T2 Tea.

T2 began in 1996 as a single store in Fitzroy, Melbourne, and now sells online and through shops across Australia and abroad. Canberra has three: Westfield Belconnen, Westfield Woden and the city shop, Shop DG03/4 on the ground floor of the Canberra Centre at 148 Bunda Street, in Civic. The city one keeps the longest hours, from nine on weekdays, until nine on Friday nights and from ten on Sundays, and online orders can be collected at the counter. The Tea Centre trades in the same building, so the two chains' classics shelves can be compared in a single visit.

Most of the loose leaf comes in the brand's colourful cardboard cubes, 50 or 100 g sealed in a compostable bag, with many everyday teas also sold as 250 g refills and the rarer lots in black tins. The classics are the reason to come: English Breakfast, Earl Grey and a Darjeeling Second Flush in the 100 g box, Japanese Sencha, China Jasmine and a smoky Gunpowder Green, a plain oolong in a cube and a Taiwanese Dong Ding in a tin, Silver Needles from the Wuyi Mountains in a 50 g tin, a pu-erh, the house chai, a straight peppermint and a red rooibos.

The local curiosity is Canberra Breakfast, a black tea with sweet oats, coconut and a hint of rose that the company describes as an ANZAC biscuit twist on a breakfast tea; it sells in a 100 g cube and as a box of 25 tea bags. Around the classics are the flavoured blends that make up most of the range, the seasonal editions and gift packs, and the company's teaware, designed at its own studio in Melbourne, from teapots and cups to matcha bowls and whisks. Between the three Canberra shops, this is the one open late enough to reach after work on a Friday.