Recently I was invited to the T2 store in Cheltenham to partake in an iced tea masterclass. Of course I took up the offer, being a fan of iced tea, and of T2. I always gaze into the store when i'm walking by; admiring the endless stacks of tea, just waiting to be explored.
The iced-tea masterclass setup
We started off the masterclass with a touch of history; the very first documented iced tea: The Old Virginia. It was discovered in a book published in 1878, called 'Housekeeping in Old Virginia', and is made from green tea. Jak, the girl running the class at T2, made it by mixing a combination of the following teas:
- Chinese Sencha (I could only find Japanese Sencha available on the website)
- Turkish Apple fruit sugar (this gives it some sweetness)
She also added some lemon to the mix too.
Old Virginia - lovely and lemony. Refreshing on a hot day!
Next, we moved onto brewing using a pretty cool gadget - the T2 Teamaker, one of their most popular brewing tools. We brewed Twinkle Berry which consists of Apple, Raspberry, Beetroot and petals. It was fruity but not over-powering. After it had brewed, we strained it onto one of their glass tea pots. I just love the colour! We left it to cool and then added some ice. This one is perfect for those who love fruity teas.
We decided to move onto something a lot more fruity: Fruitalicious!
This tea is full of pieces of blueberries, dragon fruit and goji berries. We used my favourite tea maker, the Jug-a-Lot. It just makes me think of that artist Sir Mix-a-Lot - i'm sure that's a thing, right?? Correct me if I just made that up, ha!
My favourite is the pink one! These are great for picnics or if you're having a garden party.
Me attempting to mix the tea with this super-long spoon
The lovely Jak successfully getting the fruit to sink to the bottom (trust me, this is difficult to achieve!)
We decorated our tea with strawberries and blueberries. We served it in these glasses which feel like plastic but are a type of glass. They're great because if you want to serve hot tea in them, they stop you from burning your hands because they're double-walled. Clever eh!
Jak asked me if there was a tea I would like to try. As there are so many available, I had trouble choosing! I then remembered that the strawberries and cream tea had caught my eye, and so I chose that one. I really love Eton Mess, so that in tea-form sounded good to me! We used a quicker way to make the iced tea: pouring some ice into the hot tea; straining it through into another jug and doing the process again until it became cool. We added some more ice in after, just in case.
Eton Mess in a glass! Just look at that vibrant colour!
I really love this little gold-flecked tea cup made of glass. I love its simplicity. I couldn't find it on the website unfortunately.
T2 always impress me with their displays.
They do books too! I hadn't realised this before. I've heard some have pretty cool tea-related dessert recipes - I may have to look into this!
Have you tried any of T2's tea flavours as an iced-tea before? If so, I'd love to hear which and if you liked them!
I was asked by T2 to partake in the Ice-tea masterclass, however all opinions are my own. This post is not an ad.
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