Category: Review

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T2’s Under The Sea Jade Tea For One

Under The Sea Jade Tea For One by T2
Porcelain & Stainless Steel
$59.00 USD

First Impressions

I first stumbled across T2 online, and then in-person when I was on a trip to New York City last October. Unfortunately, I had found the T2 store on my last day and my luggage was already woefully over stuffed so I couldn’t justify buying anything else. Fast forward a few months and I wound up buying some things off of T2’s website! I picked out the Under The Sea Jade Tea For One set because I love cup & saucer sets, and I’m a sucker for a cute teapot. The Under The Sea Jade Tea For One set came to me with each piece individually wrapped in a lot bubble wrap, in a black box and that was in a shipping carton. There was a lot of packaging material to the point that I felt kind of bad about my order because of all the waste involved. However, with all the packaging material, each piece to this tea for one set arrived intact and perfect. Under The Sea Jade consists of five pieces: tea pot, lid, infuser, cup, and saucer.

I love the design on this tea for one set. I spent a good portion of my undergraduate degree studying invertebrates and the oceans, so I was quite smitten with the artwork when I first saw it on the T2 website. Under The Sea Jade consists of illustrations of jellyfish, coral, anemone, and fish. There is gold detailing throughout the design and it really just pulls it all in together. The teapot has a 300ml capacity while the cup has a 200ml capacity.

Preparation

I hand washed of all the components of the Under The Sea Jade Tea For One set prior to use – using warm water and dish soap. T2 recommends doing a gentle hand wash and the product page states that it is not suitable for the dishwasher or the microwave.

First Use

The first time I used this set, I was steeping Lemon Lily’s Rose Petal Chai. The stainless steel infuser isn’t very large, but neither is the teapot so I didn’t mind that too much. Both the teapot and the teacup get pretty warm when it’s in use, so watch your fingers/hands. The mesh of the stainless steel infuser did a fairly good job of keeping all of the tea leaves together, which I appreciated. The pour from the teapot to the cup was good, there was no dripping. I found that the handle of the teapot is almost too small for my hand to lift comfortably, depending on how I hold it – I usually wear a size small in adult gloves, so if you’ve got larger hands, you might find the teapot to be uncomfortable to use.

The teapot is roomy and is wide so it makes for a nice shape to use both of your hands to cup if you’re looking to warm your hands. I love the saucer – for both the size and the design, it’s just cheery to see the gold fish. I found when I poured the tea from pot to cup, the remaining tea is out of the way of the infuser, so there wasn’t any risk of my tea over steeping. One potential downside, there’s no little tab on the infuser to make it easier on you to remove the infuser if you wanted to after the tea has steeped without potentially burning your fingers on the stainless steel infuser.

Despite the teacup having the capacity for 200ml versus the 300ml of the teapot, I didn’t find myself filling up the cup to the brim, so I found that the teapot holds about two teacups worth of tea, which is nice as its a personal-sized teapot. I found that the teapot sits well into the cup when it’s stacked for display in my cupboards.

Overall Impression

I loved T2’s Under The Sea Jade Tea For One. I love the illustrated design, I think it’s really pretty and love the gold accents. I had no concerns regarding the usage of the teaset, aside from the handle. My hands aren’t the largest, so if I’m feeling like the handle might be a little small, I’m thinking others might have an issue with it as well. That said, it performs its function well, has a beautiful marine-themed design, and was packaged well for shipment. I wish there was something somewhere to say that the bubble wrap was biodegradable though, because there was a lot of plastic bubble wrap involved in getting this teaset safely from T2 to me.

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Teatourist’s Quintessentials Tea Adventure

Quintessentials Tea Adventure (March 2018) by Teatourist
£11-15 for 1 box, plus shipping (+£3-5 per box)

Teatourist has provided me with the Quintessentials Tea Adventure for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

This was the first month where Teatourist had updated packaging! I quite like it – the bright orange goes so well with the teal, and it’s less the sleeve, so there’s less packaging to go into recycling, which I quite like as well. This monthly box came with six different teas, and four of the six are straight teas! The only way I’d be even more excited about trying this box would be if this box contained fudge…

The teas in this box are: Morgans Brew Tea by Morgan’s Brew Tea Company (black tea), Ceylon Tea by Cheeky Chai (black tea), Green Tea with Jasmine by Pure Leaf (green tea), Bright Afternoon by Brighteas (black tea), Earl Grey 1833 by CHASH The Fine Tea Co (flavoured black tea), and Safari Oolong by Nothing But Tea (oolong).

Morgans Brew Tea has a strong smell to it that reminds me both of a breakfast tea (think British or Irish), while having some apricot notes in the dry leaf. This straight black tea is a blend of a few East African black teas (from Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda). Ceylon Tea (Pekoe Fannings) has a mildly sweet aroma, and has a very familiar black tea aroma to it. Ceylon Tea consists of 100% small leaf ceylon tea (pekoe fannings). Green Tea with Jasmine smells exactly as expected (like green tea and jasmine) and, surprise, consists of Chinese green tea and jasmine flowers.

From left to right: Morgan’s Brew Tea, Ceylon Tea, and Green Tea with Jasmine.

Bright Afternoon has an interesting aroma that reminds me of a fresh after-rain smell, and has some mushroom-earthiness to it. The ingredients in this black tea are Chinese Keemun, Mao Feng, and Yunnan black teas. Earl Grey 1833 has a lovely bergamot/citrusy aroma to it, and smells like most Earl Grey teas that I’ve smelled in that past. Curiously, the ingredients are listed as being the finest Ceylon black tea and pure bergamot oil. However, there’s obviously flower petals in the blend that aren’t listed in the ingredients. Safari Oolong is the most intriguing to me, as it has a very light honey and floral aroma to the dry leaf. Safari Oolong is 100% oolong tea from Tumoi Teas, located in Nandi Hills, Kenya.

From left to right: Bright Afternoon, Earl Grey 1833, and Safari Oolong.

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Wize Monkey’s Ginger Lemon

Ginger Lemon by Wize Monkey
Herbal Infusion / Flavoured
$10.49USD for 35g (15 sachets)

Wize Monkey has provided me with Ginger Lemon for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

I generally think of ginger and lemon going together when I’m sick because that’s what my mom used to put together for me (along with some honey – I can’t forget the honey!) so when I opened up the packaging on the sachets of Ginger Lemon, it brings me right back to being little & feeling poorly (sorry, Wize Monkey, it’s not your fault!). That said, this tisane has an amazing flavour – it smells exactly like you’d expect it to, very strongly of ginger and lemon.

Ginger Lemon consists of premium arabica leaves, ginger root, lemon peel, lemon myrtle, and natural lemon flavour. Unlike my earlier review this month of the Original coffee leaf tea from Wize Monkey, I can only smell the lemon and ginger and none of the tisane base.

Preparation

Wize Monkey recommends steeping Ginger Lemon in 95°C (203°F) water with no set time limit. If you recall my review of their Original, I steeped it for 8 minutes with no ill effects on the flavour. I opted to steep Ginger Lemon in 93°C (200°F) water for 5 minutes.

First Taste

Ginger Lemon steeps to a lovely golden red and has a great aroma to it. The ginger and lemon are very much in the forefront and it’s the only thing I can smell from this coffee leaf tisane. The aroma still makes me feel like I should be drinking this when I’m sick, but what’s a girl to do? The flavour has some of the warming properties from the ginger, and I can definitely taste the lemon. I don’t really get a lot of the tea base, which isn’t that surprising considering how strong of an ingredient ginger can be. I get a little bit of the grassy notes, but it is mostly overwhelmed by the lemon and ginger. The flavour of Ginger Lemon honestly reminds me so much of what my mom used to make for me when I was ill, it just needs a spoonful of honey to make it match up perfectly.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Ginger Lemon twice. I found for the first resteep that it was more ginger than lemon, and the grassy notes were a bit stronger in the first resteep. For the second resteep, it was lacking the ginger and the lemon and just wasn’t as tasty as the original I would say that Ginger Lemon is good for one more steep.

My Overall Impression

I loved Wize Monkey’s Ginger Lemon. There was just something really thought provoking of the flavours of the ginger and the lemon, and it probably has to do with the fact that I really enjoy the flavour combination. That said, it did make me feel like I should be sick or at least feeling a little bit under the weather while I was having it, so I might not be the best judge of things. However, it tasted good, smelled and tasted like I feel like it should have, so all in all, it made for a good cuppa.

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