The Republic of Tea

i like cardamon! i do i do. i like how it looks in it’s little pod and i like how it tastes and smells in my purple tea tumbler.

idk why i am so weary of cinnamon. i must have had some scaring experience once that has given me ptcd (post traumatic cinnamon disorder).

but heck if cardamon doesn’t win this cup! yay delicious

Thanks to Anna for this sample!

Traveling Tea Box C #2
This was my after work tea today. While it was a good cup it was not what I was expecting. The flavors weren’t as strong as I would have liked them to be. And sadly I didn’t taste the pumpkin. Just the spices. I ended up adding cream and sugar to finish it off:) and I’m guily of even adding whipped cream on top and a dash of cinnamon. I was going for the pumpkin pie effect. As I sipped the rest I stumbled upon this quote on the back of the tea bag package.
“Tea tempers the spirit and harmonizes the mind, dispels lassitude and relieves fatigue, awakens thought and prevents drowsiness. The spirit of tea is one of peace, comfort and refinement.”
-Lu Yu, The Sage of Tea
Welp! 2 down and plenty more to go!

The tea sachets are handy and make this an easy tea to prepare, but that’s where the truly positive ends. I bought a tin of this (50 unbleached tea bags) at Whole Foods in St. Paul, MN. I felt that the black tea had a bitter undercurrent to it. I even tried steeping the tea with lukewarm water and under-steeping it time-wise. There was a light bitterness to every cup. Could it have been old tea? That’s why I mention the store from which it was purchased. Also, I could not detect a mango flavor. I bought this tea in desperation as I had just run out of Teavana black teas; since getting this tea, I have managed to wean myself from even black tea (I only occasionally drink coffee, and have not touched pop/soda for 26 years). I just wouldn’t buy this again.

I feel accomplished! I got a swap to Jennkay and the T&C box shipped, I got groceries, and I cleaned out Mom’s car. All while sick! I’m much better today, though, as evidenced by my burst of energy.

This time I heavily doctored this: low temperature, short steep, underleafed by half, and added a handful of chrysanthemum flowers. The theory is that it’d turn out at least somewhat like the tea from the Thai restaurant nearby that’s so delicious. Short answer: it worked. It’s not quite identical to the blend I love, but it’s pretty close and delicious. I’d rate this cup 85/100 but the tea itself remains as-is. I think next time I’ll tweak it with just a little extra leaf to the same amount of chrysanthemum.

Well… There doesn’t seem to be a way to brew this without it getting bitter. It also brews up incredibly dark for a green (darker than my last cup of houjicha), which is surprising and a little strange to me. I made a pot of this and was very careful to do a short steep and take the leaves out before they could stew, but it’s still bitter. Darn.

The flavor isn’t bad, exactly, but it’s overly floral (and this is coming from me!) and strongly bitter up front and then just sort of dies. It has a lightly sweet aftertaste but I’m not impressed.

Luckily this one is a few cups away from a sipdown, but I’ll be looking elsewhere for jasmine from now on.

Tea #11 from Traveling Tea Box C

Backlog.

With rooibos and hibiscus both listed as ingredients in this tisane, I fully expected the liquor to be unmistakably red. Instead, it was a sickly yellow color. The flavor was a bit tart, and did not at all remind me of passionfruit. In fact, couldn’t pick out a single recognizable flavor in the entire cup.

This tisane claims to support libido, but I would be feeling less than amorous if given a cup of this.

Good morning Steepster,
I had a few cups of this yesterday at the office. It’s good as an iced tea and pretty good as a hot tea, though I’ve noticed it tastes better if you add about a tsp. of sugar to it. The base tea looks like a dragonwell or something similar. This is growing on me a bit but is one of those teas I’ll be glad when the sipdown day approaches so I can get rid of it. Working is not as much fun at typing tea notes on Steepster all day – lolol

Update: I wasn’t too impressed with this as a cold brew, it tastes better hot. Oh well, hopefully I find a way to drink it all in the next year or so!

This was an impulse purchase since my track record with RoT has not been so great. My review is for the loose leaf version of the tea.

Upon opening the tin I see a Chinese green tea that has some long and slender pieces, but I can’t place what tea this is by looking at it. There appear to be a few ginger root pieces here and there in the blend.

I’ve actually had this a few times in the past week… the green tea is mildly vegetal but there is not enough ginger here to be calling it a ginger peach tea. Also I feel the peach flavor is artificial and tart so I’m not loving this particular blend. I will probably finish it off someday as it’s decent enough. I think I’ll try a cold brew tonight and see what happens.

Kind of overpriced and average-ish which is my impression of RoT generally. ;-)

TeaboxB! I haven’t really had much luck with the few Republic of Teas that I’ve tried. Even though I expected a black tea, this one is nice! I guess I forget about chamomile especially with so many amazing blends out there. I almost used two bags since there looked like there was barely any tea in this one, but the cup was perfect. Brewing, there is a sweet apple fragrance I can’t wait to try. Chamomile naturally tastes like apple but the apple flavor added was great too. Very nice!

You know, I’d say that I’m a fan of The Republic of Tea. I probably wouldn’t choose one of their teas over some of my favorites, but there are a few teas from The Republic of Tea that I like to keep in rotation. These teas also have nice memories attached to them… so I figure I’ll keep a few tins around. The scent of this tea is of lemon and herbs — a bit like lemon myrtle, but with a touch of sweetness.

Sipping… I taste a grassy sort of lemon. It’s not a tart kind of lemon, but more of a flat and generic lemon flavor with green rooibos in the background. The vanilla and coconut combine with the lemon at the end of the sip. Even though I cannot distinguish each individual flavor, they strangely come together to create something like a plain lemon loaf. It does lack a creamy element and reminds me a little bit of a chlorinated swimming pool. It’s not a bad cup of tea, but there are better lemony dessert teas out there.

Tea #3 from Another Traveling Tea Box

It took me a few minutes to pinpoint what I think this tea tastes like, in fact I had to think all the way back to middle school and my gum chewing tendencies back then. When I was in middle school my mother spent a small fortune buying me Bubble Yum, oh the memories…

Yup, this tea reminds me a lot of Watermelon Bubble Yum.

It has an artificial watermelon flavor that just hits you in the face and the mint hangs out in the background, barely noticeable. I could taste the back base a bit through all the flavoring, but I really had to search for it.

While this might be a good summer flavor for some, I’m still not sure that I’ll be able to finish the whole pitcher of this tea. The giant tea bags make a Quart sized pitcher.

Edit: The more I drink this, the less I like it so I’ve already decided to drop my rating.

Definite apple sweetness up front. It took me a few sips to find the secondary note of the caramel, but when I did it was warm and mild. The rooibus taste is there but as more of a playful backup that grounds the apple.

Got a sample of this in the mail today, and rather than add it to my cupboard, I’ve decided it will be my noncaf tea of the evening.
It actually smells good, like gooey caramels. And the smell of the steeped up tea is just the same.
It sips a little flatter than that, unfortunatly, but it smells lovely. All in all, a perfectly nice red tea.

I received this tea as a sample in the mail today. I added some Bean Vine and Pumpkin honey to hot boiling water, and threw in the tea bag. I smell the caramel and rooibos tea. When steeped, it has a light taste. It reminds me of the Hot Apple Cider tea by RoT. It’s not too bad, but since I have some of the Hot Apple Cider tea at home I’m not going to buy any of this tea.

I made a pot of this tea and let it cool, then refrigerated it.

I like it SO MUCH BETTER cold! It really allows the chocolate to come out, and in fact has totally changed my opinion of this tea altogether. It tastes so much richer… I feel like I’m having dessert!

DRINK THIS STUFF COLD. You won’t regret it!

Delicious! The chocolate covers the smokiness of the mate, which I must admit that I still haven’t fully adjusted to.

The tea itself has a very light flavor- I’m unsure whether I’m using enough leaves and steeping it long enough. That’s really my only caveat, though. If you’re willing to invest the time experimenting with it until you get it perfect, it does make for a nice cup of wake-up tea.

Had to be a raging cow to my disgusting slobby housemates who never do their dishes or clean up their kitchen messes. It’s just two of them, and the rest of us all know that these two are the perps, but of course I can’t single just the two of them out, because then I’m conspiring against them or something. So I had to send a nasty message to all of them.

I’m sick of this crap. Keeping the house clean should be common sense/ courtesy. It’s amazing to me how magnificently some people fail to grasp that.

I’m also too tired and lazy to wait for boiling water, even though today is miserably cold. So I’m drinking a week-old cold brew of this stuff with honey that has been chilling in my fridge. Surprisingly, it’s not bad. I’m kind of weird in that I like my tea to be a little bitter, so the fact that I overleafed and probably oversteeped this pot of tea when I made it doesn’t bother me in the slightest. In fact, I really kind of love it. Blackberry is my favorite fruit, and it’s naturally tart. Some honey or sugar takes the edge off, but still allows it to shine in its natural state of take-me-or-leave-me flavor.

I really wasn’t that enthused about this tea when I first bought it, but I think I’ve grown to love having it around as an iced tea to grab when I’m having a day/ week/ month like this one. hahahaha.

I seem to be having a lot of trouble lately getting my ass out of bed in time to make a hot cup of tea in the mornings. I think my bio-clock is setting itself into Winter Mode. So to compensate for this, I have been brewing pots of tea at night, and then allowing them to cool and refrigerating them so that I can just grab my Tervis-ful of cold tea and high-tail it to whatever I’m late for.

So I brewed the last of my supply of this tea and mixed it with honey.

It’s delicious! I made it too strong, but that only helps bring the floral, sage side of it out. And the honey makes the blackberry sweet. The black tea base is there but not dominant.

I really enjoyed this today.

I realize what a novice I am- I’m only just getting ‘round to the idea of making my own iced tea from loose leaves. But whatever. This is a huge thing for me right now, so I’m going to shut up and enjoy it.

Mmmm… Woke up late this morning, and I have a lot of work to do today, but I’m stealing a few more minutes of free time with a mug of this tea.

It’s a perfect fall day, and the fall makes me crave black tea. Usually with blackberry blends, the blackberry is all I can taste, and it’s also usually very bitter. Not so with this blend. The blackberry is there, but it complements the black tea so well that I don’t mind at all. In fact, I’m enjoying it immensely.

Some days it’s best to just go with your instincts when it comes to choosing a tea. Today, I got it perfect. Today was made for drinking blackberry sage.

Okay, I’ve stalled long enough now. TTFN, Steepster.

The dry leaves smell very strongly of blackberry- they actually made my whole room smell like it!

Steeping- I’m unsure how much tea to use per cup- I feel like you need to be very exact, because it’s very easy to make it too weak or too strong. Of the two traps to fall into, this tea is better off too strong than too weak, at least to me. The leaves can be reused with no problem or significant change in steep time.

Taste- Surprisingly, this is a very light tea. The black tea is there without taking over, and it’s not bitter, which is always a plus. The blackberry flavoring isn’t too powerful, either- this tea smells stronger than it tastes! But it is still a nicely-balanced blend.

Would I buy this again? Perhaps. I don’t hate it, but I’m not exactly over the moon about it either.

The aroma from this tea is mouth-watering. After adding a splash of milk and some sweetener it really does taste a bit like caramel vanilla cake (or at least the way I imagine it tastes).

I tasted other vanilla caramel flavored teas and most are yummy but I think this one stands a bit above the crowd. The flavors seem to have more depth and a bit more complexity than many I’ve tried. I only wish it came as loose tea leaves.

Funny how your taste for tea can differ from one season to the next or when your pregnant. When I first tried this tea I wasn’t very big on it but this time I like it quite a bit more. I found two things. 1: This tea is better hot and 2: you have to be careful with the steeping times.

Next time I would like to try it with honey and see if that does anything.

I like this tea! The vanilla blends well with the rooibus for a grounding earthy flavor. I have a cup or two after a heavy meal, and it really does help me feel lighter. As to actual “detox” benefits, I am not sure.