T2

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.

Adventaggedon Day 12: Tea 3/6

Alright, I’ll say it. I’m sick of jasmine.

With the exception of DAVIDsTEA I feel like I’ve had a jasmine tea from every advent now? That might not actually be true but it really does feel that way, and there’s only so much that a jasmine tea can bring to the table before it just feels repetitive. The most interesting thing about this one was that for some weird and unexplained reason the dry leaf smelled like rootbeer to me!? It didn’t taste like it though. It really was just want a plain, approachable and predictable jasmine.

No complaints other than I just don’t want another jasmine tea for a while.

Adventaggedon Day 11: Tea 4/7

So… this is very similar to Melbourne Breakfast.

I liked Melbourne Breakfast so I did, also, like this tea. However, I was a little disappointed because I just felt like it was so similar that I might as well have just stuck with Melbourne Breakfast. I want to try new things! C’mon T2, let me see your range.

Really the only difference was that it was just a litttttllleeeee bit smoky.

Adventaggedon Day 10: Tea 3/7

This is the tea I started my morning with today and it really hit the spot and kind of just set the tone for how I was going to experience the teas from the rest of the day. I even added a cinnamon stick to my hot mug of tea to bump up the festive feelings to a whole new notch!

The dry leaf did kind of smell like bubblegum which is the case for the majority of Mulled Wine inspired teas out there. It’s just something about the combination of spices and orange that sometimes does that. Doesn’t come off the same way steeped though – instead it’s mostly a wine-y hibiscus/berry type note with stewed/cooked orange and orange rind, and then a medley of warming spices with cinnamon being the main one.

It’s not even that it’s a particularly unique or exquisitely good mulled wine tea. It’s more that it was just a solid enough take on mulled wine that in the moment felt incredibly classic and very, very cozy and festive which was as much something I wanted as I think it was something my soul needed.

Adventaggedon Day 9: Tea 5/7

This reminded me a lot of the Turmeric Relief from World Tea House from earlier in the advent, but without the rooibos and also just less peppery in general. I’m not sure if it’s because I added coconut milk but I also felt like there was something about the finish of this that was very sweet. Kind of in a weird and out of place way. The coconut milk did mellow some of the spice harshness though and complimented both the turmeric and ginger.

I’m not the target customer for this (by a long shot) but I understand that there is someone who wants this kind of blend, and it was nice seeing a very different side of T2 than what has been in the advent so far.

Adventaggedon Day 8: Tea 5/7

Not my favourite tea of the day but definitely a super nice one! I think ultimately it comes down to the fact that I just don’t drink a lot of Earl Grey. However, the sweet and floral bright top notes of this EG were a really pleasant addition and I thought it made the overall cup feel so much more fun and lively. I’m used to French Earl Grey typically being an addition lavender and that combination sometimes coming off as too perfumey/soapy but this was almost fruity florals and just… joyous!?

I paired my mug with some white chocolate macarons as well, which was a pleasant addition. The creaminess of the macarons almost acted in a way like a splash of milk, which was nice! It was just a happy moment in the morning.

Adventaggedon Day 7: Tea 7/7

There’s a possibility I’m not putting this tea under the right page, but I think it’s the same thing. What I had in my advent today was called “Sweetest Dreams” but the ingredients appear to be the same as what’s listed here. Perhaps it’s just a name update…

I saved this one for last today for, well, obvious reasons. Sleep teas rarely do much of anything for me (the insomnia is too strong) but better to be safe than sorry when it comes to drinking them during a work day. The dry leaf aroma was very nice though – it smelled sweetly of honey and fresh picked flowers. Steeped up I’m getting much more chamomile than anything else, which is a little bit of a no go for me. However the gentle notes of linden, creamed honey, and just a bit of delicate lemon as counter balancing it a fair bit. Thankfully I am not getting the rosemary. Under most circumstances I would be excited for rosemary in tea, but here I feel like it would only pile onto the chamomile and amplify that flavour. There’s definitely elements here I’m into, but the overall cup isn’t really for me – but I see how it would be for others.

Adventaggedon Day 5: Tea 5/7

I kind of expected this to be just green tea and rose but that’s not the case. It’s actually more of a soft and floral leaning mango and generic “tropical fruit” flavour than it is rose. Although, rose notes are present. It’s giving me very “European Catalog Blend” vibes. Just super generic fruity/floral vibes and nothing very unique. That kind of fruity green/floral combination isn’t really my thing either, so just not a favourite from today.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSLKYPewrl0&ab_channel=TheBrazenYouth-Topic

Adventaggedon Day 4: Tea 7/7

This was probably the favourite of the day!

The dry leaf smelled insanely good to me – very sweet and aromatic eggnog aroma but heavy on the sweet cream side of eggnog and lighter on the spices. I felt on the verge of drooling and as this was steeping I kept smelling the little packet that the leaf had been inside.

I brought it with me to the grocery store in a carry travel mug to sip on while picking up some fresh produce and a few festive holiday snacks but I found myself constantly stopping in the aisles to get in a few more sips. It’s a bit artificial tasting but ultimately a pretty spot on eggnog flavour while not sacrificing the distinct taste of the black tea completely. I taste the sweet cream/condensed milk notes a lot and a bit of vanilla, but the most impressive thing is truly just how eggy it tastes! Very yummy!

Adventaggedon Day 3: Tea 7/7

Last but not least was Pumping Pomegranate, which I think is an unfortunate name. That’s one thing I’ve definitely observed about T2’s blend thus far – they don’t seem to have the whole fun naming thing totally down yet…

I probably would have iced or cold brewed this in normal circumstances but I didn’t think I was going to have enough leaf to do that in a flavourful way. I may have been wrong though because I did this as a hot cuppa and I found it INCREDIBLY flavourful. Really, really sweet and syrupy liquor matched by a tart and tangy hibiscus note that reminded me a lot of DT’s Queen of Tarts. Probably equal parts hibiscus to pomegranate/red fruit notes but there was something about it that kept pulling me back despite the sharp hibiscus notes. The finish was very good and just sweet enough.

Still think it would have been much better chilled though.

Adventaggedon Day 2: Tea 5/7

Yesterday’s T2 Blend was probably my least favourite of the assortment but they more then made up for that today because this one was, hands down, my favourite out of all seven teas. Like, the pandan flavour fucking slaps.

It’s a weird mix of tea bases so I was skeptical right up until the point of smelling the dry leaf and then I knew instantly everything was going to be okay. It had that distinct creamy and sort of coconut/sticky rice and buttery pandan leaf aroma with a gentle toastiness to it. Steeped you get the toasted rice note first and a little bit of coconut but then the pandan comes in hard and clear. It’s rich and creamy and buttery and very distinctly pandan.

I love pandan teas so much and I don’t think enough of them exist. This is an excellent and simple execution of that flavour that stats true to it while not sacrificing the body and richness of a “breakfast blend”. T2 has a lot of breakfast tea variants but I think this is the best I’ve ever had. Maybe the best tea I’ve ever had from T2 just in general.

Adventaggedon Day 1: Tea 3/7

I had mixed feelings about this being the first tea in the T2 advent because it’s not very festive at all – plus I think using Geisha in the name of a tea that doesn’t have any link to Geishas is also very weird. However it’s a pretty notorious blend from T2 that I’ve wanted to try for a while!

Overall my thoughts were that it’s fine but kind of unexciting. The green tea base, while always not my favourite, is smooth and I think it works well with the strawberry note because it almost gives it a more natural slightly underripe strawberry kind of taste. Pair that with the cream flavour and it’s just a nice straight forward/no frills strawberries and cream profile which is what it’s trying to be. I just thought it was a little flat overall.