It is traditionally a mix of black tea and spices that is steeped in milk with sweeteners added to it. For this blend, we’ve taken our popular Chai tea blend and added the subtle, creamy flavor of French Vanilla. This tea brews to an amber cup with a spicy aroma and a taste that is creamy with spice notes. Rich and delicious tasting!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Spiced Chai blends are among my favorite … especially this time of year when it’s cold and wet outside. There’s nothing quite as comforting as a nice, warm, chai latte. So cozy and yummy! And I’m absolutely loving this Chai French Vanilla Black Tea from Simpson & Vail!
The black tea base offers a solid background of flavor … it is delicious and strong, with a hint of malt to it (which melds quite nicely with the French Vanilla flavor!)
The spices are very nicely balanced … the cinnamon has that sweet yet spicy taste to it. The cloves and cardamom add a lovely warmth to the cup, and I’m loving the anise in this. It adds just a hint of snappy taste to the cup without tasting too licorice-y. Don’t get me wrong, licorice is one of my favorite flavors and I love it when a tea goes a little overboard with its licorice-y flavor … but here, I wanted to really enjoy the French Vanilla flavor … and this blend allows me to do just that!
The French Vanilla is the main event … but that doesn’t mean that it overwhelms the cup. This is still a chai and it still has the warm, robust flavors of the spices … but the vanilla is front and center. It is sweet and creamy and adds a really nice dimension to the cup. If you didn’t want to go latte with this, you wouldn’t need to, because the vanilla gives it enough creaminess to taste latte without the dairy. However, I was in the mood for a cozy chai latte, so I added some milk … and this really UPPED the creaminess immensely. So decadent … such a cozy, comforting treat.
A wonderful chai from our friends at Simpson & Vail. This is a great company run by some really terrific people. I have had some really great dealings with them and they are very responsive to their customers (and they go out of their way to accommodate special requests too, like if you want to create a special gift bag for someone!) Excellent teas … and an excellent tea company!
Apple Cinnamon Coffeecake from Simpson & Vail
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Simpson & Vail
Tea Description:
A new addition to our flavored tea line and already a huge hit with all of us here! This slightly sweet, scrumptious blend has a lightly toasted flavor with the delicious taste of apples and cinnamon. Sipping this tea reminds me of the Sunday morning breakfast treats of my childhood. Now that I’m all grown up I could have those treats every day of the week; however, I think I’ll stick to this tea blend instead. It’s full of the sinful tastes of childhood but, with no calories, it suits my adult metabolism!
Ingredients: Black teas, organic cinnamon chips, apple pieces, orange blossoms and flavoring.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This tea from Simpson & Vail is all things a flavored tea should be! There is no artificial flavor, the after taste is lingering and delightful, the flavor elements are perfectly bleneded. An all around excellent cup!
The aroma of this tea is something I can’t leave out of this review. It smells so good both in dry form and when steeped! The aroma fills the home and is a great way to scent your home without incense or candles, or that nasty artificial air freshener! My home smells like the holidays which is a lovely aroma anytime but especially this time of year!
I also want to mention the cinnamon in this blend. Often times cinnamon takes over a blend or is simply too spicy for some, the cinnamon in this tea is reminiscent of a cinnamon sugar cookie, sweet, not spicy. I love the way the cinnamon works in this tea.
The mouthfeel is slightly creamy and full. The color is a lovely festive orangish, brownish, red color.
Overall the flavor is sweet but not overly so, delicate on the spice notes, the apple is lovely in this tea, its quite fresh and delicious without coming over as a cider like tea. There is a wonderful baked goods flavor to the tea that again reminds me of cookies, christmas cookies. I think it is the toasted almonds that give off the baked goods flavor.
One could add some sugar or sweetener to this tea and it would hold up very well and give it an added dessert flavor.
I have been impressed thus far by Simpson & Vail teas although I would love to try more from them. I have only had their teas due to the generosity of others in tea trades but I look forward to making an order soon, perhaps after the holidays! For now, this sample is a wonderful treat for me while wrapping holiday gifts for others!
Strawberry Cupcake Black Tea from Simpson and Vail
Tea Type:
Black Tea
Where To Buy:
Simpson & Vail
Product Description:
Tasters Review:
I first tried this when I was in MAJOR need of some comfort food and let me tell you this sure did do the trick!
This flavored black tea has a strong black tea base. Followed by a strong Strawberry flavor. There’s also a dark chocolate flavor in there that is just as sturdy as the strawberry! There is a crusty type taste doing the jive in the middle of the sip. This has a slight bitter taste in parts of the sip but in a good way where it contributes to the overall flavor of this flavored black tea. As it cools it does seem to get a bit creamier…like frosting.
Comfort…in a cup…in more ways than one! YUM!
Red Velvet Cupcake Rooibos from Simpson & Vail
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where To Buy: Simpson & Vail
Tisane Description:
A cup of this brewing “tea” imparts a heavenly aroma of chocolatey goodness. The aroma is truly awesome. And the taste? This “tea” strikes the perfect balance of chocolate, rooibos and cupcake. So brew a cup, sit back and relax, knowing that the goodness in the cup is also good for your waistline!
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
When served fresh-out-of-the-teapot-hot, I find this to be a little too rooibos-y for my liking. I tasted hints of chocolate and another indistinguishable sort of sweetness, but, really, what I tasted was rooibos – that nutty, woody, sweet taste of rooibos.
As the tea cools in my cup slightly (for just a couple of minutes!), I find that the chocolate-y notes begin to develop and they come together with the rooibos notes nicely, although, I can’t say that this tastes so much like any red velvet cupcake that I’ve tasted. I haven’t tried a lot of red velvet cupcakes, as they don’t tend to be my favorite cupcake (when I want chocolate, I want CHOCOLATE, not a hint of chocolate that’s been swathed in a red velvet-y color, although there are times when I love red velvet, I like the slight tang of the red velvet combined with the creamy, sweet-tangy frosting). But, of the red velvet cupcakes that I have tried, I can’t say that this tisane that is in my cup tastes much like any of those.
That’s not to say that it isn’t a tasty cup of tea. It is. When it’s really hot, I am not a big fan of it, but, after a few minutes of cooling time, the chocolate flavors pick up a bit and it becomes a nice, slightly chocolate, rooibos tisane. I taste a very subtle note of coconut as well as an ever so slight raspberry taste here, but these flavors are pretty inconspicuous and difficult to discern unless you really tune in to the tea.
Pleasant, but I must say that Simpson & Vail does have better dessert teas. Right off the bat, I would recommend their Cinnamon Chocolate Brownie. That one is amazing!
Cinnamon Chocolate Brownie from Simpson and Vail
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Simpson and Vail
Tea Description:
Do you love chocolate but hate the calories? This tea may be the answer! Made from all organic and natural ingredients, this black tea blend tastes decadent with no residual weight effects. The aroma of this tea reminds me of my grandma’s kitchen when all of us kids were able to coax her into baking us brownies … delicious….
Ingredients: Organic China black tea, organic cocoa nibs, organic cinnamon pieces and natural flavoring.
Brew tea at 212º – steep for 3 minutes.
Certified Kosher
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I received this in a tea trade and was eager to try it because I had yet to try a tea from Simpson and Vail. So far I have been quite pleased with all three of the Simpson and Vail teas I received in this trade!
Having never tried Simpson and Vail before I took a look around their site and was impressed that this is a family run business, the prices are quite fair, and they have an amazing selection of teas, coffee, food, and tea ware. They also have recipes, and all of their information regarding health, shipping, policies, etc are easy to find. I truly enjoy a well laid out website that offers easy to find information, and is user friendly.
Needless to say I will be revisiting the Simpson and Vail site again to place an order of my own!
The base used in this tea is quite bold, which I like. Especially for a morning wake up tea. Sure this is a dessert tea but no one can tell me I can’t have my dessert tea for breakfast.
The cinnamon is a nice touch, but only a touch, and unlike many teas with cinnamon in them, the cinnamon in this tea does not take over. The chocolate is not over the top either but tastes like a darker chocolate to me. Now I am picky when it comes to chocolate flavoring in tea. Usually, in my opinion, the chocolate flavor used in tea often comes over as really cheap tasting. Like the easter chocolate eggs you could find at a local dollar store. Not good. This however, is a nice chocolate flavor and that is because they used real cocoa nibs, organic cocoa nibs at that! A true chocolate taste.
Now I may not be as in love with this tea as my sisters are, but it is a good hearty blend with well balanced flavors that taste the way the name eludes that it will. However it is not quite as “dessert-y” as one may hope for when reaching for a dessert-y tea. On the other hand it is a wonderfully flavored tea for breakfast when one does not want their standard black.
I do notice as the tea cools more of the flavor develops so don’t be in too big of a rush enjoying this tea … give it a chance to show you all it has to offer.
I look forward to trying more from Simpson and Vail.