St. Nick's Black Tea

A friend dropped by with the S&V sampler this morning so I could pick teas to try. There were only three that really caught my interest and Nutcracker Blend has failed to woo me to order.

This one is a different story. Ashman right away was enamored of the aroma. He also liked the flavor. He said this was like drinking hot chocolate to him. We were having it plain, and he said he bet it would make a great latte as well.

He tasted cacao, which he greatly prefers to the artificial chocolate flavoring, and caramel most. The mild almond is nice in this, too.

This is a winner that we would be happy to drink again.

Sweet, chocolatey, nutty, cozy. Perfect for the holidays, a definite rebuy for 2023! ( finished 10/12)

Discovery Advent Tea #16
I could see the big man drinking this. Good almond flavor. Chocolaty too. Like a light hot chocolate but still with an interesting richness to it.

Thanks to tea-sipper for this one! It’s really quite the tasty dessert tea. It’s a little nutty and chocolatey, and I can definitely say that I like it a lot! It’s tasty with milk and sugar. I’ve had two lovely cups of it and have just enough for one more. The flavors aren’t super strong, but they’re really nice.

Mixed reviews on this one hehe. I like it.

Thank you so much tea-sipper for sending me this. As many of you say, it is chocolatey but I really like the roasty toasty nutty flavor. It’s on the light side of maple but although I like maple, I don’t require very much of the taste to make things I eat or drink tasty. For example, on pancakes, I just spread a tablespoon on the top pancake lol. I wish I could say the same about butter! I can drown it in butter and be a happy camper. I’m a salty over sweet type of person so this tea was very very good to me. It is one of my favorites out of the whole wonderful package that tea-sipper sent me awhile ago. I’m going to put it on my wishlist for the future.

Hope all is well and safe with you.

Meh. Now that I’m looking at reviews here, I’m seeing that maple and nuts are a part of this. I don’t think I got that from their website description. <pausing to go look it up, to be fair> OK, it does mention nuttiness in several spots (not just almonds) and a touch of maple. If I had caught on to that, I probably wouldn’t have tried this one – not a nut fan in tea (other than almond) and not a maple fan in general. There is a dry unsweetened cocoa flavor to this (the kind that is bitter and reminiscent of coffee), and the maple and sort of pecan-type astringency are definitely present. I think it’s probably an OK tea if you like maple, pecans, and coffee, but that’s not me.

Sipdown! (11 | 414)

So miss Gabby (thereadersteacup) sent me a sweet Christmas package with tea and dog toys, among other things. Thanks Gabby! :3 In it were several small tea samples, so I figured why not polish those off because yay, easy sipdowns! This one seemed like a good one to start with, after all it is Christmas Day.

I actually like this a bit better than I remember. In general, I don’t love any of Simpson & Vail’s holiday black teas. And actually, I don’t love most of the other holiday teas either, aside from Winter Wonderland. Anyway! This is a nice enough chocolate tea, coming from someone who doesn’t like chocolate teas. I can also taste the nuts and maple, and it’s a fake sort of maple but not strong enough to be cloying. The flavors go well together, and the base has an earthiness to it that sort of pulls the nutty flavor in a pecan or walnut direction.

I wouldn’t go out and buy it, but I wouldn’t turn down a cup either. Thanks Gabby, happy to revisit this one!

I was looking for some herbal treats to share with my wife in the evening, and was happy to find some rooibos-based holiday flavors to add to my cart. Then in a true show of bipartisanship, I smiled, drifted to the OTHER side of the aisle, and found plenty of caffeinated options to agree with. Simpson & Vail’s “St. Nick’s Tea” is the first among them to make it to our cup.

Deliciously nutty with a strong sense of maple, this flavored black tea has just enough of a chocolate edge to make it seem decadent. While it was my first cup on this cold morning, it won’t replace my daily black tea any time soon. Great tea to share with family and friends – holiday or any day.

Additional notes: I also have a ton of this from TreeGal! Thank you so much! It’s a favorite so I’m quite happy to have more of it. Love the cocoa notes. Very comforting. Otherwise, I’m still working on the Angry Tea Room advent teas and other various holiday teas. There are a whole month of them. I should have really made an advent for the swap you guys did, but most of my holiday teas are older now, so I’d rather not share not-fresh teas…. I still enjoy them anyway. AND I love reading about the advents everyone else is doing!

Welp, polished this sample off. The combination of chocolate and maple was really good. The base was fairly ordinary, but didn’t get in the way and really let the flavorings come through. This tea also went well with a little cream.