T2

Sampler Sunday! Still trying to finish off all the sampler packets from the Great Sampler Order of January 2018, and it appears I only have three left! Getting there! While spring time does evoke a bit of a “green tea” mood in me (and I have been making a lot of fruity iced green teas again!) and two of the three are green teas, it’s a rainy gray morning today, which just makes me feel like brewing up a pot of black tea, so I opted for the last black tea of the samplers. But it is a rose black, so the floral touch does add a bit of seasonality. I love rose teas so as long as this has a nice base, this should be an enjoyable pot.

The tea has a strong fruity aroma, of stonefruits and mango; in fact, I’m getting very little floral elements from the scent, so it seems the fruit flavorings added to the tea are made to dominate here (which is a bit confusing to me for a tea named “Black Rose”). I am, however, getting more of the rose present in the flavor; the black base is lighter bodied (at least at my brewing parameters) providing a bit of maltiness that is present mostly toward the back of the tongue, but the flavors are left to dominate, with a fruity peach/nectarine/mango flavor filling the mouth until a very sweet floral rose finish closes out the sip. The flavors go well together and it’s a nice cuppa. There is an element of juiciness to it, and the rose flavor is pretty strong in the cup but isn’t a strong wafting perfumy aroma coming off the cup, which can sometimes be an issue for me with my migraine head sensitivities.

This is an enjoyable cup, and honestly the only thing that holds me back from the T2 offerings that I have enjoyed is the fact that they don’t sell their teas in sizes smaller than 100 grams, which I simply won’t purchase anymore. I spent all of last week rebagging teas from such large bags of teas to gift and/or cupboard sale off. In a single-person household, I just can’t deal with such large quantities of tea. Tea shops, seriously, you need to offer smaller sizes of tea for purchase or risk losing business!

Sampler Sunday! So, I decided I would use one of the teapots I got from my grandmother today, as they are larger “British style” teapots (normally I use a little 2 cup sized Japanese doubin). The instructions on this sampler packet from T2 had a very odd tea to water ratio listed compared to how I usually make my blacks, and I didn’t trust it at all, and I wanted to make it with the ratio I usually use, but I also wanted to use up the whole packet at once, and therefore needed the larger pot to hold enough water. Basically I wanted to do the 5g packet in 700ml.

Then I went to steep, and as soon as the 205F water hit the teapot, I heard a “cracking” sound and noticed an eggshell appearance on the glaze of the teapot. WELL THEN. That couldn’t be good! So I was scrambling like a mad woman just to GET THE WATER OUT, poured everything I could into my gravity well infuser with the teabag and had to dump the overflow. That infuser only holds two cups, or about 500ml. So, I guess grandma’s teapots were “decorative only”? How was I supposed to know?! They looked like completely proper teapots to me! Either that, or they are just so old they can’t handle the shock of actually being used as teapots and taking hot water anymore… in any event, the porcelain is now warped, but not completely shattered, so into storage it goes… sad. I really wanted to use them. It was sort of a sentimental thing. And the tea went back into the doubin. I have no idea what the sudden “ditching” did to the steep, either. But it suddenly went from the original 700ml down to 500ml, with the same amount of leaf and a change of vessel in between. Let’s see how this turned out…

It smells nice, at least. The last vanilla black I tried from T2 tasted like Circus Peanuts to me, and was one of the worst teas I’d tried, so I’m hoping this isn’t the same vanilla flavoring. Anything that triggers “banana” in my head is just a no-go for me. Also getting a nice malty aroma. The malty black base is coming forward fairly strongly, with a sweet bready toast flavor, making the vanilla more subtle, so I like this more than that other vanilla tea (Blue Mountain, I think it was?) already. There is a very light astringency following the sip, and the very slightest citrus note lingering beneath the malt and vanilla. However, I still think this vanilla flavoring tastes a bit odd. A little too sweet/artificial… it isn’t striking that place that makes me think of banana (maybe because it is lighter here, or the black tea taste is more prominent) but there is still something very candy-like and I’ve certainly had other vanilla black teas I’ve liked a lot more than this, that tasted more natural and blended nicer with the base. It’s a nice enough breakfast tea, but not a favorite. I’m just not jiving with their choice of vanilla flavoring, especially compared to others I’ve had.

Meh. I’ve tried this one a few times and I’m just not sold. It’s a little too earthy to me and just doesn’t taste quite right. The chocolate has a little bit of a dirt feel to it, and I get an overly burnt taste from the caramel. I generally like T2, but this one is a pass for me.

Sampler Sunday! I know I haven’t posted on here in a while, and at least a few of you have messaged me asking about that… I’m around, I’ve just been overwhelmed with things right now, fighting depression, crushed under stress, and honestly as a culmination of those things, haven’t really been “into” my tea hobby much. Some days I’ve just been quietly working on my sipdowns in the background, while others I haven’t even had the energy or desire to get the kettle going. I haven’t really tried anything “new” that would necessitate having to write up a tasting note, and I am so behind on reading tasting notes on here. Pages and pages behind. I’m slowly trying to catch back up, but it’ll take a while. Have patience.

I have a migraine today, which started yesterday at work, and there was nothing I could do but continue my shift, so by the end of that shift I thought I was going to die and collapsed into my bed by the time I got home. This morning the pain is still there (and just swapped lobes of my head, a common pattern I have). It isn’t quite as bad as yesterday so I tried to Get Shit Done™ but after I finished my dishes, that just made it flare up horribly. So it’ll probably be another day resigned to bed. But I’m going to try to get a cup of tea in for breakfast first. It seems I’ve already cleared out most of my mint, but I found this ginger one, which is also quite stomach calming for me… and I’ve had an IBS flare-up now that hasn’t stopped for about two weeks straight, so if it could help that little problem at all, double-win? (I bet that is stress/depression induced as well. Yay).

This is definitely not my favorite lemon ginger tea I’ve tried, but that’s probably since it’s lemongrass-based, which is my least favorite of the citrus herbs. It’s just a little more hay-like in the flavor than having a nice citrusy flavor, but I guess on the plus side, there isn’t some weird artificial flavoring in there that tastes like furniture polish, either. I was expecting the ginger to be pretty strong and honestly, I wouldn’t even mind right now, since I know my body needs it, but it actually isn’t burning my mouth off or anything. I can certainly taste a nice gingery presence in the flavor, but it isn’t giving off any unpleasant heat.

This definitely would not be my choice of a lemon ginger tea for my cupboard, but this was just one of the mighty T2 sampler stash of 2017 that needed used up, and it’s getting the job done on a day I need some calming ginger in my tummy.

There is a hint of chocolate in there, but I might not even have noticed if I was drinking this with no name or ingredient info. It’s a cinnamon/ginger heavy chai, but nicely spicy without being astringent as they can get sometimes. Super delicious with a little coconut creamer added, by the way!

I’ve had this a few times now but keep forgetting to write about it. Another sample from VariaTEA. This is an every day sort of black tea for me. It’s not a sup bold tea, but i can see how some would consider it as such. It’s got a little bit of copper taste to me, but largely it’s just a good average every day sort of black.

Subtle, delicate, and perfect. The tea smells sweet and divine when brewing.
Because the tea is ‘white’, allow for at least 7 minutes of brewing at a below boiling temperature. Watch as the leaves expand beautifully as they brew. Just one scoop can make 3 small pots of tea. High quality silver needle leaf tips means that this tea can brew for hours without becoming bitter and is also extremely easy to clean out. This tea is super cleansing, wash down a heavy meal with this one or when you’re just not in the mood for a strong flavoured black tea, this will be happily awaiting your kettle.

Sampler Sunday! Woke with a migraine this morning, and since I will probably forego food for a while, and am still trying to use up all the sample packets from the Great T2 Sampler Sale of 2018, when I saw I had a genmaicha one left, I figured that would be breakfast. I’m sure I already had a T2 genmaicha in those samplers… I guess the difference is this is the matcha coated one, so they had two included. shrugs Genmaicha tends to be pretty easy on my stomach, even when it’s being horrendous. I just put the whole 5g sampler into a 500ml teapot which is a bit stronger than I brew greens, but I usually do brew genmaicha and houjicha with more leaf than other greens so should be fine. Smells nice and toasty.

It’s genmaicha. Warm and comforting. Very forward with toasted rice, roasted nuts, and oaty notes, with a strong finish of grass, that starts out quite sweet, and turns just slightly sharper near the end of the sip. There is a nice vegetal aftertaste, which I assume comes from the matcha. Very smooth with no vegetal astringency.

Somehow, genmaicha continues to always be a very comforting/settling tea for me, and a good choice when I want something caffeinated first thing in the morning. Mint and ginger are my other two stomach-settling vices, but they don’t provide the added benefit of alertness.

Another sample from Cameron B I’ve been dying to try! Thanks so much! I’m pleased as punch that this tastes like one of my favorites: Butiki’s Smoked Banana Maple! At least the banana flavor is the same, anyway. It’s got a sweet, ripe, natural banana flavor that I couldn’t smell in the dry leaf at all, but it just takes over the mug. The black tea looks like a lighter brew, but the flavor is brisk and malty. I didn’t expect the flavor to be this strong just eying the resulting color. The second steep hardly tastes like banana at all which is a shame. Possibly I waited too long to steep on mistake, wasn’t really paying attention and the water was cooler than the first steep. So it’s not the fault of the tea. But I really liked the first cup of this. Makes me wish I had some actual banana bread…
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for a full mug // 9 minutes after boiling // 2-3 minute steep
Steep #2 // 12 minutes after boiling // 3-4 minute steep

sipdown from VariaTEA.

This one was alright. Not my favourite, even though i am a fan of ginger teas. Somehow the ginger seemed muted but i’m not sure why. I’m also not crazy about the base tea – it just came across as a little wimpy or something haha. A decent enough cup, but nothing i’ll miss or long for. Thanks as always for the shares VariaTEA!

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Thank you for sharing Cameron B! Apparently, I did not look closely when I asked for a sample of this because if I had I would have realized the “licky” means licorice which is not an ingredient/flavor I enjoy in tea. However, I don’t usually enjoy the flavor at all and yet there is a Raspberry Anise jam from Kitten and the Bear that I love despite thinking I would hate it so I suppose this tea could surprise me too…

Well, it is not terrible. I was expecting the worst and I was pleasantly surprised that I did not hate it. With that said, it is not my favorite either. Not because of licorice, as that is not overwhelming here, but rather it is because of the chamomile. I could see this tea being soothing for those who are into these flavors but I am not the target audience. Still fun to try!

Sample Sipdown! (29)

This is one of a few remaining T2 single serve packets that I have left from a huge T2 sale. They had sampler packs and individual 100+ gram teas for $5 each, so of course I bought a truckload…

I’m not sure why it’s taken so long for me to drink this one – I love chocolate and orange!

Anyway, this is pretty good! It’s not Three Friends, but you know… It has a nice milk chocolaty flavor that’s smooth and creamy, and a fairly good orange flavor that’s not too acidic and doesn’t taste too much like orange peel.

I will say, it’s just a bit weak, so would likely have required overleafing. This one in particular isn’t available anymore, so I guess I’ll never know if that would have improved it!

I’m sure it would have made a particularly yummy latte though!

Sampler Sunday! I’m getting pretty low on what is left of these T2 samplers from the sampler haul I got in January 2018. I wanted something minty this morning so I grabbed this one, even though I’m not crazy about Moroccan Mint teas made with gunpowder green tea, which this one is. Well, at least then it won’t be taking up space in my cupboard anymore…

2.4g brewed for 2 min. for 400ml 175F water. Ugh, it even smells quite smoky just from the brewed aroma. Like… a slightly musty, tobacco smoke. Bleh. Since that aroma is so unpleasant to me, it’s kind of undermining the sweet peppermint aroma. Taking a drink, I can tell they are using that same strong artificial-tasting peppermint oil flavoring T2 used on that Red Choc Mint tea instead of mint leaf which I hated, and in most cases, I would hate using that oil instead of nice fresh mint leaf in a Moroccan Mint, too, but… since that mint oil has such a strong, overbearing flavor, it’s drowning out a lot of the smoky flavor that I hate from gunpowder green tea.

So… I hate that this is using mint oil instead of mint leaf, I hate the smoky gunpowder green tea base which just tastes like musty stewed tobacco to me… and oddly the two things I hate are counter-acting each other so I can at least get this down. But this is easily one of the worst Moroccan Mint blends I’ve tried.

In more positive news, I went through my tea shelving last night and did a big re-arrange. It is looking way better… I wouldn’t say it exactly has space for growth currently, but it isn’t jam-packed at weird angles in such a way that breaks my librarian heart anymore, either. Things are at least in nice, neat, organized rows in alphabetical order again and some of the tiniest packages were able to be moved back into the sampler drawers in the kitchen because I’d cleared enough space away from those drawers. So the space problem is at least making baby steps.

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I did not realize this was a genmaicha when I asked Cameron B for a sample. However, now that I realized it is, I am quite pleased. It tastes like Caramel Popcorn. Again, didn’t realize that is what it is meant to be when I read “Caramel Pop”. Now that I am drinking it though and the caramel popcorn flavor is really spot on, I feel dumb for not realizing these things sooner rather than later.

Caramel popcorn and a bit of typical genmaicha roastiness. It is quite nice. Thank you for sharing, Cameron B!!!

Holiday Tea-son! I got this tea in a discounted holiday tea sampler pack in an after Christmas sale from T2 last January, though I honestly wondered even then why it was included, as this is one of T2’s standard flavors. It’s yet another chocolate-mint rooibos, and somehow I seem to be overwhelmed with those in my cupboard. I don’t dislike them, in fact I quite like choco-mint rooibos, it’s just one of those things where “one is enough” for me, yet I always seem to end up getting more of them somehow, from free samplers, sampler packs, etc. It’s like that tea that no matter how much I sip down, I turn around and find more of it.

I have this odd feeling that I’ll sip this one down, feel like I’ve finally gotten down to just having that one bag of the stuff left in my cupboard, and like Tribbles find eight more choco-mint rooibos samplers, like it is some sort of curse or something…

Anyway, this is being added into my sipdown pile until it is gone.

It… isn’t my favorite compared to other choco-mint rooibos I’ve had in the past. It is lacking the creamy element I’ve found in others, and all the mint in this one is from flavoring rather than actual mint leaf, so if you like a really strong, overwhelming, peppermint candy sort of flavor, then this might be to your preferences; the other ones I’ve had used mint leaf and where therefore more brisk with a refreshing, natural minty taste, with the sweetness coming from the honey-like quality of the rooibos base. Past blends also had more caramel elements shining through, which really complimented the tea, so even if the cocoa was more of a subtle taste, it tended to pop a bit more. I’m just not tasting the rooibos at all here, I’m not getting any of those honey or caramel sort of notes, so while I do taste some of the cocoa, it feels a bit washed out under the really overwhelming peppermint candy flavor of this tea.

Meh. This may actually be the worst version of choco-mint rooibos I’ve tried yet.

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This is a nice warning cup. It had a lot of ginger which had me surprised when the flavoring was there but more muted than I expected. It’s a good ginger cinnamon black tea and I am glad I got a chance to try it (Thank you Cameron B!) but at the same time I think I’m okay with this one big mug.

Holiday Tea-son! I know this is hardly exciting, but I have quite the stomachache and mint, at least in my opinion, an appopriately wintery flavor, and it always helps settle my stomach, so I’m going to cash in this sampler from the ol’ T2 sampler haul of January 2018. It’s a blend of peppermint, spearmint, and lemon verbena.

The leaf smells like mint. Steeped up, the tea has the dull brown color of mint tea, and the aroma of mint. And guess what? Spoilers! It tastes like mint. (I bet you couldn’t guess!) It’s what you would expect of a mint tea; brisk, soothing, with a cooling menthol effect on the tongue. It’s a little more peppermint forward at the beginning of the sip, but I do notice a bit of a spearmint note closer to the end of the sip. The lemon verbena is pretty benign in this blend; the mint comes on so strongly I’m honestly not reading any citrus here, personally.

The leaf was nice and full, rather than the typical pulverized mulch of bagged mint teas, and I feel it tastes a little cleaner/vegetal/earthy, too. It’s fine. But at the end of the day, it’s just another mint tea. But most importantly, it’s cool on my throat but warm and soothing on my stomach, and I’ve only been sipping on this for maybe ten minutes and I already feel my stomach starting to improve.

Maybe I will be able to manage some dinner later tonight, after all.

Holiday Tea-son! I got a discounted holiday tea sampler pack in an after Christmas sale from T2 last January, and this was one of them. Figured I’d enjoy a cup while waiting for my pizza to show up. Tonight is going to be a Netflix and Chill sort of night.

This is a nice chocolately tea, and usually I find chocolate teas either a bit weak on the flavor or the mouthfeel seems a bit strange to me if I don’t make them as a latte. I’m actually really liking this one, because the chocolate flavor is actually very rich, but also because something about the flavor is reminding me of a chocolate liquour, so the mouthfeel of the tea is working for me even without adding milk. The tea isn’t super sweet, with some deeper dark cocoa notes, and just a touch of nice bittersweet dark chocolate to its flavor, but there is also a subtle underlying sweetness from the blackberry leaf that I’m finding very pleasant, and that berry note really works, as well; it makes me think of those speciality dark chocolates that have fruity flavor notes to them. I really do seem to taste a sort of dry, alcoholic liquor sort of flavor in the aftertaste on my tongue, and a slight astringency which may be from the black tea; I don’t really taste the black tea as far as a flavor, but I can tell it is here from the qualities of the drink.

I am sort of digging this. While I like this exactly as is, which I really can’t say for many chocolately teas, I do still want to try this latte-style and see how creamy milk will change up the game. Likely it will be more cocoa-like and less liquor-like, but I’m hoping it will still retain more of the dark chocolate elements rather than becoming milk-chocolately. I’m very curious to try it out!

A lovely morning tea with sweet characteristics of honey and vanilla. Possibly the best ‘beginners tea’ to give someone who is only just starting out trying tea.

Strong flavour full bodied black tea with subtle vanilla taste and scent. If you are trying to stop adding sugar to tea this is a great gateway.

I typically stay away from flavourings however the tea is just too good with it!

This was something I drank yesterday but I’ve been slack on reviewing my newer teas lately. I got this in the T2 sampler I picked up in Paris. Most of the teas are very plain or not my thing, but I can’t turn down a new rooibos to try.

This is not a great rooibos. It has a lot of the typical sweet woody flavours, but I found it lacked the honey flavour/scent and seemed overly plain. Maybe stale? The leaves were also pale brown instead of red-brown with golden hues so I’m wondering if it is just old. Regardless, it wasn’t as good as I had hoped. The other teas from T2 have been quite solid, fresh, and flavourful.

After a couple of more exotic holiday blends earlier today, I was down for a nice, brisk, proper black tea with requisite caffeine by late afternoon, and this seemed the likeliest suspect in my current arsenal (still seeking my personal ideal Keep Calm and Carry On no-nonsense iconic British tea!). It did the trick nicely, and despite the fact I apparently overdid it on the tea to water ratio (I mean, we’re talking it came out Vantablack), it handled the insult with aplomb, and wasn’t bitter at all. Good choice!

Holiday Tea-son! After my failed hibi-hip cider last night, I find myself really in the mood for one as my nightly tisane tonight. Thankfully they are quite popular holiday blends. Got this in a little sampler pack in more of T2’s typical ridiculous packaging during their after-Christmas sale last January. It was in a three-pack of their holiday teas (well, mostly, it had their chocolate mint Rooibos in it with this tea and Hot Choc, and I think the chocolate mint rooibos is part of their regular collection, and I was least interested in that, as I’ve had so many choco-mint rooibos at this point, but ah well… I mean, the whole pack of three samplers was dirt cheap!)

This tea is properly red (phew! That’s a good sign!) and the smell of this is amazing! I think the aroma alone has to be one of the most enticing I’ve had from one of these “holiday hibi-hip spice cider” type blends I’ve seen. I do smell the typical fruitiness, citrus orange, cinnamon, anise, but there is something I can’t quite place that makes me think of red wine, too. Huh.

Mmm, yes, I like this one! It fills out warmly on the tongue, with that tart/tangy base with nice warm orangy notes, but not nearly so overpowering on the orange flavor as the Spiced Clementine I drank yesterday. The spices are nice and rich here — not spicy, just a full flavor that really adds to the cider flavor — I can taste cinnamon, clove, and a touch of anise toward the end of the sip, which gives this very subtle licorice note.

I really like this one. I’m on total tea-ordering lock-down, but knowing this is a holiday blend, and I only have a sampler, I was actually tempted to go check T2’s site… but they only have another little sampler in some ridiculous packaging available this year, too. Not a proper tin, or even one of their stupid cubes (I really hate those cubes they sell their tea in). Ah well, probably for the best. I don’t need more tea, but… I would’ve been happy to stock this one. I really like this one!

This one is still leftover from my swap with Cameron B. I must say that it definitely tastes like buttery pancakes! I was surprised at the degree to which it does. The aftertaste is bit bitter tasting, which is a little strange since I used a shorter steep than I usually do. If I were at home, I would add some milk to counteract that, but I’m at work, so oh well! I’ll resteep it with some milk later and see if I can bring that buttery flavor out even more.