Republic of Tea

I don’t know why I thought this was a good idea to buy. I guess I was overcome with… something… at the prospect of pumpkin flavored tea that departed from the overplayed spice category. I recall not liking their pumpkin spice tea and maybe figured that they couldn’t possibly go wrong twice and must have learned from the first time. Maybe I was just too excited to be out of the house and doing any kind of Halloween shopping, even though World Market’s Halloween AND pumpkin merch/products were a fraction of what they have been in years past. The checkout clerk confirmed it wasn’t just perception, they had indeed reduced the amount of merch ordered because of the uncertainty of Covid. I’m mildly crushed that the pandemic is chipping away at the Halloween boost I use to get me through the rest of the end of year holidays.
Tea. This tea brings me no joy and tastes of bitter disappointment. Fitting for a 2020 vintage. There is a sour flatness towards the end of the sip, some mild vague spice and maybe a hint of maple in the alkaline finish. I have also noted the past few days that if there is a cup of bad tea in front of me, I will mindlessly drink it and mentally complain with each sip of sorrow or repulsion, trying to force myself past it despite having a cupboard full of wonderful tea waiting for me. I’m doing it again with this cup. I miss the $11 I wasted on this tea. It could have been spent on a much more delightful cup.

Very little flavor, hot or cold. Won’t buy again.

Nice berry flavor, but a little bit “thin.”

Bad flavor and strange aroma. I’ve tried it warm and iced; nope. I think Republic of Tea’s cinnamon has a strange flavor and aroma. Looking at all the organic contents, you would think this tea was delicious. I threw it out.

I received samples of this tea in a Sipsby box and really liked it. So much so, that I bought some a few days later from a local store that carries a lot of the Republic of Tea teas. I do find the name a bit misleading. I don’t think of it as beauty sleep but rather a calming tea.

I drank a cup of this with milk during a long car journey. The main flavor is the black tea, which was bold and sweet. I think it was pretty nice. I would drink it again, but wouldn’t go out of my way to grab it. I had some terrible cheap black tea at a hotel the next morning, so this was good in comparison.

This is the other free sample RoT threw into my family’s order. I’ve enjoyed Tulsi teas before, but this one is pretty bad. The tea has a strong fake rose scent for some reason. It tastes like fake roses and over-steeped basil. Health teas are the worst.

RoT sent a sample of this with an order my family made. I’m not into wellness teas, so I wasn’t expecting a lot, but this was actually all right. It’s a sort of savory chocolate flavor that tastes better with a little sugar added. Apparently this tea is made of mushrooms, but the main flavor comes from the cocoa powder. I wouldn’t buy this, but one cup was fine. I’ve only had one other tea that contained mushrooms, and I enjoyed both, not that the mushrooms seem to contribute much flavor. Not sure I would want them to though.

Decent diuretic but flavor is of fennel/licorice.

Very faint flavor. If you steep it longer or use another teabag, it does not improve it. It is merely ok, but better than many other Republic of Tea offerings.

I’m super intrigued by these “high caffeine” teas – stuff like this or what Zest Tea carries. I’ve seen tea/coffee hybrids before and those don’t appeal to me. I just DO NOT want coffee. So, when a company says they can achieve that caffeine level without coffee at all? Well, that speaks to me…

I will say that I didn’t feel super caffeinated after finishing this one. However, I also didn’t feel tired/sluggish or anything like that either. Just, like, level and alert. So I guess that could be taken as an indicator that it worked but I don’t know that it’s definitive feeling enough for me.

Flavour wise, I enjoyed this a lot though – it tastes exactly like toast with a cinnamon sugar spread on top, just with a hint/undertone of apple as well. Still – very accurate to the namesake and that’s something that I always feel like needs to be praised when I company achieves that so well. That has always been something that has been important to me – if you’re going to name the tea after a specific flavour/food then it damn well better taste like it.

Here’s another sampler from the San Francisco Tea Festival.

It’s very subtle. I can taste the spearmint and something that reminds me of citrus. Oh, and a light apple note. This is very thirst quenching and would be good cold (the last bit was a little cold by the time I finished it.) I don’t understand the “detox” thing, maybe just marketing.

Note: The tea bag has no string. I fished it out of my cup with a spoon.

I feel like this one is REALLY pushing the limit of what counts as tea (herbal or not), but it is sold by Republic of Tea and I believe they’re classing it as an “instant herbal tonic” so I guess maybe it’s worth putting up here on Steepster?

Anyway; what I really want to say it that it’s fucking delicious whatever it is. Like, I’m not personally the kind of person who would or does drink apple cider vinegar as a wellness thing in the first place, but fuck – I’d drink this daily. It was actually SO GOOD. Tangy, acidic, bright, sweet – and also maybe a little creamy? I guess ‘cause there’s vanilla in it.

Seriously – apple cider vinegar has never tasted so good.

It’s back to being cold. Well, I guess it never stopped. But the weather called for the type of tea that warms you up. So I went looking for a chai. Found this one. It was good. It’s a decent tea, but it lacks a ‘wow’ factor. It was a Christmas gift, so I better drink it up. As I said, nothing wrong with it.

We have another stupid blizzard tonight. I wanted a warming tea, something caffeine free, with ginger for my unhappy tummy. I decided on this one. It was okay. My tummy has been slightly unhappy for several days now. I don’t know what the deal is. I’m not actually sick,. just gassy and lethargic. I suppose I can blame winter. This winter is really nothing unusual. But the last four or five years have been abnormally mild so I having a regular winter seems awful. I am tired of winter :(

You know, I’ve been hoarding two excellent teas for a few weeks now. I’m afraid once I open them, they will be gone. But that is stupid. I should open them and enjoy them. I don’t think anything else will really satisfy me. Like this tea. It’s not a bad tea. It’s a perfectly good tea for a cold winter evening. But it ain’t Golden Orchid, now is it?

This is the second of the teas I received for Christmas and I quite like it. One of my favorite bagged grocery store teas is Good Earth’s sweet and Spicy. That one tastes like liquid red hots. This one is a bit more subtle.

The weather here in North Dakota seems to have a split personality. We had a two day blizzard (just plain nasty). The temp dropped to -6 with a high today of 6 above zero. Tomorrow is going to be up to 28, with another 3-4 inches of snow, followed by high winds on Monday, creating a ground blizzard. The temps will fall to -20F, and on Tuesday the high will be -8. Yes, the high will be -8F. Then it will get warm, like above freezing.

All that was to tell you that I’ve spent a lot of could hours digging out my car this week. And when I come in I want something warm and soothing to drink. This tea has been my go to for the past few days. I’ve developed quite an affection for it.

I got this as part of a 3-tin stack of seasonal blends including Hot Apple Cider and Pumpkin Spice. In the stack, this one is called Hibiscus Cranberry, but it’s the same tea as Cranberry Spice Hibiscus. Idk what’s up with that.

The dry bag smells like hibiscus and cranberry with spices. Aroma is strong cranberry spice, like Yankee Candle levels. One small cup permeates my entire living room. I do not object. The taste is exactly as advertised in the name – cranberry and hibiscus foremost with a light spice flavor underneath. I can’t pick out individual spices. The dark berry red tea is drying and very tart. I like hibiscus but this one is so tart it gives me reflux which I rarely get. Very glad there are only 12 bags per tin because this one is kind of brutal. Definitely won’t be looking for Hibiscus Cranberry next season.

Flavor was ok for a detox tea. I think the charcoal did help in making me feel better after use.

Yikes.
Wayyyy too much stevia, overwhelms any other flavor. Maybe way in the background I can taste what might be cinnamon? The black tea is totally lost.

Surprised this isn’t ranked higher. Maybe a straight Assam is just too “plain Jane” for some. I like it. A lot! This is an unblended, single-origin Tea, and its simple, malty goodness is exactly what I was hoping for. Just as with art, there’s no accounting for taste, and one opinion is as valid as the next. For me – this was a welcome cup!

Backlog

A coworker and I have started sharing tea samples with each other. Despite her “coffee ritual” from Starbucks on the way to work, she has started to look forward to “work tea time” (where we swap out tea during the slower hour(s); despite oftentimes having different tastes in tea)…My tea from her was this HiCaf Caramel Black….

At first, I thought to myself that this may have had potential, on the account that Republic of Tea is usually a more expensive brand of bagged tea. However, from what I’ve tried in the past, it has always been quite disappointing, so there was no hope in this being good.

I had three bags of this tea, so I had cut one of them open and poured the contents onto a piece of paper. Following that, I did the same with a bag of Lipton (just for fun). I asked my other coworker which tea might’ve been the better of the the two and he stated,
“Umm…there’re not the same?”

With that said, ROT & Lipton are the same to anyone looking at the tea directly, rather than basing their opinion on the box/packaging and/or type of tea present.

Notes: Gross. Bitter, tasted stale, & zero notes of caramel. I took one sip before spiting the tea out and making a cup of something else. My coworker that had made the tea swap with me found this to be some sort of hilarious joke, though. She also dislikes this tea, but wanted my opinion on it….Sadly, ROT has yet convinced me that their teas are worthy of the $9.99 per tin.

Horrible. Has a nasty metallic taste, does not taste like real caramel. Threw it out.