The Republic of Tea

A very smooth cup. Dry, this smells mostly dusty, but after steeping the cup is fragrant, smelling of both banana (plantain) and coconut. It’s very smooth. I just wish the flavor was stronger. Your results may vary, but I thought it the coconut flavor was stronger than the banana.

And it’s smooooth.

I had a cup of tea because it was quite cold out and I needed something warm to carry with me to class. I’d wanted to try this flavor from Republic of Tea and was happy that it was available at a local cafe. It had a great blueberry scent and a sweet blueberry taste. I also like that the black tea wasn’t too strong. It’s interesting, but as I’m tasting more and more of Republic of Tea’s fruity blends, they all seem to have the same flavor element. No matter if it’s a green or black.. and I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing. Anyway, this cup was smooth and pleasant to have in class.

This was another tea that somehow followed me home from vacation. I was so excited to find this at Central Market and not have to pay shipping. Made both myself and my husband a cup with two bags (12 oz mugs), he took his straight, I added a bit of splenda. At times I got the red velvet taste from it, other times less so, but either way, it was yummy and smooth.

I had this at Madhatter’s Teahouse while on vacation in San Antonio. I’ve always been intrigued by jasmine tea but wasn’t sure if liking the smell would translate into liking the taste. I really liked this tea and somehow, 3 oz ended up following me home to Chicago. Adding artificial sweetener made it taste weird though.

I assume a teahouse would know how to properly brew teas and they brought me a little timer but it may have gotten too hot as it was in cast iron and we were sitting in the (yay!) sun. That may have been why it started tasting weird.

I wasn’t too impressed with the other tea I tried from RoT’s Wellness Collection, but this one isn’t half bad. The smell is lightly spicy mixed with the smell of red rooibos, which I’m not usually keen on but it isn’t too prominent in this blend, thankfully. It tastes mildly herbal and distinctly sweet from the licorice root. The rooibos flavour is there too but not that strongly – actually nothing in this tea really comes across as being very strong or excessively prominent.

Thanks to Jude for letting me sample this one. :)

The tea bags smell like hot chocolate – the instant kind, from a box. I’m not a big chocolate person – I like it and all but I prefer fruity candies over chocolate.

However, when I have to decide between chocolates I must go with dark (I’m allergic to milk chocolate). So this would be one I might pick for myself.

ANYWAY I’m new to mate – and my last try was disastrous so I’m somewhat hesitant.

Still smells chocolately… can’t see the bottom of the cup. I smell the “old coffee” smell that must be mate…

Drinking it, it tastes basically how it smells. It’s OK. Not my fave chocolate tea, but not the worst thing I’ve ever had.

This one wasn’t minty enough. Or spearminty. (I love spearmint more than mint.) And there was an odd grassy flavor which I’m guessing was the lemon balm. There wasn’t anything too lemony about it either.

I really wanted to love this one! I’m a sucker for red velvet cake, but something about the formulation here is just off. There’s a weirdly sour note here, like they isolated that aspect of the recipe so there’s a sour cream tang like cream cheese frosting except not good. I think it must be the beetroot, I can’t figure out what else could be screwing it up.

I have a whole canister of it though, so I just add chocolate soy milk or cut it with another tea with more chocolate flavoring.

Just finished my first cup of this tea and it was yummy. I like that its a Rooibos tea because i love the flavour of rooibos! The pomegranate flavour isnt as strong as i thought it would be but it is very plesant and the vanilla finish is awesome! loooove this tea!

Backlogging: I had some of this last night while watching a movie with the hubby. I find that this tastes MUCH better when brewed stronger, I used 3 tea bags in my 12 ounce (approx) mug, and it turned out wonderfully.

This is yum. I brew it at double strength because I found that it was a little weak the first time I steeped it, and at double strength it seems just right – very chocolate-y, very coconut-y, very yummy!

Had this yesterday as my morning tea. It was the loose leaf version, and I REALLY liked it. Can’t remember how long I steeped it (probably either six or eight minutes) but with a dash of honey and almond milk, it tasted just like a hazelnut latte! It gave me a good energy boost too, without the jitters or seriously upset stomach that I get from coffee.

Backlogging…and I mean BACK BACK Backlogging…will review more next time but I did like this…sweet, a little kick, mango, pretty special

Playing catch-up with my adventures in tea-scribbling today. Steepster, my dear, my dove, my duckie, why can’t you let us post-date entries?

Blackberry Sage was an experimental purchase for me. After thoroughly enjoying this very same tea at a restaurant — in iced tea form, which is important to note — I was determined to have it for myself. Home-steeping resulted in two observations: one, this tea is surely better iced, as icing tends to make flavors more subtle and sweet, and two, the blackberry flavor of this tea is a little too artificial for my taste. In a flavor nutshell, Blackberry Sage is more akin to drinking blackberry fruit juice than, say, drinking a black tea with an infusion of blackberries — and thus, as a hot tea, it’s not quite a favorite. The hint of herbal flavor here is a nice touch, though. I often wish I could use such notes in my own blends. (Alas, alack, a tea business I do not have.)

That being said, this can be a very nice choice when prepping one’s morning commuter mug. A workerbee can mug it up with this tea, add more (cold) water later in the day, and then enjoy a refreshing berry-flavored water. Thank you, muses of strange beverage ingenuity!

And now, my near-compulsory tea haiku:

Warm blackberry juice?
Summer can’t come soon enough.
Word to iced mother.

I love cherries and I miss them in the winter when they’re expensive and hard to find, so this tea will have to do for now. It’s not anything spectacular, but it’s nice enough. The cherry in this tea is a cherry-candy flavour rather than the actual fruit, however it doesn’t have that chemically artifical taste that other cherry-flavoured teas I’ve tried have had. I was hoping for a bit more of the acerola’s tartness to come through, but this leans more towards sweet cherries.

Not sure how I have failed to rate this, I honestly thought that I did…
Oh well, I enjoy this tea. I keep a tin at the office and at home.
It more or less a go-to tea when I am not sure what I want. The peach flavor is wonderful, makes me think of the peach preserves my grandmother made…the ginger is subtle, just right and there is something else in the aftertaste that is brief, can’t quite define it..maybe a minty note, maybe hibiscus…something is there though. This is a keeper.

Additional Info: I agree with Hazel, the color of the liquor is gorgeous!

I always get my hopes up with Republic of Tea. Maybe it’s the fancy circular casing, or the endless promises of SUSTAINABLE INGREDIENTS and RICH BURSTING FLAVOR. Or even just the fact that the blood orange art on the case reminded me of a wagon wheel. I always WANT to like Republic of Tea.

Unfortunately, I just never do. While I’ve only tried a handful of their teas, they are always disappointingly bland and musty. I snagged this one 50% off after the holidays so it was less of a price gamble, but I really should have learned my lesson being disappointed by their chocolate strawberry tea last year. I just don’t think that Republic of Tea handles chocolate flavoring well.

See, this is really where the problem is. I could be satisfied with this as a slightly bland and musty blood orange rooibos. Really, I could. But for me, every sip is overpowered by that artificial, waxy flavor that might be considered chocolate in some universe. That universe would be inhabited by people with only one taste bud on their tongue, but I could buy it. For me, however, it tastes like chocolate lip smackers, and I’m going to leave THOSE in the past where they belong!

Lately I have been drinking this tea in the mornings. I am really starting to like its mild malt flavor!!!

I let this tea steep for twenty minutes. I can actually taste the malt flavor. I am suprised that I actually like Green Rooibos. It is not as smooth like Red Rooibos. It has a texture that is similar to a full bodied black tea. It is not astringent and would make a good addition to any meal or night time ritual.

I love this tea! It’s best iced, I like to brew up cup after cup and pour them into a pitcher to sip cold. This is one of RoT’s milder greens, I wish they’d do a proper iced version with a larger bag!

Sadly I ran out of Yogi Tea’s Vanilla hazelnut tea, and when I went to the store they didn’t have any. :( I looked around and found this and thought I could try it. The vanilla and almond smell are very apparent. However the flavors are a little muted. I added some cream and caramel to the tea, which made it better. Still miss my vanilla hazelnut though.

I’ve only tried a couple Republic of Tea teas before (samples), and I haven’t been too impressed. They seem to lack flavor. This one is interesting – it pairs a black tea with blueberry. I usually only see blueberry in a herbal tea. Maybe like other Republics, the blueberry flavor is lacking or maybe it is overpowered by the black tea. But I’ve hardly met a black tea I haven’t liked, so I like this one. If it had been a herbal tea, I suppose the flavor would have been weaker, but as it is a black tea with blueberry, it is better.

This tea is fantastic unsweetened. The interplay of fruity and herbal flavors tops my charts.