The Republic of Tea

The 6th and final of my RoT fruit frenzy. I like that after the intial fruitiness, the black tea flavor comes through. I liked this it was tasty. But honestly Republic of Tea is simply too expensive for a fairly weak tea mixed with Kool-Aid. I really like Kool-Aid but I can buy it much cheaper and mix it myself. Your mileage may vary.

The smell of the leaf is really good. I can smell the tea for once. Brewed, the blueberry dominates but wonderfully so. The tea (which I can actually taste for once) blends well and changes the flavor to more blackberryish. It isn’t an in your face flavor, just pleasant. I would not want this every day but it is something I would enjoy on a regular basis. I know many of you won’t sweeten a green but I think you should try it once with this tea. Yum.

This is one of our favorites in the category, as both a standalone and… as a base for creative expressive custom tea making (which I excel at, apparently, as people hover like gnats on overripe fruit when I am concocting things)… it is very fresh… Quiet the mind? No. More the opposite—to me it is bright, energetic, and did I mention super duper iced? I like it stronger than suggested, and since it’s herbal, it is great to just let steep a long time. I love taking this as a minty base, fresh lemongrass (I love the stuff), some ginger, NZ Rose apple peels (they are very aromatic), sometimes extra rosehips or petals… the peel from a meyer lemon, and stuff I’m undoubtedly forgetting… local honey, sometimes lemon juice, sometimes not… and we’re set for what we devour after a long few hours working (physical labor or workout) or just a hot summer day, again, cold… but it is also delightful hot on its own.It’s the only Republic of Tea kind we liked enough to get a whole bag of (as in a pound or two, however much the huge bulk one is), and we zip through it pretty dern fast.

No one liked this tea… five people, all blech, and we tried it multiple ways—first exactly as instructed, then different steep times, sweetened and not… it just was a big cup of bleh to us. It was so sad, because it smells like it’s going to be great then ends up being an aromatic cup of bittersweet—literally a bit of bitter and a bit of sweet, almost muddy flavored water. The faint berry taste seemed very fake and candy-like… not in the good spicy candy taste that happens when vanilla and spicy chais mingle, either. It’s just bad stuff for us. Glad we got it on sale when a store was downsizing the shelves of tea for summer; otherwise we’d be out a lot of $ for what ended up being given away (none of our guests would go for it!)

I didn’t realize I had tried this one before. It smells good. If steeped per the instructions it tastes good. A light peachy white tea with a light bite of ginger. The bag will steep twice. If you are a bagged tea drinker this is pretty good. The downside for loose leaf drinkers is you can taste the paper. Not horribly but more than I notice with most.

Very similar experience as one of the other reviews. Smells very peachy. So yummy. The color is a beautiful amber. The peach taste is way more subdued than the smell would have you expect. After the peach fades you are left with this cardboardy taste. This has been my experience with the three most recent RoT’s I have tried. I am not experiencing the tea. Maybe it isn’t cardboard so much as the taste of tea that has been steeped too many times, yet I only did each of these once. If you are going to use underfilled bags I would suggest Stash instead. I much preferred Hedley’s Peach Apricot.

Rounded out my afternoon with a cuppa – this is such a fun tea! It still reminds me of sun tea and I do love this iced. Although it’s November outside, and a cool 60 degrees inside today, so I am in need of hot tea. One item to note: do not let this steep for too long or else you will really taste the carrot flavor!
Please see other notes – this is a cupboard essential.

I really do have a soft spot in my heart, always, for this tea. It tastes like sun tea and really lead me into the world of green rooibos, which is a newfound love! (Thanks again, ColumbiaKate for getting me hooked!)

This is bold, citrus-y and bright – like I’ve brewed sunbaked tea leaves. Love it! I will have to purchase more to experiment with – add other flavors. I’d love to brew this with a tropical flavor and make it iced, just in time for summer.

Stay tuned…

2nd steep – I actually just poured it over ice. The liquor is a bright orange too! I hadn’t noticed that as my tea mug is chocolate brown (my beloved Fiestaware). So refreshing over ice. This is my new summer tea.

I wonder how it would taste with strawberry pieces? Or PEACH!

Holy heck, new project for me!

Thank you ColumbiaKate for the sample! This is a fabulous tasting tea! I first thought, Carrot Tea? Really? But from the first sip I’ve been hooked. A new cupboard essential!

This one tastes and smells like Sun Tea – you know, letting tea bags sit in the sun through the day and serving the tea over ice in the evening. When I lived in SoCal, that’s all we drank. And when we moved to Maryland, we brought along the custom. I remember one of my childhood friends being completely befuddled about leaving a beverage outside and then drinking it, but that was my childhood summertime thirst quencher!

OK, enough blabbing on Memory Lane. (Actually that’s what this tea should be called!) It tastes like a sip of sunshine. There is a definite “this is tea” quality about it. While it tastes like sun tea, there’s a twist – a fruit-and-veggie medley.

I could talk about this tea for hours. I am in LOVE! Move over, CHAI!

First the bad news – I could barely detect the green tea. Now the good news – this is a very pleasant drink. Hot it was soothing and fruity. Smells nice and looks pretty. I imagine this would make a great iced drink.

Smells amazing! The taste is light, comes in a decaf nighttime tea which is nice.

When I first got this one it reminded me pretty strongly of Teavana’s Matevana, but I’m starting to think that ultimately Matevana has a bit more to offer, a fuller taste than this one. Which isn’t to say this is bad – it’s a perfectly good mate, and the added flavors do a good job of calming the intensity of the roasted yerba mate. I don’t think I’ll be buying this one again though.

All of the teas I have had today have had coconut in them. How odd. I made this during a rehearsal earlier and it managed to get me through a particularly boring couple of hours with its sweet, starchy flavour.

This was extra tasty today, probably because I have been craving this for a while now and have refrained from drinking it as I don’t have much left. Starchy banana and green rooibos, yum! I can’t really taste the coconut, but I think it is imparting a lightness and tropical-ness that I would miss if the coconut were not present.

First of all, thank you QueenOfTarts for sending this!

I love this! The plantain is the most prominent flavour and it adds a lovely starchiness to the cup. The coconut is more in the background and compliments the plantain beautifully. The green rooibos (my first!) is lovely and sweet and I think I might prefer it over red rooibos. This is so smooth and had so much flavour!

Now I’m craving banana bread.

Smells very strong of blackberry. Much more mellow taste but still the main flavor. Initial blast of berry quickly gives way to a rather bland tea/sage combo – not sure how that is possible. Then the the syrupy berry aftertaste kicks in and lingers and lingers. Number 2 of 6 RoT’s to try. Hope they get better.

I have to be in the mood for this one, but when I’m feeling the need for a nice healthy cup of green tea this one hits the spot. I like to keep the steep short so it gets just grassy enough without getting all astringent on me.

I have a little tin of proper matcha that I can rarely stand to drink (it’s just so much! so much green tea! aaah!), so it’s nice that this one is around to make me feel virtuous about drinking green tea without overwhelming my delicate palate/soul.

Magazine sample. This is a pretty standard cup of green tea. It is pretty good. Although it tastes pretty similar to Celestial Seasonings Green tea and that one is cheaper so if given the choice I would probably go with the Celestial Seasonings. But I’m not going to say no to a free cup of tea!

This isn’t horrible. There just isn’t enough of it in the bag to make me care. The orange blossum and flavorings have a kind of candy taste to them and a lingering aftertaste. Rather bland at first but tasted far better as it cooled. The biggest problem with this brand is it is twice the cost and half the tea of other local available teas.

Glad this was a free sample. Ugh! I like ginger in tea, but as I’ve mentioned before, I’m picky when it comes to mint. There were really no words for this. The ginger was very apparent, but with the mint and citrus, it wasn’t all that nice at all. I made it through without pouring any down the drain, but mostly because I was hoping it would settle my stomach. I won’t be seeking this out. Ever.

Bought a tin of gasp tea bags at a local bagel shop (bags, because they did not have the loose leaf pf this blend). I don’t know how long these have been on the shelf, or whether I’m just way past tea bags now. I was really hoping to love this tea. Rather, it was flat, like a can of diet coke left on a hot deck midsummer (not that I drink much diet coke any more). I’m wondering if the loose leaf would be better. A girl can hope…