The Republic of Tea

This tea is pretty good. At first I was turned off by the name “gunpowder” in it, so I purchased a sampler and found out I should have just purchased a full size container because I love the mint taste.

I had this tea one day after a long hike, not sure if it worked or not. It had a decent taste. I normally put honey in my tea, but didn’t have any on me for the hike, but it was still good. First tea I like without a sweetener.

Backlogging this one. It’s been a little while since I’ve done a detox, so I decided this was a good week to do one. Tomorrow is my last day of my “detox week”, and I’d have to say it’s nice. I’m feeling better about myself overall, maybe because I’m being healthier overall.

Either way, this tea tastes nice. I put a tsp. of honey in it, and I love it.

Okay, so I am a pretty active person and I’m always doing something. I work out 3-5 days a week consistently, but I recently injured myself and am unable to get up and moving like normal, along with that I started eating a lot of foods that I shouldn’t be eating or normal foods that I could easily work off with a good 30 minute workout.

That being said, I decided since I can’t get up and workout I need to start eating healthier so I can get back to my normal weight or at least maintain where I’m at until I can start working out again. So, I decided the first step would be to detox all of this bad stuff I had been consuming and I found this tea!

This tea is great! I love the taste and I love the fact that it works. Before I purchased this tea I read from several people that it doesn’t do what it says it does. I went ahead a purchased it anyway because I figured people weren’t giving it time…and I was right. After drinking it two times a day (after dinner and before bed) for 4 days I stared noticing my body cleaning its self out more and by the fifth day I was extremely regular and feeling much better about myself.

I am finally back to myself, but I’m still going to drink this tea because it tastes really good to me. I just put in an order for a refill and can’t wait to get it in the mail!!!

I really enjoy this tea with 2 table spoons of honey. It has a nice kick to it, but not so much that I can’t take it. I think it works well too. I drink this tea hot and cold, but I think it tastes best cold. I drink it before breakfast and lunch and then after dinner every day and I can see that it is starting to work.—Two weeks in to a better/healthier lifestyle.

I like this tea, but it does not have the flavor of an apple cider tea I would expect. I first tried steeping it a little longer to see if that added more flavor, but that didn’t work either. After adding two bags to 8 oz of water and a tsp of honey it tasted great. I think they could have done a better job flavoring this tea. Maybe a little more “zing” to it to add that cider taste, so I can use only one bag instead of two.

I have just brewed a cup of the tea and I must say its smell and taste are not very strong. I can slightly smell the blueberry and I’m not sure I taste any blueberries in this tea. I put a blueberry honey in it and it tastes a little better. It’s not a bad tea, just not very strong.

I really enjoy this tea, especially now that it’s getting cold outside. I purchased only one tin of this, and now I’m regretting that I didn’t buy a refill to get me through the winter since they are discontinued from their website.

I like that this tea has a nice pumpkin spice taste to it, but not too overpowering. It really makes for a great winter/fall tea. I haven’t tried it cold yet (says on the container tastes great cold), but I just can’t see this being a tea I’d even want to try cold because it’s so good hot.

Backlogging

I’ve enjoyed the Guava Pineapple white tea from Republic of Tea, so I decided to to pick some of this up and give it a try. I bought it a few months ago and I remember not being impressed when I tried it. So, I decided to pick it back up and see if there are any changes.

Unfortunately, no there weren’t any changes from tea or my palate. At first sniff the tea has a honey scent and a slight floral scent with hay underneath. But there is a very odd sour scent that is very off-putting. My best guess is that it’s the additional flavoring that was added to the tea.

Upon steeping it still has that odd sour scent, but there is still the other notes of hay, honey, and floral. Tasting reveals the same. There is a nice honey mouthfeel to this tea, hay notes underlying with some hint of a floral note. I could taste the paper of the teabag too. But there is still that sourness that seems to overlay everything no matter what.

It’s still a drinkable tea, but not one I’d get again. I passed it off to my sister who loves flavored white teas and doesn’t mind teabags as much as I do. She thought it smelled delicious when I opened it for her, so she’s already off to a better start than I am.

A little grassy, but not necessarily in a bad way. I can taste the peach, but it’s somewhat fake tasting. Overall enjoyable.

So a new Whole Foods just opened up and I decided to stop by on the way home and pick up a couple teas and THIS WAS ONE OF THEM. HOLY CRAP when you open the can it smells strongly of JOLLY RANCHERS. It was not what I was expecting at all and was KINDA a turn off. But the little circle bags are neato!

It’s slowly growing on me as I drink it I think. IT’S PRETTY LIGHT. And… pear-y! Not bad; I think I might like my White Pear more though. I’LL DRINK ALL THIS ANYWAY CUZ IT WAS KINDA EXPENSIVE HAHA. /sob

I’m not sure I’ve had a golden yunnan before. I’ve had tippy yunnan from Harney, perhaps that is the same thing.

I picked this up while waiting for the ferry to go from Edmonds, Washington to Kingston, on the way to Olympic National Park. The size I got said there were 2 teabags in it, but when I pulled out the bag to avoid oversteeping, there was only one. It was not the round bag I associate with the Republic of Tea cans. This was a square bag with a fold over top, like I use sometimes for some of my loose teas. I wonder if they use loose leaf behind the counter. What was out for sale were the tins with the bags.

Regardless, this definitely hit the spot on a cold and misty day. It was strong and malty (I’m also noticing a preference that I have for malty teas…) and a lovely deep chestnut color. It was delicious while hot. It then sat for a few hours in the car and it was equally good when cold. Really surprisingly good. I don’t expect much from tea when I travel, especially not from coffee shops but this one means I need to try more golden yunnan. :)

I don’t have a whole lot to say about this one… I had it at a day long meditation class on Saturday. It was better than I thought it would be but might have needed two teabags, it has a very light apple taste and also seems very cinnamon-y. Might be worth buying if you didn’t have to use two teabags because that would make this a pretty expensive tisane.

I had this yesterday at Panera. Per CupofTree’s suggestion, I used two teabags in one cup. The results were fantastic! Mmm, nice hot peach tea with a pinch of ginger! This tea has 100% yum factor, assuming you like peach of course.

I added a little bit of Stevia in the Raw (kindly given to me by my co-worker) and then a splash of skim milk. This is just a lovely cup of peach tea. The ginger is a side note and not overpowering. It mingles nicely with the peach and adds to the overall warming sensation of drinking hot tea on a cold winter day. I really liked this a lot more than I thought I would!

Thanks for the tip, CupofTree!! That extra teabag made all the difference. :)

I got this is the loose leaf form at my local Whole foods where they have a bunch of teas in bulk. I haven’t been drinking a lot of rooibos lately but I thought I would give this one a shot.

It isn’t terribly fruity, I was hoping for something a bit more. The predominate note is rooibos but there is a hint of the mango passionfruit flavor here. I wonder if this would be good iced? I deided to drink it hot with soymilk and I think the creaminess of the soymilk is making it more dessert-like. Not too bad for a rooibos blend but I don’t know if I would seek this out again.

A little something I picked up at my grocery store. (I think I was in a bit of a buying frenzy as they had Les Palais des Thés teas for $3.)

Sadly, it smells like rooibos in the bags. Just rooibos. Post-brewing, the main smell from a distance is rooibos but if I stick my nose in the cup, I get almond. Almond is nice.

Taste-wise, there’s a strong flash of almond/marzipan as I first sip, then kind of nothing, then rooibos, then a bit of coconut aftertaste. The aftertaste develops a bit more after about thirty seconds, becoming quite nice as the almond comes back some. The aftertaste is almost a dead match for the aftertaste of a coconut macaroon ice cream I have (and love).

But here’s the thing: rooibos does not go well with these macaroon flavors. Normally, wood and coconut can blend well, but in this case, it doesn’t because the coconut takes on a sweeter, higher note when coupled with the almond. So the macaroon taste and the rooibos tastes remain separate and battling during each sip.

A very contentious tea. Maybe that’s appropriate for Election Day. Meh.

This tea smells amazing, but the flavor could be stronger, definitely. Bit of a letdown to take a sip and not really get as much of the orange and chocolate flavor as I’d hoped. But, still pretty enjoyable.

One of my absolute favorites!
I remember loving this when I was little and then couldn’t find this particular one by Republic of Tea for the longest time. I recently discovered that Central Market was carrying this flavor and it was the best moment.
The raspberry gives a little tartness, and the quince gives it a perfect sweetness.

As you probably know, Hurricane Sandy is out in force in NY today! However, I live pretty far inland in Queens so I have zero things to worry about. Stocked up on candles, matches and batteries, my Kindle is charged and I have a gas stovetop so I can make tea no matter what! However the power is still on and it doesn’t seem like it’s gonna go out so I’m kind of just hanging out and watching Spider-Man.

Most people I know are treating this more like a vacation than an emergency—it’s pretty funny actually, so many people are acting like schoolkids. Yeah, no work today! Us New Yorkers don’t tend to panic until… well, ever. It’d have to be the end of the world. I had the news on earlier and all of the areas under mandatory evacuation still had TONS of people there. The reporter seemed baffled, but everyone interviewed was all “whatever, how bad could it be? I ain’t moving anywhere.” One lady stayed because the nearest shelter was 6 miles away—an insurmountable distance for people who have spent their whole lives in the city!

It’s raining pretty hard and it’s windy, so imagine my surprise when I got a notice that UPS is out delivering my Lupicia box! See, this story is kind of tea related. They haven’t come yet, but they deliver till 8 so I am just waiting to see if they actually show up. Funnily enough, my box was scheduled for Wednesday but for some reason it’s showing up 2 days early… in a hurricane. Yet my post office is closed. I was supposed to ship out a swap box today too. Damn you Sandy!

Okay, onto the actual tea. I got a free sample of this in the RoT catalog and it seemed like a good day for a warm fall cup. I know a lot of people here don’t like Republic of Tea, but I’ve always had a soft spot for them. Remember when Barnes & Noble used to stock them? Now it’s all Harney & Sons, but years ago you could find RoT tins there and that’s actually how my tea obsession took off. Their Moroccan Mint was my first loose-leaf love! So I was excited to try this one.

It’s kind of like a mild pumpkin chai. There’s a definite and strong pumpkin flavor and a smooth spicy taste, a bit of ginger and cinnamon. It’s nothing wow-worthy really, just a nice warming cup. If I didn’t have a pumpkin combo in my cupboard already (Culinary Tea’s Pumpkin Cream + Pumpkin Chai = heaven) I think I’d add this one just for a nice fall tea.

This one came from Auggy and one of the last ones I’ve got left untried from her massive parcel.

I’ve only had milk oolong a few times before and have never quite been certain what to make of it. I’ve liked it, but I have never fallen head over heels for it like so many other people seem to have. Two, I think I’ve tried, and mind you, I have not even the first clue about whether either of those two were actually flavoured with steamed milk (I think that’s how it’s done?) or with the milky note naturally occuring and I don’t know which this one is either. It’s possible that the difference between these two types may mean a rather large difference in the head over heels department.

This one tastes primarily green oolong-y. At first when I just made it, there was lots of milky aroma and the first few sips had lots of it in the flavour as well.

Now that it has sat here and cooled slightly and developed a bit, the milky note has been pushed rather to the back. It is now there in the aftertaste and peeking out here and there in the actual sip, but not really able to get a word in edgewise.

So what I’ve got left seems like it could have been almost any sort of green oolong, just not counting the aftertaste. Somewhat vegetal and slightly sharp, it reminds me of dark, leafy greens, and with a very strong oolong-y wood-y touch to it.

Because I know it’s a milk oolong, I can pick up on the milk in the aftertaste and in between here and there, but if I hadn’t known anything about that, I wouldn’t have been able to guess. And do you know what? I almost think I prefer it that way. Milk oolong in general sounds like something that I might find a bit cloying if overdone and I definitely like this one better than the first one I ever had. I remember that one primarily because both the smell and the flavour of it gave me associations of warm yoghurt. (I’m fairly certain that one had been made with the steamed milk, actually)

It’s been too long since I’ve had a regular green oolong, so I can’t actually tell if I like this better than green oolong in general or the other way around. I’ll have to have a regular soon, but right now I’m finding this one rather enjoyable and not at all what I had thought I would get.

I have tried this several times with various brew times and cannot get past the rooibos flavor. Meh.

This is a beautifully bright, balanced, and well-blended matcha! I was pleasantly surprised by this. I wasn’t 100% on-board with the new U-Matcha line until I tried this one. The yuzu is uplifting and delicious while not overpowering the matcha. It remains a fine treat for a bright morning spent at home.