The Republic of Tea

This chai is very anise forward, with a bit of cinnamon and pepper in reserve. I’ll agree with the other reviewers here in that it is a rather weak cup. At least it is not bitter or clove heavy so I will say I like this one better than Twinnings Chai.

One of my favorite teas to drink iced in the summer. Super refreshing. Light on the ginger and heavy on the peach and tea flavor. It’s decaf, so it’s a little flat tasting compared to non decaf black tea, but it’s perfect for this blend.

Thanks to tea-and-cats for this one! I would 100% order this tea. The mint is so fresh and tasty. Green rooibos is the perfect background. It just ends up being a deliciously light mint tea with some extra complexity. The cold resteep is tasty too. I love it!

I’ve enjoyed Republic of Tea’s other rooibos blends in the past, so I was glad to try this one from tea-and-cats! This is one I’d consider buying as a work tea. The rooibos is high quality and the cinnamon and other spices are nice. It’s mild and definitely rooibos-centric, but I like it.

Great googly moogly, this was yummy! I wish I had more!

I don’t really care for red rooibos but I’ve seen some people mentioning they have a strong preference for either red or green so I thought I’d give this a try when I found a tin at the grocery store. I think it’s quite a bit tastier than red rooibos but I’m not in love with it. It’s just a big cup of meh. There are other caffeine-free options I enjoy a lot more. Maybe it would be better for me in a blend instead of straight rooibos? Or maybe I’m just not a rooibos person.

This was not a yummy sip.

This blend is gorgeous. I love jasmine—the fragrance, the flavour, all the things. And while I like it with just about any tea, I think it works best as a white tea blend. (Oolong might be nice, too? I haven’t tried it.) This one’s super simple and straightforward, and utterly lovely.

Smells just like apple cider.

This one has a couple extra ingredients thrown in – blackberry leaf and stevia leaf. Not sure what benefit or flavor the blackberry leaf offers, and I’m not really tasting any sweetness from the stevia. Of course, that means no weird aftertaste either. Maybe because it’s stevia leaf and not the processed powder. Hibiscus isn’t my favorite, but I wanted something without caffeine this afternoon and I hadn’t tried this one yet. It’s cooled off now, so I’m enjoying it.

I signed up for a free virtual assistant training (?) this afternoon. It’s just a little five-day video series, though I’m sure they’ll be asking me for money at the end. Maybe if I like it, I’ll sign up. We’ll see. I’m hoping to narrow down my focus with some of the provided worksheets as the week goes on. I’m working as an administrative assistant now in a semi-large department, but I’d love to break into the world of virtual assistant work. September is approaching quickly and with it our official return to work. Being an assistant was never the plan (I wanted to be an Anthropologist…), but it pays the bills and I’m good at it so here we are. Working from home these last 18 months has really put things into perspective for me though, especially thinking about all that time wasted on long commutes. That, plus some somewhat recent health issues, has me reconsidering if the corporate world is really worth it. Some people live to climb that corporate ladder, but I’ve never been one of them. It’s just so hard for me to step away from my comfort zone. I guess it’s probably like that for most people. Anyway, if you’ve read this far, thanks for letting me ramble on. It’s been heavy on my mind lately. How’s everyone else adjusting to this “new normal” we’re moving into? I’m still nervous about leaving my house, to be honest. I’ve been lucky to be able to stay home through all of this, that’s for sure. I wonder sometimes how this will affect all of us long-term. It’s been quite a year+ and it’s still not even over.

A nice, soft smell out of the tin that’s true to its namesake, but primes you for disappointment once you discover that it’s mostly just dusty, dry rooibos once steeped. I kept coming back to this one thinking the next cup would be different, and it’s passable with a splash of milk, but why waste perfectly good dairy? I struggled through the tin and was relieved when this was finally gone.

I adore this tea. I buy a bulk bag of it every October or so, when it comes back into stock, and drink it through the year. It’s got lovely spicy notes in it plus juniper, which I adore and haven’t found in many teas.

I added milk, and this tastes like a fake tea version of what it’s going for, but it works. I don’t get much chocolate, but I get some tangy berry. It all combines pleasantly. The berry is sort of like the kind you find in the middle of a chocolate. I got this as a free sample, and maybe I’d drink it a few more times, but I probably wouldn’t want a whole tin.

I have mixed feelings about this tea. While I enjoyed the bright, deep cranberry color and flavor of this tea, I didn’t like the stevia. I don’t care how ‘natural’ stevia leaf may be, I just don’t like that flavor—it’s artificial-tasting to me. Its taste represents artificial sweetener to me, and I can’t get past that. And I enjoy hibiscus-heavy teas. My favorite is Celestial Seasonings’ classic, original Red Zinger. That’s the tea that made me fall in love with hibiscus tea in the first place.
I ended up mixing a teabag of this into different combination teas I brewed. I can only recommend RoT Natural Hibiscus with reservations. If you would ordinarily add stevia or other artificial sweetener to your tea, then you’ll probably like this. If you like to add some extra color and flavor when you improvise a mixed tea blend, this works well. But it isn’t among my favorites.

Oh hot hibiscus, how I love you!

Okay, really this isn’t as bad as I was expecting. Sure, it’s making my mouth pucker and dry up like a raisin but the flavor’s alright with a little honey thrown in. And of course it tastes better as it cools. This is the last of my opened herbals, so I’ll be moving on to a few teabags next. Glad to get these marked off my list. My husband can have the rest.

This is one of the best green tea and I love it because it balances sweet and nutty notes and is free of additives.

Tastes like chopped Chinese sencha. It’s actually ok! It has that toasty-biscuity flavor of generic Chinese oolong with buttery dry grass and minerals, some astringency. It makes me feel warm. Not a green I’d want to have to cool off.