Great Smoky Mountains

I want to try more samples from Simpson & Vail, but their options are a bit limited in certain respects. The Literary Tea would be a fun box but it’s about $34, I have one of the listed ones already, one of the ones I’m most curious about is not in the box, so even though they are fun sampler, boxes, it doesn’t work for everything. I did cave and get the National Park Tea Box, though. A bit cheaper and I hadn’t tried any. A very cute box and I’m happy to try these before breaking out the advent calendar for December from another company.

I have such mixed feelings about this tea! I liked it, but I also didn’t fully enjoy it. It’s so odd. It stayed pleasant throughout as it cooled. I steeped four minutes with 1 tsp to 4 oz. The smell dry is blueberry for sure and gets a little overwhelming. The smell is smokey in the background. I drank on the porch when playing some of my games last night with it raining, no food with it. Added a little cube of sugar after the first few sips to enhance.

It IS smokey but it has a full blend of other flavors so that is not as predominate depending on the sip. It is strong, but not overwhelming. It is smokey, but fruity. It is fruity, but the smoke elevates that and changes it a bit. I drank the full cup and liked, but it is certainly unusual. They did a good job blending unusual combinations with the right notes. I’ll drink the rest of the bag, but this won’t be a keeper staple I’ll order a large tin of.

It almost reminds me of camping, smoking a cigar with a small glass of some sort of strong alcoholic beverage, while munching on blueberries lol

I stopped by Simpson and Vail earlier this month on my way through Connecticut and managed to not go TOO overboard with my purchases. I did get a bunch of teas, a few author teas and the NP sampler box. This tea looks good on paper, but there is something a bit too sharp in this blend for my liking. Smoky mountains are supposed to be foggy and soft; they missed the mark in this blend. It makes me want to pare my best Lapsang with some blackberry jam toast to try and recreate the blend.

I’ve been drinking this one for the last two weeks. My first cup I did not care for it. I had my last cup today and I’ll say, it’s improved but probably still not one I would purchase again.

The leaves are neat to look at with bright colored berries mixed in. This probably should have been a sign to me that it might be a bit to sweet for my tastes. There is a strong berry taste with a very very very small hint of smoke if I concentrate hard.

My last one to try from the National Parks collection! This is a blackberry black tea with a bit of lapsang in the mix for smokiness.

If I’m being honest, I knew immediately from the smell that I wasn’t going to enjoy this tea. The blackberry flavoring definitely has that chalky quality to it that always reminds me of berry-flavored Tums. I don’t know if other people ever have that impression or if it’s just a weird association I have, but it’s fairly common for me with berry flavoring.

Anyway! The blackberry is the strongest flavor here, and it does taste rather candy/artificial to me with some chalkiness. Almost like Smarties maybe, but less sweet? The smoke is extremely subtle, too subtle in my opinion. I’m not sure I would notice it if I didn’t know it was there. There’s just a hint of campfire smoke and dark wood behind the blackberry. A tiny bit of tartness pops up in the aftertaste, perhaps from the freeze-dried berries.

While I like the concept of this one a lot, it falls short for me because of the very candy-like blackberry and the almost imperceptible lapsang smokiness. Certainly not a favorite from this collection.

I think I’ll hold off on a rating because I feel like I have an abnormal reaction to a lot of berry flavors…