The Republic of Tea

I really like Republics Hibiscus Pineapple blend as there is a good blend of ingredients. Unfortunately this one does not make the cut. All I get from this tea is the hibiscus – tart and overpowering.

So they actually had tea at the day long meditation retreat, I got to choose between this and a few herbals as well as sneaking off to the coffee shop down the street to have an almond cookie tea. :)

This stuff is okay, but nothing to really write home about. It’s kind of mild and vegetal on its’ own I also had it mixed with some mint tea and the combination of the two was really good.

My teachers were great today and I really learned a lot from this daylong. It feels so good to be getting back to my Buddhism stuff since the person who just exited my life was not very supportive of me/it and thought it was stupid. Whatever, I feel happy and JOYFUL and doing great on my own!!!!

Nice concept for a bagged green tea. When you open the jar you will find matcha powder dusted over all the tea bags, which is a pleasant experience and smells great. The matcha tastes great too.
However the leaves are cut and thus the strength is rather weak. This is a bit of disappointment and makes the taste experience underwhelming. I find myself wanting a stronger green.
Steep it for at least three minutes for a stronger flavor.

Hello Steepsterites! I know, I (and my massively long tasting notes) have been MIA lately. Shame on me! My absence has been due to a sad lack of new teas. As some of you might recall, a couple of years ago the husband and I paid off our house. Awesome, right? There’s only one downside. See, turns out we don’t like our neighborhood. And honestly, I’d really like a dining room and a bit more of a back yard. Which means we’ve been contemplating buying a new, slightly larger house. But with no current mortgage, you can bet we don’t want to buy a house in a way that saddles us with a new mortgage, right? Which means we’ll have to save up a fairly substantial amount of money. Which means the budgetary belt has been tightened. A lot. Which has really impeded my tea purchasing (especially since it has to fight my knitting obsession for my monthly discretionary spending). But my tea pantry has withered to a measly 68 teas and that’s just not on, so this month tea has defeated knitting in the battle for my money.

I’ve placed a couple of orders (with Le Palais des Thés and American Tea Room) but they haven’t come in yet, so I spend some time today meandering around my grocery store’s tea section and managed to I come across this little tea. I can’t say no to a good Keemun so I didn’t even try to fight it when it jumped into my buggy. (Seriously, it just jumped in there! No help from me at all!)

I really wasn’t expecting all that much from this (after all, I love CTG’s Keemun almost as much as I love my cats and this tea is being sold in a grocery store) but I am pleasantly surprised by it. It has an amazingly sweet and fruity smell to it. There’s a bit of that typical acrid/acidic-ish smoke edge that is common to Keemuns but the majority of the smell is a full slightly-earthy-but-mostly-floral/fruity scent. I want to say it is somewhat fig-like. (That could just be because I was contemplating the figs at the grocery store today but it also could be because it is actually figgy. I might have to get out some of my dad’s fig preserves for a more accurate comparison.)

The smell isn’t the only fruity/figgy/floral thing about this tea – the taste is, too. It’s very smooth (I got almost no smoke/acridity sharpness) and it’s quite soft and pretty. But as nifty as that is, it’s also a little disappointing. I mean, yeah, it’s neat to get that fruity/figgy/floral taste in a tea that, when done poorly, can be scratchy, acrid and rough, but that sweet, soft floral, etc is pretty much the entire taste. I find myself missing the earthier notes of leather and mustiness a bit.

Don’t get me wrong – I like this tea just how it is. The smoothness is quite nice but I would totally trade a bit of it for a tad more depth. Brewing for a bit longer might take care of that, but even if it doesn’t I won’t be too sad because this is very pretty. I mean, it’s not lovely enough to replace my CTG Keemun love. It’s also behind Adagio’s Anhui Keemu in all but price and I’m sure TeaSpring has at least one Keemun that could make this one cry for its mommy, but I believe this could claim a spot in my Top 5 Keemuns.

The second steep helps cement this opinion. The taste has a dash more depth – it’s still sweet and fruity/figgy/floral but has just a touch of texture to deepen the taste and give it a hint of almost bake-iness. The finish is still high, sweet and makes me think of the color of pink that is on inside of a fig (maybe that’s why I think it tastes figgy) but now with an added note of toasted sugar.

So yeah, totally impressive for a grocery store tea. Really good for a tea full stop, actually. Still not my favorite Keemun but definitely not one to be dismissed. I think I’ll enjoy drinking this one while I window shop (since that’s the only type of shopping I’ll be doing for the rest of this month).

Just bought this tea today. Actually was looking for ROT’s Pink Lady, but did not see it at the 1 local store I know that carries this brand.

Pros: Light. Unassuming. Not heavily Lemony.
Cons: Too light. needed to much sugar to sweeten it.

Given the price, I plan on trying this flavor with different steep times to see if that changes my assessment of it. If I don’t discover a better steep time, then the rest I will use for making iced tea, and won’t buy it again.

Pretay tasty, especially with a bit of sugar and milk.
not too spicy, though, as I’m use to for a chai.

Kinda fruity.
I usually drink it iced.

Heaven. Sipping this makes me feel as though a blanket is being wrapped around me and everything is going to be okay.
I splash milk into it, and when I’m feeling frisky, I add a bit of sugar.
The almond is certainly prevalent, yet none of the flavors are too heavy.

Thanks for this one, Pureleaf!
I was unable to find this one on their site but here are my thoughts…

It has a slightly bitter and grassy green tea base with blueberries in it.

As it cools for a few moments at room temp – it seems to be less grassy.

I prefer this one cool/iced. It’s ok. Not bad!

I picked up the bagged version of this at the same sale where I purchased the British Breakfast Decaf. This isn’t as creamy/buttery as I like my milk oolongs, but it a nice way to start my morning and does fill in in a pinch when one doesn’t have a proper method to brew tea correctly at work!

I’ve been curious about this tea for a while and I got to try it yesterday at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. I’m glad I didn’t bother to buy any myself. Unfortunately, it just reminded me of cough syrup and I didn’t even finish the cup I was drinking. Sorry to neg you, Republic of Tea but this was barfy.

Mmmm…the first word that comes to mind when I sip this tea is “mellow”. It’s smooth, almost milky, on the tongue and some floral and pineapple notes are detectable. This tea is very light & delicate yet has a complex and comforting combination of flavors, which I like. This is one of the first oolongs that I have tried but I like it :-). It was cheaper alternative to some of the more expensive milk ooolongs that I was intrigued by although it isn’t organic :( . A solid tea nonetheless!

I was hopeful but a bit skeptical when I bought this. I’ve enjoyed RoT teas before. But the design of the tin didn’t exactly say “English Breakfast” to me. And when I opened the tin, I noticed the tiny unbleached circular bags. That was my first impression: tiny! And so I wasn’t especially surprised that this brewed a pretty weak cup. They barely put any tea in the bags to begin with. Wasn’t especially impressed with the flavor either — I’d prefer a Twinings or PG Tips or TyPhoo or Tetley to this one every time. It wasn’t awful… I just felt like I would need 2-3 bags to make a decent cup, and even then it would never be an outstanding tea for me. (But don’t get me wrong, I’ll still probably use up my tin. It just will never be my favorite English Breakfast tea.)

…if one follows the tradition of Chinese tea drinkers then all leaves have to be washed before the actual infusions. That simply means that the fist brew gets disposed. This first brew suppose to wash out the dust, open or pre-soak the leaves and start to develop their flavors.

The color of this tea could be compared to a rich single malt whiskey.

Color: golden, bronze. Very appealing to the eye…
Nose: sharp, fruity, slight bitterness in the end (…fresh cut grass)
Palate: clean, smoky, hints of soft,creamy sweetness such as butterscotch
Finish: aftertaste does not manage to stay very long. Bitter sweet with a pleasant,refreshing roughness.

A interesting, complex tea. Not very awakening though. Nice to drink in order to get through the day.

Soothing with milk and honey. Perfect if you like all things almond-flavored. I read some of the reviews and I agree, there’s definitely sentimental value attached to this one. It always takes me back to rainy mornings in college.

I love the berry infusions in this one— not too tart, almost creamy. It’s tasty enough to use just one teabag if you’re making iced tea (for one). Perfect!

Not bad for a bagged tea. It was a bit weak for me though, I like strong green tea.

This was one of several teas by Republic of Teas that I purchased at a discount about a month ago. It has a rather weak spice taste and the apple is faint as well. Being that it is a tea and not actual apple cider, I still expected a strong spice taste. I would recommend adding extra cinnamon stick to steep and a little amount of sugar to complement the taste. I would not repurchase again.

Mmm…banana. I don’t usually like banana flavored things unless the flavor comes directly from bananas. It usually ends up tasting too fake. This tea however seems to do it right. Lovely fruity banana with a somehow tangy fruity coconut. Very tasty. I also enjoy this green rooibos base. Light and green and refreshing. This is a great cold tea.

Cold brewed overnight in a mug of water. Convenient and tasty. Thank you, TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some!

I usually like chai teas. I love the spice.

When I first open the canister, I was concerned because it looked like I bought ground pepper…

I decided to persevere and try the tea anyways. I steeped it as directed, and took a swig… Big mistake. It looked like pepper, smelled like pepper, and tasted like pepper. There wasn’t the nice spice or tea flavor, it just tasted like I was drinking pepper.

Not sure if I’ll try it again, I think I got a bad batch. I mixed it around, and it just looks like pepper.

Sipdown! 776.

Although this is fairly good for a bagged tea, I prefer looseleaf milk oolong enough that I’d be unlikely to pick any of this up for myself.

Another milk oolong for me :) Thanks Alphakitty! This is my first bagged one; I’m curious to see how well it holds up to loose versions.

The smell is clearly delicious, caramelly milk oolong. I’m not used to teabags having an aroma, so I’m excited!

The tea is actually pretty darn good! Creamy and oolongy, although it could be stronger in both areas (maybe I used a bit too much water?) I’m pleasantly surprised! Can’t touch DavidsTea’s version, but I’d definitely drink this one again :) Thanks Alphakitty!

This was really disappointing. I absolutely love the tea bag version and bought the full-leaf tin, thinking it would be the same.
The full-leaf brews a different color than the bag and tastes totally different, I don’t like it at all! It actually tastes kind of gross, like something you shouldn’t be drinking.

Found this to have a nice balance, the rose flavor was balance with the black tea so you could taste everything. Love this as a hot tea. Found it was not good over ice. Overall a great tasting tea to have with cake or cookies.