In my quest to stay fit whilst having a desk job, I have turned to dessert teas to curb my ever present sweet tooth. My criteria for a proper dessert tea are:
1) Just sweet enough to stop the craving. Not so sweet that I feel as gross as I would have if I had just eaten a real dessert, in which case, I should have just gone for the dessert.
2) Something so delicious that I find myself reaching for the tea as opposed to the real dessert
3) Definitely something decaf. I go for these teas in the evening when any caffeine would keep me up till the wee hours.
4) Variety! I can't have too much of the same flavor or I get over it very quickly, and in turn, will go for a pastry or a cookie.
5) While I am a honey fanatic, I'd prefer that my dessert tea comes with its own sweetness. Having to add sugar negates my desire to have this tea as a dessert alternative.

Here are the three that I have chosen as my favorites. Each has a unique flavor fit for any sweet tooth.

Chocolate Chai is the perfect blend of cocoa powder and chai spices. Neither overwhelms the other, nor is the cocoa too dry tasting. The rooibos has a natural buttery flavor and sweetness that instantly amps up this tea.

Caramel Apple tastes as close to the real thing as a tea could get. It has the slight sour yet sweet flavor of an apple, paired with a creamy caramel flavor. It's like the carnival made a pit stop in your very own tea cup.

Peppermint Chocolate has just the perfect mix of chocolate and mint. The mint cools and calms as a nice relaxing tea to drink to unwind from the day. It's like a spa in a cup.

What are your favorite dessert teas?

Happy tea drinking!
<3 TTT

Hello friends! I bought this tea a little while back, along with my Republic of Tea sampler, but I always forgot to try it. I finally rediscovered that I own this tea and decided to try it!

Let's start with the smell -- it definitely stays true to its name, a warm blueberry dessert straight out of the oven. The smell gave me high hopes for the flavor, but let me tell you, I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. At first I didn't taste the blueberry or the cake much. Then the cake came through a bit more, and the blueberry slowly started creeping in. However, those flavors would fade away and come back in waves. I kept trying to put a name to exactly what I was tasting, and I couldn't.

As I am sipping it right this moment, I can taste cinnamon with a  slightly sour after taste. Every now and then I get a sour/sweet blueberry-ish flavor, but it isn't consistent. I won't discard this tea at this point, but I'm not a huge fan of it. I'll give it a 6.5/10 for now.

Happy Tea Drinking,
<3 TTT

After trying 20 varieties of their teas a couple months back (sorry this review hasn't come to you sooner), I'm finally collecting all of my thoughts on the Republic of Tea as a whole. Links to my individual tea reviews will be down below.

All in all, the brand is pretty dang good. There were a lot of teas that I adored and will definitely buy again. There were some flavors that had room for improvement and only 2 complete flops.

I was a HUGE fan of the hibiscus line. I gave each a 10/10 rating. Such a great blend of all flavors promised in the title, but none over powered the other. Simply delicious.

The Red Tea line, I was not a huge fan of. The flavors were great, but there was often a strange after taste. Either something I referred to as "salmon roe", "sweet tarts", or something unidentifiable. Luckily, the flavors themselves were good enough to earn this line an average rating of 8.3.

As for their "Get ___" teas, like Get Clean and Get Relaxed, I also gave them a very high rating-- an average of 9.5. Granted, I only tried two from this line, but they were fantastic. Great flavors and I felt some effects of what they had promised to achieve. The true test will be to drink more of these two to see if the effects are legitimate. Challenge accepted.

Now, their more common teas are a grab bag of winners and "could be better" teas. Their white teas had a 8.25 average rating, green teas had an average of 8.7 with a high of 9.5 and a low of 7. Black tea had an average of 6.6, but don't let that fool you! This type of tea had a few 10's (Cranberry Blood Orange and Caramel Vanilla) and a couple of 3's (Decaf Ginger Peach and Decaf Apricot). Not sure if this means to stay away from their decaf teas, but these two were not cutting it for me.

I hope this review was helpful! I sure enjoyed it :) If you would like more in depth reviews of the individual teas, click the links below.

Happy Tea Drinking,
<3 TTT

Review Part 1
Review Part 2
Review Part 3
Review Part 4
Review Part 5
Review Part 6

This is the final installment of the Republic of Tea sample set reviews. Next Wednesday I will compile all of my thoughts into one post about the brand! I'm very pleased to say that this last set of four teas have all been delicious and all are decaf. Keep reading for the full reviews!

Pineapple Lychee Hibiscus: Wow! This one right here. Wow. You actually taste each and every single flavor described. You get the subtle tang of the pineapple, the sweetness of the lychee, and the tea flavor from the hibiscus. To me, this tastes exactly as if you brewed hibiscus tea and added in pineapple and lychee juices. Absolutely fantastic. And the smell is just as delicious as it tastes. I love for my fruit teas to still have the tea flavor and not just taste like straight up juice. Such a fan. 10/10. Bravo!

Organic Mint Fields: If you are not a fan of mint, stay away because this tea is super strong! In a good way, though, for you mint lovers. For me, it is just the right ratio of mint to tea flavors. It is decaf, but definitely has the full-bodied flavor of a green or black tea, so this is perfect for those of you affected by caffeine but still want to enjoy those flavors at night without the consequence of staying up late, or for those of you who don't like herbal teas, this is a great one to try. Big fan. 10/10.

Get Relaxed: This tasted just like liquid lavender. It is very relaxing, from the smell to the taste. If you are not a fan of lavender, stay away, because this is very strong. As with the Mint Fields tea above, this tea has the full-bodied flavor of a green of black tea, but is still decaf. I would rate this a 9/10, just because it taste a bit too strong when cold.

Red Velvet Chocolate: I thought I would end this brand review with a drinkable version of one of my favorite desserts, Red Velvet. I wasn't sure what to expect. I also wasn't sure of how a tea could capture the complexities of a red velvet cake without tasting just like chocolate. But, my friends, best believe, this tea does it. It tastes exactly like a red velvet cupcake without the full-carby feeling one feels when eating too much of a good thing. It's hard for me to pin down the difference between red velvet and chocolate, but I guess I would say it tastes like vanilla batter with cocoa powder? If you have a better description, let me know, but this tea is fantastic! 10/10

Click the links below for the first five parts:
Republic of Tea Review Pt. 1
Republic of Tea Review Pt. 2
Republic of Tea Review Pt. 3
Republic of Tea Review Pt. 4
Republic of Tea Review Pt. 5

Happy Tea Drinking!
TTT <3

Acai Green Tea: From the beginning, I had high hopes for this tea. I am usually a fan of acai and the previous tea from Republic of Tea that I tried with this same packaging have tasted quite good. This brews into a bright berry red. It is slightly sour from the acai berries, but not at all over powering. I quite enjoyed this tea because I could also taste the green tea. It is a perfect fusion of the two flavors. I rate this a 9.5/10 because I wish that there was just a touch more acai flavor.

Hibiscus Vanilla Apple: This tea was a pleasant surprise! At first glance, this tea doesn't sound like it would taste good. Those three flavors don't generally blend well in my mind. But once brewed the three flavors mix in perfect harmony. You taste the sweetness of the apple, the creaminess of the vanilla, and the slight sour taste of the hibiscus. This tea almost tastes like an apple cobbler. It is very delicious. Among my favorite dessert teas and I do intend to purchase the full container of this stuff. I rate this a 10/10.

Pomegranate Vanilla Red Tea: I was slightly nervous about this tea, because, unfortunately, I wasn't too impressed by the other Red Teas that I have tried from this selection. I'm happy to say, though, that I was pleasantly surprised. There was no weird, off-putting after taste as with the others. This tea was sweet with a very faint pomegranate taste that developed as the tea cooled a little. It has that same sweet tarts flavor I have mentioned. All in all it was a fairly good tea. I would rate it an 8.5/10 because of the sweet tarts flavor, that I personally don't mind too much.

Decaf Ginger Peach: This tea smells, again, like Peach-O's. This made me very excited to try the tea. I was super disappointed, though, because the tea had this weird soapy flavor that over powered all else. I tried with all of my might to focus on the peach, but couldn't avoid that weird soap flavor. Not a fan. 3/10.

Here are links to the first four parts:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Happy Tea Drinking!
TTT <3

Orange Blossom White Tea: I drank this tea in the afternoon as a little pick me up, and really enjoyed it! It is refreshing with a florally orange flavor. As a lover of Orange Blossom honey, I expected a great floral flavor, which I got! I do wish, however, that the white tea came across more, but as this tea is only steeped for a minute, it is difficult for the tea to fully develop. I would rate this an 8/10. There is a possibility that I would purchase this tea.

Strawberry Chocolate Tea: Believe it or not, this is only the second chocolate flavored tea I have ever tried. Crazy, I know, but chocolate tea made me imagine watered down hot cocoa, which is just plain weird. But after trying Chocolate Chai from Republic of Tea, which I love, I am no longer afraid. This tea, however, was not one of my favorites. I did not taste the strawberry, which was a disappointment. The chocolate tasted like cocoa powder, and left a drying taste in my mouth. I would give this a 7/10.

Blueberry Green Tea: This tea was fantastic! There was a fresh blueberry taste. It was weird! I could distinctly taste the blueberry! As with many of Republic of Tea fruit flavors I have found, there is a Sweet Tarts type of after taste. Whether or not that is something you like, is up to you! I think it's ok; it doesn't bug me too much. But I really did like this tea, and will probably repurchase it. The green tea flavor was perfectly mixed with fresh blueberry taste. I would give this a 9/10 because of that after taste.

Ginger Peach Black Tea: This has the same Peach-O's type of smell as the Ginger Peach White Tea (reviewed here). In this one, though, the peach flavor didn't come across strong enough for me. The ginger is great; not too spicy but just enough to tickle your taste buds. The peach, however, is much too muted for my liking. The tea was also a little drying on the tongue. For these reasons, I rate this tea a 7/10. I will most likely not purchase this tea

Good Hope Vanilla Red Tea: The smell of this tea is fantastic--creamy vanilla, similar to that of Republic of Tea's Caramel Vanilla (reviewed here). The flavor had that same buttery vanilla quality, but unfortunately, had a very strange after-taste. After a few sips, I decided to equate this to salmon roe. It was quite odd. It took me a while to drink this tea because of that weird after-taste, but once the tea cooled down, that it went away completely and I was left with delicious buttery vanilla. I'm not quite sure if the after-taste went away due to the passing of time or because the tea had cooled down. Regardless, as a hot tea this wasn't cutting it for me, but as a cold tea it was quite delicious. I rate this tea a 7.5/10 because of the off-putting taste, but still give it a fairly high rating because it is very good cold.

Chamomile Lemon: I find that it is quite hard to mess up chamomile tea. Most brands that I have tried are very good, with the few exceptions that are extraordinary. This tea is in the middle of those two categories-- the chamomile flavor is great and even has some of herbal qualities that I love, coming from the addition of lavender flower, orange blossom, and passion flower. However, I hardly tasted any lemon. As a chamomile tea this tastes fantastic, but as a chamomile lemon tea, it falls short. I would rate this tea a 7.5/10 because it has a delicious tea base, but is lacking on the flavor.

The People's Green Tea: This is the light at the end of the tunnel for this week's batch of reviews. All of the teas previous were not as great as I had hoped, but this tea is delicious! The smell is reminiscent of matcha green tea--it has that creamy and earthy smell. And the flavor is a mix between good green tea and matcha. I see why this is among the most popular from Republic of Tea. This is definitely a tea that I will repurchase. I rate this a 9.5/10, only because I am very picky with my green teas and have had amazing quality ones while in China.

Happy Tea Drinking!
TTT <3

Blackberry Sage Green Tea: The tea bag smelled sickeningly of blackberry, like that artificial sourness and sweetness, so I was initially afraid of what I was about to try. However, once brewed, the smell transforms to being relaxing as the sage and blackberry blend in perfect harmony. The taste is not artificial at all, which is what the initial smell led me to believe. I could even taste a slight sour flavor from the blackberries. The sage flavor is not apparent at first, but tickles your tastebuds as an afterthought with its fresh qualities. This tea is a little dry tasting, however, and tended to be more smell than flavor. I would rate this tea a 7/10

Hibiscus Coconut (Herbal Tea) : I would not expect a tea to quench my thirst. When I am parched, I reach for water more often than tea. But this tea is so hydrating, you won't believe! It is almost as if you are drinking coconut water with a hint of sour hibiscus. If you don't think that this flavor combination would work, I highly suggest you give it a try. It is enjoyable to drink as it is hydrating, creamy, slightly sour, and relaxing, as well as refreshing. I have nothing else to day, 10/10. Definitely will be purchasing the full size.

Get Clean (Herbal Tea): This is of their detox teas that claims to help you feel less bloated and gross after having eaten an unhealthy meal by stimulating the liver. There is an asterisk on the packet stating that their claims are not FDA approved, meaning that the ingredients are thought of to have these cleansing properties, but their claim has not been tested by the FDA. This tea contains dandelion root, which is great for digestion and is an antioxidant, and chicory root, which helps upset stomachs and curb appetites. Whether or not these ingredients are in high enough quantities in the tea to cause any effect is debatable. Regardless of its claims, this tea is quite delicious! It did take the first sip to get used to it though, as it does have much more of a "healthy" flavor. The best way that I can describe the smell is almonds and healthy supplement. You initially taste the almond flavoring, which almost has an alcoholic type of taste, but that goes away after the first sip. After a few more sips, I likened the flavor to an almond meal based cookie dough. I am definitely going to buy this tea again, not so much for the "clean" claims as I hadn't tried it for long enough to see if there are any results, but more so for the delicious flavor. This is a 10/10 for flavor, not sure about the rating for its claims, yet though, but I do plan on doing a full review once I buy it.

Decaf Apricot Black Tea: I had such high expectations because of the smell; like apricots and cream. I was a little disappointed, though, that the flavor didn't come across all that much. It basically tastes like warm water with a hint of apricot. I even put the tea bag in for longer than recommended in hopes of deepening the flavor. which did not happen. I really wish that this tea had a stronger apricot flavor, because right now I have to search for it. I would rate this a 3/10. Not very impressed.


Check out these teas here:
Blackberry Sage Green Tea
Hibiscus Coconut
Get Clean
Decaf Apricot Black Tea

Happy tea drinking!
TTT <3

Cranberry Blood Orange Black: As I was licking the spoon after taking out the tea bag, I tasted Sweet Tarts candy. Yum! And when I went to take a sip, it tastes like just that--Sweet Tarts candy in tea form: meaning that you get all of the delicious taste without feeling sick to your stomach from all of the sugar. Because of this quality, I feel that this tea does not need any sugar, unless you would like to cut the bitterness as both fruits are quite bitter. But they are rich in antioxidants! Despite its inherent bitterness, this tea goes smoothly on the tongue. I really enjoy this! I would rate it a 10/10. I am greatly debating buying a full canister of this…

Ginger Peach White Tea: Upon brewing, this smells like Peach-Os with hint of ginger. I was slightly disappointed because I was expecting a flavor as powerful as the smell, but only got subtle flavor. However, after a few more sips, I began to better understand this tea, for lack of better words. It is quite soothing, although you would expect ginger to be spicy. The packet's instructions say to steep for 30-60 seconds, which is a short amount of time for the rest of the flavors to develop but is necessary for the ginger to not be overpowering. I do wish that the peach flavor came across more, but you can definitely taste it. The peach nor the ginger flavors overpower one another. Perhaps the water was not hot enough and therefore did not extract as much flavor as it could have, but overall I think this tea is quite good. I would rate this an 8.5/10 because I do wish that the peach flavor was stronger, but I do enjoy this tea. Besides, I have two more chances with a green and black tea version of the same flavor to see if I can brew them correctly.

Pomegranate Green Tea: Once brewed, this tea is a pomegranate juice berry red color, which is very unlike the Disney Tea Brand or Hickory Farms pomegranate green tees that I have tried. This let me know that the pomegranate flavor was going to be real and intense. I was worried, though, that this would taste more like a juice than tea, which although could be delicious, is not what I was hoping for from a green tea. However, I am pleased to say that this tea is fantastic. The best description I can give, and I mean this in the best way possible, is that of watered-down pomegranate juice mixed with green tea. You get the slight tang from the pomegranate, and yet still have the taste of green tea in the background. If you are not one for bitter flavors, try adding just a touch of turbinado sugar. I really enjoyed this tea and would rate it a 8.5/10 because I did feel that there could have been more of a pomegranate flavor and that the green tea flavor was a tad too much.

I am thrilled about this haul, because this is a new brand for me and I really want to try as many flavors from them as I can to have a comprehensive idea of their teas to share with you! For this reason, I decided to get a 24-Count Custom Overwrap Tea Gift, which allowed me to pick 24 different tea flavors from a list. Now I get to try 24 different flavors and review them all! How exciting :)

And not only that! I also got a tea that was on my March wish list, which sounded absolutely delicious: Blueberry Bundt Tea.

As to not bore you all or myself, I will split this haul into 5 parts that I will post every Wednesday. I hope to try 5 teas each week and review those 5 in one big post each week. Among these weekly posts, I will continue to review other teas from other brands, as well as post some favorites and spontaneous things.

Click HERE to check out the 24-count Custom Overwrap Gift option
Click HERE for the Blueberry Bundt Tea

Happy Tea Drinking!
<3 TTT

Thank goodness to Facebook ads for this one! Join the Republic of Tea "Tea 101", an educational email series, teaching you the ways of tea. Tea is a complex art of harvesting, steeping, and tasting that should be learned, loved, and appreciated. If you are a devoted tea drinker like me and want to learn all that you can about this delicious treat, try out this mailing list. I haven't received anything yet because I just signed up, but once I do, I will definitely share my thoughts!

For now, here is the link: http://bit.ly/1gZYKVh
Once you sign up (just input your name, zip code, and email address), you are directed to a page where you are given a code for free shipping for 24 hours. I'm definitely going to purchase that Blueberry Bundt tea on my March Wishlist--and maybe a few others…

Try it out and let us know what you think!

(The image was taken from the Facebook ad)

TTT<3