The Republic of Tea

Sipdown of the only teabag I had. This was attached to one of their catalogs. I drank it while entering most of the rest of my teas into my Steepster cupboard. Now it’s more right 266 teas total – 251 in steepster cupboard.

I’m not a fan of emphasizing weight loss by drinking tea. I drink because it tastes good.
This did not taste good. Sugar, medicine, ick. I absentmindedly drank the rest….I think? I didn’t get up to pour it out so I must have? I don’t remember.

I bought this tea thinking it would be delicious but I hate it. Now I have an entire can of it smells like cheap chocolate that you get at Easter and a stale banana moon pie. The rooibos didn’t help the combination.

Tastes like the regular Get Clean All Day, but with extra mint. Not too much extra flavor to ruin the tea taste. Good plain or with cinnamon. Overall: rooibos tea with a bit of minty freshness.

Added a splash of milk – tastes like thin coffee drink. Tastes nice with breakfast. Added milk and cinnamon on another occasion – negligible effect r/t taste. Need to remember that it’s not a coffee drink – it’s disappointing if expecting a thick and creamy drink.

January 2019 Catalog Sample. Smells orange-y and fruity. Tastes thin with little flavor – the smell is much stronger than the taste. Tastes good with honey, but mostly tasting hot honey water. Tasted 01.2019

Tastes like citrus, and then some. CItrus-Plus. Has a nice fruity smell, pleasant. Tasted 9.2018

Additional notes: I’m already craving this many times since I acquired it from Ost, so I guess I need to raise the rating (from a 76). Craving it so much that I had to look to see if it was available from Republic of Tea. uh oh. I’ll wait for a sale or something. I just love the dusky chocolate and ripe banana.

Also sipdowned one of my separate amounts of Lupicia’s Melon oolong. Does it count as a sipdown if I have more than one amount of it? Or does it only count if ALL of that tea is gone from both packages? (2019 Sipdowns: 7?)

Happy New Year, Steepster! I received this from Ost’s sale. Thank you! Mainly, I loved the adorable tin but luckily the tea is tasty too. I tried this once with one teabag and it was tasty enough, two teabags might impart a little TOO much flavor on that first steep… but I’m fine with it. There is a nice dusty chocolate flavor with hints of banana. And blackberry leaves. WHY? So many blackberry leaves in teas lately. Just stop with the blackberry leaves already. There is also a watery quality I get at the top of the sip, which you might be saying “yeah, it’s tea” but it’s just a watery quality that I haven’t noticed in other teas….like plain water is floating at the top of the cup, and you have to get past that to the flavor? It’s odd. The rooibos is completely unnoticeable to me, which is fine with me either way. I’ve never been a hater of rooibos. Happy to have this cute tin on the shelf.
Steep #1 // 2 teabags for a full mug// 10 minutes after boiling // 2 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 7 minute steep

Arby Advent Day 9
I actually said “yay” when I saw this as my tea for the day. It’s one of my favorite liglty flavored rooibos blends. The rooibos is so full and tasty, and the vanilla is a lovely addition. I love this tea!

My only sample from the tea box for today! Now this is rooibos done right! One bag brewed a flavorful cup of tea. The rooibos flavor is pleasant and not at all woody or weird. There’s also a bit of vanilla. I like this one a lot! It’s very sweet and refreshing with some sugar.

Actually a very nice “regular” black tea. It says it has ginger, but I’ve never really noticed that specifically.

I got a tin of of this bagged for Christmas. My brother knows I like tea, and enjoy spicy teas especially. So he got me this and one called Cinnamon & Cardamom. So far, only made this one.

I see it has rather low ratings here. I thought it was good. Unremarkable, but good. I used about 9 ounces of water instead of the recommended six. I am a weirdo who prefers weaker tea. I let it steep about 4 minutes. I can’t really tell what it tastes like. but the spice was faint. That might be just because of my stupid sinuses, although I see a couple of other reviewers had a similar experience. The end of the sip had a slightly bitter edge. Just a hint. I don’t take milk in my tea, but a bit of milk or sugar might have evened that out. My brother said his cup was “okay” which I interpret as he did’t care for it much. :)

I think this tea will be a pleasant cup from time to time.

I taste the peppermint, but the chocolate is very subtle. It wasn’t what I was expecting and it was ultimately disappointing. Basically a smooth mint flavor. I may try doubling up the bags to see if it helps bring out more of the chocolate flavor.

I think this is my last tea from my swap with Mina. Thanks for everything!

I wonder what makes this ‘double’? I expected a strong rooibos based on the name, but really it’s no stronger than any other rooibos. The woody, almost floral at times, notes are perhaps stronger than I’ve experienced in other rooibos blends, but the tea itself isn’t stronger. I drank it with milk as I rarely drink plain rooibos any more, and it was a pleasant enough cup to sip on while not really thinking about it.

Sipdown 134/395

Sipdown 121/395

Another of my oldest teas from a Hapatite Tea Swap I did with Mina way way back in 2014. I can’t imagine these teabags have been too affected by time, though. It’s a very drinkable tea, though none of the flavours stand out in particular other than the metallic tang of the hibiscus. It has a hint of natural sweetness and when I add just a tiny bit of honey to it the citrus flavour comes out a little, though not much. Not a tea I would choose again for flavour, but I don’t think the flavour is really the main reason anyone would choose this tea. I can’t speak to any skin benefits, but that’s not something that really interests me in tea anyway.

Similar in taste to Republic of Tea Cuppa Caramel Cake, but has more of a fruity smell
Conflicting tastes and smells between fruity and rich, resulting in a 5/10 rating.
3-5min steep advisory. Tried 12.2018

You easily taste more pomegranate than you do green tea however I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. Green tea does tend to be bitter anyway, so this tea is nice in that you can get the caffeine and cleansing benefits of a bit of green tea, but mostly taste a fruit instead. This is a good midday tea to give a small bump in energy levels while working on a project or some other kind of work. Personally I can usually get two steeps out of one tea bag before moving onto a new one. I highly enjoy this tea and would probably restock my cabinet with it if I were to run out.

This tea is able to curve some of the sharp ginger taste with the addition of a peach undertone. However the ginger still remains the center tasting point of this tea. I personally only make this tea hot as the cold temperature tends to make it a little more bitter.

Since it was a bit of a fruity tea I steeped it for 4 minutes to make sure the full flavor profile had a chance to steep before tasting it.

Ohhhh Republic of Tea. You got the scent game down in your harvest season blends. I wanna know where da flava at?

Dry bag smells just like mulled apple cider and even the aroma of the tea which is even more tart and pungent. It smells real. But there is so little flavor — a little tart watery apple and cinnamon — and no depth to this it’s ridiculous. This just makes me feel nostalgic for apple season in Ohio and upset that I can’t even come close to nursing my aroma-induced longing with a hot cup.

Boo.

Generic pumpkin spice tea. It smells delicious, yes, like creamy, sweet pumpkin pie filling, but in the mouth it’s rather flat. Neither creamy not sweet and no pumpkin flavor. It tastes mostly of pumpkin pie spice flavoring mixed with a floral black tea base that has a propensity toward bitterness, which I find an odd combination with the spice but not bad. Mix that flavor with some sweet Yunnan black and it’d be much better.

Had as a bedtime warm beverage, this was pretty satisfying.

There was a very small amount of material in the teabag, perhaps one teaspoon worth. Milk thistle is in the family Asteraceae and this tea smelled like what I would expect from a variety of Asters, though it’s difficult to describe. There was a slight milky note mixed with the citrus that gently blanketed the floral and herbal aspect. The aroma of the grapefruit flavoring was definitely more ruby red than pink or white, sweeter and rounder with less of a sharp edge and mixed well with the orange peel. The liquor was fairly clear with an almost silky body from the milk thistle. Tasted light, grainy and milky sweet with the citrus coming in nicely, not too harsh or bright. It seemed to be a ‘cooling’ tea and was nice to have before lying down. I actually quite enjoyed it and happy that it was a sample included in my tea fest bag.

Had more fruit than tea flavor. The kind I (actually, my mother lol) purchased was loose-leaf variety. Tasted more cranberry than orange (orange left an aftertaste on the contrary). It was different; I am not a huge fan of Fruit Tea but I found this enjoyable enough.