T2

Weak, very weak compared to T2’s. Barely any flavor, barely infused into water.

This one has been needing a sipdown for a while, its not a bad tea, but does have a bite to the aftertaste so it hasn’t been one I reach for. For a blend, its quite balanced, would go well with a little honey, and certainly seems it has enough caffeine for any morning brew. I wouldn’t buy it again, and I’ll probably leave it in the cupboard until I need a brisk morning cup again.

I’m not a rose fan, so I was prepared to dislike this, but I’m happy to say that it’s actually nice. I don’t get the usual extreme sourness from the rose. It’s quite floral, but in a pretty tasty way. The green tea tastes a little old, but I grabbed this sample from a TTB, and I don’t believe it was stored in an airtight way in there (it has been since it’s entered my possession, of course). I would drink this again.

A failed spiced fruit tea blend. Heavy on the spice, but not in a good way. The fruit is completely apple forward.

Not a fan. Apple forward, and the peach is that terrible peach aldehyde flavor.

Starting the day with a little mug of green today. This was a welcoming gift from a tea group I joined. Typically I drink greens in the afternoon or on a summer morning but I’m mixing it up a bit today. I found it to be a rather underwhelming. It’s a green tea with a slight strawberry taste. It has pretty good reviews on T2 but I didn’t find it very exciting.

There’s a Valentine’s Bingo on Instagram and one of the prompts was to pair a tea with a sweet treat. I had a heart sugar cookie from Starbucks and I wanted something similarly festive for the pic and this tea caught my eye. I made it hot but the hibiscus had me worried so I waited for it to cool before actually drinking it. It’s ok. Reminds me of the Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait (I think that’s what it’s called) by DAVIDsTEA, with no tartness to set off the sweet strawberry and cream. Better than expected.

Also, I was so ready to get my nails done after work that I had showered and gotten dressed on my lunch and even set up a cold brew of this to take to the appointment. Then I learned the appointment is actually tomorrow and I was sad. But now I have a cold brew to compare to the “hot” tea.

The cold brew is more strawberry and less cream. Is that better or worse? I have no idea. I guess it depends on preference because cold brew this makes me think of strawberry hard candies.

Made this tonight after sleeping through half the day – rest which I apparently really needed. I made it as an oat milk latte with vanilla agave (I’m obsessed with vanilla agave lately!). Prepared this way, it’s quite serviceable as a hot cocoa alternative! I didn’t really make out much of the mint, but when I gave my partner some to try he immediately sensed something sharp about it that he found off-putting. He’s not a great metric though, since he isn’t particularly fond of tea as a genre.

Made this as an eggnog latte and it’s not as sweet as I wanted and is coming off a bit flat because of that.

Adventaggedon Day 24: Tea 5/8

Y’know, it just feels right that T2 would end their advent with a breakfast blend. It’s so perfectly on brand! I think this is also the most overtly festive tea in the advent which also felt pretty appropriate. More than that it was just super delicious. It’s basically like a mildly flavoured gingerbread black tea and it really got to me because the molasses note was perfection with the tickle of ginger combined with the taste of nutmeg was so lovely too!

Not my favourite from T2 (I think that’s still Singapore Breakfast) but an honestly very solid way to close out this advent!

Adventaggedon Day 23: Tea 5/8

What a cute name!

I also had this one during lunch so it ended up paired with my pomegranate lentil strew and the maple grilled halloumi. Mostly the halloumi though, which was good because it was very tart and almost acidic tasting (in a nice way) and that cut through a lot of the richness of the maple and actually made the dish feel more balanced on the whole.

It’s interesting this is a raspberry tea though because that kind of really tart fruit berry note really read to me as cranberry. I mean, raspberry too – but I was sure prior to checking the ingredients that this was going to be talked about in the copy as a cranberry blend and maybe it would also have some raspberry mentions too. Sometimes my palate gets it wrong though, and that’s okay!

The important part is just that I enjoyed the tea a lot and it was a nice break up from the many, many candy cane teas I had earlier in the day…

Adventaggedon Day 22: Tea 3/8

Why so mannnyyyy sleep teas!?

This wasn’t great but I’m gonna blame that almost entirely on my personal tastes and not the tea itself. It was just a little too bland and very, very floral. Kind of a perfumey heady type of lavender with a hint of jasmine and some citrus undertones. Not a lot going on aside from that but I can see why some people would find this soothing and how it would make for a good evening/nighttime type of blend…

Adventaggedon Day 21: Tea 2/8

This was my first tea of the day – I finally remembered to make one of the T2 breakfast teas as part of my actual breakfast!

It’s a nice tea though not anything I’m immediately drawn to, unlike the Singapore Breakfast. I get the nice malty black tea base with a hint of maple and it also held up really well to a splash of creamer. Mostly I just found myself a little confused about what the New York/Maple association is!? This is maybe a little stereotypical but it kind of seems like a Canadian Breakfast more than New York, no? I probably would have gone with a subtle apple flavour for a New York breakfast because of the ‘Big Apple’ nickname – but that’s just me.

Adventaggedon Day 20: Tea 8/8

Truthfully I think this tea is kind of trying too hard? Like, it’s not a bad tea but it reminds me really heavily of DT’s Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait but without the rhubarb and with a sort of weaker taste overall. It’s got the hibiscus kind of tartness that leans into the strawberry which means you can’t latte it, which always bums me out with strawberry and cream teas. Since I can’t make it richer that way, I kind of need the flavour to be a lot more punchy and vibrant than what I’m getting.

Plus, we’ve already tasted a strawberry/cream blend from T2 all the way back on day one! That was a green tea base, so I can understand wanting something caffeine free. However, the flavour balance itself of that tea was actually a lot stronger to me than this one…

Adventaggedon Day 18: Tea 6/7

Hmmm…

If I’m being honest, I don’t think this is very meringue like at all. I think for a meringue I really would have expected something a lot lighter with an airy sort of creaminess to it. This is more of a light to medium bodied and very fruity type of profile with a lot of really lively and bright top notes of ripe strawberries and tangy kiwi. It’s delicious – I love a good strawberry kiwi blend. However, nothing to the taste gives off baked goods/pastry or that meringue kind of texture or taste that I’ve described above. I also just don’t find the combination of strawberries and kiwi to be wintery at all so the “Merry Berry” element of that name ALSO feels really out of place to me.

Like, this is a summer tea. You can’t convince me that this isn’t a summer tea.

It’s a nice tea though! But I just don’t know how I should feel about it given that I kind of think everything about the name direction just didn’t land.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31X0c97qnR8&ab_channel=SHOOKAMOTO-Topic

Adventaggedon Day 17: Tea 2/8

The name of this tea feels wildly out of place for what it actually tastes like. I mean it sounds like it should just be a straight green tea or, at the very least, a green tea with a more natural vibe. Instead, this is a very sweet and nutty genmaicha variant blend. With that said, I really enjoyed the medium bodied hazelnut creme/praline and toasty roasted rice flavours of this tea! It wasn’t too sweet, which was good because so many of my teas today were very rich – but the flavours were clear and delicious despite such a strange and ill fitting name.

Adventaggedon Day 16: Tea 8/8

I was nervous about this tea because I opened up the packet and it smelled super savory to me. Just a lot of pepper and orange notes in a way that kind of made me think of, like, Chinese takeout!? It was much, much better once steeped though! Still leaned pretty peppery but overall the spices were warmer and sweeter with a more noticeable cinnamon note and almost a kind of “baked goods” feeling. A coworker said it smelled like a candle and, y’know, I sort of agree that it did taste a bit like a generic winter-y candle – though in a nice enough way that I wasn’t bothered by it.

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – December Theme: Holiday Teason Tea #25

From AJRimmer a while ago — thank you!  Must have been waiting to try this during the holidays!  Oh how I would love a tea that tasted like a thick piece of fruitcake… not this one though.  Sadly, somehow this tastes mostly like licorice and rooibos.   Looking at the ingredients, there is anise here.   The fruits: apple, figs, orange, golden raisins, red currant, and rhubarb (the blend looks mostly rooibos.)  This seems like an odd mix of fruits for a fruitcake… I’m not really tasting them anyway.  The chicory and anise are taking over.  The second steep was much the same: too much anise.  That’s a shame.
Steep #1 //  1 1/2 teaspoons // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 15 minute steep
Other holiday teas:  52Teas – Holiday Marmalade (26)

Adventaggedon Day 15: Tea 2/8

This was one of my favourite teas from today! To be honest I thought it looked a little bit unremarkable based on just reading the ingredient list but steeped up the combination of the juicy ripe peach/nectarine and papaya was simultaneously sweet and flavourful with a tangy brightness to it while also having a rounder kind of deepness in the finish. I don’t see anything in the ingredients list that would indicate a cream/vanilla flavouring but I swear I taste a very pleasant cream note in the finish of the sip that just tied everything together beautifully.

Peach teas are hit or miss for me, but I think I would probably order this one!

Adventaggedon Day 14: Tea 8/8

I was pretty gutted to see this tea today. Not because I wasn’t excited to try it but because I was really excited to try it but I felt awful and knew my experience of it was going to be negatively affected because of that. It’s such an infamous T2 blend that’s been on my radar for years now!

I opened up the little packet and immediately I was already so invested in the experience. The smell was really familiar and it bugged me that I couldn’t place why, but I loved it! Sweet and fruity but in a sticky/syrupy kind of way leaning into more of those ‘brown’ sweet and dense notes.

The taste is awesome! I couldn’t place what it was reminding me of in the moment but reflecting on it now as I write this tasting note I’m realizing it’s kind of the same dense brown sweetness, caramel/toffee, and fruity date/fig combination as Golden Hour from The Silk Tea Co. but with some nuttiness from the rooibos. Really felt like a good golden ooey gooey type of caramel mixed with that lovely baked fig/date preserve type of heavy and rich fruity sweetness. The idea of this being like a sticky toffee date pudding type thing feels really appropriate to me as well.

I wish I could do a mulligan because I’d love to steep this again when my brain is less like spaghetti and I’m not in actual physical pain because I think I would just enjoy it so much more. It’s going on the wishlist for after advent season ends, though! It’s one of my favourite T2 blends so far along with Singapore Breakfast.

Adventaggedon Day 13: Tea 8/8

Last but not least was “Chai” from T2 which I drank during my commute to work from a travel mug. The dry leaf smelled clearly inspired by Masala chai with more emphasis on sweet star anise and clove. This was true of the steeped tea too and so it actually ended up being one of my favourite chai blends from all the advents so far as I do really love both anise and clove.