Tea: Organic Tippy Colombian Black Tea (T2)
A Black Tea from Simpson & Vail - 
Organic
| Brand: | Simpson & Vail |
| Style: | Black Tea |
| Region: | Colombia |
| Caffeine: | Caffeinated |
| Loose? | Loose |
| # Ratings: | 1 View All |
| Product page: | Organic Tippy Colombian Black Tea (T2) |
Reviewer: Alex Zorach
✓ 1448 teas reviewed
✓ 496 of Black Tea
✓ 949 of Pure Tea (Camellia sinensis)
✓ 42 of Simpson & Vail
✓ 8 from Colombia
Review of Organic Tippy Colombian Black Tea (T2)
March 26th, 2018
| Aroma | Flavor | Value | Total |
| 9 of 10 | 5 of 5 | 5 of 5 | 97 of 100 |
| Superb | Excellent | Outstanding |
This was a light tea with a strong savory flavor, that tasted distinctly like lobster!
Another sample from Simpson & Vail, thank you! I've been loving all the black teas I've tried from the Bitaco estate in Colombia, and this is another one. They are all excellent! I'm glad to see this garden and its teas taking off and being sold by more retailers. This is possibly the most different or unusual of the bunch of teas I've tried from Bitaco, but it's still similar to the others.
The leaf is fragrant, its smell sweet and almost intoxicating: floral, and fresh. It looks like a tippy Assam, with the curly, dark leaves and golden-orange tips, but smells nothing like it.
The cup of this one is also very fragrant, vegetal and with seaweedy notes strongly suggestive of lobster. There are also notes of fresh bread. The flavor is slightly more Assam-like than the other Bitaco teas I've tried (only slightly). Flavor is strongly savory, with only a hint of bitter, sour, and sweet flavors. The lobster notes in the aroma combined with the bready quality, together with the savory flavors conjure up images of sitting on the wharf in maine eating a lobster roll: it's an uncanny resemblance.
Resteeps excellently, although I found a long (8+) minute steep was necessary for it to be as strong as the first cup, whech I brewed for 3 minutes. The resteep retains the same aromatic character, remarkably, but the flavor is a little more sour and also has a muted bitterness, probably because I steeped so long. It's still very pleasant though.
Really great price! This is slightly more expensive than the other tea I've tried from S&V and also more than the one I tried from Harney, and I think I actually like it slightly less than both, but...it's still an exceptional tea. Once you get into these top-notch teas it's hard for me to know how to rate them, but I think I'd probably prefer the other teas over this one. This tea was mainly interesting for the novelty factor of the lobster notes.
