T2

Trick or Treat! New month, new theme! For October, I will be sampling the sweeter side of my collection, which means all blends based on desserts, candies, sodas, or anything else sweet and unhealthy are up for grabs!

I made great headway on the T2 sampler stash last month, and only have a smallish handful of them left now. A few of the flavored blacks fit here, particularly the Creme Brulee and Terrific Toffee, so I decided to make the Terrific Toffee as my thermos tea to take to work (I’m slowly adapting to no longer having my tea brewing stuff at work… it’s certainly inconvenient, but worth it to not have tea with weird-tasting water that tastes metallic/of melted plastic. And the building services supervisor just thinks I’m crazy that I think it’s the outlet/wiring since, you know, I tried two working kettles that work fine when I use them on my outlets at home… SIGH. In other words, work’s stance seems to be, “There is coffee provided in the breakroom, what is the problem again…?”)

This is a properly sweet tea; it doesn’t really make me think of toffee or caramel, but it does have a nice flavor that I would say is a bit more on the buttery-sweet side, and I do find that very pleasant, since I really like buttery and creamy teas. The tea dissolves some little nougat bits (which include eggs and nuts, just a heads up to Vegans and those with nut allergies) to create a pretty distinct flavor. I’d say the main flavor notes I get are creamed honey, butter, and a sweet vanilla cream. The flavor it does create is very nice, but toffee? Toffee always strikes me more as caramel and burnt sugar/molasses notes, and I’m not getting any of that here. So it misses the mark a little on the name with me, but is a tasty dessert tea nonetheless.

Sampler Sipdown September! Yet another of my T2 sampler stash, which I’m happy to say is getting pretty small now. I think I only have a few packets from each of the black, flavored black, green, fruit, and herbal sampler sets left now. This particular one was from the herbal set, and I hot brewed the entire two-serving sampler packet, but then put it in the fridge to chill overnight so I could drink it as an iced tea.

It steeped up a bright pink from the hibi, but smells incredibly citrusy. The iced tea has a very sharp lemon taste. Honestly, this hits just a bit too hard on the lemongrass, and the additional lemon citrus in the blend is just a little too cleaner-like for my tastes. The orange and hibiscus that lingers in the background beneath all the lemon is probably the best part of the tea for me, and what made it suitable enough to drink a single tall glass. But it didn’t strike a good enough balance for me overall to ever care to revisit this. It’s just one of those teas where the lemon came off too strong and thus made my brain immediately feel like I was drinking bathroom cleaners or furniture polish. I love lemon, but it just has to be done right.

Why hello there, friends!

It’s been a while, I hope you are all doing well given the current circumstances. I haven’t been drinking much tea over the past year or two, but I’ve been feeling tea-ish lately so I thought I’d pop over and see what’s going on.

I’ve been mostly gravitating toward flavored black teas lately, and this is a good one. Smooth and mellow with a fairly light touch of bergamot and a nice fruity sweetness. The description lists peach and apricot, but to me there is a little bit of strawberry or something as well.

Very yummy and soft, perfect for chillaxing in the afternoon or spending the evening on the couch with your pugs! ;)

Home – 6:00 PM

So we have a houseguest this weekend – a friend who is from England originally, but at the moment lives in New Jersey. He’s thinking of moving to Austin, so he’s here for a couple of days to enjoy a craft beer festival with us, and to check out the area. He’s an absolute dear.

And so is this tea! I would call it an outstanding Earl Grey. There’s a lovely marriage of bergamot with fruit and floral notes. I’m so relieved there’s no lavender, as that’s what I would expect from a tea touting its “French”-ness. I’m not sure I can pin down any specific flower, but it’s smooth and subtle enough that I love it, even though I’m not a big fan of floral flavors. The fruity tones remind me of both red fruits and stonefruit.

I would absolutely recommend this tea to anyone who enjoys an Earl Grey! The flavors included really complement each other, and no single note overpowers the others.

This tea smell amazing. Will fill your kitchen in scents like a blooming garden.

Just don’t think of it as an Earl Grey. It’s an earl grey for those who don’t usually like earl greys (and I love my earl greys). If you have an earl grey craving this will not fulfill it but damn what a good tea. A floral fruity tea that stimulates your senses and doesn’t overpower your taste buds, really a perfect picture of a classy drink. Larger economy bags of loose leafs makes it affordable too.

Can handle a second steep but is considerably weaker. No more than 2 steeps for this one.

Sampler Sipdown September! So my best friend sent me a package that arrived from San Jose yesterday… at first I was quite scared, “No Todd, no tea, I’m trying to get rid of some tea right now!” but he assured me it was “tea-related, but not tea.” I thought it must be teaware, then, but he said it wasn’t teaware, either. That just left me stumped. If you know anything about me, I’m a huge otaku (excessive fan) not only of tea, but things related to Japan/Japanese culture, and he found me a doujinshi (indie comic) of cute manga-style girls personifying tea. There is an Earl Grey, Keemun, Orange Pekoe, etc. If you are curious, I’ve found a review with some scans of it located here: https://plastic-pleasures.com/2013/06/27/doujinshi-review-ruellia-tea-garden-by-phanky-berry-beats/

I’ve actually tried all the teas featured in it except a straight Orange Pekoe, so that’s what I’m drinking today! My T2 sampler stash had one, so that is what I put in my work thermos. The leaves were long and full, and I think most of the other Ceylon teas I’ve tried in the past were always CRC and in blends.

This is actually pretty nice. It has a nice malty flavor, but the finish reminds me slightly of autumn leaves and citrus, which goes nicely with the season. It has a nice medium body, and is smoother than I was expecting; there is some slight astringency on the back of the tongue after the sip, but no bitterness while drinking. It’s hitting the spot as a simple black tea after-lunch pick-me-up; I have no complaints.

Sampler Sipdown September! I’ve been trying to sipdown all my EG samplers, and sure enough, there was an EG in the T2 sampler horde. I believe there was also one for their French Earl Grey, but since I already had that tea, I believe I simply dumped that one into my larger stash of that tea. T2’s French Earl Grey was actually the first Earl Grey tea I ever tried, and was my “stepping stone” into acclimating my palate to bergamot, since I had read on a tea blog that it’s fruity notes made it a “good Earl Grey for people that don’t like Earl Grey” (and at the time, I loathed Earl Grey). I have a review of that one already on Steepster, and continue to dip into it from time to time. Come to think of it, I’m probably not that far off of sipping down the original 100g of that tea now, too…

Took a thermos of this to work. I actually found this one to taste very similar to Lupicia’s Rooibos Earl Grey, just in terms of the flavor and intensity of the bergamot — that is, the bergamot was a very nice taste and not sour or overwhelming. It had that sort of slight grapefruit/lemony taste and I found it more pleasant than I’ve found bergamot in other Earl Grey blends. Of course, I enjoyed this more than the Rooibos Earl Grey just because being on a black base gave the bergamot a stronger foundation, and the black tea was nice, not bitter or astringent like many Earl Grey blends tend to be. This was actually an Earl Grey I found myself easily able to drink without having to add milk, because it didn’t have that bitter/sour/astringent quality many have. It still isn’t my favorite plain EG I’ve ever had (that would still be Steven Smith Teamaker’s because I loved the black currant notes I found in that blend) but I would rank this one my second favorite as far as plain EG’s I’ve tried. But I do still prefer EG blends more than plain EGs, so I’d take T2’s French Earl Grey, that has that slight lychee note paired with the bergamot and that subtle floral flavor to this one between their EG offerings.

Thanks so much for this, Mastress Alita! This is definitely a different Earl than I ever had. I love the flowers, and different flavors here. It should be peach, apricot and citrus but the resulting flavor to me seems like grapefruit no matter how I steep it. I don’t love grapefruit but it sure is tasty here. But the grapefruit isn’t entirely a Bergamot. I do appreciate that this is a unique Earl. I love the briskness of the black tea base. Definitely need the briskness with any Earl. Two really great steeps.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug// 15 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep

Sampler Sipdown September! I’ve actually managed to sipdown a few older teas that were larger, multi-cup sipdowns recently and I’m pretty happy with that progress; getting some things out of my cupboard is a good thing! But here is another of the small two-serving T2 samplers from the T2 sampler pack horde. The first serving I made at work yesterday, and it was terrible, once again having that weird taste to the water; absolutely nothing I do seems to fix the issue, and I’ve washed that kettle so thoroughly (even soaking it in vinegar overnight) that I’m simply beside myself. It never used to have this problem, and the kettle is pretty much identical to my home kettle in design, aside from being a different brand. So frusterated with the weird burnt rubber/metallic/musty/wrong taste of the water, I’ve finally given up and am simply getting rid of the functioning kettle. I decided to upgrade my home kettle since Bonivitas were on sale on Amazon, and when it arrives, I’ll take my home kettle to work, since it still makes fine tasting water.

So, I used up the second serving of the leaf at home, so I could actually taste the tea properly. This is a black tea spice blend, and I like this one a lot more than many other black tea spice blends I’ve tried in the past, such as TeaSource’s Winter Spice tea. There is no clove in the tea, but the spices create a very clove-like flavor, and it comes off quite natural. I’ve had a lot of chai that is packed with clove and it is really biting and too heavy, or extremely cloying with that artificial clove flavor. Here the cinnamon and ginger just sort of create the same sort of flavor to me without it being overbearing, and I really like it! There isn’t a strong, gingery taste or a hot, spicy flavor, the ginger and cinnamon really do sort of balance each other out into a spicy-sweet clove taste, with a bit of cream and orange citrus flavors coming out on the finish.

Sampler Sipdown September! Getting closer to finishing off my T2 samplers… and I think this is at least the last Chinese green from the green tea sampler pack. I’m not expecting their Dragonwell to be anything like the one I had from Dazzle Deer, but compared to the last few green teas I’ve had this week, this has got to be an improvement! Right now, I’m just craving a decent cup of green tea, really.

The dry leaf smells like dry grass, pepper, and smoke. The yellow brew smells like vegetables sauteed in a bit of pepper. Lord, yes. The flavor doesn’t have as much depth as the version I remember trying from Dazzle Deer, but it is still really nice, especially compared to all those mediocre cups of green tea. I’m getting a very smooth tea without any astringency, with a mild grassiness and strong beany vegetal taste, a buttery body, and this delightful peppery finish. Solid.

Sampler Sipdown September! Another of my T2 sampler stash, from the green tea sampler pack. I’ve had such a run of green teas I’ve been underwhelmed with, why not keep it up? I don’t hate Gunpowder Green (I actually don’t mind it as the base in Moroccan Mint blends), but it is definitely my least favorite green tea I’ve tried so far, so… may as well get this sampler out of my cupboard and be done with it.

1.8g in 350ml 175F water, western brew. To be fair, this is probably the least smoky gunpowder green I’ve had (as in, I’m not getting that note at all for some odd reason!), so depending on your preferences, that could be either a good or bad thing. I wonder if I just brewed it on the light side? Personally, that’s a good thing for me, as that is typically the reason why I don’t really like them… reminds me too much of lapsang souchong, I don’t mind subtle smoke notes, but really don’t care for a strong smoky flavor, especially if the tea flat-out tastes like tobacco. Having this tea right after the Young Hyson from yesterday, I can really see how the Young Hyson was very similar to Gunpowder Green, despite not being a pellet tea. This one also has that sort of dill pickle fermented vegetable taste to me, which I noticed in that tea, and the Young Hyson had the smoky finish of a Gunpowder Green (still not sure why I’m not getting that here…). I think there is something about that pickley taste that is coming off as “musty” to me, because I’m getting it here too, and this tea is still pretty fresh; not a year old yet, at least based on when I purchased the tea. So perhaps age wasn’t the problem with the Young Hyson, and this is just a flavor that reads as off to my particular palate, the way mango flavoring in teas tend to always taste oddly metallic to me. That said, this tea is still way better in comparison to the Young Hyson I drank yesterday. I still don’t particularly like it, but it is far more palatable. The musty-taste I get is less musty, so the grass and hay notes are stronger, and the absense of smoke is always an improvement for me. But despite being a huge pickle fan, that fermented pickle/dill taste in teas is just musty and gross to me.

Well, now I have Bi Lo Chun and Lung Ching samplers left in the Chinese green sampler bag. The worst is over.

Sampler Sipdown September! Sipping down another of my black tea T2 samplers, this time the Good Evening sampler. This is another discontinued flavor, and is a black tea/green tea blend, but since it’s been discontinued, I can’t get any information on the teas. The floral aroma from the dry leaf leads me to believe the green tea used here is a jasmine green tea, and the packet describes the tea as having a “soft astringency”; the black tea leaves are full, rather than CTC like their Assam and Ceylon tended to be in their other blends (there were perhaps a few CTC leaves in the blend, but the majority were full leaf), so maybe it’s a Chinese black? Though I suppose it could be a full leaf Assam or Ceylon used in the blend, though I never associate those in my head as having “soft astringency.” Not really sure what the blacks may be in this one.

The tea has a malty and floral aroma. This is surprisingly nice; I don’t like jasmine green tea (the aroma is always too strong for me) but this is such a subtle amount blended with the black tea that there are no aroma issues for my sensitive migraine-head at all, so I can just enjoy that slight floral touch, which actually gives the malty flavor of the black tea a pleasant hint of sweetness. I’d say the base is medium-bodied, with a slight citrusy note, and just a little bit of smokiness on the finish. The tea is a little more astringent than I was expecting from the description, though; I think the floral taste made me expect something a bit more delicate, but it was quite tannic and drying on the tongue. I think the heavy astringency was the only part of this one I didn’t care for.

This one surprised me a lot; I didn’t think I’d like it much when I realized the “green tea” in the blend was jasmine green, but the fact they went real gentle on the jasmine green worked just perfect for me. I’m a bit sad this tea is discontinued now.

Sampler Sipdown September! Another from my T2 sampler stash, and since I had their Good Afternoon blend yesterday, and it’s Monday, figured I’d brew up their Good Morning blend. It’s another discontinued black tea blend. And my morning is already most definitely not good, because opening up the sampler packet, I dropped it on my kitchen floor and had to sweep up a bunch of black tea. And there was a small spider hiding in my broom. And I just wanted some caffeine. * cue lame Garfield “I hate Mondays” joke here *

Anyway, I do have on my spreadsheet that this is a Chinese/Indian blend which I can’t find anywhere else, so I’m thinking I may have recorded that info from T2’s website before they pulled the tea pages to oblivion when they discontinued the tea (yesterday I couldn’t even get good ol’ Archive.org to bring up the Good Afternoon blend page even though I still had the link to it in my info… such a shame). So I’m going to assume I was correct yesterday that the Good Afternoon was Ceylon with a Keemum or Yunnan, and this tea will be an Assam with a Keemun or Yunnan.

I didn’t really bother to inspect the leaf much or sniff it on account of the cleaning I had to do while not really awake (it was mostly CTC leaf, so I’m assuming heavily Assam), I just measured what I had left after a good deal of my sampler went in the trash and then made a very large cup (16 oz.) with what was left to take out the door with me to work in a thermos.

The tea is quite malty, with more of a baked bread sort of note, and I’m getting some slight smoky/peppery/citrusy notes on the finish that remind me a little of a steak marinade. The Chinese black tea notes are coming out a lot more subtle in this tea than the Good Afternoon blend I tried yesterday, with the thick malty notes dominating for the majority of the sip. The tea, thankfully, is not bitter (a problem I have with many Assams/breakfast blacks) but does have more astringency on the tongue than the Good Afternoon blend, as well. I like this much more than most English/Irish Breakfast blends I’ve tried, am able to drink it without adding milk fine (though admittedly wouldn’t have minded a dash of honey if I had that available), but prefered the Good Afternoon blend to this one.

Sampler Sipdown September! One of my T2 black tea samplers, which I decided to make as an afternoon cuppa. It’s been discontinued so I can’t get any information on it now, so your guess is as good as mine as to just what “black tea” makes up this blend. It’s described only as “medium-bodied.”

The leaf looks mostly like the hearty CTC black used in breakfast blends, with a few larger, full leafs interspearsed throughout. Dry leaf smells like… black tea. (Sorry, I just can’t get poetic about it). Steeps up a deep amber brown and actually smells quite nice brewed, malty but not overly so, with a somewhat spicy note, a bit like cinnamon and brown sugar.

Drinking the tea I can tell that there was at least some Chinese black in the blend (Keemun, perhaps?) as I’m getting notes of a dark bittersweet cocoa, with a smoky and slightly peppery taste on the finish, which I recall tasting in that tea. But the base is very malty, and there is more astringency than I usually get with from Chinese blacks. I think I’m also getting a little bit of a lemon citrus toward the end of the sip, so perhaps a Ceylon mixed with either a Keemun or a Yunnan black? Possibly they threw Assam in there as well, but I think then it would be darker/bolder and more of a breakfast blend than an afternoon blend.

That’s my closest guess lacking any detailed info. It actually has quite a bit of body; I’d have no problem drinking this as a breakfast tea, to be honest. But then again, I don’t like my blacks with a lot of bitterness and overly astringent to the point where they need milk, and while this tea could easily take it, I am having no problem drinking it plain. And that’s really my comfort zone with a black. I think having a bit of Chinese black to temper down Assam/Ceylon is also exactly what I need, since my palate really enjoys one but tends to be pretty meh about the other.

Summer Vacation! I’m up early (on my day off, uggggggh) so I fixed a Chinese black tea in a travel mug to take on my way out the door. This is just another of those quick T2 samplers, this time a Yunnan black.

This is a very rich black tea; the brew is dark and the aroma is very malty with lots of spicy notes. Despiting being a very full black tea, it isn’t bitter or astringent. The tea is very malty is flavor, with what reminds me of a savory barbecue flavor because I’m getting lots of peppery spice and smoky notes that just somehow make me feel like I’m in a Korean BBQ restaurant. There are perhaps some deep leathery notes and dark bittersweet cocoa notes, but not as strong as the smoky spice. It’s a solid Chinese black, and reminds me a lot in terms of flavor to the Keemun Concerto by Adagio that I sampled recently, though between the two I think I liked the Keemun Concerto just a touch more, since it had a few more earthy notes that came out.

277/365

A-Level results are out today in the UK, which means Clearing, long, long hours, and a lot of hassle. I certainly know how to pick my last two days at work! I made this one up in my Timolino this morning, since I knew I’d need a treat. Dry, it smells amazing, really banana-y and totally delicious. Brewed, it’s not quite as strong a flavour as I hoped it might be, but it’s pretty good. It’s definitely banana, but there’s an underlying caramel and cream kind of vibe that’s also really nice. It’s more candy banana than actual fruit, but I’m okay with that – it reminds me of those foam banana sweets, and I actually like those quite a bit.

The black base here is perhaps a touch strong for the flavouring, although it’s possible that I overdid the brew time a little. I’ve got plenty left to experiment with (a whole cube!), and I’m happy with how it came out anyway so things can probably only get better. I’m glad I took a chance on 100g of this one – I’ve tried so many disappointing banana teas, that it’s nice to come across one that holds up well against my banana-based expectations. It was a little bit of joy in a cup this morning.

I thought I’d finished all of this at work yesterday, but then this morning I found another box lurking at the back of my cupboard. It’s fine, though. I really quite like it.

There’s lots of vanilla here, and it’s deliciously creamy and sweet, and really all of the things I’d want in a vanilla tea. It’s not entirely natural, I know, but I’m in a forgiving mood and it tastes good. That’s really all I need right now.

I’ve tried this one a few times now, just as it comes but with a splash of milk. It’s a really nice vanilla black, not too sweet, but definitely with a dessert-like edge. The vanilla is nicely creamy, and the black base is sufficiently strong to make a decent breakfast/wake-up blend without being overpowering.

I have a decent quantity of this one left, so I won’t need to think about repurchasing for a while. I’m pretty sure I would, though, despite T2’s obvious packaging issues. For this one, it’s worth it!

272/365

Made this one up as a Thai Iced Tea, following the recipe on T2’s website. It’s basically a concentrate made of 5 tsp leaf brewed in 300ml water, with 50g of brown sugar added. I diluted it roughly 60:40 with coconut milk.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, other than something (perhaps) viciously sweet. In practice, it was actually pretty nice. The tea has a pleasantly strong vanilla flavour, plus a kind of deep, dark, fruity jamminess from the Keemun in the base. The sugar helped to amplify the vanilla – and added a delicious toffee-esque aspect all its own. I wasn’t sure how well that flavour profile was going to work with coconut, but I actually didn’t mind it. I wouldn’t say it’s a perfect fit, but it’s certainly not jarring. Coconut-vanilla is a reasonable thing.

If I were to make this again in the future, I might try a nut milk, or maybe just plain old cow’s milk. I think I’d also use slightly less tea (maybe 4 tsp max.) as it was becoming astringent, although not irredeemably so. I could take it a little more subtle, though.

I have a feeling I’ll drink a decent quantity of this one either black or with a splash of milk, though – it doesn’t really need fancying up. A good vanilla black is a cupboard staple for me, and this particular blend is among the best I’ve tried recently. Glad to have it around!

Summer Vacation! Completely exhausted tonight, and honestly wouldn’t mind some black tea, buuuuut… I was up way too late last night, and really need some decent sleep tonight, so I’ve opted for a cuppa of green tea tonight. So a grabbed a Chinese green from my T2 sampler stash, and this time I didn’t make the mistake of following their instructions. It said to use their full sampler packet to 450ml of water. I weighed the packet and it was 5g of tea. According to the site I use to help with leaf/water ratios, that is way too high for a green and would’ve been horribly bitter… no wonder that darjeeling turned out so horribly! So I measured out just what I needed and stashed away the rest of the sampler for another use. It’ll be nice to have some extra to play with anyway, I find I usually have to experiment a little with greens as it is.

I did 1.8g to 350ml at 175 F with only a 1 minute steep. I’ve never tried this sort of tea before and the packet said 1-3 minutes on the steep time, so without knowing if it tends to go vegetal-astringent, I decided to keep to a briefer steep. The tea has a very sweet, floral aroma; a bit like honeysuckle, and also a little like spearmint. The flavor is a bit light and delicate, and I’m not sure if that is just a feature of this sort of green, or if I should’ve gone for a longer steep (on one of my other uses of the leftover leaf I’ll make sure to push the initial steep time a little longer to compare). It is very smooth though, and I’m getting notes of warm hay and spearmint, with more subtle floral, nutty, and fennel notes. This is nice, and quite relaxing… I think I’d enjoy this iced as well.

Summer Vacation! Trying a darjeeling from the T2 black sampler back this time. I’ve only ever had one other darjeeling before, and from what I remember, I did enjoy it a lot more than I like assam teas.

This Darjeeling from T2 doesn’t offer any special information regarding flush or whatnot, so I am not expecting much from it… I am more curious to just get a little more familiar with the tea type. The scent of the brewed tea is a little like autumn leaves, but with some floral notes. Flavorwise, it is actually a lot more astringent than I was expecting (I don’t remember the other darjeeling I’ve tried having so much bite to it). The flavor was a bit like autumn leaves, but with a bit more of a honeyed floral sweetness… until that really bitter astringent finish sets in. That just kind of ruined the whole cup. I’m wishing I hadn’t made the sampler according to the instructions, which said to brew the whole thing with 450ml of water… now I’m thinking I should’ve used way less leaf from the sampler and experimented with the ratios a bit because I think T2 has weighted this way too strongly for their own instructions. At least for my tastes. I probably could’ve made something drinkable with it if I’d done my own thing instead of following what it said on the package. As it is… way too much bitter astringency for me to enjoy these flavors. Even with a touch of honey.

Summer Vacation! New month, new theme! This month I’ll be taking a world tea tour through my tea collection by sampling teas from various different locales (the tentative plan is a short perusal of a few of my Indian teas, a longer sampling from my rather large Chinese and Japanese tea collection, and then some Taiwanese/Thai/Vietnamese teas to end off the month). There may be a few other random stops in there too, depending on what I have laying around and can find the time to get to… who knows! But I’m definitely starting off with my least favorite, mostly to clear it out of the cupboard. It came in a T2 black tea sampler set, and I already know this particular kind of black tea really isn’t much my thing… an Indian assam.

It’s a really strong cup… I can smell how strong and malty it is before even taking a sip. Sure enough, this is the sort of black tea that is just a bit on the dark and robust side for my tastes; very malty, with some slight burnt toast notes, and tannic to the point of having that astringent bite left in the aftertaste.

This is the kind of cuppa that I personally need to take with some milk and honey.