Squee

Okay, okay… so I rated this before saying I didn’t care for it. Maybe I was doing something wrong or maybe it’s just grown on me, but I’ve come to really like this mate. I think I may have been brewing it too strong before to try to enhance the chocolate flavor, and instead making it too harsh. It’s not as chocolate-y as I was hoping, true, but it is chocolate-y and caffeinated—a great combination! Pity I gave most of it away! Guess I’ll just have to get some more.

Pleasant but somehow unfulfilling. The passionfruit and papaya are a bit too subtle for my taste. I ordered a sample of this tea with my last RoT purchase, and it’s not bad, but I won’t buy any more. For black tea, my current favorite is RoT’s Blackberry Sage.

Once again my taste in tea puts me in the minority. I like this tea! It is the current Republic of Tea catalog sample, and I made a cup as soon as I got it (and squealed like a giddy child when I saw the combination of strawberry and chocolate they’d sent out). I think it’s better than RoT’s Strawberry Vanilla and on par with their Vanilla Good Hope.

This was another one from the Republic of Tea sampler cube I bought. It smelled nice and tasted okay, but I didn’t find it particularly special and I won’t go out of my way to get any more.

No notes yet.

There was a brief period, several years ago, when I obsessively drank peppermint tea (Celestial Seasonings, I believe) out of the mistaken belief that I could not get the tea I really wanted (RoT’s Ginseng Peppermint, which for some reason I thought they’d quit making). I soon bored of this and went back to the old tried-and-true gallons of soda.

Drinking this tea brought me back to that. It’s a really nice tea, with solid, delicious mint flavor and full body. Alas, it also reminds me of why I dropped my previous short-lived tea obsession—mint tea alone gets pretty boring, at least for me. I think I like slightly more varied blends. That said, however, this is a really nice, smooth tea. I could see myself buying a tin, but it would probably take me a while to go through it. If you like plain mint tea, you’ll probably like this one.

I have to concur with previous reviewers—this tea has a nice smell but lacks the flavor to match. It’s not that it tastes bad, it’s just very weak. Meh. At least it was a free sample.

This is another sample from the Republic of Tea’s “Experience Sampler” cube. I didn’t expect to like this as much as I do! It is a flavorful but mild green tea with just a hint of honey flavor. It smells and tastes very soothing and refreshing, and has less of the sharpness that I’ve found in some greens. Very nice.

This is the first mate I’ve ever tried, and I bought it in the hopes that it would satisfy my chocolate craving. Alas, it does not; it actually increases my want for chocolate! I tried it with a bit of milk but that didn’t help. Woe. It smells heavenly but it has an odd undertaste that I’m at a loss to describe… perhaps I just don’t care for mate. I have a whole tin, so I’ll probably try it a few different ways, but I doubt I’ll ever buy it again.

I got this tea in “The Republic of Tea Experience Sampler Cube”. I rather like it! It has a smooth, lovely, creamy vanilla flavor with a beautiful aroma. After taking a sip and then breathing, it almost feels like I’ve gotten a whiff and slight taste of vanilla cake. I was expecting a bland ho-hum thin vanilla flavor, not the robust and well-balanced authentic flavor that it actually has. What a nice surprise! This is more like what I was expecting from the Double Dark Chocolate Mate that I also got from Republic of Tea… I wonder how a mix of the two would taste…? Alas, I only had one sample of the Good Hope. I will likely buy a tin of this in the future.

No notes yet.

I’ve only had one cup of this tea thus far, and I’m not especially eager for the next one. I’m thinking that this tea works in the sense that it curbs your desire to eat, but only because the taste is so unpleasant that you lose your appetite. It’s like drinking the decaying corpse of a once-delightful cinnamon fairy that lost a battle to the death with a rabid sewer rat.

I didn’t like it very much.

I’ll give it another shot since I have a few more bags, but unless the first cup was a complete fluke I will never buy this again, and I may throw the rest away if the next cup is no better.

I got this tea in “The Republic of Tea Experience Sampler Cube”. I’ve been drinking mostly teas with strong mint and/or licorice flavors, so this one was a bit different. It is flavorful but mild at the same time. It has a very soothing aroma and flavor. While I prefer Republic of Tea’s “Get Some ZZZ’s” tea for a bedtime tea, this one was nice too. I could see myself buying more, if the right mood struck me.

I got the little “Traveler’s Tin” of this tea so that I could try it with only a small investment. What a peculiar tea—it steeps purple! This has a nice, authentic berry flavor that balances the green tea nicely. I liked this tea, though I’m not yet sure how much I liked it. I’m still up in the air about green tea in general.

This tea delivers exactly what it says it will—lemon and wintergreen. It is crisp and fresh and smells terrific. This is only the second loose leaf tea I’ve ever tried; I got this as one of the loose leaf “Sip by Sip Samplers” that Republic of Tea offers for about $4 (depending on the tea). It is smooth and lovely, and I can see myself buying more after I go through some of the huge Republic of Tea shipment of small amounts of tea and samplers that I just ordered.

I got this tea on the recommendation of another Steepster after I reviewed Yogi’s Breathe Deep tea, and as such I cannot help but compare the two.

I found this tea to be all right, but frankly a bit bland, especially after drinking the Breathe Deep. It also has a slight but noticeable bitter undertaste to it. The packaging recommended adding honey, which did eliminate the odd undertaste and make the tea smoother and a little richer. While Breathe Deep has a very strong licorice and eucalyptus flavor and smell, Breathe Easy is much, much lighter on both.

I did not notice the almost immediate easing of my tightened airways with Breathe Easy that I noticed with the Breathe Deep, though I think it did help some.

Ultimately, although this is an okay tea, I won’t be buying any more because I like the Breathe Deep so much better. However, for those who don’t like the strong flavoring in the Breathe Deep, Breathe Easy may be a good choice. It’s not bad; it’s just not, well, my cup of tea.

This is the tea that got me into tea. I tried this on a whim at a Barnes and Noble cafe several years ago, and I’ve loved it ever since. It is naturally somewhat sweet, has a fresh but not overpowering minty flavor, and soft, harmonious undertones of its other ingredients, notably eleuthero and licorice. This is my staple tea—the one I have taken to carrying a miniature tin of wherever I go. I gave some to a friend at work and she said it was the best tea she’d ever tasted. It’s great!

This tea has a lovely, spearmint-dominated fragrance and flavor. Just smelling the tin is great. I can’t discern any particular flavor in it under the spearmint, just hints of other flavors with nothing that jumps out strongly. While this tea does not really make me sleepy if I am not already so, I have noticed that I seem to sleep BETTER and be more rested if I drink it before going to bed. I really enjoy this tea; I’m glad I bought a whole tin and I may buy a bulk bag in the future.

I got this tea as a free sample with a Republic of Tea catalog. It has a lovely fragrance as it steeps, and the flavor and smell both reflect the pomegranate and vanilla without either dominating or overpowering. The resulting tea is very fresh and pleasant, but a bit boring. I’ll drink this again if its given to me but I won’t seek it out or buy it. It’s nice, but nothing really special.

I seem to be in the minority, but I love this tea. It is strongly flavored, and just breathing in the steeping licorice and eucalyptus seems to help. I have asthma and I tried this tea ona day in which I was having more trouble breathing than usual and was coughing a lot. This tea really did seems to help some, especially with calming the cough. It’s not a cure, but a bit of extra relief is always welcome. It is a pretty strong tea with unusual flavor and heavy licorice taste and smell, so it’s definely not for everyone, but I loved both the taste and the effects and will certainly be buying more.