Creme Brulee

Trick or Treat! This was my work thermos tea today, and after a refill on my lunch break, I have another T2 sampler down!

The base tea tasted very much like a Chinese black to me, having a somewhat slightly spicy and smoky taste, so I really enjoyed this! It was very smooth and lacked astringency. The flavoring also wasn’t too overpowering as they tend to be in dessert blends; there was a soft, burnt sugar flavor, with hints of caramel and nuts, and they just sort of added a gentle sweetness that played into the base nicely rather than steamrolling right over it. As the fall weather is starting to really set in (it’s expected to freeze tonight!), this mix of smokey black and burnt sugar syrup flavors really did it for me this morning!

I don’t think I was expecting the nuttiness. Does it belong in a creme brulee tea? No, maybe not. But, I don’t hate it. The black tea base isn’t very robust, but it’s got good vanilla and caramel flavor. It takes milk well and it makes a nice iced latte too.

Again, shame about the packaging.

A sweet, smooth, classy tea that tastes like what it boasts and benefits well from a shot of creme brulee liquor. Dessert in a cup. It’s not particularly standout for me, but I would keep coming back to it simply because it’s a ‘reliable’ blend.

A bit hit-and-miss, this tea is either amazing or meh. I think the more recent batches have been heavier on the sweet aspect, without toning up the associated flavours, which possibly went a bit too far. Used to be my favourite T2 dessert tea, but the Caramel Brownie is a much more interesting & reliable option. This one needs to be brewed quite strong.

I’m a newbie to more exotic tea drinking (until T2 came to Milton Keynes I drunk English Breakfast, earl grey and various herbals). I would never have considered drinking a creme brûlée tea as surely that is something rich, smooth and heavy more like a hot chocolate than a tea but I brewed it up from the 20 gem set and gave it a go. I don’t like milk in tea so decided to drink it black.

The smell is very Hazelnutty with a little caramel. The tea itself provided a nice background for the nutty vanilla and caramel flavours to come through. I found this really nice and relaxing. It’s not at all what I would have expected and I imagine that if you were into milky drinks it would work well with milk too. It was quite sweet and sugar was an ingredient so I’d need to check the calories before buying a it’ll cube of it but it was definitely a nice treat.

A sample from Miss B! Continuing the sweet theme this morning, I decided Creme Brulee was the only way to go after Terrific Toffee. What else could compete? I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 3.5 minutes in boiling water. I added a splash of milk, mostly for fairness of comparison. It’s not so dark that I couldn’t drink it without.

To taste, this one is (if that’s possible) even sweeter than Terrific Toffee. It has strong vanilla custard vibes, with just a hint of caramel, and a rounded nuttiness that helps to bring the whole thing together. It is rather like a creme brulee in terms of taste, but it’s walking a fine line for me in terms of sweetness and sickly sweetness. It’s a truly excellent dessert tea, though, and a must-try for anyone with a sweet tooth. So many flavoured teas promise things they don’t deliver, but this one is a rare exception. Delicious, sweet, creamy creme brulee in a cup!

Another tea to try from MissB. Thank you!

This one isn’t bad, but I don’t think it’s as good as it probably once was. I’m enjoying it with milk, but even with a short 2 minute steep, it’s pretty astringent and a little bitter.

The caramel-vanilla flavours are excellent, and it smells really nice. But I don’t think this is a favourite.

This is one of my favourite T2 flavoured black teas. It can be drunk either on its own, with milk and sweetener (I use honey!) or as a mixing tea. I especially like to mix this one with T2’s Terrific Toffee or Toasty Nougat. It has caramel, nutty flavours with hints of black bitterness behind. This is a great ‘dessert’ tea. If you’re going to add milk I would suggest a soy or nut milk as it best compliments the flavours.

First tried this at the T2 store, which they provided as a sample. It was so beautiful that my boyfriend and I purchased it immediately!
As soon as we took it home and made it, however, it tasted extremely flat. We used the T2 Jug and steeped it for 3:45 (package recommends 2-4 minutes), but there was very little flavour when I sampled it. I steeped it for an extra minute, and it made the tea taste extremely flat – not even bitter, just flat. The smell of the tea is divine, but we can hardly taste anything!
I know it has the potential to be a beautiful tea, so I’ll follow the website recommendations in future: be a little more generous with the teaspoon serving, steep it for exactly 3 minutes and add honey. It sounds like it’s hard to get right, but going to keep trying!

I discovered this tea last year on the final day of my trip to Brisbane, Australia and immediately developed a crush. Creme Brûlées are my all time favourite dessert; so if not the name, the mouth watering scent certainly did the trick and I purchased with gusto.
The leaves have a beautiful rich darkness about them, complimented with the small pieces of hazelnut which create the loveliest contrast- leaving me absolutely ecstatic to try this as soon as I got it home.
Unfortunately the first cup I made was a disaster (too much milk, didn’t steep for long enough, etc) and I was left utterly disappointed and disheartened. Especially since I was somewhat of a novice at the time. For many months it made its way to the back of my cupboard untouched, until I had a clean out. By then I had been gifted a beautiful tea pot which never seemed to fail, so I went ahead and tried Creme Brulee again, making sure to follow the instructions precisely this time. This definitely solved the problem and I was in love all over again!
This tea is the embodiment of a perfect winter/autumn night, yet I find myself still enjoying it into the summer months. A perfect balance of sweet with a hint of nuttiness and when brewed correctly really does taste like the dessert itself. Again, this tea suggests honey as the sweetener, but I substitute for half a tsp of sugar since I’m not a honey fan. I’ve tried without either and while perfectly drinkable, a touch of added sweetness really brings all those wonderful flavours forward.
Moral of the story: Always give your teas a second chance to dazzle you!