T2

I love this tea so much. You can drink it piping hot or let it go cold, it’ll taste great no matter what. And it’s ideal for when you’ve forgotten your tea strainer!

Added a scoop of Minty Mate, 1.5 scoops of this and 3 teaspoons of sugar to a large tea pot and it tastes magnificent! It’s a calming and refreshing blend with a minty and somewhat sweet aroma.

Added a scoop of this, 1.5 scoops of Oolong and 3 teaspoons of sugar to a large tea pot and it tastes magnificent! It’s a calming and refreshing blend with a minty and somewhat sweet aroma.

I made a blend consisting of one scoop of White Ginger, one scoop of Sencha Vanilla and two or three pinches of Cool Mint Chai to a four cup teapot. Very tasty and relaxing – I was all too happy to drink this throughout the day.

There is a certain, textbook flavour that we all associate with ‘green tea’ – that grassy brew that seems common to all cheap green teabags yet few actual varieties of ‘real’ green tea. Well, now I have found the tea which exemplifies this flavour! And I’m less than impressed…

Aroma: Slightly smoky with a pervading deep grassiness and a herbacious edge.

Palate: Rich and grassy, with good depth and length. Subtle smokiness. Slight astringency. Fresh but bold. Similar to a gunpowder green but with less of a smokey earthy richness.

Overall: This is a green tea that is full of flavour. Unfortunately, it isn’t a flavour that I am particularly keen on. Despite the blurb saying it doesn’t have a grassy flavour, I get it in abundance. I’d recommend this for those who ‘like green tea’ but haven’t really strayed from the supermarket brands. To me it is a finer quality (less bitterness, due to whole loose leaves not cut pieces) example of the same flavour spectrum. Think that classic, grassy, slightly astringent brew that we all associate with our first cup of green tea (unless you were lucky enough to grow up in Asia, of course). Frankly though, I don’t like this tea. Why drink ‘nice’ tea if it just reminds you of the cheap stuff?

sipdown! I tried this one out again just to make sure that i hadn’t changed my mind on how i felt about this one. I haven’t. Thanks again for sharing this with my alice! I’ll pass the last little bit of this on to a friend who really likes oolongs :)

another tea from Alice and i’m glad our sentiments are of the same mind. I am not overly a fan of green oolongs, but i continue to try them to see if there are any that will change my mind. I have tried a large number of milky oolongs, with Mandala being one of my favourites.
This though? it’s different from most milky oolongs. Alice’s notes indicate that it’s flavoured so I’m going to hazard a guess that’s why. all milky oolongs i’ve had previously were unflavoured. over all this isn’t bad, but there’s a little too much in the way of “green oolong” and not enough delicious creamy milky oolong for me to really get behind it. I’ll likely have another cup of this and share the rest with one of the tea girls who prefers green teas :)

thank you Alice This was one of the teas that Alice sent my way in our swap. I opted to try this one first out of the bunch she sent me because it was a nice small sample – i suspect this is how T2 sends samples with their orders. I’ve also never had wattleseed ever.

I really like this Alice! It’s an interesting blend that reminds me almost of waffles, though i’m not entirely sure if that’s because wattle and waffle look similar or it’s from the cinnamon and wattle seed. There’s a baked good sort of quality about this while still holding on to it’s black tea base. It’s not baked good like brioche for example..it’s that hint of bread like goodness. Overall quite pleased with this one! thanks alice!

SO I received a sample of this from T2 and wrote some tasting notes, unbeknown to myself that I’d actually tasted and reviewed it a few months earlier! I thought I’d post this anyway for the sake of objectivity. Lo and behold It turns out I actually seem to have enjoyed it far more this time round (ok so maybe this discrepancy just throws my palate/reviewing into question, but I’m going to put it down to a shorter steeping time!). Note this review is unedited after reading my first, so the differences (and similarities) are open to see, warts and all.

Aroma: A more vegetal Jasmine than often encountered. Still with a strong floral kick but well balanced with earthy green tea aromas rising up against the sweet jasmine. An altogether more balanced Jasmine green tea than most. Hint of hazelnuts and smoke add backbone to the aroma. Let’s be honest though, this is still a jasmine tea, and JASMIN is what you get!

Palate: Rich yet not overt in any one direction. Jasmine floral notes are ever-present yet well restrained (unlike most Jasmine teas out there). A real fruity palate plays well with the jasmine, with peach and fruit salad notes present but, again, restrained. Nice to get some earthy green tea notes showing as well, and there’s loads of sweetness going on here too (for better or worse). Good depth and a mellow buttery after taste with no bitter tannin. This tea has good length to the palate too, with sweet jasmine still present well after you’ve taken your last sip. At 2mins steeping I found the flavour fully developed but not overpowering, but I’d be hesitant to go any longer.

Overall: I have a love-hate relationship with Jasmine teas. It’s rare that I find one that you can actually appreciate the ‘tea’ behind the jasmine. That is not to say that I don’t like the taste of jasmine, quite the opposite, but I definitely prize balance over flavour. I have to say this is one of the better balanced green jasmine teas I’ve drunk in a while. And the organic status is a plus. I almost feel like I need to try it again just to make sure I like it as much as I think I do (watch this space). Until then, I’ll just go back to enjoying my cup.

[Note: Ha! Just goes to show how taste can change from day to day, and how a change in steeping time can change a tea. Looks like the shorter steeping produced a more delicate, balanced tea, and took away the ‘sting in the tail’ of my first review].

For a green tea lover I have to say I don’t often reach for the jasmine teas – I’m more often than not disappointed with what I find: too much jasmine wiping out the tea (ok, so I know its called jasmine tea for a reason). But one thing I do love is a cool jug of iced jasmine tea, and as summer is on the way I started my hunt for a go-to jasmine. On this particular afternoon on the porch though I felt like a warm glass so the review is for hot tea.

Nose: Heady jasmine notes. More rich and deep than delicate and complex. Real nougat sweetness runs through and almost dominates the nose. Handles a second steeping well with more of the same sweet dewey jasmine.

Palate: A full bodied, hearty jasmine tea. A strong green backing rounded out with a sweet jasmine that is well in balanced but lacks a little delicateness. Floral notes (duh!) with pine needles and a bit of damp ‘forrest floor’ mustiness. Has a real green tea ‘sting in the tail’ but with only a very slight astringency. This is definitely a jasmine tea for people who like to know they are drinking a green tea – no ‘flower water’ going on here. A second steeping at a slightly lower temp produced a lighter and in my opinion more appealing palate that let the jasmine shine through a bit more. This is the sort of Jamsime tea that would stand up well to food (shanghai dumplings, thanks).

Overall: I prefer my jasmine teas light, delicate and complex rather than deep and rich so to be honest this isn’t my sort of jasmine tea. That being said, I also find a lot of jasmine teas are too heavy on the jasmine for my taste and often lack balance, whereas this tea shows a good deal of restraint on the jasmine, or at least backs it up with plenty of green tea punch. Organic status always wins a few points with me, but despite this, I probably won’t be buying this again.

Price: AUD$13/100g

This is a fresh, bright black tea with a strong mango flavor. It’s a nice, quality black tea that’s strong without being bitter and the mango compliments it very well. It goes well with milk, but I could also see this being an excellent iced tea. This is my introduction to T2 tea and it’s very nice. I was told (by the person who gave me the tea as a gift) that T2 is like the Teavana of Australia.

Back to this happy place, ahhhh! It’s been a while.

I had to calm down after my original tasting note because I was crazy for this tea for a good couple of months there. I am still a huge fan but not as crazily obsessed with it as I once was!

Still a fantastic iced tea, and I also love it hot. I love the tropical notes.

This stuff is my JAM. Favourite flavoured green at the moment. I’m drinking it at home and at work, hot and iced. Nothing will stop my love for this blend.

I’ve done it! Good grief! I’ve finally finished off this treat from the Mother’s Day 2013 collection, just as it sails by its “best before” date. Tea schmea, most will hold up well. This one was always an interesting blend, black and green and some floral and citrus notes, but never overwhelming. That’s a good thing.

Having a cup of this tonight as a bit of a palate cleanser (I may or may not have eaten a whole pack of red velvet Tim Tams…) and it’s making me quite nostalgic for the earlier days of T2.

There’s something about this blend that just isn’t… trying as hard as the current limited edition releases. This year has been exciting but three new special teas every MONTH is a little too much, particularly when those teas cost between $20-$30 a box (50-150g depending on the blend). And the monthly themes are fun but also a bit overwhelming, some blends feel overcomplicated and other months I don’t really care about. Just like… settle down.

Settle down and re-release some earlier greats.

Like this one.

This one’s sneaking up on my favourite of the three mother’s day 2013 teas from T2. I’m really enjoying the combination of flavours and I’m thinking about brewing it up with some white white cocoa today, or maybe some geisha getaway, for a little bit of added sweetness. Lovely. Don’t steep too long.