The Republic of Tea

This is my go to morning cuppa. Nothing fancy, just straight, delicious black tea.

Additional notes: I had to pull another teabag of this from the teabox to check for vanilla in the teabag. After brewing up a cup last night, I dissected the teabag and I really did not see anything that could look like vanilla. Just some rooibos. Jury is still out on that one.

Discovery tea box – Tea #2
I do love a vanilla tea and can’t resist try any that I come across. If I ever find a true vanilla tea with actual vanilla beans/pieces, that will probably be my favorite. BUT the description for this one SAYS there is vanilla beans. I should have dissected the teabag before throwing it out. Looking up the tea, it also says I’ve had this one before (eight years ago — I’ve been on Steepster that long?!). However, this one oddly tastes like bananas, rather than vanilla. So I’d probably lower the rating now, but I don’t like lowering ratings… only raising them.
Edited: For funsies, I looked up the day of my first Steepster tasting note: 11/18/2009. Whoa.

I don’t think I’m chancey enough to buy a Republic of Tea canister without trying a sample (50 tea bags!) so I’m happy to receive a sample from them once in a while. I haven’t tried many RoT but this one is good and also my favorite. I guess I like teas with vanilla, especially if its a red tea. This is very smooth, tasty and vanilly.

This is another instance of me trying to like flavored black tea and failing. When perfectly brewed there are only the very faintest hints of maple and pecan; mostly it’s just black tea, black tea, black tea. Sometimes I add maple sugar to it, but even that can’t do much to help. Bummer.

Hey! It’s my 111th tasting note! Onto the tea review… Despite being exhausted from work today, I took a trip downtown to grab a cup of this tea. I couldn’t find a parking spot to save my life and ended up risking a parking ticket while I went into the cafe (the only cafe around here that serves this tea). It makes a pretty golden cup of tea and the leaves expand tremendously. The taste is of oolong tea (somewhat astringent!) with a floral note and a hint of something that desperately wants to be milk or cream. If I try not to concentrate too much.. I almost, ALMOST get a scrap of smoothness that could be interpreted as the milky quality. It’s not bad.. but there should be a bit MORE of that sweet cream taste. I’m looking forward to trying other milk oolongs out there and don’t think this one is the very best.

DJ1 of 2010 was more than excellent ! Hoping we will have so good teas this year !

With a nod to the name, I decided to make a tea latte with this. I like my tea lattes delicately flavored, so i steeped only two tsp in half a mug of water before finishing with with steamed milk and a touch of honey. I really enjoyed the combination of vanilla, cocoa, and nuttiness, and found they had the added benefit of tasting well as the tea continued to cool. Looking forward to trying this with an extra scoop of tea, and with water alone.

Okay so I steeped it a little less and this time the juniper berries came across a lot less pungently and I can taste the other spices as well this time now that they aren’t being drowned out. There are also some fruity hints – not just the citrus peel but of berries aswell.

There’s something about the smell of this that makes me love it – it’s an interesting mix of fruity, spicy cinnamon, and the tangy scent of the juniper berries. Somehow they all manage to work together very well. I wish a little more of the fruity sweetness had gotten into the flavour. Overall the flavour seems to be tangy, a mixture of citrus and juniper berries which give the tea a clean flavour with notes of pine. The cinnamon is subtle, but it gives the tea a warm, soothing quality to it.

It’s a very interesting and unusual tea.

Found a sample of this at home. I really like this tea, but I don’t think I like it enough to purchase it. It has a nice balance of peach and ginger and tea. I hope I find some more lost samples of it soon!

Free sample time = yay! This was surprisingly good. It was very juicy and fruity with just a touch of ginger! I enjoyed try it! Although I think I have tried this one before.

One of my favorite greens! It’s a very sweet cup, best made in the biggest strainer you have as the tightly-rolled leaves unfurl to a pretty good size. It smells like dessert but the taste has a tart edge to it. I tend to think that the sea buckthorn makes me feel a bit better when illness threatens, but maybe I’m just a sucker for a good health claim.

I finished the last bag last night. sigh This was one of the best tasting banana herbals! yum!! On my wish list now! :D

Today is coconut day. I made beans with coconut. Now I grabbed this wonderful tea! I received this in a swap from QueenofTarts. Thank you so much! I received a lot of bags of this.

The liquor was a dark yellow green. It smells SO FRICKIN DELICIOUS! The sweet and starchy scent reminds me very much of slightly sweetened plantains and coconut. I have never tried green rooibos plain, so I’m going to make it a point to try it plain one day. Anyhow, this flavored rooibos left me in awe. The coconut is but a hint, but it is there. It tastes real. The plantains taste real too. I felt like I was biting into a sweetened plantain. Man I miss eating sweetened plantains. I can’t seem to make it right here.

RAVE – this herbal rocks! I need this in my life.

Imagine the Samoas girlscout cookies in a warm, fuzzy liquid form. That’s what this tea reminds me of. A bit of milk — 2% or vanilla almond and a couple spoons of sugar. The cocoa flavor of it is just enough of a hint, but not so much that you forget it is actually tea. The coconut smell and flavor is very crisp and delightful. I was sad when I learned it had barley, as I’m working toward going gluten free — but I wont let this tea go to waste in that process. I like it a lot, and if I end up unable to finish it I will definitely pass it along to another tea lover to enjoy. It’s great anytime of day, but adds a nice touch as an after dinner treat.

Thanks to The Republic of Tea for sending this to me as a sample with their catalog! I think this tea really reminds me of a raspberry tea I used to drink. It’s very sweet and I bet it would be very nice iced. I was actually very shocked to see how pink this brew was. It makes me wonder if it’s a natural thing dealing with the added hibiscus or pomegranate juice. Either way, not a bad tea!

I had this tea, and it was a favorite for YEARS. Now Republic of Tea no longer sells it. I cannot find a replacement for this, please help me- contact republic of tea and request that they bring it back! They will listen, and you will be SOOO glad they did.