T2

I snagged a couple of these bags from the TTB, not realizing initially that they’re meant to be cold-brewed — so I was a little surprised when I read the packet later! I brewed one up this afternoon, and it’s very welcome on a 90˚F day.

The tea brews up a gorgeous vivid pink, but I find the flavors a bit muddied and weak. The titular juniper is almost nonexistent and the yuzu comes through more than the grapefruit. I find the blackberry leaf almost too sweet — it hits at the back of the sip in an unpleasant way. I thought it was stevia for a hot second!

Well, I’m glad I tried it, but I won’t be too sad when I use up the remaining sachet.

TeaTiff Traveling Tea Box | No. 14

I’m surprised by how much I really like this blend. It’s very chocolaty, not watered down at all. I’m guessing this is due to the cacao shells? I don’t taste the caramel, but the brownie is coming through loud and clear. Delicious!

Thanks to PamelaOry for including it in the tea box!

Sipdown of another tea I could have sworn I had already written a note for… is Steepster eating notes again? This jasmine is fine. It’s not terrible, but it’s also not the most stunning jasmine green I’ve ever had. It just sort of falls squarely in the middle as floral on a vegetal green base. Brewed just-so, at 175f for 2-4 minutes, it tastes floral and fine. But if overbrewed, it takes on that aftertaste you get from a jasmine tea that’s been flavored rather than scented. I don’t definitively know that to be the case here and can’t tell from the T2 website – it may be that this flavor is happening because the base has oversteeped. Either way, not super enjoying that element and ended up adding some vanilla agave to soften it.

Grabbed this teabag from a TTB over a year ago – I’m bad about neglecting my teabags! This is really a pretty decent EG. The black tea is hearty and the bergamot is quite strong, which I like. I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy this, but I certainly wouldn’t mind having more.

This is definitely not a tea for me. Questionable wellness messaging aside, I just found the combination of spearmint – which is already pretty sweet – and licorice root to be much too intense and cloying for my own tastes. I finished the cup, but I could be pretty content never revisiting this one again. I’ve tasted many, many other similar blends and it’s just never a combination that works well for me.

Drank this for the “Strawberry day” prompt this month! Cold brewed as usual. I think my next cup of this will have to be Arnold Palmer style, that would amp up the sweet and juicy berry in such a great way

This is my answer to Ashmanra’s prompt of Tea From Your Largest Tin.

Got 100g of this one as T2 was closing up it’s US shop. I normally would never get such a large amount of a flavored Chinese sencha, but the flavor struck me right in the nostalgia. Never have I added something to my cart and purchased it so fast lol. Ever since I finished my bag of Lupicia’s Tochitome green, I haven’t been able to find it ever again. I still think of how incredibly delicious the combo of strawberry + sencha were and how much I miss that tea! When I saw that the flavors of this tea are strawberry and cream, I said Sign me TF up!

I tried this hot before making it as a cold brew, which is how I plan on drinking the rest of it down this summer. Hot brew was crisp, creamy, and sweetly strawberry, heavy on the berry. Not very refined, but a decent cup of flavored green. I wouldn’t revisit this tea hot most likely, but I’ve already gone through over 30g in cold brew. I see myself finishing this one fast.

This was too full-bodied for my liking if I’m being honest.

TTB Review #46: I found this one a bit obnoxious. Yes, it’s sweet and has all of those notes of caramel and chocolate, but in a way that felt haphazard. It reminded me of being a kid and smelling my bag of candy right after trick-or-treating – just an overwhelming amount of disjointed sweetness. I’m sure lots of people would like it but I wasn’t a big fan.

Sipdown! (31 | 111)

Sipped through most of this tin with milk, but having this last cuppa plain. This new (to me) Chobani oat creamer I got tastes just like Lucky Charms marshmallows LOL, which is not what I expected from a creamer called “Sweet & Creamy” but it’s very nostalgic and goes well in a plain breakfast blend like this tea.

Anyway! Plain, it’s okay. Definitely tasting some Sri Lankan black tea in there. Actually, it looks like from the ingredients that this is just Sri Lankan black tea and not a blend of teas. It’s perfectly fine, it has that metallic note to it but also some biscuity flavor. Fairly smooth even though the leaf is quite fine, but I did only steep it for two minutes.

Seems decent, but I’m not a breakfast blend person so what would I know ha ha. The only tin I have left from my T2 sampler is French Earl Grey, which is the only T2 tea that I really like and repurchase, so that one will be hanging around for a while yet.

Sipdown! (17 | 97)

Sadly, this little tin got dumped. I could smell rancid coconut as soon as I opened it, even though I just got it a couple of weeks ago and it has a “best by” date in 2024. I even tasted a piece just to be sure, but sadly it had indeed gone bad.

A shame, as I was excited to try this one. I’m sure I’ll be ordering from T2 in the future, so I’ll have to remember to pick some up then.

Sipdown! (19 | 99)

Finished this off as a London Fog. It’s nice enough as a latte, but it would work better if the bergamot was just a bit stronger. Certainly not one I would repurchase, but happy to have the pretty blue tin! :3

Back to my World of Breakfasts sampler!

This one is simply an Earl Grey. It’s funny how the reviews are all over the place, with some saying it’s too weak and others too strong, both for the tea and the bergamot. The world would be such a boring place if we all had the same tastes though, wouldn’t it?

To me, it’s neither weak not strong. The black tea doesn’t have a ton of flavor to it, it’s sort of that generic “black tea” taste that I associate with grocery store breakfast teabags. I do think there’s at least some Sri Lankan tea included, because it has that sort of acidic/metallic combo going on. A little bit astringent, but not overly so. The bergamot is what I would call moderate, it’s very present and definitely makes this an Earl Grey, but it’s not super in-your-face. I’m thankful for that, as I don’t love strong bergamot teas.

It’s a serviceable Earl, but nothing special. I’ll probably enjoy the rest as a few London fogs, since I don’t tend to drink this sort of tea plain.

TTB Review #20: Yum! I LOVE coconut so I already had a good feeling about this tea. I was not disappointed – the tea is sweet but not overly so, the coconut and cocoa go together nicely, and I could definitely see this as a dessert tea. I did find that it left somewhat of a bitter aftertaste which is why I’m not giving it a higher rating.

I took a break yesterday from the alphabet challenge to try two teas new to me. Again, I always wanted to try T2’s breakfast teas so I’m very grateful for MiepSteep sending a couple over to try! This one gets quite the high steepster rating! Honestly, I might like the NY breakfast better. This one seems to be plain vanilla and the vanilla seems a little artificial to me. But it at least isn’t a faint tasting vanilla. The black tea is fine. Nothing special. But then the second steep is fairly faint flavored. I might be an outlier here, but I think the NY Breakfast has more nuance. I love vanilla flavored things, but I think I’m learning that I’m picky about vanilla.
Steep #1 // 20 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 min

Sipdown! (15 | 95)

Not a favorite for me. I found it most enjoyable with a splash of oat milk and a touch of sugar to make the vanilla a bit softer and creamier. I tried it as a latte as well, but for some reason it didn’t work for me.

Glad to have the cute tin anyway! :D

Another one from my T2 World of Breakfast sampler with the cute tins.

This is a vanilla black tea. To be honest, I’m always underwhelmed by plain vanilla-flavored black teas. I don’t know why that is, but they just don’t seem to be my jam.

And this one is much the same. It tastes very natural (although worth noting, it does have artificial flavoring), with a woody sort of vanilla extract note to it. It’s quite smooth and overall has a woody, malty, and slightly earthy flavor, with the added sweetness and lightly creamy notes of the vanilla.

It’s pleasant, but it’s just not blowing my skirt up. I think I’ll try this as a latte next time.

Thanks very much, MiepSteep! I recently posted my love in a tasting note for Lupicia’s Melon White so MiepSteep awesomely offered to send me their stash of it AND a few of T2’s teabags to tag along with it. I definitely wavered many times about ordering some of my T2 favorites and some of the blends that I always wanted to try, and their breakfast teas were at the top of that list. So I’m very grateful to just try them before they were harder to acquire. Making me feel a bit better about not ordering them.
A black tea with a breakfast vibe, I’m liking this more than I thought I would with its Steepster rating of 74. Sometimes I have an issue with vanilla flavoring, but this is tasty enough. My only complaint might be that the black tea doesn’t exactly have the strength I love for a breakfast tea, but that might be because this is a teabag and if I were scooping my usual amount of leaves, I wouldn’t have the Too Light Black Tea problem. I like this though! The flavor really does remind me of what I think of as a traditional French Breakfast tea. It’s sweet, smooth, something like a pastry. The cinnamon doesn’t make an appearance until the second steep, but overall is deeper and has plenty of flavor. When I was considering ordering, I was wavering on a one pound bag. I don’t think I like it’s a top favorite tea, but I wouldn’t have minded stocking up on a bit of it. I like it’s named “Breakfast” because I agree that it is a Breakfast Tea!
Steep #1 // 22 minutes after boiling // 1-2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 4 minutes after boiling // 3-4 min

Tried to get some more flavor out of this tea this weekend. Turns out it’s just a little masochistic :) I found that oversteeping it with freshly boiled water is the way to go. I used one teabag in 8oz of boiling water for 6 minutes did the trick. Feels wrong, but tasted right.