The Republic of Tea

This is a nice mellow cup of mint tea. It’s not a blast of peppermint, which I actually prefer sometimes, it also has spearmint and lemon balm to give it a rounded almost grassy base. If I’m not in the mood for a pure peppermint hit but I still want something minty this is a good alternative, it is minty in a much gentler fashion.

The Republic Of Tea seems to consistently release great tasting teas, regardless of whether they are loose leaf or processed in bags. Their limited special edition teas are also habitually well thought out and formulated. I was therefore very excited to experience the loose leaf blend that they selected to represent their 20-year anniversary of “leading the tea revolution.”

I brewed this tea at 212 degrees for five minutes as recommended on the package. An aroma similar to grape juice wafted from the pot. The color was orange-gold.

The flavor is full of the grape. It’s not tart or tangy. It is sweet and fruity and in the forefront of the very subtle tea taste. There is a sweet grape aftertaste without any bitterness.

The product is also advertised as being “infused with the essence of champagne.” Maybe if you close your eyes and really use your imagination, you might be able to detect the champagne attribute. I must not be imaginative enough. But, no matter, this is still a very tasty and creative blend.

I first tried this tea in the morning. I think I would have appreciated it more in the mid-afternoon.

I believe that The Republic Of Tea does have a fine selection to represent its milestone 20th anniversary. I’m already looking forward to see what they roll out for the 25th!

Been drinking this tea for lack of a better black tea in my tea cupboard. I’ve really been needing the extra caffeine boost, plus, I’m trying to drink all my old ugly teas so make room for some newer fresher yummier teas. This black bagged tea has been floating around my cupboard for years now. It’s old. It tastes old and weak. But it’s still drinkable. I usually like to make an iced tea out of this. Brewing a hand full of bags in a large carafe, and then putting it in the fridge makes for a nice lift midday. I’d love to make a sun brew with this, as the subtle fruity notes would make a great tropical natural drink. Not enough sun where I’m at tho. All in all, it’s okay. I don’t mind the fruity taste, but I can definitely find a better tea.

This is a staple for me, I always have it around and when I go on trips I always bring a few bags of it in a ziploc, along with a few bags of Yogi ginger. On a plane I just ask for hot water and then I can brew myself a cup of apricot decaf or yogi ginger, depending on what I’m in the mood for. Apricot Decaf is not the world’s most complex tea but it is a dependable cup of easily brewed apricot tea with a top fruity note and good bottom note from the black tea. It doesn’t need any milk or sugar, it is delicious just as it is.

Easily the best Jasmine I have ever tasted-but only about the 3rd or 4th. The others seemed as if jasmine scent had been sprayed on them. The jasmine infusion in this is just right-pronounced, but not overpowering. Pearls used to fully unfurl after two infusions, but now they seem to unfurl after one-I have had the tea for 6 months now, so perhaps that might be a reason. The liquor is pale, color of light straw. I get 2-3 infusions out of the pearls. I enjoy this a lot, but it’s not an every day tea for me-maybe once a week or so. I always drink this straight.

A review of Açai Green Tea (Superfruit Tea) by The Republic of Tea

I am finishing the last of this blend for your well-being Açai Green Tea. The canister has a lovely floral aromatic scent of the berries and I know opening this each time the scent will still remain, permeating it as it does in the air when I am cooking this tea.

I place the teabag in my cup and pour the hot water into the cup and leave it to steep for few minutes. As I wait for my tea to steep, I re-read the tin’s label: The power of superfruits lies in their exceedingly high amount of antioxidants. They have great health benefits and are the best that nature has to offer.

I remove the cover from the tea cup and simply take in the tea’s aroma. It is that of a bouquet made up of hibiscus, açai berry bits and green tea. Tea’s color is dark berry color, wine even. When I take a sip of tea it is to enliven my palate and to make me want to have more and I do.

I enjoy this tea right to the very end. Tea’s character is of a fruity blends and seeming like a wine cooler/ spritzer and is full of anti-oxidants which are very good for you by adding a boost to this green tea.

Overall, this is an excellent tea for sipping one’s way to good health.

A review: Açaí Green Tea by The Republic of Tea

Having placed one tea bag in my cup, I pour in the hot water and infuse for a few minutes. I do not remove the tea bag as I taste the tea since I might want to steep it longer, but not, as the steep time seems rightly enough.

Tea is a lovely darken purple color with a lovely fragrance-like bouquet; a medley of hibiscus, blueberries and that of Concord grapes…all conjuring that of a glass of wine. Well in this instance it would wine cooler mists.

I must say that this is a tea I am happy to have a full tin of since I can see to having it time and again knowing it will be a good cup of tea.

Title for this review: Açai Green Tea by The Republic of Tea

I wanted to drink something other than black teas today, so I went for a fruity blend as found in this Açai tea.
I placed on tea bag in my cup and pour in the water and placing the lid on the cup I left it to steep for three minutes. I always look forward to the smell of this tea since it is so fruity and floral like.

In removing the lid, I can indeed smell the berries and the sweetness in this cup of tea. The aroma is delightful, the teas liquor conjures floral and sweetness like smelling honey. I am reminded this is a superfruit green tea, since it is exceedingly high in amount of antioxidants.

As depicted on the tin: Açai Green Tea serves up a one-two punch of antioxidants. Green tea has been revered for centuries in the Far East for its health enhancing properties. Recent studies show green tea to be robust in polyphenols while açai berries are shown to be potent with anthocyanins. It all helps to guard the body against free-radicals causing heart disease.

It is nice to know of the health benefits of this tea. I drink it for its goodness found in the cup. It is a joyous fragrance ringing true the nose and surrounding air.

Açai Green Tea by The Republic of Tea

This tea brews a lovely red color and smells wonderfully throughout the drink of tea. It is infused with hibiscus and blueberries, which is very prevalent. This tea does make me feel like I am drinking wine; a glass of berry wine.

Overall, tea smells vibrant of the berries mixed with the green tea. It is liquor in taste and very sweet which makes for a vibrant cup of tea. I do not think one needs to add anything else. It smells wonderful, and taste wise it leaves the palette dry and wanting more of the wine like tea found in this Açai blend.

I bought this because I needed a Moroccan Mint fast with the very early summer in the States. It had no flavoring, which is the way I prefer my teas. However, my previous experiences with Moroccan Mint have been with spearmint-this tea is blended with peppermint. I have never been a fan of straight peppermint-I prefer it with chocolate or with other flavors such as in Celestial Seasonings Candy Cane Lane, but I thought I’d give it a try.

RoT instructs you to brew at water temperatures just before boiling. I steeped at 195 as little as 2 minutes and as long as 4. The peppermint in this tea is just not to my liking. It’s not overpowering, but the peppermint still tastes like a lifesaver candy. I cannot imagine enjoying this iced-which was the way I had planned to drink much of it. Mostly, I would say this is just my personal preference and not an indictment of the tea, therefore I am not giving a number rating to it. I would rather just give in and have flavored spearmint Moroccan than buy it with peppermint again. No way I am finishing this-I’ll give it to my mom the next time I see her.

I see that the tasting notes for this selection include a mix of tea bag and loose leaf reviews. Let me specify that my tasting note is for the loose leaf version of Earl Greyer tea. I feel that is important to note because I’ve tried both the bagged and loose leaf versions of other Republic of Tea products, and I’ve found the taste to differ significantly.

I steeped ol’ Earl Greyer for five minutes at 212 degrees. This resulted in a brownish orange brew.

When I first opened the can and scooped the chopped leaves into my infuser basket, I thought I was in store for one of the strongest bergamot teas that I’ve encountered to date. The unsteeped citrus aroma was very potent and fragrant.

After brewing, I was surprised and disappointed to experience a less than colossal bergamot presence. The bergamot flavor is there and it’s smooth, but the citrus taste is overpowered by the black tea flavor.

The black tea taste is fine. There is also a little maltiness thrown in. There is no bitterness or astringent aftertaste. I guess I have just come to expect more from Earl Grey teas after some of the supercharged varieties that I’ve tried. (For example, if you desire a mighty Earl Grey tea with intense bergamot flavor that will stay with you throughout your day, I highly recommend Rishi Organic Earl Grey Black Tea: http://www.amazon.com/Rishi-Tea-Organic-Black-3-3-Ounce/dp/B001E5E20O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333545907&sr=8-1.)

If you like the citrus flavor to hang in the background of your Earl Grey tea, this selection will more than fit the bill. But, if you prefer bergamot on steroids, you (like me) may find yourself asking, “Is that all there is?”

On a rainy morning a cup of Earl Grey with toast and marmalade just makes me smile. I really enjoy the intense aroma of the bergamot oil in the Earl Greyer tea from the Republic of Tea. In the past any Earl Grey tea would suffice, however I received a canister of loose leaf Earl Greyer from a dear friend and haven’t drank any other brand since.

This is a great rooibos blend that I would recommend to anyone looking for a distinct, rooibos-only blend of tea. I have been lucky enough to have authentic rooibos tea from Holland and this tastes EXACTLY like the tea I had there. The taste of this is very smooth and enjoyable. I prefer black and mate teas but when I want something different, I reach for this blend.

This tea is very smooth. Probably the smoothest tea I’ve tried so far. It has a very mild chocolate flavor mixed with a very mild coffee flavor, blended together into perfect seamlessness. I drink this tea when I want something very smooth and with only a hint of chocolate. I don’t drink it too often because I prefer more dramatic teas, and especially chocolate-heavy teas. I don’t know if I’ll buy it again.

This is my favorite chocolate tea. It is simply ~ amazing ~. I’d never tried a mate before but I have been wanting to find a chocolate tea to help me keep from drinking hot chocolate and this is definitely ~ the one ~. My favorite teas are the kinds that I can keep the bag in the cup the whole time while I drink it and I can definitely do this with this one. It does not become too strong for me. The taste and smell of the chocolate flavor in this tea is very intense, and there’s not an overpowering taste of coffee like I have experienced with some other ‘chocolate teas’. I will keep buying this blend again and again.

I can smell sweet strawberry easily even before steeping. I taste the chocolate, and strawberry, but maybe the last one is a bit too sweet for me. Not my new favourite tea, but not bad at all.

This was the second cup of tea I had in class today. I was one of the first ones to try this flavor. The second person to try it was my teacher. I didn’t think she minded it, but it didn’t go over so well for me.

It started off very, very sweet. Then the taste got slightly sour on my tongue with a fake-sweet taste. Then it made my tongue go numb for a little bit. Apparently, I made faces and amused the girl sitting next to me before class started.

It sounds like a novelty, but do not get this tea. Numb tongue and sour. I didn’t even finish my cup.

As a Southerner, barbecue sauce is in my veins. In these parts, we like just about everything smoked except ice cream. In fact, if you ever pass through my neck of the woods, let me know. I’ll hook you up with the best barbecue restaurant in the universe!

I was, therefore, very intrigued when I read about the Lapsang Souchong tea on The Republic Of Tea web site. A smoky flavored tea sounded very desirable to me.

I steeped this tea at 212 degrees for five minutes. I didn’t detect a smokehouse aroma coming from the tea, but I imagined that four cups of tea wouldn’t produce as strong a smell as 500 pounds of smoked pig.

Without a strong smoky smell, I was wondering if I would be able to detect smokiness in the taste. Well, it was there and at the perfect level! The smoky flavor of this tea is wonderful and quite bold. The black tea flavor is subdued but not to the detriment of the total taste. There is no artificial chemical aftertaste that you sometimes experience with smoky sauces. The flavor of this tea makes you fantasize about the broad tea leaves drying and curing in the smokehouse NEXT TO 500 pounds of pig!

If you don’t like smoky flavors, you probably won’t like this tea. But, if you crave barbecued pulled pork and ribs as much as I do, you will LOVE it!

This is another great tasting tea from The Republic Of Tea. This organization has just been added to my list of favorite and most reliable tea companies.

The stores where I live carry a very limited and standard selection of loose leaf teas (e.g., basic green, jasmine, english breakfast). So, if I want to branch out into more exciting blends, I have to order them on-line or take out a loan at the local Teavana store. The Republic of Tea on-line collection has some of the most imaginative flavors around at reasonable prices. The Coconut Pu-erh tea sounded like it was right up my alley- bold, black, and sweet- all of my favorite attributes.

I steeped this tea at 212 degrees for five minutes. While brewing, the scent that filled the kitchen was like an Almond Joy bar. It made me concentrate to try to will the tea maker to process faster.

Sometimes the teas smell great and sweet but the flavor is flat and expressionless. Not so with this little gem! The flavor is exactly as advertised by the aroma. It is sweet and wonderful, more like a dessert tea than a breakfast stimulator. The usually dominant pu-erh taste follows merrily behind the sweet coconut flavor leader. The color is like dark mahogany.

This tea would be fantastic to sip at all times during the day. For me it had the double benefit of waking me up and satisfying my sweet tooth. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I have already added this selection to my “Don’t Run Out!!!” list.

I received a tea bag sample of this tea in the mail from the folks at The Republic of Tea. I have liked several of their teas so I thought I would drop this one into a cup of boiling water too.

After the round bag was steeped in boiling water for about five minutes, the brewed aroma was incredible. It smelled just like fresh blackberries. The aroma made me quite excited to take a swig.

The flavor of my first sip was…quite mysterious. The very sweet and potent blackberry smell was replaced in the taste by something floral and almost perfumed. The exact flavor was at first nondescript. Then, after several seconds, blackberry began to slowly crawl onto my taste buds.

All in all, this tea wasn’t bad. It wasn’t bitter. I just felt like the cart was put before the horse this time, or perhaps more accurately, the aroma was put before the taste. Maybe I would have liked it more if the flavor had arrived sooner. Even so, I would love it if I could put it in an incense burner instead of a tea pot.

UPDATE: I just discovered that I reviewed this tea two years ago. Either I was in a better mood then or I wasn’t quite the curmudgeon that I am now. Surprisingly, even though I described it more favorably last time, I still gave it the same exact rating, a 70!

I’m very familiar with The Republic of Tea tea bags, having tried a slew of different varieties last year before I entered the wonderful world of loose tea. I enjoyed all of the ones that I bought. I was anxious to see how the loose leaf versions compared.

I steeped the Blackberry Sage tea for five minutes at 212 degrees. The brewing aroma was incredible. It was very (or should I say, “berry”?) sweet and fruity. I couldn’t wait to see if it tasted as great as it smelled!

The brewed color of this tea is a golden amber. The flavor is fabulous! My first sip reminded me of Knott’s Berry Farm shortbread cookies. The taste is sweet and fruity without bitterness. The tea flavor undertones are subtle and supportive. A very nice aftertaste also lingers on my tongue. I imagine that this blend would also be terrific iced.

This is a very nice black tea. It isn’t the boldest black blend that I’ve tasted, but it really doesn’t need to be. The flavor is full and steady and delicious. That’s all I require for my afternoon black tea fix!

Got this today with my catalogue – I fear I have over steeped this as I got distracted by a cold tea I had infused last night – was straining it. Anyway .. here we go … I can already smell that it may be a bit bitter – and now I don’t know if it is due to my over steeping or if it is in fact just bitter. I will assume that it is my fault.
Through the bitterness I smell something else … what is that familiar smell? Nutty? Woodsy? Could that be the mango? More like mango PEEL perhaps.
Tastes just like it smells. You know even though I know I over steeped – it really is not bitter. That is good!
Good black tea base – not complex or anything but a straight up black tea.
Clean and crisp – no astringency – nice.
I like it – I don’t LOVE it but not complaining.
This is one I would order if out at Panera or wherever or would happily drink at a friends, but as for a purchase I don’t think so. When I drink a flavored tea I want a bit more flavor than this offers.
I do appreciate that unusual smell / taste though.
Wish I had one more tea bag of it.