The Republic of Tea

This is sadly my last teabag of this tea. But on the upside I’ll be home in two short weeks and the two hour drive may be worth it to pick up more of this. I shall decide then. Or maybe as I sip away at this, while still working on this paper.

This tea is amazing.

Thanks whatshesaid, and congratulations :)

Thanks to whatshesaid for sending me this to test out :)

This smells amazing. It’s just cooling and the scents of chocolate and coconut are wafting my way enticingly. Gah!

This tea nailed the coconut flavour. It tastes just like coconut! And chocolate! But not overwhelmingly, sickeningly sweet chocolate (probably because it’s cocoa). Just delicious. I may actually add this permanently to my cupboard. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t anything like this. YUM.

Update: The second resteep was pretty good, definitely much less flavourful, but I still downed my cup haha.

Truthfully, I like this a little less each time I drink it. It’s strongly rooibos-y (which I don’t mind) with just not a lot of chocolate. Eh, almost at the end of the tin; I’ve put it in my work stash for those afternoons when I just need a viable cup of something to warm my hands on.

Two in one cup, little half and half, little honey. Still can’t fool your tastebuds into believing it’s really dessert, but it’s a plausible chocolate-ish teaser when you are pie-less or bereft of cake.

Interestingly, with dairy added, it turns orange.

Nothing like sitting in front of the computer doing analytical left-brain things all day, then coming home and spending the evening milking what’s left of the other side to write creative kids’ activities. I am squoze dry. (The creative stuff is the most fun; wish I didn’t have to save it for the dregs of the day.)

And because the cookies mysteriously disappeared while I was at work—two dozen whittled down to two, this is the dessert I’m trying to perk myself up with. It’s not a bad little rooibos, Charlie Brown; it just needs a little love, a small cup, and the bag left in throughout. Not sure I’m getting much chocolate out of it, but it’s still OK for a dessert/nightcap.

Two bags in a single cup. There’s the chocolate, finally!

Keeping a date with Tazo the cat. I promised that when I got home from the nursing home run this afternoon, we’d have a cuddle in the patio glider. Hardship, let me tell you…about 75 degrees, not a bit of breeze or dampness, just warm quiet afternoon sun. A blessing.

The date actually started a little later than intended…getting the truck stuck in 6" of mud behind my dad’s barn slowed down the drive home a bit. Tell you about it when my spouse is ready to look back on the adventure and laugh :)

I still don’t think this is particularly chocolatey, still just used 1 bag, but in a much smaller cup and left it in the whole time. Still a fair rooibos.

This was a thoughtful and welcome treat from a friend. I am neither a huge fan nor a not-a-fan of red velvet; but this didn’t seem to have quite the chocolatey richness of red velvet cake I expected. Maybe next time a double bag and a little sweetening.

(But on the plus side, caffeine free and surely the beets have to be good for something that ails me!)

another sipdown from yesterday…

I don’t know why I got this, maybe because I love watermelon and mint, and also because it was on sale at Whole Foods for $5.49. So that’s 68 cents a quart by RoT measurements, but you have to be kidding if you think I’m only gonna steep this bag once….so saying I’ll steep it twice, four cups a quart… 8.5 cents a cup. Not bad for a RoT product.

And this isn’t bad for a watermelon tea! Usually they never taste like watermelon. This one definitely does, so much so I don’t really taste any mint. I am kind of sad they used peppermint instead of spearmint, but since I can’t notice it beyond how it makes the black tea itself taste, I think I can add in some spearmint myself in the future.

I was certain I was going to regret just grabbing this stuff but now that I’ve made it, I’m glad I did. Also I’m happy they made sure to say to toss the pouch in the garden after! I don’t think the pouch will ever biodegrade but they made an effort, I’ll cut the leaves out and throw them in.

I am going to hopefully go back to planting now…these bumblebees are being psychotic and chasing each other around and they like to wait to be chased by hovering in my patio area and they’re driving me crazy. In the past week, there have been two dead ones on there…I was wondering why but I figured it out. Three bumped into my legs earlier, one bounced off one of my planters, another fell right into one being a goofy bee, etc. I’m trying not to freak out because I know they’re not gonna hurt me as they’re so obsessed with each other (mating? idk what’s going on) but that buzzing just hovering right behind you is super creepy.

eta: second steep does not work at all. I have very anemic looking iced tea. I think the only reason it has any flavor is because I added sugar. I even steeped it for 5 minutes (first steep was 3) and it was still very pale. Boooo, RoT, boooooo. I guess cold steeping is always an option but I imagine it’ll still take forever to get anything out of that.

This was last nights cup. It is a little strange, but apparently my favorite cup from Republic of Tea so far, is not a tea but an herbal or is it a tisane? What’s the difference? I don’t drink a lot of rooibos but this one I thought was really pretty good. The tiny bag just maybe did it a favor. The vanilla is not very strong but hits at the perfect amount to take the harsh edge off the late sip and add just enough flavor to be pleasing. If they would cut their prices in half I might be tempted to keep this around.

Asking seriously – how do you describe the taste of straight rooibos? To me it seems kind of spicy but sweet. The sip can have a harshness that makes me image tasting cedar sawdust (not that I ever have). I am at a loss to put it into words. My blog covers a lot of bagged tea for those looking for a review of grocery store teas along with my loose leaf journey. Help me out and if I use your description I will credit you on my review of this one.

The ratings on this are kind of all over the place. Count me in the not a fan group. Can’t taste the tea. The hibiscus is just too strong (not a hater if well done – this isn’t). There is a paper taste halfway through the sip. To be fair this was an individual wrapped bagged version and it is hard to say how long it was on the store shelf. Not worthy of a rating.

This is a sample sent to me from Lariel, as part of our book club tea trade. Thanks Lariel!

Years ago The Republic of Tea was one of the only tea companies I knew about. I used to drink this plain over ice all summer, along with their Ginger Peach (which still makes my head wiggle with delight as an iced tea).

Then for awhile I didn’t really care much for the Earl of Grey. For some reason bergamot just didn’t appeal to me. Lately I’ve been sampling a lot of earl grey. I started enjoying them again when I tried the one from the Tea Spot. It tastes like a lemon bar.

So, this one is nice too! The Black base is substantial enough, & there’s enough bergamot that you know it’s there, but not so much as to be over powering. I like mine with stevia.

I stumbled on this this tea at a Panera while killing time before a movie. Put two tea bags in a large cup and had to leave it in the car because it was too hot to drink and we had to get in to the movie. I wasn’t expecting much when I came back and since it was 20 degrees outside I knew it would be cold, but I really liked it, so much so I bought it. Unfortunately, I have not been able to duplicate what happened that night. :) It does smell like honey, but really doesn’t taste like honey and has an aftertaste.

very tasty for the 1st steep. outshone the pearls, actually. but no more taste by the 2nd…and i do love to resteep my teas. BUT if you want a really strong jasmine…this is a one steep goodie :)

Tastes too much like hibiscus and sweetener. I like their apple teas, but this doesn’t have enough apple flavour. Might be better iced.

Haha I’ve got two teas going on right now because I got this for after dinner at Panera. I think I have some of the loose leaf of this from Cup of Tree that I haven’t tried yet, oops. So since this helped my boyfriend get his cinnamon cake slice for 99 cents, even better.

This is definitely honey flavored. That’s about all I taste. It’s sweet, but not cloying or anything.

Can’t wait to try it outside of a crushed up tea sachet. I hope it tastes more like green tea that way.

Had the strange urge to drink one of my bagged teas this morning, so I had this. Meh. I really think it’s true that once you drink better tea, you can never go back. Now what am I supposed to do with my bagged teas?