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Nattie drank Root Beer Black Tea by Simpson & Vail

681 tasting notes

This one travelled to me via MissB ‘s Mystery Box a loooong time ago (verging on 3 years, I think). I have drank it before, I just haven’t gotten around to writing up any tasting notes on it yet.

I definitely think age has gotten the best of this tea, unfortunately, since I remember it tasting more strongly of root beer the last time I drank it. This time I got a lot of smokiness in the scent, so much so that I was starting to doubt my labelling and thought it was a lapsang. No smokiness in the flavour, though, and definitely root beer. It’s mild but definitely there. I actually prefer the root beer flavouring mild, since strong root beer always comes across as medicinal to me. It’s not something which is common here in the UK and I was probably 19 or 20 the first time I drank root beer, and the flavour is still kinda bizarre to me. Anyway, this comes across as more natural to me, which is probably at least partly down to the sarsaparilla root. Is root beer sarsaparilla flavoured? I’m not a big fan of root beer as a drink but I love sarsaparilla tablets (old-fashioned hard boiled sweets). When I tried this tea plain the black tea base was pretty astringent and strong, and pushed the root beer to the back of the sip. I added half a sugar and it brought out the root beer flavour some more, and this was how I liked the root beer flavour the best, but the tea was still too astringent for me to drink a whole mug of so I had to add milk, which helped a lot with the astringency but almost completely erased the root beer. Root beer is also not a flavour I particularly want to drink with milk. I have enough leaf left for one more mug of this tea, and I think I’ll use water below boiling to see if this improves the astringency enough that I can drink it without milk.

Preparation

Boiling 3 min, 30 sec 1 tsp 10 OZ / 295 ML

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I first got into loose leaf teas when a friend of mine showed me Cara McGee’s Sherlock fandom blends on Adagio a good few years back, but they weren’t on sale in the UK so I started trying other kinds instead and have been hooked for almost three years (and have purchased several fandom tea sets including the Sherlock one I lusted over for so long).

Flavoured teas make up the majority of my collection, but I’m growing increasingly fond of unflavoured teas too. I usually reach for a black, oolong or white tea base over a pu’erh or green tea, though I do have my exceptions. I will update my likes and dislikes as I discover more about my palate, but for now:

Tea-likes: I’m generally easily pleased and will enjoy most flavours, but my absolute favourites are maple, caramel, chestnut, pecan, raspberry, coconut, blueberry, lemon, pumpkin, rose, hazelnut and peach

Tea-dislikes: vanilla (on its own), ginger, coriander/cilantro, cardamom, liquorice, pineapple and chocolate

I am a 25 year old bartender, English Literature sort-of-graduate and current student working towards finishing my degree. I am hoping to one day complete a masters degree in Mental Health Social Work and get a job working in care. Other than drinking, hoarding and reviewing tea, my hobbies include reading, doing quizzes and puzzles, TV watching, football/soccer (Sunderland AFC supporter and employee of my local football club), music, artsy weird makeup, and learning new things (currently British Sign Language).

I should probably also mention my tea-rating system, which seems to be much harsher than others I’ve seen on here. It’s not always concrete, but I’ll try to define it:

• 50 is the base-line which all teas start at. A normal, nothing-special industrial-type black teabag of regular old fannings would be a 50.

• 0 – 49 is bad, and varying degrees of bad. This is probably the least concrete as I hardly ever find something I don’t like.

• I have never given below a 20, and will not unless that tea is SO bad that I have to wash my mouth out after one sip. Any teas rated as such are unquestionably awful.

• This means most teas I don’t enjoy will be in the 30 – 50 range. This might just mean the tea is not to my own personal taste.

• 51+ are teas I enjoy. A good cup of tea will be in the 50 – 70 range.

• If I rate a tea at 70+, it means I really, really like it. Here’s where the system gets a little more concrete, and I can probably define this part, as it’s rarer for a tea to get there.

• 71- 80: I really enjoyed this tea, enough to tell somebody about, and will probably hang onto it for a little longer than I perhaps should because I don’t want to lose it.

• 81 – 90: I will power through this tea before I even know it’s gone, and will re-order the next time the mood takes me.

• 91 – 100: This is one of the best teas I’ve ever tasted, and I will re-order while I still have a good few cups left, so that I never have to run out. This is the crème de la crème, the Ivy League of teas.

I never rate a tea down, and my ratings are always based on my best experience of a tea if I drink it multiple times. I feel that this is fairest as many factors could affect the experience of one particular cup.

I am always happy to trade and share my teas with others, so feel free to look through my cupboard and message me if you’re interested in doing a swap. I keep it up-to-date, although this doesn’t mean I will definitely have enough to swap, as I also include my small samples.
Currently unable to swap as I’ve returned after a long hiatus to a cupboard of mostly-stale teas I’m trying to work through before I let myself purchase anything fresh

I also tend to ramble on a bit.

Location

South Shields, UK

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