The Republic of Tea

Lots on my mind to distract me this evening, so when I grabbed the sample pouch that came from the natural health store, I had no inkling it was intended to be iced. I just popped the single-size bag into a cup and let it steep 5 minutes (that I did read off the bag).

Inattentiveness wins in this case! An odd-duck mix of everything from apple to aloe to sea buckthorn is sweet (but not too), pink (but not hibby-heavy), and … I’m getting buttery!

The actual for-sale tins evidently contain pitcher-sized pouches, and I can see that this would be really tasty iced, but thanks to my sloppy serendipity, I wouldn’t mind seeing it in single-serve bags.

I love this tea has an intense toffee flavor. I love the unique fall Republic of Tea flavors they have at World Market. I was looking for the Pumpkin Caramel Stroopwafal Tea from Republic of Tea but it was sold out. There were so many options glad a choose this one. Glad it’s herbal with a red rooibos base. I will have to try this as a tea latte too.

Love this one! It has some fruity hits and although not listed I feel like I get hints of vanilla. Great iced cold and it is Superfruit! I am not a big fan of green tea usually but this one is great!

Sipdown

This may have been Ashman’s favorite of the Earl Grey All Day line from RoT that we tried. The flavouring is pretty strong, which meant he could easily resteep and combine so that he had tea for breakfast plus enough for a travel mug to take to work.

The strawberry and rhubarb were pretty balanced so the rhubarb toned down “candy” tendencies in the strawberry. It was a brightly flavoured green and the base wasn’t sharp.

I barely picked up bergamot in these, and I don’t think I noticed it all in this one.

Sipdown

What a shocker to come on here today and see that my two sipdowns have never had a tasting note from me.

This was a really enjoyable blend. Orange Marmalade was super heavily flavored. This one a little less so.

It was genuinely a lemon biscuit/pastry flavor and not just tea with lemon. Ashman is not a fan of lemon in tea as a rule but he liked this. There was a nice, creamy vanilla note that sold the dessert profile.

The most upscale of our local health food grocers keeps a basket of sample goodies by the counter, and this was in it…probably wouldn’t have sprung for an entire canister of what, at least from the ingredient listing, looks like a garden-variety nightcappy blend.

But tonight, I’m tired inside and out and glad to have this on hand. Just enough rooibos and rose to tone and sweeten the lavender and chamomile. Nothing unusual or unique, but nicely balanced.

I haven’t historically been a huge fan of Republic of Tea, but after enjoying their s’mores tea, I thought I would give this a shot. Plus, I can never resist fig-flavored anything…

Thankfully, it’s quite good! The bergamot is the strongest note but doesn’t overtake the other flavors and doesn’t taste too floral for me. I definitely taste the fig (yay!), and it reminds me of fig jam. I’m not sure about whiskey, there’s maybe a slight smoky woodiness going on in the background. The vanilla and caramel swirl together into a sort of crème caramel flavor with a custardy, slightly buttery character.

Overall, I’m happy with it. I thought it might be too many flavors going on, and admittedly I would just as soon omit the vanilla and caramel altogether and add more fig, but it doesn’t taste too muddled and I can still pick out the fig notes.

Picked this one up on a whim. It’s a new release, and normally I wouldn’t be interested in such a chocolate-heavy tea, but I was intrigued by the herbal base of carob, roasted dandelion root, and cacao.

I’m glad I grabbed it, because it’s quite good! There’s definitely a distinct graham cracker flavor to it, which I love. A little bit of marshmallow too. Surprisingly, it doesn’t beat you over the head with the chocolatey notes. Not super rich, just a nice, lightly toasty herbal to cozy up with.

I do think I’ll use more bags next time, for this first cup I used two for 12 ounces of water. It could be a little stronger.

In the past I have resisted Earl Grey teas with added flavors. I dunno—it seemed like cheating, somehow. After all, Earl Grey itself is such a classic, such a wonderful taste in and of itself, that adding another flavor to it seemed almost…sacrilegious! Well, I have changed my mind.
I shall have to review this again, and soon, because I have added sugar to this from the get-go, which is not a truly fair and objective review of the tea on its own merits. But with the vanilla in its makeup, it’s a dessert tea, and called out for sugar!
I liked it enough when hot that it occurred to me to make a double batch and chill it—and it’s a terrific iced tea for this hot July weather. I do recommend it both hot, and chilled.
We’ll see how I like it when I don’t automatically add the sugar! But for now—enjoy it, friends!

This was the middle layer of a trio tin gifted to me and is recommended either hot or cold. It leads with cinnamon, but not milky cinnamon…the green tea gives it a little crispness and reminds me of the cinnamon disk candies wrapped in bright red cellophane I used to sneak at Grandpa’s house. It’s lovely chilled.

I bought this at the same time I bought the Caramel tea from their regular line and they are similar enough that I should not have. This does taste better than the caramel tea…it’s a more mild flavor. Not a strong “tea” flavor" and pairs well with milk. Overpriced since you only get 30 bags compared to the almost double amount you get in the regular line. I love Mrs. Patmore and the description got me. Ehh. It’s ok. The picture they used could have been better so I don’t feel compelled to keep the tin. Nice to try….but I won’t be sad that they stop selling it since I think it’s limited anyway.

Ehhh. I was very excited for this one but it’s not for me. It kinda reminds me of the the leftover milk from a fruity cereal- like fruity pebbles or captain crunch. Something like that. I was able to get through the big tin I bought by either adding a splash of pomegranate juice or mango soda. Just a splash. It covered the artificial flavor so well! It has nice big ol leaves though that I have been adding to my raised garden beds…I think it’s been doing them good!

Hope your Saturday was pleasant! Between welcome rain showers, we took a quick break from the usual round of piled-up household needs and strolled the grounds of our little burg’s 150th birthday party next to the baseball diamond. Burgers on the grill, handful of craft tents, a decent local band, and a petting zoo with a pot-belly piglet that was a third the size of our biggest cat. Took about 10 minutes to see all there was to see ;)

Local do’s signify the beginning of fall, and with the weather cooperating, I was in a chai mood this evening. This little gift tin sat neglected all summer, but I think it’s going to be fun to work my way through it. The cacao chai is pleasant and the spices don’t overwhelm the cacao vibe. I’ve had one cup with milk and one without; neither with sweetener. Both tasty, but I think I like it unadorned best.

I am going to have to learn to drink chai year round, not just in the winter…I got a triple gift tin as a thank-you gift at work to add to the other gift chai varieties that are beginning to gather dust in my office.

In this case, it wasn’t difficult to drink. This is mild, the spices are nicely balanced, the chocolate is detectible and the reiki mushrooms give it a nice, grounded pu-erh sort of feel. Low-caffeine, too.

Exactly what I expected from “Earl Grey and Orange Marmalade”… it’s OK, nothing to rave about. Just a unique combination I have never had before.

Sipdown

September Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a tea you will not repurchase

I bought this one day when I was really feeling down and wanted some tea retail therapy. It was fun to try, but when a tea is this strongly flavored I assume it is not a great quality base and there is a lot of flavoring that might be labeled natural but is in no way what I would consider natural. (Rare Tea Lady suggested recently to just stir a spoonful of high quality jam into one’s tea if one wants fruit flavor! The Russians do, usually with cherry jam or preserves.)

It was fun, it was good, it was very summery, but I am glad to finish it. There was only one bag left and I added two teaspoons of Ceylon OP Kenilworth No. 450 from Tin Roof Teas so I could make a Stump pot full for breakfast. The orange flavor still came through and I had a more natural tasting beverage.

Even though I will probably not repurchase the other two flavors I bought, the Lemon Biscuit was probably my favorite and I might eventually look for Whisky Fig to try.

I bought this yesterday at The Fresh Market. It was a limited edition exclusive called All Day Earl Grey that came out in February along with four other teas – a decaf version of this, Strawberry Rhubarb Green Tea, Lemon Biscuit Black Tea, and Fig Whiskey Vanilla Black Tea, which was the tea I actually went there to buy. Guess which was sold out and not coming back? To soothe my wounded soul, I bought the other three flavors on sale. (The decaf version of this was also sold out.)

Since I have been feeling down lately, I decided to try the Orange Marmalade tea this morning since orange scent is supposed to be a big mood booster. As it is a new to me tea and I have had very few teas by this company, I also needed to experiment.

The instructions say to use one tea bag for six ounces of water. I used three for my Stump pot. I steeped once and poured a small amount of tea into my cup to taste full strength. Then I steeped again and added that to the first batch. It wasn’t looking good because the liquor was rather pale compared to the first steep and the scent was muted as well.

I am happy to say that the flavor of both cups was more than acceptable. The orange is STRONG. The tea seemed very sweet – so sweet that I got up and read the tin again to see if there is any sort of sweetener added, but there isn’t. Also, this tastes very orange creamsicle to me, so I am guessing the unnamed “other flavors” are vanilla.

I made enough to try it cold at lunch and will review it that way, too. It is a good choice for iced tea without sweetener, but alas, it is not coming back to the shelves. I bet it would make an awesome tea pop. Perhaps I can look at their usual offerings and put together an orange tea and a vanilla tea and get the same effect. I am not really perceiving the bergamot, so I guess it is a close match to the orange flavor used here.

Edited to add: The Fresh Market called these a store exclusive, but I see it is available on ROT website, as well as the Strawberry Rhubarb Green. It is available online only right now but should be in stores in July according to one reviewer there.

The name caramel always sucks
Me in. And that makes
Me forget these are never my
Favorite flavor. Its ok.

I’m continuing my 2025 sip-down, going through older teas from my cupboard. Consequently, this review should be taken with reserve, since it’s not exactly fair to rate a tea that’s languished in the back of my cupboard for a number of years. Having noticed that the other two reviews of this Downton Abbey blend didn’t like it either—and they were written 4 and 10 years ago tells me it was never that great an herbal tea in the first place.
When Downton Abbey the series was first ending in 2015, I ordered a few different teas that Republic of Tea was selling, tied to the series. I selected this one based on its being caffeine free.
Even when I drank this tea when newly bought, I remember not being able to discern the more unusual flowers in this blend. Both orange blossoms and passion flower are supposed to be included in the tea (they’re on the label), but they’re not included in the Steepster list of flavors, which I why I mention them here.
For a tea which has lemon balm as its first ingredient, and five different flowers, I barely taste any of them. I understand time has passed, so that’s why the upper notes of the florals are missing. The only deeper floral note I detect is some sweetness from the orange blossom (and possibly the linden, but I’m not really familiar with that).
It’s really a pretty nondescript cup of tea, rather muddled tasting, and watery, to boot.
My major complaint of most RoT teas is too little tea within each bag. For a total weight of 46.8 grams, divided by 36 bags = 1.3 grams per teabag. Really minimal. So I used 4 bags in 25 oz of water, let it steep for 7 minutes, so I could better taste this tisane.
Just blah. While I can taste the chamomile, it’s oddly like a watery mushroom-infused liquid, for some reason (maybe the valerian root?). The only thing it’s got going for it is that it IS caffeine-free. With only 8 teabags left, that’s only two more 25-oz half-pots for me to get through…thank goodness. Think I’ll add a couple other teabags of other tisanes to help!

This is one of the best teas I’ve had in a long time, and has potentially opened me up to a world of new experiences from this company. Looking through their website, they seem lovely: lots of flavors, plenty of organic and loose-leaf options, and all the ones I spot-checked didn’t have the dreaded “natural flavors” ingredient. A bit on the pricey side, but as I’m becoming more of a tea snob, it seems worth it.

This particular flavor was wonderful. Simple yet refreshing and soothing. The jasmine flavor is strong and comes across super well. I don’t know, something about this tea just feels so clean and smooth and relaxing.

I’m definitely going to be exploring other flavors from this brand and hopefully they’re as good as this one.

I have found a new favorite! Originally I was attracted to the label’s blossoms in light pinks and green—and the fact spring is new, calling forth hope in a new season. So I ordered a tin, and was delighted with the deep cherry redolence when I opened the tin.
I usually find Republic of Tea’s teabags only fit for the tiny 6 oz cups they advise. In other words, I find such cups entirely too small, so those teabags don’t hold enough for a real cup, to me!
So I made a pot (57 oz), and used 6 bags, with a longer steep. What a treat! Spring in a teacup, truly. The cherry flavor was not as deep in the cup as it was smelling the open tin. That was fine—it was still a nice, clean cherry flavor, not at all artificial tasting. It was fresh, light, and the green tea was perfect. I’ve already enjoyed two pots’ worth. It’s the perfect tea to welcome the new season, toasting my beloved sister Kerry on this her birthday with Spring Cherry!

TTB tea! I like this! It’s appley and fresh! It’s a little tart, but really nice cold. I’m not sure why the other reviews are so brutal.

TTB tea! This doesn’t stand out too much, but it’s pretty smooth! It was enjoyable with milk and sugar, though the spices could have been a lot stronger. Still not bad for an herbal chai.