The Republic of Tea

Ohhh tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy! Just like yesterday this tea title really fits the moment.

My first appointment went great! I love my doctor and everyone at the office. And most importantly my doctor said everything looks great! I got to hear the baby’s heartbeat for the first time today! Man that was surreal. I teared up immediately. Tomorrow I have my first ultrasound!
What an exciting time. I’m so relieved to finally get to the doctor and hear that everything’s great.

Judging by the reviews I have a good feeling this tea’s recipe has been changed. I found it quite enjoyable, as did the hubby. Definitely not watery and actually quite packed with flavor. It tastes like RoT read their old not so good reviews and majorly oomphed up the volume. To me the old reviews sound like they’re describing Constant Comment from Bigelow. This tea is definitely far from that. It smells and tastes quite complex, with a good black tea base. There’s all sorts of spices going on in the cup with a nice citrus note and some things I can’t quite put my finger on! I’ve got another sample bag left so I’ll go another round with it soon. It’s definitely a cup full of holiday cheer!

This is backlogged from a couple days ago. It was a free sample I got with the catalogue so I am definitely glad I didn’t spend money on this one. This one is ok. I have to say it smells better dry then it does brewed. It is sadly really bland brewed. If it tasted the way it smelled out of the package it would’ve been delicious. Oh well it was free so I can’t really complain too much…

i love this tea… when i am having an hormonal day… i steep two bag, sniff and sip.. especially around menses time … it works wonders and the taste is full like i like true herb teas… not happy about the natural flavorings bit… but great…

My coworkers and I brought our least favorite teas to work to share with each other in the break room (on the theory that some people will really enjoy teas that others despise – a theory which the reviews of this tea bear out really well!).

I loved this tea! I note that other reviewers thought that the pomegranate flavoring overwhelmed the green tea. For me, this was a plus. I’m not a huge fan of the taste of green tea. I prefer black or white tea to green tea. To me, green tea has always tasted a bit like steeped fescue (a type of grass that is widely used to seed our lawns in the USA).

So, as far as I’m concerned, this is the kind of tea I look for when I look for green tea. It’s definitely a green tea, and you definitely don’t taste the green tea. It tastes more like a fruit tea, which is what I like about the flavor.

I could see myself drinking more green tea, as long as it tastes like this one.

For those who hated this tea – just take it to work with you and leave it in the break room for your coworkers. Doubtless one of them will fall in love with it, like I did.

I realized I was the only tea geek among my coworkers when the Republic Of Tea shipment came in yesterday and I was the only one excited. The restaurant is carrying three new tea flavors and this was one of them. We already have the black tea version, which I’m not really a fan of, but I’m going to review them all anyway. (Blackberry Sage is among the new ones, too, which I’m thrilled about! It’s an old favorite.)

As far as the aroma goes, it smells almost the same as the black Ginger Peach. Like artificial peach candy. I wouldn’t expect that to be different, though. The flavor is pretty much what I imagined it would be. Heavy on the fakey peach, super light on the actual tea. No ginger to speak of whatsoever. This tastes really similar to a peach green tea that Lipton makes. Like the bottled stuff you’d get at a gas station. I mean, it’s not awful, but it’s not what I look for in a cup.

First of all, I want to mention how pretty the sachet is! It’s round, super-fine mesh with white thread stitching all the way around, hemmed by a sewing machine the way you’d sew the bottom of a shirt. Also, there is a very generous amount of dried herbs in it. Maybe around three teaspoons.

The aroma is lovely and clean as it steeps. Minty with a bit of lemon. It’s oddly soothing just from the smell, which is dominated by spearmint. Originally, I planned to steep it for four minutes, but the tea grew dark quicker than I expected, so I stopped it at three. This turned out to be a good decision.

The flavor leaves my mouth tingling and cool. Again, spearmint is the main thing I taste, but the peppermint gives it depth and an almost savory aftertaste. The lemon balm is in the finish, adding a note of freshness that reminds me of my mom’s garden when I was a child. It makes me want to grow all three of these in my balcony garden this spring… maybe I will!

We sell this at the Panera where I work. I’ve tried it a few times, but I just don’t like it. Leaves a strange after taste, and I feel it’s too weak, though this may have something to do with the fact that the hot water dispensed in our espresso machine is hot hot enough.

The greater part of the chocolate effect is in the aroma. I like to breathe in the chocolate and follow with a sip for the rooibos and vanilla. Yum yum yum yum yum!

It’s been a while since I wrote a tasting note! It’s been a busy few weeks, but I’ve also been drinking a lot of tea which means I’m woefully behind. The holidays always seem to be the busiest time of the year, even though a lot of the stuff I am working on isn’t at all holiday-related. Just a lot of work piling up at once, coupled with a really bad immune system that seems to think that perpetual sinus infections are the way to go. Which is probably the worst illness for me to have for a long time—I have chronic headaches for a multitude of reasons (TMJ, migraines, muscle tension, & stress headaches) so having sinus pressure on top of all that is really awful. Tea, however, seems to help—especially TMJ & migraines, which seem to respond well to caffeine.

Anyway, this tea! It was in the RoT little catalog they sent out every few months. Or is it every month? Seems like I get a lot from them! This is their holiday blend, and… well, it’s a pretty generic mix of flavors. Orange, clove and other spices. It’s nice although they included licorice which makes my mouth feel kind of numb. It’s not an ingredient I usually like in blends, especially when combined with clove which has that same almost numbing effect. Clove I love, licorice not so much. Together they both overpower the orange.

It’s not a bad tea by any means, and I’d happily take a cup if someone offered it. It’s quite strong, especially for the rather small bags they have, and it does have a nice holiday vibe. Just not something I would go out of my way to have, there are a lot of similar blends that have a better balance of spices.

I’m currently attempting to replace sugary sweet foods with dessert teas. I’m also trying to avoid sugar period, so I’m looking for unsweetened teas that I don’t need to sugar up (expect I might cave in to a little honey here and there) to enjoy. I decided to get the chocolate tea sampler box from Republic of Tea to give them a try for my dessert tea mission.

Of all the options in the box I was most excited to try this Coconut Cocoa – and it didn’t disappoint! I made a small cup (right around or slightly below 8 oz) with one tea bag, letting it steep for a little over 5 minutes using boiling water. I find I enjoy RoT much better with two bags and slightly longer steep times though.

The smell definitely is “malty” to me. I definitely tasted hints of coconut and chocolate, but the barley flavor won out, which wasn’t ideal but it didn’t suck either. Will definitely experiment with the other bags in my sampler box (maybe two to a cup next time) though I’m not sure if I’d buy this or use it as one of my go-to dessert teas.

I wanted to love this.. I really did. But no matter how I prepare it I’m just not impressed. I have to say it’s not a horrible chocolate tea; I’ve had some that were so artificial they made me sick. It’s just not doing much for me. Dry it smells nice, a mild rooibos smell laced with chocolate, berries and a hint of citrus. Without sweetener or milk it’s a mild rooibos tea with a hint of chocolate aroma. I think with a bit of sugar and cream it’s more akin to red velvet cake, but even then it’s weak. It makes me want to go make chocolate cupcakes right now at 10:53 pm. And if I happened to have a box of Miss Crocker’s in the cupboard I would go do just that. This also made me want some Florence, in my opinion a better chocolate tea. Or even a better rooibos tea, as I love rooibos and this isn’t one of the better rooibos teas I’ve had. Meh. I am dying for some good tea.

I’ve had this timer for 5 years now and it’s still hobbling along! It has been my go do timer the whole time I’ve owned it. The buttons got easier to use and less sticky. One of the times I replaced the battery I ended up stripping the heads on the screws. I can’t recall if that or a drop to the floor is the reason why the back of it is partially dislodged, but something semi tragic happened, still it persisted. I would get a replacement, but I don’t think they make it anymore, which is a shame. The options for using it as a tin lid or a fridge magnet were nice.

My microwave broke and I have been enjoying the throwback to the 70’s lifestyle before microwaves were standard in every house, so I haven’t replaced or fixed it. The feature I miss most on it is the timer, so when I saw this tea timer while grocery shopping it was obvious it must come home with me.

This timer has a couple features that are pretty neat. It can double as a lid for a standard small round tea tin, which is pretty clever designing! It’s a tight squeeze, but it works. That feature would probably suit someone who has only a few teas in their collection. I have over 30 teas in my cupboard, so searching for the one tin with the timer isn’t going to work in my house. Fortunately it also has a magnet inside the plastic casing, so I am able to stick it on my fridge instead. Perfect! It has five preset buttons, color coordinated for the type of tea; 1 minute for white, 2 for green, 4 for black, 5 for oolong and 6 for herbal. It also has a button for you to add minutes to the time, one to add seconds to the time, both of which beep for every second/minute you add (annoying) and the start/stop button. The preset buttons are great, but it’s the recommended time for their teas to steep. Other companies have different suggestions for steeping time for their teas, so I find myself having to add time to adjust. Not the end of the world, but not super convenient either. The timer only goes up to nine minutes and fifty nine so you can’t use it for any other application that may need more time. If you add too much time you have to reset it which consists of pressing the start/stop button enough to clear it. I like that it runs on standard AAA batteries, not some hard to find watch sized, but it looks like you need a screwdriver to get past the 4 screws and into the battery compartment. I have only had it for a few days, but I’m finding the buttons get stuck and don’t pop back up the way they should. I have to press on them and tilt them in the opposite direction of where they are stuck to release them. Lastly, the beep reminds me of some super annoying digital alarm clock that left early morning scars on my subconscious. I would have preferred a little tune of some sort that doesn’t set off a clawing urgency inside me to shut the timer up when I’m preparing to relax with a cup of tea, but oh well!

Despite the down sides and room for improvement, I dub this sleek looking little timer a keeper.

Like a lot of people, I received this as a sample. I enjoyed the flavor and thought it was a very good holiday blend.

This is a limited edition special tea from The Republic of Tea. It was inspired by the movie by the same name. Just received it tonight. It is best served with milk and sugar to taste. It is a litely smoked Russian Caravan tea with a touch of rose. Unique.

I’ve been wanting to try this tea since it was released. When TRoT sent an email with an unavoidable Black Friday deal I was so excited to finally purchase it! The tin is so pretty and the dry tea smells just heavenly! I made a huge cup of it tonight to enjoy while watching some Christmas specials on tv. Ohhhh it is so very delicious. The flavor is very light and delicate, but absolutely perfect! Tis the season to celebrate!

-Dry blend has golden raisins, yellow and blue petals and large dried blossoms. Wet leaves reveal full-sized flowers.
-Dry leaves smell sweetly of grape juice. Tea liquor aroma is of musky grapes.
-Tea liquor is a golden yellow color.
-Initial flavor is of grapes. Slightly creamy mouthfeel. Lingering wine-like finish.
-Best with a small amount of sweetener.
-Very good tea. Delicate for a black tea. Light taste of champagne. Too much sweetener overwhelms soft flavors. Very festive!

Inspired by Grace Makutsi, from Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, this is a, as the name suggests, a citrusy and gingery, rooibos blend. Rooibos and Red Bush: same thing, a shrub in South Africa, the needles of which make this tasty tisane. This has green rooibos, and it is delicious. The citrus and ginger blended with the green rooibos creates a special kind of lemony ginger flavor.

If you are a fan of Alexander McCall Smith’s Number One Ladies Detective Agency series, featuring the wonderful Precious Ramotswe, then you’ll be tempted, as I was, to try this tisane. I’ve tried vanilla rooibos blends before and have found them tasty, but this, this my friends, has the right amount of vanilla. Delicious and indeed comforting, this became an instant favorite of mine at first sip. Green smiley face for sure. Steeped in 6 oz of boiling water, milk added after about 5 minutes of steeping.

I enjoyed this over the top tisane brewed in 6 oz of boiling water, steeped for 5 minutes, with milk and sweetener (drop of pure maple syrup). This combination resulted in what tasted like a strawberry milk chocolate candy.

I was surprised by this tea! I got it as a gift and was expecting it to be just “ok” but it was nice. When I’m out of my 2nd flush darjeeling I brew this one until more of my favorite arrives in the mail… And I’m never unhappy with it. :)

This tea fell short of my expectations. It smells great in the tin, but when you brew it the flavor is kind of like a watered down “red hot”… (those little red cinammon candies).
So I’d rate this tea as “meh”
Gave it away.

Bought it, thinking I would like it – no LOVE it, as I love all things coconut… It was kind of like flavored (almost) hot water.
Gave it away.
Still seeking a yummy coconut tea.

Another standard tea in my pantry! I drink this tea all Winter long. It’s spicy from the ginger and refreshing thanks to the mint. Great when you have a tummy ache or when you need a zippy warm up. I love it all times of the day, in the morning with a bagel, or at night on the couch after dinner. PLUS you can get it at Panera!

With the bagged tea I don’t worry about the steeping time and just leave the bag in the cup/mug and drink it down as the tea cools. If I brew it loose by the pot I don’t steep longer than 6 minutes or so.

Sometimes I sweeten with honey, sometimes with sugar and sometimes not at all depending on my mood. It’s good all three ways.

This is the perfect Ginger Peach tea. I don’t think anything else comes close and I’ve tried every ginger peach blend I can get my hands on. I drink this all Summer long both hot and iced and it’s one that my pantry is never out of! I love that I can get it at Panera!

If you’re drinking the bagged version (say if you get it at Panera) there is no need to worry about a steep time. I’ve left the bag in, and just drank the tea even as it cooled. You can not ruin this tea no matter what you do to it!