The Republic of Tea

A great strong shot of green.

Got this free sample with the new RoT catalog. I am glad it was free is all I can say.
Smells great, tastes ok, but weak.

This is a great loose-leaf tea for ice tea!

It certainly has a strong almond smell and taste, but little vanilla, and really nothing that exciting going on. Might pair well with some cookies. I think it’s funny that the manufacturer suggests a strong brew could withstand pairing with milk, because milk challenged all vanilla notes in my cup. The brew is really rather weak.

the first time i tried this tea was when my Republic of Tea December Catalog Came In The Mail And A Free Sample Was In The Package i was going over to my sister-in-law’s studio and made it and steeped it for 5 mins and went to the bank and came back and the whole studio had a house warming aura from the tea

the taste of this wonderful tea is excellent this has to be my 2nd favorite tea

This tea in iced tea form is outstanding – comes in a nice bottle too.

This is one of my favorite teas to drink, I especially enjoy the complexity of how both the lemon grass and ginger are vying for my attention. Also has a great aroma!

very rich and complex for a berry tea. not overly fruity (a plus). one of my favorites!

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.

I ended up with a tin of this + the 12 bags in the holiday sampler, so I had a lot of it to drink this season. At first, I put up with it, then I had a phase where I preferred it (steeped strongly: 2 bags per mug, or a small mug for one bag), then I’ve had other tea in the meanwhile, and now have ended up not caring for it so much again. So: if you plan to drink it in a month, I recommend it, but I don’t think it holds up on its own.

This came as a free sample with the RoT catalog yesterday. But I have to say the reviews all seem pretty much accurate.

This is probably one of my favorite fruit teas. The blackberry is a strong flavor, but doesn’t overpower the flavor of the tea itself. The sage is a subtle background flavor, but is definitely detectable.

Free tea bag. In the theme of holiday spiced tea, thought I’d give this one a shot. Can I go tea-nerdy for a moment? I was curious as to what size of a cup they set their tea bags up for so I weighted it. 1.8g. Sooooo, we’re talking a 4oz cup?

Anyway, I brewed mine in 6oz. Compared to Holiday Dream, this one smells better. Almost entirely like mulled cider. This could be very good or very bad.

Wait, what? Where’s the taste? I smell cinnamon and cider and the a little TheraFlu (apparently I’ve got TheraFlu on the mind) then I taste…. nothing. Warmth and then maybe a little tiny bit of citrus and then nothing and then an aftertaste of freakin’ Red Hots. Another sip and I get the same thing! It’s like scented water with a drop of Hot Damn. Non-alcoholic Hot Damn.

Really? REALLY?

No. I don’t even think so. Next tea please!

ETA: I gave the husband the option of finishing my cup. Hey, he LIKES TheraFlu so he might like this. But based on the face he made, okay, he DOESN’T like this. There was a comparison to cleaning products mentioned and then he said that the spices smelled nice so maybe it would be better with a little sugar but that’d risk oversweetening and drowning out the spices. He gave it a 2/5 stars saying “I could drink it if I had to”. Ah, a ringing endorsement.

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.

Had a little side by side tasting of this and Golden Moon’s lapsang souchong with my dad pre-present opening tonight. This one was his favorite since it had a fuller body and a stronger smoky taste. As it cooled, there was a sweeter taste but a little darker in sweetness than Golden Moon’s. The smoky scent and flavor was stronger and not quite as smooth to me but my dad enjoyed it more for that reason, saying it was a great winter tea. While I prefer Golden Moon’s, my dad prefers this one so I might have to keep a little of this on hand when he comes to visit.

I was feeling brave a couple of visits to the grocery store ago and I picked up about a tablespoon of this. It promptly caused my pantry to smell like I had been frying meat in it, so I stuffed the little plastic bag it came in into an unlabeled tin. And promptly forgot I had it (or blocked it out).

But last night I remembered and thought I’d try it this morning. Once I took the plastic bag out of the tin the house started smelling like bacon. Or ham. On fire. Once I got the leaf into water, though, the meat smell went away and it turned into pretty much burning wood. As I poured the tea out, I got a hint of a sweet smell – maybe maple – and I really really hope it was from this tea. The tea’s actually pretty light in color. For how this smells I was expecting something black as tar… And eeevil.

Hmm. This isn’t nearly as bad as I was fearing based on the smell. I makes me think of when you stand downwind from a campfire all night and the next morning your clothes (and hair and skin and everything) still smells like the campfire. It has that same taste. You know, if you were to eat those clothes. And there is a little sweetness to it! As it starts to cool, I’m getting a honey-smoked-ham type taste from it. Or maple smoked.

I made the husband try some and he compared it to Liquid Smoke and said that he feels like he’d smell like a smoker if he drank a lot of that (smoker as in device used to smoke meats, not one who smokes cigarettes). So yeah, he’s not a fan.

Honestly, I’m probably not a huge fan either simply because I am not a fan of drinking my ham. Not a big meat fan in general, actually. However, if I were looking for an easier replacement for fried ham in the mornings, this would get my vote. I do enjoy the smoothness of this (which is surprising) and the sweetness (because I am a big sweet fan). So I think I’m going to come down on the side of good tea, not for me.

I think I’m going to see if I can get my dad to try this next time I see him. If anyone would like smoked meat tea, I think it’d be him!

Arguably my most favorite Chai. I really don’t understand notes about this being weak. Have we all forgotten that to fine tune our teas to our own particular tastes, that we can use MORE or steep for longer to achieve the desired strength? That said, I find that Republic Chai works best with 1.5 teaspoons, boiling water @ about 9-10 minutes. finish with honey and milk and you get a nice smooth cup of Chai with a wonderful peppery afterbite.

SQUEE!

Auggy sent me an extremely awesome package in the mail of a bunch of teas for me to try. Just because she’s amazing and awesome like that. It wasn’t even a tea swap – it was a gift! Once I amass a large enough tea collection, she’s getting lots of yummy goodness her way!

Anyway, the package arrived yesterday, but I was so busy that I barely had time to tear it open and inspect all the wonders inside. I was out late last night, and I woke up super groggy and completely out of it. I was out until 4:30 am last night at a friend’s birthday party, and it was freezing out. 7 degrees with wind chill. So yeah, I woke up not in the best of spirits this morning. I wanted something delicious and strong. Something pirate-y that would be a nice kick in the pants.

And boy, did this deliver! The wet leaves smell strong and assertive, the way a proper Irish Breakfast blend should. The cup brewed up to a much darker color than Adagio’s, but less cloudy than Twinings. On first sip, I had a huge smile on my face.

Auggy knew that I had been disappointed with Adagio’s blend – that it wasn’t RAWR-in-your-face assertive enough for me to call it a true IB. The Twinings blend is such a punch-to-the-face it could almost be TOO aggressive at times. This one is the perfect happy medium to those two. The Assam gives a nice, malty kick at the end of each sip, pulling you awake by your lapels. And the Ceylon is the beginning of every tasting note, that smooth, default essence-of-tea taste. They complement each other very nicely, creating a very drinkable cup with more sophistication than the Twinings blend but still enough kickassery to really wake you up in the morning.

This is the way that I pictured Irish Breakfast loose leaf to taste. Smooth but bracing with a some astringency and spice. Auggy hit the nail right on the head when she sent this to me! I can’t wait to tear through everything else she sent me!

Definitely one of my favorites, almond flavor is divine and a little vanilla adds the necessary sweetness to make it a tea desert.

Republic of Tea is served in Papa Jon’s in Kyoto and is great with their NY Cheesecake.

We used this in a blend along with Hibiscus and black tea then cooled and added honey and orange juice. We called it Hibiscus Fruit Cooler! It was really good!

This has been one of my favorite speciality teas! It has a rich nutty/ chocolate flavor. Great with desserts.