The Republic of Tea

Had this iced with 1/2 Minute Maid light Lemonade. YUM. Really brought out the citrus-lime flavor and sweetened up the hibiscus. I really like how RoT does hibiscus. I may have to get more of their hibiscus blends soon!

Enjoyed an iced cup of this today. I wish we could serve something like this at work instead of plain black iced tea. This has so much wonderful flavor!

Another iced tea for this evening. Forgot how much I enjoy this tea. Lovely tart and lime-y.

Having this iced this morning with a 1/2 tsp of sugar. This makes a flavorful, tart hibiscus tea with a beautiful bright red liquor. I taste a light lime that blends smoothly with the hibiscus. If I had to choose, the Pineapple Lychee wins by a few teabags. But both are delicious. I think I tried this hot, but it looks like I didn’t bother to log it :(

I picked this up at the store because 1) I like red teas, and 2) I fell for the marketing. “Get Happy”? Sign me up! Turns out I like it a lot. It’s nice and fruity and sweet. I can usually reuse the bag 2-3 times.

Update on The Republic of Tea Company Teabag Herbal Tea ‘Natural Hibiscus’

Iced tea made in a large pitcher with 16 teabags, 8 cups hot water (filtered, boiling), and some ice.

A bit tart, so i added a splash of lemon juice and sugar free raspberry torani syrup

Delicious; sweet, hibiscus, tart, citrus, then raspberry sweet

Next time it could bear for some more water though, or less bags, and perhaps honey while it’s hot.

Steep Information:
Amount: 2 teabags
Additives: none
Water: filtered boiling 10 ounce mug
Steep Time: a little over 5 minutes, but then I kept the bags in
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: sweet, floral, berry
Steeped Tea Smell: sweet, berry
Flavor: hibiscus! sweet, tart
MilitiaJim: natural sweet tarts candy
Body: Full
Aftertaste: sweet and tart
Liquor: deep dark red

We stopped in Wegman’s grocery store on our quest for just born jellybeans (couldn’t find them, ended up buying a case online). While there we went to the tea isle and these were on sale! 6.99 a piece. MilitiaJim (reasonably) limited me to only one. Since I had already tried one of them, and had a sample of one other I went for this one.

And apparently I missed my mouth and am wearing some, on my white shirt, I do not think these spots are going to come out.

Post-Steep Additives: none

Today we have made; 1 travel mug w/2 bags, 2 mugs w/2 bags each, 1 large pitcher w/16 bags+8 cups hot water+some ice

I think this is excellent, Although I enjoy the added flavor (pineapple lychee) more, this might be an excellent additive/mixer tea.

images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/04/republic-of-tea-company-teabag-herbal.html

My last sample of this – gone! I am thinking about buying this as soon as I’ve finished off more teas. I still have a long wishlist!

Delicious! My boyfriend shared a cup with me. We both agree – its great! Still remains as my favorite from RoT.

This is my favorite from most of the teas I’ve tried from RoT. I think its because of my sweet tooth! From the get-go, I can smell the honey. I add a tiny dab of honey or agave to this whenever I want some extra sweetness. Overall, delicious tea. It relaxes me. I can’t taste or smell the green tea leaves all too much though.

it was alright…

I expected to like this tea a lot more than I did. It’s definitely warm, but it feels a bit like it’s missing something. I’m thinking of using it for some baking, I think it might make a lovely tea cake.

Tea bag teas are usually not my thing but I thought I give it a try since the sample came with the brochure I ordered. The tea gave out a sweet smell of honey when I first opened and brewed it. However, I was not impressed with the way it tasted. While the smell of the honey was certainly dominate, I was not able to really taste much of it in tea itself. I was also expecting a certain sweet/bitter note from the Ginseng but I did not find any. The slight lingering after taste was a bit awkward/unfamiliar and somewhat unpleasant (perhaps I’m too use to the nice sweet after taste of Oolong teas). Overall, the aroma was nice but the tea was somewhat of a disappointment :-/

2 bags, 12 ounce mug, 5 minutes filtered boiling water
same as before: delicious sweet pineapple and lychee followed by tart hibiscus, which i like
strong full flavor

pairs well with my bacon chocolate chop cookies

Steep Information:
Amount: 1 teabag
Additives: none
Water: 6 ounces, filtered, boiling
Steep Time: a little over 7 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: pineapple, sweet, hint of lychee, didn’t’ notice the hibiscus
Steeped Tea Smell: pineapple, hibiscus, perhaps a hint of lychee
Flavor: sweet, pineapple, hibiscus
Body: Full
Aftertaste: lychee, but the canned kind not fresh
Liquor: deep dark red

Today was a day to come home to a happy surprise, some hibiscus tea from Meghann M. The package smelled fabulous as soon as I opened it.

I had to have some, and I had to have it NOW!

This was a good choice.

Post-Steep Additives: none, it was sweet enough!

images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/04/republic-of-tea-teabag-herbal-tea.html

had cold brewed this morning, 3 tsp, 3 cups water, BLEH bitter, and the sugar wouldn’t melt

Steep Information:
Amount: 1 tsp
Additives: none
Water: 1 zarafina cup
Tool: Zarafina green-loose-mild
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: vegetation from a garden with fresh cherries, not the fake ones
Steeped Tea Smell: lightly grassy lightly cherry
Flavor: weak weak vegetal and cherry
Body: Light
Aftertaste: none
Liquor: nearly clear watery green

I was so sad, I had been so excited.

You see a long time ago I fell in love with the “Memoirs of a Geisha” spring cherry green from ROT. Then of course they stopped having it. I was not the tea addict I was now, and so I just sullenly sought out other cherry greens (teavana etc).

Then I decided to ask ROT, and they promptly let me know Spring Cherry was the same tea!

SoccerMom had found some after my fruitless searches (I didn’t want enough tea to make a full order with free shipping).

When it arrived I was ecstatic. The next morning I woke up and made some (this is a backlog, sorry I have been busy). I am not a morning person and I woke up extra early just for this.

A song ran through my mind:
My blood runs cold, my memory has just been sold
My angel is a centerfold
Angel is a centerfold

Oh misery oh sadness, was it ever delicious, was I deluding myself?

Well it wasn’t bitter so perhaps I should resteep stronger.

Post-Steep Additives: none

Resteep: Zarafina 1 c green-loose-medium

SUCCESS

Next time I need to start with medium on this tea.

Light vegetal taste and a low presence of cherry, real cherries not fake cherries. I would like them stronger, but every green cherry tea I have tried that was stronger the cherries were sickly sweet fake.

images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/04/republic-of-tea-loose-leaf-green-tea.html

Another tea that I thought I’d probably dislike- but I’d never tried cherry in tea, and again, we had individual tea bags at school, so I nabbed one. It’s actually not bad. White tea disappears when flavor is added, and this smells a lot more strongly of cherry than it tastes. The smell seems to even contain hints of vanilla, but the tea itself is mild-cherry, not sweet at all, but not bitter. I accidentally left the tea bag in the travel mug (got distracted), so it was probably in there for 30 minutes- I actually didn’t think it was gross.
I’d never have taken a chance and bought this- particular since I think RoT teas are overpriced (sad, because I love some of them). I’m glad I got to try it though.

Both less fruity and flowery than I expected- and the vanilla is definitely in the background. I do taste the hibiscus, perhaps more than anything else. Behind that there is a definite hint of fruitiness- that’d be the apple. I expected to hate this tea, but it’s milder than I was expecting and less sweet. I wouldn’t quite say it’s tart, but almost so. (The aftertaste is a bit tart- not unlike an apple can be.) Not one I’ll actually buy for myself, but it was interesting to try a bag.

This tasted a little bit on the green side of white teas. It was not particularly remarkable, but somewhat enjoyable. There were faint notes of berry – primarily goji berry, but maybe a little blackberry in there too. As the brew cooled, it became more astringent and not quite as good; I am not a fan of astringency in any tea.

I got this at a bookstore cafe and the water may have been too hot, causing some of that astringency. I’m not going to withhold a rating because with leaf pieces as small as were used for this, I’m somewhat sure that a good portion of the astringency would remain.

Tasty. Fruity. I prefer Rishi’s blueberry in blueberry rooibos. I know this isn’t rooibos, but the blueberry isn’t very distinct. It smells like blueberry and there was a mild tartness to it. A nice, naturally sweet tea overall.