The Republic of Tea

I bought this tea in the bulk tea section at whole foods. This is my first non-flavored white tea and I’m in love! This is my new favorite tea, period. I know I’m not an expert and I also know I haven’t tasted the best there is to taste, but that’s the only thing keeping me from giving this a higher rating.

Additionally, I should state that I am rather imprecise in my steep time and my water temperature. I steep until it looks beautiful and smells delicious. I heat the water until the bubbles are “shrimp eye” sized but not “crab eye sized”.

The second steep was even better than the first. I highly recommend this tea to anyone who likes white tea!

I’ve heard of course that you either love or hate Lapsang Souchong. I should have known that it wouldn’t be my “cup of tea,” but I wanted to try it anyway!

Sometimes friends of my family will make us smoked turkey on Thanksgiving & it makes the refrigerator smell terrible. I don’t like the flavor either. Plus, if you eat it, you get that smoky aftertaste in your mouth. Yuck. Well this tea gives you that same aftertaste.

HOWEVER, I found a way to tame it. I mixed it 50/50 with some English breakfast tea, added a teaspoon of maple syrup & a good splash of milk and this is enjoyable stuff! It’s a bit more astringent than I’m used to, but not a bad thing to wake up to on a cold day. I’ve heard that other types of Lapsang Souchong aren’t so heavy on the smoky flavor..Maybe I’ll look for those next time.

I’m going to try to cook with this one though. That might be interesting.

1/27/14 2nd tea of Earl Grey tasting. 1 bag/6oz/212F/3min. 1tsp sugar. 3min cool. The tea bag smelled pleasantly of bergamot, but there was little of the scent to the brewed tea. The liquor was very pretty, a deep red gold, and had a gentle bergamot taste over a faintly astringent pleasant black tea. The sugar enhanced the florals as it came into play. I brewed this to the standard, but it would definitely be improved by a longer steep, and using a second bag. The most enjoyable tea of the flight. Thanks to Tea Junkie for this sample!

1/26/14 Tasted at a tea event. This is a nice basic tieguanyin, and was a pleasant bump up the intensity ladder. The first serving was very floral, with a ton of the clover/honey notes oolong teas are known for, as well as a note of toasted coconut. The second serving was much smoother and more mellow, with a pleasant creaminess to it.

Sipdown! At least while my tastebuds are half-dead I can get rid of some of the dreadful hibiscus teas we have lurking around the house. Also a good boost of vitamin C, which I’m not sure will help but at least it can’t hurt. If I’ve caught what my mom has it’s probably pneumonia, so I’m really hoping I didn’t catch what she has.

Considering the smell, I think this would be good mixed with limeade, chilled, in the summer. As it is I won’t be buying it again to try. I think all those Zinger teas I liked as a kid put me off hibiscus/rosehip/cranberry in tea permanently. This is too sweet (stevia? I didn’t even know until now), overly fruity, and just kind of weird, but right now it doesn’t taste too bad. In fact I’m kind of liking it. It’s like warm kool-aid, and while that shouldn’t be comforting in the least it is. Now we’ll see if I can sip anything else down.

The note of plantain in this is spot on. Blends perfectly with the coconut. A bit weak.

Undrinkable? No. But I am still finding this bitter. I am not sorry that its gone.
Many thanks to my sister, who gave me this, but I am not at all displeased to strike it from the cupboard.
Sipdown!

One of my sisters gift teas to me.
Er… I’m finding this one really bitter. Maybe I did something wrong? Hmph.

this has been my evening tea for about two weeks now. it is true to its name and has milkiness to it that is nearly sweet often making sugar unnecessary altogether, though i like the sweetness still.

it can get bitter easily if steeped too long, so don’t do that.

it really doesn’t seem oolong-y at all, more like a green tea almost. i guess that’s why they call it a green oolong? it’s very light, which is why i like it for the evening, though with the cold we are having right now, i might have to turn to the vanilla almond tonight for some depth.

the milk oolong is enjoyable and well met with milk chocolate. pleasing to the nose as well as the mouth.

This was pretty good. Another one that I oversteeped, it looked like black coffee by the time I remembered it. It had a good flavor and I drank it down quick. The oversteeping prevented a good second cup though. Next time, I’ll keep a closer eye on it. My bad, tea.

The taste of ginseng overtook the green tea and honey taste. I drank this tea with extra honey and it was still not very good. I do not plan on buying and/or drinking this tea again.

This tea is very similar to the Mudslide tea from Teaopia and later Teavana. It has a good balance of chocolate and banana (a little less artificial than the Mudslide tea) and without the yummy nutty flavor. I really like banana flavoring and I think this is a bagged tea worth my restocking.

I bought this for the tin and my new realization that I love Earl Greys and would like to try more kinds just for fun.
Hot: I made this hot a few times and just can’t figure out how I like drinking it and don’t want to waste more cause
Iced: I love it, taste nothing like I expected but I am new to “creamed” Earl Grey. It tasted like an orange creamsicle. I’ve made this iced and love it every time. My favorite is iced with 1/2 a teaspoon of sugar.

This is…eh. I don’t have much feeling about it either way. An acceptable orange blend. I haven’t had green rooibos before so I can’t comment on that at all, but I don’t taste much aside from orange. To its credit, it smells wonderful, but the taste is lacking something in comparison. I think I wish there was more carrot in it; it seems like it can’t decide whether to be a juicy fruit tea or a savory tea.

ETA: Getting a chalky aftertaste with the end of this cup. It’s also slightly more spicy and interesting at the end, but the mouthfeel is unpleasant.

I have mixed feelings about this tea. I do love the balance between the earthiness of the pu-erh and the coconut flavor. I also enjoyed the creaminess of the tea but it was a bit too sweet for me, more of a dessert tea. Would definitely recommend for those that like sweet teas.

A very unique Rooibos. Generally I find that the rooibos takes over all of the other flavors, like a nice bully, and leaves a little extra space for them to be tasted as well. It all blends together very nicely and yet I still find it to be… I’m not sure of what the right word/words for it should be. Smooth but… this is weird I seriously can’t come up with a way to describe it!

Regardless of my inability to describe it it is a good tea. Not worth a high rating to me because I don’t find it to be that great. (You know how some teas just make you go, “wow! this is amazing.” I don’t get that from this one.)

First to review this, eh? Well, tall-ho!
First observation is that, when hot water first hit the tea bag, the water turned purple! It has turned, upon further steeping, into a rich magenta color. Woah.
I cannot say that I get any rose flavor out of this at all. I get a tart sweetness, which could be the infamous hibiscus (never before has a flower had so polarizing an effect as it does here on Steepster). I cant say I’ve had enough hibiscus to really form a strong opinion, but I’m dissapointed in this.
I was expecting something more… English. The idea of a decaf rose tea was very appealing, but all in all I’m glad this was just a sample.

had this at a formal tea on saturday, man it is tasty with a dash of cream and sugar, American style!

I got this as a sample with The Republic of Tea’s catalog. I usually don’t like rooibos teas, but this one was nice. Maybe I wrote off rooibos teas too soon? Anyway, I much, much prefer Verdant’s Chocolate Chamomile Curiosity Brew if I wanted a minty chocolate tea, but this one would due fine if I didn’t want the caffeine.

Currently sipping on my first cup of Ginger Peach and oh my… it’s wonderful!! I’m defenitly going to pick some up from World Market this weekend!! :)

EDIT: Ok… I traveled to World Market and I picked up a canister of Ginger Peach and can someone tell me why it smells like Windex?? What is wrong with my nose?!? The tea my boss gave me did NOT smell like Windex. :( I’ve left the lid off for a while… in hopes that the smell will disappear and so far it hasn’t. Ugh!!