The Republic of Tea

Needed some herbals due to sleepless addiction to blacks and oolongs. Well, this tea packs a really strong smell and flavorful punch. I taste the plantain the most with the coconut coming in second as texture against the green body of the rooibos. Honey really brings out the plantain and makes it all the better down my throat. Every time, I get 2 solid steeps out of this tea first 4-5 minutes, 2nd 5-7 minutes. Also great cold. Totally worth the near $8 bucks for 36 bags.

On the note of bags, I’ve been going back to bags lately more out of portability, time management and getting the better water from the school cafeterias on campus. Though I could bring my strainers and leaves with me, this is more convenient. I overall think now that I just prefer a flavorful leaf, with that leaf being full. The green rooibos already has small leaves, so this type of tea bagged never bothers me because I know I have the whole leaf. As for actual tea, I’m pickier, but I still enjoy some bags. I know, blasphemy, but as long as the tea has a full profile, it’s good to me.

I added some hot milk (I used almond) to this as suggested on the tin, threw it in my go-cup and took it to my volunteer desk-job. Yum! I really needed something hot and comforting as the weather’s turning and I caught the very first autumn cold to come around. Woooohooo. This cheered up my day a bit. :)

I have a cheap apple cider than I enjoy, but I splurged on this because it has more spices in it, and you can’t go wrong with that. It wasn’t as strong as I’d have liked it, but it was still yummy! I think a strong apple flavor is what it was really missing, like the spices gave a good punch and the apple kind of fell on its face. lol :D

Light fragrance with a pleasant fruity taste and mild Rooibos. It’s feel good, relaxing and reminds me of sitting in the park, but a steady companion in the office for some light paper work. This was given to me as a gift for leading a Kirtan during a Yoga Teacher Training.

I think I’m getting addicted to flavored teas…. This one has been in my collection for a little while and the other day I had tea on the go and couldn’t use my tea TARDIS so it was a tea bag kind of morning. This was nice for a hot morning drink but I’d rather have had a more flavorful tea.

Creamy, fresh spring grass, lychee and orchid. Smooth and sweet, easy drinking, nice body.

Definitely double bag this one in a 10 oz mug. Probably among the better chocolate teas I’ve had, but the flavor is still lacking a bit. Not bad, but not amazing.

A nice sweet tasting tea with a bit of spice. I liked this tea. It tastes like a light apple cider without the calories.

Surprisingly for a bagged tea, I quite liked this one. It tasted like a cookie. I usually add sugar to black teas because of the bitterness but this one could have used much less than I actually added and still tasted like a cookie, I think. I wouldn’t want to drink this all the time but if I want to drink a cookie, this one’s pretty good for that.

I love this as an iced tea, but not so much as a hot tea. It does get bitter if steeped too long.

Nice, kind of reminds me of Tazo Passion Tea but less tart.

Nice and fruity.

A basic black tea.

Backlogging from a couple days ago. This smells like apple and spices. I added some sugar to this cup and the smell is more appley when steeped. This tastes lighter then it smells,although I didn’t steep it very long either though. This tastes pretty good. This tastes like apple and clove and abit of ginger and a hint of cinnamon. This tastes good but not a great tea.

It smells like peach. Taste, not so much. It’s not bad.

It tastes like grass, but good grass. The best grass I’ve ever tasted? Grass that has never been stepped on, and each day a light sprinkle of rain douses each blade, and the wind picks them up and lays them gently in your cup. Add a dash of honey. JUST enough to taste a subtle difference and it’s tasty to the max. Great Matcha taste in a tea bag from!

I figured a warm cup of tea would go nicely with the light rain this afternoon and I wasn’t disappointed! This is a nice vanilla rooibus.

Got in a sample pack with a PBS order. Glad to try, as I’m a DA fan, though not obsessed. I liked the the strength of this, as I like a good breakfast black tea. Oddly, while others have mentioned a pronounced ginger taste, I didn’t find it that way. I did taste the ginger, but to me it was lost in the sea of assam, only surfacing at the end. My main complaint with all the DA sample teabags is too little tea for that small sachet. I did like this, but wish there were more tea per bag.

Got this in a sample packet from a PBS purchase. Liked it, yet found it disappointing. Glad it’s still summer, as this tea has a Kool-Aid kind of flavor, which at least goes with the season. However, it’s got an artificial quality to the flavor, which I would attribute to the stevia in it. I dislike artificial sweeteners, even those of the so-called ‘natural’ variety. One can definitely taste that in here—more so than most other flavors. I didn’t taste any rose, but for me that was a plus, since I’m not too crazy for flowery teas. I couldn’t really taste the hibiscus either, which was disappointing, as I do like that. I liked it, but not enough to want to buy it again.

Undrinkable. I’m not sure how anyone else can drink this tea, I found the aroma to be overwhelmingly like play-doh. Maybe my canister got messed up somehow, but I have never in my life been more disappointed in a tea. I would drink lipton over this any day of the week, and plan on throwing out the rest of the container. I tried it both hot and iced, hoping that the play-dohness wouldn’t be as strong if I cold brewed it but no luck.

I’m very satisfied with the spices in this chai, but I think the problem here is that I just don’t like red teas. I wasn’t happy with the mouth feel and it just tasted like spicy water.

De-fucking-licious!

I received this as a sample with my last order. I’m so impressed. It’s sweet without being fake sweet. The tart apple flavor blends very well with the caramel. Definitely will be included with my next order.

11/19/16 EDIT: I received a sample packet again with the new ROT catalog and decided to have it because I never got around to ordering it like I said would. I don’t know WTF happened but all I could taste this time was rooibos. I detected a hint of caramel and I mean BARELY a hint and no apple taste whatsoever. So sad because I was looking forward to having my own tin!!