T2

So My internet has been down for the longest time and now it’s working off and on….So I’ve had this tea several times since then and after this cup will have only one serving left.

This was kindly sent to me from Mastress Alita. I had wanted to try this company for awhile now and am glad that I got the opportunity.
I found that the best length to steep it was just under three minutes.
The tea is pleasant to drink and makes for a very unique earl grey. I can see it being too floral for some people but I find it to be quite nice. The main note I’m getting is a peachy floral flavor. Somewhat reminiscent to how DavidsTea’s Buddha’s Blend smelled. Although this tea is not nearly as perfume-y as the DT blend which I found to not be drinkable. They mention hibiscus in the ingredients but I’m assuming it’s white hibiscus based on color of the tea, taste, and looking through the dry leaf. I could definitely picture myself drinking this in Paris so the name is fitting In my opinion. It’s a beautiful tea and when I place an order with T2 if this is available I would definitely consider adding some to my cart.

“Spring”, a fitting name to this lovely herbal tea. A slight tangy flavour from the apple acid, orange and lemon granules, gives the tea a refreshing quality. Sugar is not needed as the tea is quite sweet already from the fruits. The lemongrass and hibiscus definitely stand out from the fruits but is a lovely combination I have not tried before. Can be served hot or cold.
A tip to presenting this tea when serving cold is to boil it with some fresh fruits such as apple, orange and lemon to naturally sweeten the tea. I prefer to let it cool in the fridge overnight instead of adding ice which dilutes the tea. However it may be too strong for some drinkers.

Got this muslin tea bag as part of a T2 sample box, and as I try to have at least one cup of green tea a day, this was a good choice for today. In the cup, this smells extremely vegetal, and weirdly enough, at times like… rotisserie chicken? (Weird, I know, but there were hints of it!) There’s a dirty earthiness to it, and while I’ve tasted a lot of weak senchas, this isn’t one of them.

The taste is very similar to the smell: vegetal, thick-feeling but not in a bad way. It reminds me a lot of parsley tea because of the strong grassiness. This is a sencha for real green tea lovers and not for the novice sipper. It’s good, but something I’ll definitely have to be in the mood for.

Bought a variety pack of T2 teas as an intro to the brand and decided Gorgeous Geisha was first up. I love a cup of green tea in the morning and we’re getting our kitchen refitted which means getting to the fridge for milk (as I’d add to most black teas) was a no-go. In any case, good choice! I was worried that the fruit might be too strong and override the gentle grassiness that is green tea, but that was in vain because the two flavors mingle perfectly together. It’s slightly sweet without being anywhere near cloying. I’m having it hot but have no doubt this would be wonderful iced, so I’ll try it that way next time!

June Wedding! Time for something blue! This is one of my T2 sampler stash, a vanilla-flavored black tea decorated with blue cornflower petals.

The leaf smells nice, sweet but not overly so. Steeped up, the tea is a medium black tea with a nice caramel color, and the aroma from the cup has a nice vanilla fragrance, but also almost a caramel candy sweetness to it. The tea is very light in body, smooth, and there is no bitterness or astringency… but something about the flavor, despite smelling heavily as vanilla, doesn’t really taste like vanilla to me. It’s tasting more like banana-flavored candies to me (like those nasty marshmallow circus peanuts), and banana is my most hated food, so this just really isn’t doing it for me. The black tea base is pleasant enough, I like how light and smooth it is, but whatever supposed “vanilla” flavorings are used in this tea are just… really unpleasant to me. This is definitely not a tea I would ever want to revisit.

202/365

I stayed with my parents for a couple of days this weekend, so this one came from my mum’s tea stash (small at the moment, but we’re getting there!) She isn’t a chili fan, so she was never going to drink this one. It’s an interesting combination – primarily strawberry (very sweet and candy-like), that segues into fiery chili heat. There’s hibi in here, but I actually don’t mind it for once since it tones down the sweetness a little and seems to help bridge the gap between two flavours that I’d otherwise find opposed. I don’t really have a lot more to say about this one, given that it’s a pretty straightforward fruit blend. The two flavours that are supposed to be there are there, and they work better together than I thought they might. I’d probably not repurchase at the moment, but come winter it might be a more appealing prospect. I guess we’ll see!

197/365

Almost there with the T2 Hottest Hearty Brews sampler! I’m pretty sure there’s just one more to go after this one. It’s been an interesting mix – some fruity summer blends, some more wintery or chai-style, some sweet and some savoury. It’s been a good way to try a decent spectrum of T2s flavours, and to get an idea of how they blend.

Today’s choice is one probably better suited to autumn/winter, but I’m going to go ahead and finish it up anyway. Bird & Blend release their summer collection this weekend, so I need to free up some cupboard space for that!

Hot Date Chai is a blend of chocolate, chilli, and date. It’s a black tea, but it doesn’t brew up to any great strength; this isn’t one that would take milk well, I don’t think. There are a lot of cardamom pods in my sample, but I’m not too worried since that’s a flavour I tend to enjoy.

Milk chocolate is the first flavour I can taste, and it comes across really well as actual chocolate, rather than cocoa. I’ve noticed this with other T2 blends, but they also manage to make it a strong, substantial flavour – no watered down chocolate here! This sampler gives me the impression that chocolate is a flavour T2 do well, which is something to bear in mind when I’m making future choices. The chilli develops out of the mid-sip, and gradually builds to a level of spicy background heat that makes for a pleasant pairing with the chocolate.

I’m not getting much in the way of date, which is a shame. Without it, this is really just a chocolate chilli chai, which isn’t especially unique, although the backdrop of traditional chai flavours – cardamon, ginger, clove – is nicely balanced.

If this wasn’t missing the very element that would make it interesting and unique, I’d be more than happy with it. As it stands, I’m feeling the loss.

195/365

I feel like I should take a moment here to appreciate T2’s sample packaging, because it’s the most colourful and functional I’ve seen in a long time. Each sample is sealed in a foil lined pouch, in its own individual serving size; the size, of course, varies according to the type of tea. I think most of their samples come in plain black packaging with the coloured label that denotes which blend they are, but these limited edition ones each have a different pattern, no two the same. Some are very reminiscent of 60s wallpaper, but some are really cute…and on the whole it’s just an extra touch that makes it feel like they’re putting the effort in on presentation. It’s nice. The back of the pouch has a brief description of the blend, and the brewing guidelines, so you don’t have to go searching to find out what inspired it, what it’s supposed to taste like, what kind of tea it is, or any of that stuff.

I say all of this mostly because they’re regular packaging really sucks. If you buy a “cube” from their website, which is the smallest quantity you can buy of an individual blend (at least in the UK…) you get a cardboard outer box containing a plastic bag of tea. The plastic bag isn’t particularly substantial, and is prone to tearing and splitting, and you can’t pour the tea into the box because it would leak out through the folds in the base. Even if you manage to keep the tea in the bag, it’s not resealable or airtight in any way. No-one is going to get through 50-100g of tea instantly, and they haven’t provided a way of keeping it fresh within its original packaging. I find it hard to believe that the perfectly packaged single-serve samples and the larger, more expensive cubes were designed by the same company. I can’t even begin to make sense of it.

Shall we talk about Sticky Date Delight now? According to the packet, this one’s based on a sticky toffee pudding, with flavours of caramel, toffee sauce, and dates. It’s a rooibos blend, and unfortunately that’s really obvious as soon as you take a sip. It’s brassy and woody and unmistakably rooibos, but I guess that’s always a risk when you use it as a base. It settles fairly quickly, and gives way to a really delicious burnt sugar flavour – it’s sort of caramel, sort of toffee, but reminds me most of all of the sugar crust on a creme brulee – if it had been under the blow torch just a few seconds too long.

The almost-tart sweetness of dried dates is there towards the end of the sip, but it’s mostly overpowered by the sweet sugariness that the toffee/caramel combination provides. I almost get sticky toffee pudding, but I “taste” it somewhere between my nose and throat in the moments after I swallow a sip. The flavour in the mouth is really just rooibos and the rich sweetness of caramelised sugar. After a few sips, it becomes too sweet and cloying to be really enjoyable.

I’m not a huge fan of this one. It’s better as it cools, when the rooibos has settled down as much as its going to, but it’s still not quite as cohesive as a flavoured blend as some of the others I’ve tried from this sampler. I think a different base would have helped, since the rooibos is a real distraction. I think I get what they were trying to achieve, and it’s almost there, but in the end it doesn’t quite make it.

190/365

I’m not sure how I’ve become the only person to have reviewed this particular selection of T2 blends? I came by them in the Hottest Hearty Brews sampler box, but from what I can see when I’ve been looking to see if some of them are still available, they have been sold individually as limited edition blends. Some of them are really good, so I’m a little surprised they haven’t garnered more of a following on here. It’s not like they’re a niche UK brand, either.

Anyway. Jaffa cakes aren’t really my thing, but this one promises to be chocolate orange and I can get behind that as a flavour combination. It’s a black tea, so perfect for first thing Monday morning. Something has to brighten things up, and it isn’t going to be work. I’m bored stiff a lot of the time.

First sip, and this one tastes quite a lot like a jaffa cake. The cocoa is the primary flavour to begin with, and it perfectly captures the dark chocolate coating. It’s perhaps a little dryer than I’d have liked, but still good, and I like that it’s not over-sweet or watery in the way some chocolate teas can be. The orange emerges in the mid-sip, with a slightly sour tang. It reminds me quite a bit of Terry’s chocolate orange at this point, in that the orange is unmistakable as a flavour but not quite natural-tasting. There’s a touch of biscuitty flavour towards the end of the sip, but it’s fairly fleeting. I don’t mind particularly, since I wasn’t really looking for jaffa cake; as a flavour combination, chocolate orange alone is fine with me.

I’m enjoying this one. The flavouring is excellent, and the black tea base is a sound pairing. There are a few from this sampler than I’m really sad not to be able to repurchase, and this is one of them. 50g of this wouldn’t go amiss in my cupboard!

189/365

This one’s supposed to be reminiscent of a Hot Cross Bun, and since my acquaintance with that kind of tea is limited to Bluebird’s (or, I should say, the tea company formerly known as), it’ll be interesting to try another.

This one smells so cinnamony, and it’s actually reminding me quite a lot of (I think) Frank-era 52 Teas French Toast. It’s nice, but stronger than I’d typically associate with a Hot Cross Bun.

To taste, it’s a different affair. The initial flavour is bread dough with dried fruit, and I kid you not. It’s almost squishy tasting, like a hot cross bun is when it’s straight out of the packet. Bluebird’s Hot Cross Bun was toasted (which is just how I like them…), with a tiny bit of Lapsang. T2’s is soft and oven-fresh. It’s different, but I feel like there’s room for that.

The cinnamon is really strong, though – it comes out primarily in the mid-sip, and then it lingers forever. It’s so concentrated it almost feels like it’s burning my throat, which is a level of cinnamon I find too intense to be really enjoyable.

I’ll probably resteep this one a couple of times, and maybe eventually the cinnamon will settle down a little. I like the flavour, but the amount of cinnamon does spoils it. Kudos to T2 for nailing “fruit bun” in liquid form, though. It’s a tea worth trying just for that!

May Flowers! My second tea this month with the name “White Rose,” but at least this one makes sense to me, as it is actually a rose-flavored white tea (the other one was a black tea!) And while I love my White Rose black tea (which is a blend of rose and cream flavors, and has a very strong rose flavor), it can veer toward the astringent side because of the Assam. Though this tea doesn’t have the added cream note that I like, it also doesn’t have the astringency of the black tea, so I was quite interested in this one… Also, I was able to pick it up from T2 for free! (They weren’t able to fulfill an item on my order I made right after Christmas, so they sent me a giftcard for the inconvenience, which I cashed in during a “free shipping” sale. Woo!)

This is a great tea for rose lovers! It has a very light, silky mouthfeel, with a very strong rose flavor! It’s floral and leaves a sweet lingering taste in the mouth that has a subtle peppery note that I notice with other teas that have a nice, strong, rose flavor that comes through in the tea. I think the natural light, smooth, floral white base works especially well to carry the flavor.

If I’m in the mood for a stronger morning tea or a rose-flavored latte, I’ll stick with my other (black) White Rose, but this is definitely my pick for a refreshing light rose-flavored tea or an evening sipper. Yum!

187/365

This is an interesting one – peppermint, chamomile, and lavender. The last time I tried a blend like this, it tasted a bit like a buttermint. This one is less creamy than I thought it would be, although pleasantly herbal. The peppermint is the main flavour, and makes for a nicely fresh and cooling introduction. The chamomile is second, adding a touch of sweetness and a mild honey flavour. The lavender is mostly absent. There are little flashes of it here and there, but it doesn’t have a significant impact on the overall flavour.

As blends go, it’s okay. It’s not as exciting as some of the others from this sampler, but it’s a solid sleepytime choice. I feel like it would be more unique if the lavender came out more, but since I’m not a huge fan of floral teas it’s not a big deal for me. Since there are definitely a decent handful of similar blends out there, I’m not too sad that this one’s no longer available.

186/365

This one smells so much like Black Forest Gateau, it’s ah-ma-zing. Literally mouthwatering! It also brews up to a rich red, which helps. So much like the black cherry sauce! I’m guessing that’s the beetroot, since it has much the same effect in Bluebird’s Red Velvet Cake. I thought this one was a black tea when I picked it out, but the “base” ingredient is actually cocoa shells and cocoa nibs. The “leaf” I can see is apparently blackberry leaves, although I’m used to seeing those look green and these ones definitely aren’t. Other ingredients are strawberry pieces and pink pepper, so it’s an interesting blend for sure!

The flavour is actually pretty good. I get cake, and I’m not entirely sure how. The cocoa helps, obviously, but there’s something specifically cake, and cake soaked in cherry syrup, at that. It’s moist-tasting, chocolatey, rich, red-fruity, and cake. I even get whipped cream, towards the end of the sip. It’s not strong, but there’s a hint of soft, dairy creaminess that rounds things out perfectly. The cherry returns at the very end for a final farewell, and while it’s rich it never borders on over-sweet. It’s pretty perfectly balanced, as flavoured blends go.

This one was a limited edition, and sadly I only had a one-cup serving. I’m really sad this one’s no longer available (a little like Two Stones from a few days ago), because they’re really solid flavoured blends that I’d happily repurchase. Buying this sampler box was probably simultaneously the best and worst thing to do – I’m glad that I got to try these blends that are now gone, but that’s tempered by sadness that they are no more.

May Flowers! Time for another of my T2 sampler stash. This tea has a lemon balm base (which I enjoy much more than lemon grass, though not quite as much as lemon myrtle), and has three different florals in it: lavender, rose petal, and jasmine blossoms. Since I’m a big lavender fan, I was happy to see there was a lot of lavender in the dry leaf of my sampler.

The scent of the tea comes off a little bit like chamomile, but the flavor is very different; it’s a subtle citrusy base, with a minty floral lavender top note, and a softer, sweet floral finish. Lemon, mint, and lavender notes are the most notable flavors in the cup. I find the tea very sweet and soothing, and would recommend it to those that like a strong lemon-lavender flavor profile in a tea.

Smells amazing like the perfect strawberry cheesecake. However it’s a huge letdown once steeped. Tastes like old strawberry juice that has been fermenting under the sun with lemon juice added in. It’s very sour and not at all creamy and the taste is nowhere near what it smelt like.

Luckily this was free. Hated it because it was bitter and only tasted and smelt like 100% green tea. I ain’t tasting no ferrero or chocolate or anything remotely hazelnut. A bit of a let down when I saw many reviews about how chocolatey this is.

Still hate green tea with every bit of my soul.

Fantastic as an iced tea. Sweet and refreshing without having to add anything in. I like stronger tea so I like to leave it to steep and come back to it maybe 30 minutes or more later if I use boiling water.

184/365

I expected this one to be a fairly generic fruit blend, but it’s actually so much better than I thought it would be. It smells like peach melba – and tastes like it, too! Thinking about it, peach isn’t exactly how this is billed. It’s a stone fruit, sure, but it’s supposed to be apricot and plum. Apricot, I can understand. After the initial creamy sweetness fades away, there’s a jammy, slightly sticky, sweetly tart flavour that reminds me absolutely of dried apricots. I’m not getting plum at all, but when a fruit tea is this good it seems wrong to care.

This is a sweet, creamy, dessert-like dream. It’s got two stone fruits – peach and apricot – and that’s more than okay with me. I only have a single serve sample of this one, so I hope it’s still available. It would be amazing cold brewed.

A trip to T2’s website is on the cards, because I have to know.

May Flowers! This is actually the first earl grey tea I ever bought for my collection. I had never liked the taste of bergamot (which, considering the way I like citrus and strong tart, tangy flavors, I’m not sure why I never liked that taste, but it just was very offputting to me… perhaps because it was so perfumy? Despite how much like I like florals, I can’t handle a jasmine-scented tea because it is simply too strong in scent and sets my head off because I feel like I’m drinking perfume, so the aroma more than the taste could have had a lot to do with it). But I read a lot of reviews saying this was a good earl grey for “people that normally don’t like earl grey” and I thought I’d try to adapt my palate, starting with this blend (and I later added other blends as well, and now I’d say I’m pretty tolerant with all but the heaviest of bergamot teas).

This tea does have a noticable bergamot flavor that lingers on the tongue, but there is a fruitiness to the base. Most people say it tastes of peach, but for me, it tastes very much of lychee, and lychee black teas are one of my favorite things, so that actually was a good way to ween me into the bergamot. The tea is accented with rose, sunflower, hibiscus, and mallow petals, and while you can’t really taste any of those flowers individually, there is a very subtle floral sweetness right at the end of the sip.

I used to always take this with some milk, to cut the bergamot back just a bit, but now that I’m more used to it, I can drink a cup plain, and pick out the lychee fruit notes beneath the citrusy bergamot. I think I’d certainly prefer something like this over a plain earl grey in my cupboard.

180/365

Another of the “savoury” T2 blends. I thought this one sounded potentially sweet – in theory sweeter than the last one I tried, anyway. It smells super brothy, though…and is a little reminiscent of cuppa soup. I’m guessing it’s the kale…?

To taste, it’s definitely savoury – no liquorice here! – in the best possible way. The initial sip is quite salty, with a well-defined kale flavour. The ginger comes in second, and is a nice counterpoint to the vegetal kale. It adds a spicy kick that warms things up a bit. The apple is a little muted; mostly a kind of cidery flavour in the background. The kale is the star here, and deserves to be – I’d not have thought to put it in tea, since I’m used to tea being a mostly sweet affair, but it’s surprisingly delicious!

I’m not sure whether T2 sell this one currently, but if they do I’d consider buying a cube once my challenge is over. It’s a nice change of pace from dessert-style teas, and I can really see it coming in to its own after I’ve walked to work on a frosty winter morning.

178/365

I’ve not tried all that many savoury teas, but I’ve got on quite well with the ones I have. There are a few untrieds in my cupboard from T2, which came as part of a sampler pack – I think it was called Hottest Brews, or something like that. I’m still trying to say goodbye to the remnants of my cold, so I figured a tea with ginger and turmeric couldn’t hurt. It feels wrong to have a cold when it’s so warm outside, but I do wish the weather would decide what it’s doing. We seem to be bouncing from high summer temps (like 27-30) to more winterish (5-8) within the space of a few days, and I don’t like it.

Anyway. The tea. It brews up to a deep red-brown, and smells pretty medicinal. To taste, it’s sweeter than I expected, with an earthy undertone that reminds me of beetroot. I can taste the carrot – it’s very reminiscent of carrot and corriander soup – and the turmeric is there in the background also. It’s a little dusty, somehow – not so that it catches the back of my throat too badly, but it’s a little distracting. I guess it’s the turmeric…

The ginger is a lot milder than I expected. It doesn’t really make much of an appearance, except towards the end of the sip. It doesn’t even appear to be the kind of ginger flavour that builds in intensity with successive sips. I’m not a huge fan of ginger, so that’s okay with me, but it’s pretty rare that I find a tea containing ginger where the ginger doesn’t dominate.

The one thing I really dislike about this one is the LIQUORICE ROOT. Just, why? I don’t know what it’s doing here, given that it’s supposed to be a savoury tea. It’s completely unnecessary, and when it hits in the mid-sip it totally destroys the pleasant, soupy, earthy flavour that the initial sip promises. If it weren’t for the liquorice, I would love this one…

176/365

I’m not quite sure what makes this one “royale”, since it tastes just like an ordinary EG to me…perhaps the Yunnan base? I would agree that it’s a slightly more premium choice than I’d usually expect to find, but not outrageously so.

I don’t have a lot to say about this one. If you’ve tried an EG before, you know what it tastes like. The bergamot here is nicely citrussy; strong, but not too overpowering. The base is definitely in competition with it, though – smooth, sweet, bready Yunnan with a light hint of pepper. Neither really wins; it’s a stalemate.

I think there are better uses I’d have put a Yunnan to. It’s almost too nice to be doused with bergamot. It makes a change to have a base with a distinctive flavour, though. Uusally EGs are much of a muchness, but this one’s just a little different. It’s not so different that it would scare you off, but enough so that an aficionado might find something to smile about.

I’d not repurchase simply because there are EGs I prefer, and that are more budget-friendly. I also feel sorry for the Yunnan, being used this way. It’s a pleasant cup, of course, but nothing particularly ground-breaking for the price.

I pulled this one out again today, party because I thought it was amazing last time I tried it, and partly because I’m trying to slim down the selection of samples I keep at work before I leave on Friday…especially those that aren’t resealable, like this one.

Drinking this, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’d potentially buy a bigger box once my challenge is finished and my cupboard is back under control. It’s my idea of a perfect fruit tisane – no hibi, not over-sweet, and flavour accurate. It’s also deliciously dessert-like and just a little bit autumnal, which I also appreciate.

It’s love in a cup!