Good Evening

I found the T2 shop while I was in Brisbane for the day. The box recommends 2 tsp per medium teapot and to brew 2-4 min at 100 C. The dry leaves are mixture of darker CTC leaves and some lighter larger leaves. The dry smell is of blended black tea, I couldn’t really pick out any specific scents. The wet leaves aren’t that different. I have brewed this one 3 or 4 times now cutting back on the brew time, tea amount and water temp. There is too heavy an astrigency from the assam in the blend for me for a higher temp or longer brew time. After all the experimentation, I am left with an adequate tea. It is fine but doesn’t have enough complexity to elevate it above most bagged teas from the grocery.

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.

Sipdown #2! Look at me go! Another sample.

I almost butchered this with a too-long steep when I already had double the recommended leaves in the infuser. Saved with a couple spoonfuls of sugar and a healthy dollop of cream. In fact, it’s kind of delicious now…