If you previously associated tea with hot water, scones or bags, you’re about to have your world turned upside down.
T2, Australia’s authority on tea, hosted a Summer Edition Tea Festival party at their head quarters last week. The office space was transformed into a sleek tea-bar complete with tea-making, tea-sampling, and tea-reading rooms. Shelves of teas were displayed in protein-powder-esque canisters, each labelled with clinical precision. Sprigs of green foliage appeared sporadically providing the space with the feel of an indoor garden. After all, this is a celebration of tea! Whilst guests munched on mouth-watering Mexican canapés served from Mebourne’s first food truck Taco Truck, T2 blends made their way around the premise cleverly disguised as mocktails and cocktails in mini beakers and bottles.
Since it was a scorching day, we were delighted to be greeted by these ice teas.
The 2 O’clock Rush – deliciously refreshing
Here’s the recipe: 16 Hour cold brew black tea (Monk Pear, Crème Brulee) infused with Strawberries & Cream and Turkish Apple Cinnamon.
The highlight of the evening was the opportunity to create our very own personal T2 tea blends! The helpful T2 staff guided us through the customized process. They ascertained our favourite tastes in tea and then recommended the best complimentary flavours. Our olfactory senses got a workout as we sniffed different tea combinations as did their arms from vigorously shaking our tea mixes.
These fish tacos were the bomb! I joked with a friend saying that it felt like we were having hipster yum cha, Mexican style. The teas helped to ‘wash down’ the grease perfectly.
Look who I found?! A long lost blogger buddy: Alicia of Sea of Ghosts. The last time she appeared on my blog was here. We used to see each other at events all the time, but she stopped blogging for a while to concentrate on her jewelry label. The gorgeous jeweler is soon to relaunch her blog! Watch her space.
The T2 tea table featured a pie-chart of teas differentiated and grouped together by their base taste. I so couldn’t guess all the flavours in each tea!
Do you know the difference between Japanese and Chinese tea? I didn’t either. Japanese teas are steamed whilst Chinese teas are steamed and then fried, hence why Chinese teas have more tannin and a higher caffeine content.
Recipe for the Southern Sunrise: Turkish Apple, Turkish Apple Cinnamon and Green Apple Pearls (these contain sea-weed extract, apple juice, water, sugar and natural flavour)
New T2 merchandise- perfect pressies for tea lovers
So there you have it, next time you plan a shindig remember this formula:
T2 teas/mocktails/cocktails + Taco Food Truck = great party!
For more stylish shenanigans from the T2 Summer Edition Tea Festival, check out Instagram hashtag #T2IcedFestival.
Can you guess what flavours there are in my customized blend? Head to my Instagram @cecyliadotcom page to find out :)
