The Republic of Tea

Wow, a RoT sample that’s actually drinkable! Enjoyable, even! (I think I threw the last 3 out ofter one sip!).

Celestial Seasonings (I know, I know…) Madagascar Vanilla Red is my go-to easy, serviceable rooibos in a bag, but I think this will supplant it next time I buy. It has a deeper, richer, rounder rooibos flavor and definitely seems fresher. The vanilla is stronger (especially in scent) and tastes more natural.

I got this in my Christmas package from the States and actually, I’ve had it quite a few times but haven’t logged it yet.

Although I do feel like it’s matcha for a lazy person (I do include myself in this category only because I drink it when I wake up in the AM) it’s actually not too bad. It’s not overly bitter and the flavour is actually quite nice! The Republic of Tea blended the matcha with some other whole leaf green and actually, that’s a pretty good idea.

Erm, basically what I’m trying to say is that this is a relatively decent (and easy) green tea to make in the morning. Now I need to go finish this cuppa so I can get to work!

This is pretty decent for a bagged yerba mate. The flavor is fairly thick, chocolaty and rich (just don’t expect it to be hot chocolate). I can’t taste the mate. I steeped in 5oz of water for a little over 12 minutes, then added about 1oz of almond milk and some stevia.

Good, but not overly exciting…I guess I am partial to other British Breakfasts, there was nothing wrong with this, just more to like in others I have tried.

I really like this tea! It has a nice, fresh lemon scent dry, and it smells fantastic and even more lemony while steeping.

It’s good with or without sweetener, but I find that a few drops of honey really brighten up the flavor of this tea. Pre-honey, it has a pleasant lightly lemony green tea flavor, post-honey, it tastes like a mellow pink lemonade, and the flavor blends well with the green tea, rather than covering it up. In fact, I think pink lemonade + iced green tea would be a pretty awesome combo, especially after drinking this!

This is one of my favorite lemon flavored teas. :)

I’ve had this tea around for awhile…long enough that mine has the old Panda Berry label! Part of my reason for joining this site was to encourage myself to start rooting around in the depths of my tea cupboard a bit more, and this has definitely been a lurker. I can’t recall what it tasted like anymore, and on opening the canister I discovered that uh…I’ve probably had this all of 2 or 3 times. Looking at the tin vs the Republic’s website ( I added their ingredients to the Steepster listing), the ingredients have remained the same after the name change, with the exception of “natural cream flavoring” having been replaced with (or renamed as) “natural vanilla flavoring”.

The scent of the dry tea is a strong, sweet cherry/berry scent. I like my fruity tea strong, so I brewed it for an extra minute, as it was still looking pretty pale at 4 minutes. Once brewed, the berry scent is quite faint, and unsweetened, it tastes kind of like slightly berry flavored hot water. In an attempt to bring some of the flavors out, I added a little honey. It didn’t make much of a difference – now it tastes like sweet slightly berry flavored hot water! I don’t taste black tea in this at all. I don’t have any lemon around, but there’s a chance it might improve this tea a bit.

On the container, it said to let it cool to room temperature (although I suspect that’s just to avoid scorching your kids), but I decided to give that a try, just to give this a fair shake. It didn’t do much sadly – now it’s just cool, sweet, slightly berry flavored water…blargh.

This tea isn’t undrinkable (I finished my cup), but it’s pretty ho-hum. I’m going to go brew up a cup of something else!

Now that I’ve rated this poorly, if anyone out there still wants what I have left (probably around 45 bags) for their kids, or just to try, please PM me – I feel kind of guilty chucking it (although I think I’ll keep the canister to air out and put other tea in). I suppose for now, it’ll just go back to lurking until I need the space!

Considering I’m not a big licorice fan, it came as a bit of a surprise to me that I liked this tea. I have a full canister of it (bagged), and I probably drink it a few times a month.

The tea in the canister smells herbal and spicy, almost medicinal, but in a good way. You can definitely smell the ginger and anise. It smells similar while brewing, but a bit less strong. This is a tea that benefits IMMENSELY from honey – all you need is a few drops, and the flavor changes from a weak, somewhat gingery/anise tea to a nice strong and complex ginger mint with a hint of citrus. For some reason, I like that this tea tastes a bit medicinal (in the herbal sense, not in the cough syrup sense), but I do have to be in the mood for it. It does leave a bit of a tingle in my throat from the ginger, but I like that too.

I like this tea after meals, when I feel like I may have eaten a bit too much, or the food just isn’t sitting quite right. It’s very easy on the stomach.

The liqueur looked so good when I brewed it…I really looked forward to some good black tea. And i needed the ginger punch today. Has anyone seen how nasty the weather in NY is?

Well, The black tea was not very brisk :( and I think they forgot the ginger. But the peach flavor was refreshing so overall it worked for me…

Can anyone recommend some good tea with ginger peachness?

One of my favs for anytime time of the day. Love it love it love it. The right amount of tart and sweet going on in my tea cup right now.

This was a free sample that came with my Republic of Tea catalog. I’m not a big fan of mint tea on its own, but I decided to try it last night in the hope of easing a sour stomach. I sweetened it with honey instead of my usual sugar. It wasn’t too bad. In fact, it was tolerable. Most of the mint teas I’ve ever tried were always too strong when they weren’t mingled with a black tea, but this was nice and mild. When I say this, I mean it didn’t smell as though it would peel paint from the wall.

This tea seems to get more hibiscus-y the longer it’s steeped, so I think I’ll keep it at 5 minutes in the future. It’s still not bad though, as I can definitely tell that there’s a lot more to this tea than just the tartness of the hibiscus. It makes a decent-enough hot drink before bedtime.

I’ve been eyeing this tea with some degree of trepidation since I got in a trade. Anyone who knows me knows I hate hibiscus, but when everyone started raving about RoT’s hibiscus-based flavoured teas I was curious enough to give it a shot – benefit of the doubt and all that.

The tea of course turned the usual bright red colour when I poured the water into my mug. Initally the steeping tea smelled like pineapple but after it had a few minutes in the water it started to smell more like lychee.

The tea itself…wasn’t half-bad, somewhat to my surprise. Yes, the hibiscus is readily apparent but it’s not as horribly tart as it could have been. It’s paired with a slight sweetness and the fruity flavours of pineapple and lychee are both easy to pick out and they distract my tongue from the evil red stuff. :D

Bleah. Dislike. Raspberry kool-aid mixed with the flavor of melted crayons. I don’t think I need to elaborate further.

PS – Thanks Lisbet for the sample. :)

Got this tea from French Vanilla in a swap. Thanks so much for sending some of this my way!

The scent when brewing is heavenly. It reminds me of scrumptious desserts, chocolate and coconut macaroons, toasted coconut cream with chocolate drizzle. Wow, does this smell amazing!

This tea is a little boring neat, so I added a tiny bit of honey to it, brings out more of the toasted coconut taste. I can see enjoying this occasionally. The smell is spectacular and the taste is enjoyable, once honey is added.

A friend of mine picked this up while we were perusing a Japanese grocery store. There were no ingredients listed on the canister. All it read was, “Chinese herbs and rose petals”. Further digging later online termed up nothing as well. The blend smelled primarily of rose. There were other petal-looking “thingies” in it with a white-to-beige appearance like chrysanthemum, but I didn’t get a sense of them in there.

I was a little weary of it at first when I saw the rose petals they used. Instead of pink ones, RoT blended this with red. Thankfully, they were few and far between. Never dominating. After brewing, this had a distinctively botanical scent – not quite bathwatery, praise Buddha – and settled into an omnipresent floral scent. The taste had a similar effect – floral, slightly buttery, and relaxing. Not my favorite rose blend ever, but one I’d never turn down.

I got this from Kristin! Apparently I have somehow gotten off RoT’s mailing list, so I didn’t get this in the mail myself. Boo. Well, I feel lousy- I’ve been dragging for days. So a new tea is a lovely thing. I actually expected to dislike this immensely. I hate pomegranate teas most of the time… BUT I don’t dislike this one. (Notice that I tried it anyway, because I’ll try any tea once.)
It’s actually sweet with a berry undertone. My sister used to like these Cherry Creamsaver Lifesavers… and it’s like that, but less artificial tasting.

I really liked this dessert tisane. The coconut pairs well with the cocoa. It is a lot like hot cocoa, but with no fat or sugar. You can even kick it up a little by adding milk for that creamy hot cocoa flavor. I was significantly surprised with this one.

Lizbet sent me a sample of this tea. It took me a while to figure out exactly what this tastes like but I think I now know. Orange Kool-aid. Now, I like Orange Kool-aid so that’s ok but I generally drink kool-aid cold so this is a bit odd… but I kind of like it. But it’s odd… but I like it. I don’t think I’d go out and buy it, but it’s ok.

Having this at a coffee shop it is definitely good!

Having this at a local coffee shop and I must say this is quite tasty. Hints of vanilla. I would get a can of this for regular drinking.

Love this one! it’s so refreshing!!

All the traditional chai spices were there, but pretty weak. May try again and double up the bags.