Republic Of Tea Cuppa Chocolate Tea Peppermint Chocolate Tea Promises More Than It Delivers.

The Good: Environmentally decent teabags, Taste is not horrible.
The Bad: Not strongly flavored of peppermint or chocolate, Not caffeinated.
The Basics: I got excited to start reviewing teas again and discovered that the Republic Of Tea’s Cuppa Chocolate Tea Peppermint Chocolate tea left me entirely unimpressed.


As one who very much loves all things chocolate mint, I was quite enthusiastic when my wife and I were out at the store and discovered the canisters of The Republic Of Tea’s Peppermint Chocolate tea from their Cuppa Chocolate Tea selection. While I fluttered my eyes and told my wife we didn’t need it, she stuck a canister in our cart and presented it to me on Valentine’s Day. Since then, I have been drinking this tea and trying to come up with a way to phrase how I truly feel about it.

At the top of my list of adjectives for the Peppermint Chocolate tea would have to be “disappointing.” It saddens me to write that because I was so excited about this tea when my wife gave it to me and I do not dislike it. But from the moment I first sipped it, I knew I was drinking a rooibos (red) tea. That should not be my first impression of a tea called Peppermint Chocolate.

Basics

Peppermint Chocolate Tea is a rooibos tea from Republic Of Tea’s Cuppa Chocolate Tea line. Rooibos is a red herbal tea made from a rooibos plant, as opposed to actual tea plants. Republic Of Tea Cuppa Chocolate Tea recently introduced its Peppermint Chocolate tea , so it is unclear how long this tea will be available on the market.

Peppermint Chocolate comes in Republic Of Tea Cuppa Chocolate Tea's standard stringless tea bags. The tea bags are round, loose and come in a canister without any problematic wrappings or strings. The canister of Peppermint Chocolate tea comes with 36 tea bags.

Ease Of Preparation

As a red tea, Peppermint Chocolate is ridiculously easy to prepare. A single tea bag will make the standard 8 oz. coffee mug worth of tea and could be reused and make a second cup of Peppermint Chocolate, albeit with a bit less flavor. This is not the worst tea to resuse the teabags from. The second cup often comes out about 1/2 or 5/8 as strong as the first, provided the first steeping was not over the recommended time. I tend to make my tea using a 32 oz. steeping tea pot and that works well, though in this method, the second brewing is about half strength.

To prepare Peppermint Chocolate tea, bring a pot of water to a boil and pour it over the tea bags. This tea takes five to seven minutes to steep according to the directions. In my experience, it gets no stronger after five minutes and never seems as strong as it is dark.

Taste

The Peppermint Chocolate tea smells delightfully like mint. This has a strong underscent of rooibos, so there is a scent hint of the chocolate flavoring from the outset. The mint aroma is not so powerful that it opens the nose up, though.

As for taste, the Peppermint Chocolate tea is a little weaker than I would have hoped. The rooibos flavor is stronger than the mint flavor, which is bound to please tea drinkers, even if it leaves those who love chocolate and mint disappointed. Unfortunately, the flavor of chocolate mint is surprisingly weak. This tea has more of a mint aftertaste than a real flavor. This tea leaves the tongue slightly numb as a result of the mint flavor. The chocolate flavor is also understated, so while it cuts in the mint flavor, it hardly dominates the tea.

With sugar, the mint flavor comes out a bit more, but the chocolate flavor pretty much dies. The aftertaste quickly becomes that of red tea, rather than either chocolate or mint.

Nutrition

The ingredients to this tea left me baffled as to why it did not have a more rich chocolate taste. With the primary ingredients being rooibos, carob, and cocoa kernals, I felt the tea ought to be more richly chocolate in its flavor. There are no ingredients in this tea that cannot be pronounced.

In terms of nutrition, this tea is devoid of it. One 8 oz. mug of this tea provides nothing of nutritional value to the drinker. There are no calories (save what one adds from sugar), no fat, sodium, or protein. There is also no caffeine, as the Republic Of Tea Cuppa Chocolate Tea canister clearly points out that rooibos teas are caffeine free.

Storage/Clean-up

Peppermint Chocolate tea is very easy to clean up after, provided one does not get it on fabric. The tea bags may be disposed in the garbage, or composted if you have a good garden and/or compost pile. The tea itself will stain a mug a faint brown if left there for days on end, but otherwise it may be cleaned up easily by rinsing out the vessel.

Peppermint Chocolate is a medium-dark tea and as a result, it will stain any light fabrics it comes in contact with. As a result, it is highly recommended that one not let it linger on anything they wish to protect and not have stained. It may be cleaned off if the spill is caught quickly, but if it lingers, it is not at all easy to wash out of clothes, linens or other fabrics.

Overall

Peppermint Chocolate is not a bad tea, but it is a bad peppermint or chocolate tea. Instead, it is a fairly generic red tea and that left this chocolate enthusiast disappointed with the overall product.

For other Republic Of Tea or other tea reviews, please check out my takes on:
Earl Greyer Tea
Orange Ginger Mint Tea
Archer Farms Chocolateberry Earl Grey

4.5/10

For other food reviews, please check out my index page!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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More Bitter Than Distinctive, My First Experience With Republic Of Tea, Earl Greyer, Disappoints.

The Good: Caffeinated, Environmentally decent teabags, Taste is not horrible.
The Bad: Not distinctly Earl Grey flavored, Bitter taste and aftertaste.
The Basics: A very disappointing first experience with the Republic Of Tea, I find their Earl Greyer to be weak and not possessing the distinct Bergamot flavoring.

Those who read my many tea reviews know that I am a huge fan of Earl Grey tea and that I have been expanding my horizons to branch out past my usual favorite brand, Celestial Seasonings. I am actually happy to try some new teas and the brand Republic Of Tea came to me highly recommended. For what it is worth, I anticipated being able to rate the brand higher than most because of the environmental responsibility of their teabags, which come unhindered by teabag garbage like strings and papers and individual wrappers. Unfortunately, my first experience with the brand was Earl Greyer and their version of Earl Grey fell drastically shy of my expectations. [FYI: Despite this review coming after my review of Republic Of Tea’s Orange Ginger Mint tea, this was actually my first experience with the brand!]

Earl Grey is a black tea that is made distinct by the oil of Bergamot present in it. Unfortunately, Earl Greyer is not well-endowed with that flavor. Instead, it is bitter, dry and anything but satisfying for Earl Grey fans. It might be a fair tea, but it is a poor Earl Grey and I can think of no good reason to stock up on it in the 50 teabag canister.

Basics

Earl Greyer Tea is a black tea from Republic Of Tea. Black tea is made from mature tea leaves that are dried on the tea plant. Republic Of Tea has its Earl Greyer tea available year round, but it falls short of being the ideal Earl Grey flavor. Earl Grey is what I call an adjective tea; the flavor is its own, the name does not hold it to any standard other than to represent what is generally accepted as that flavor. In other words, Earl Grey tastes like Earl Grey and Earl Greyer does not taste as good as other brands' Earl Grey!

Earl Greyer comes in Republic Of Tea's standard stringless tea bags. The tea bags are round, loose and come in a canister without any problematic wrappings or strings. The bulk canister of Earl Greyer tea comes with 50 tea bags.

Ease Of Preparation

As a black tea, Earl Greyer is ridiculously easy to prepare. A single tea bag will make the standard 8 oz. coffee mug worth of tea and could be reused and make a second cup of Earl Greyer with surprisingly little loss of flavor. Indeed, this is one of the best teas for those who like to reuse tea bags. The second cup often comes out about 3/4 or 7/8 as strong as the first, provided the first steeping was not over the recommended time. I tend to make my tea using a 32 oz. steeping tea pot and that works well, though in this method, the second brewing is about 3/4 strength.

To prepare Earl Greyer tea, bring a pot of water to a boil and pour it over the tea bags. This tea takes only three to five minutes to steep according to the directions. In my experience, it gets no stronger after five minutes and as a rather strong tea, it does not truly need to be stronger than it naturally is.

Taste

Earl Greyer tea, like any adjective tea, is somewhat difficult to rate on taste in that it is what it tastes like. There is no standard for comparison for Earl Grey, save other Earl Grey teas! Republic Of Tea Earl Greyer tea, however, tastes more like generic black tea than Earl Grey tea. The Earl Greyer has a very weak Bergamot aroma, so when it is brewed up, it does not effervesce the way most Earl Grey teas do.

Sadly, this prepares the consumer well for the taste of the Earl Greyer. Republic Of Tea's Earl Grey offering is oddly bitter, very dry and strangely watery. Yes, even throwing a third teabag into the pot, I found Earl Greyer to be disappointingly watery and not robust with Bergamot the way the tea ought to be.

With a teaspoon of sugar, Earl Greyer is less bitter, but no less watery in flavor and I was surprised when the milk I splashed into one mug overwhelmed the flavor. Cold, Earl Greyer is just bitter with no real flavor or taste depth.

Nutrition

The ingredients to this tea, which will explain my inability to describe the flavor, are quite simply: Black tea and Natural bergamot flavor. There are no other ingredients or flavors, nothing that cannot be pronounced.

In terms of nutrition, this tea is devoid of it. One 8 oz. mug of this tea provides nothing of nutritional value to the drinker. There are no calories (save what one adds from sugar, which I recommend), no fat, sodium, or protein. There is caffeine, though the Republic Of Tea canister does not have a caffeine meter to inform me how much. To be fair to this otherwise lackluster Earl Grey, it does perk one up when they drink it.

Storage/Clean-up

Earl Greyer tea is very easy to clean up after, provided one does not get it on fabric. The tea bags may be disposed in the garbage, or composted if you have a good garden and/or compost pile. The tea itself will stain a mug a faint brown if it is left there for days on end, but otherwise may be cleaned up easily by rinsing out the vessel.

Earl Greyer is a rather dark tea and as a result, it will stain any light fabrics it comes in contact with. As a result, it is highly recommended that one not let it linger on anything they wish to protect and not have stained. It may be cleaned off if the spill is caught quickly, but if it lingers, it is not at all easy to wash out of clothes, linens or other fabrics.

Overall

Earl Greyer is a disappointingly bland rendition of Earl Grey and it tastes more like an average tea than anything extraordinary.

For other beverage reviews, please check out my takes on:
Stash Coconut Mango Oolong Tea
Duff Energy Drink
Zingers To Go - Peach Delight

5/10

For other food reviews of mine, please check out my index page!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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Trendy, But Missing The Flavor Marks, Republic Of Tea's Orange Ginger Mint Flops.

The Good: Great aroma, Wonderful concept, Tastes good.
The Bad: No fruit or mint flavor, Surprisingly weak
The Basics: Despite having a great name, Orange Ginger Mint is an unimpressive tea not worth buying.

I can always tell an obviously trendy tea brand by where I find it to buy. Republic Of Tea is a trendy brand. I know that without any shadow of a doubt because I found my Orange Ginger Mint for sale at Panera Bread and while I love Panera, their choice of Republic Of Tea is a poor one. I write that because when I tried the brand's Earl Grey outing, Earl Greyer, it left me with an underwhelmed taste in my mouth. I was exceptionally excited to try the Orange Ginger Mint, but found that to be depressingly weak as well.

Orange Ginger Mint is an herbal tea that falls drastically short of being impressive by virtue of not tasting at all like orange or mint. While the ginger flavor is appropriately biting and real, it fades quickly and the watery taste this tea leaves in one's mouth is disappointing.

Basics

Orange Ginger Mint Tea is an herbal tea from Republic Of Tea. That means there are no actual tea leaves in Orange Ginger Mint tea. Orange Ginger Mint comes in Republic Of Tea's standard stringless tea bags. The tea bags are round, loose and come in a canister without any problematic wrappings or strings. The basic canister of Orange Ginger Mint tea comes with 36 tea bags.

Ease Of Preparation

As an herbal tea, Orange Ginger Mint is ridiculously easy to prepare. A single tea bag will make the standard 8 oz. coffee mug worth of tea and could be reused and make a second cup with surprisingly little loss of flavor. Still, the second cup often comes out about 1/2 to 5/8 as strong as the first, provided the first steeping was not over the recommended time. I tend to make my tea using a 32 oz. steeping tea pot and that works well and given how watery the basic tea is, I've avoided reusing the bags unless I have to.

To prepare Orange Ginger Mint tea, bring a pot of water to a boil and pour it over the tea bags. This tea takes only three to five minutes to steep according to the directions. In my experience, it gets no stronger after five minutes and as a rather strong tea, it does not truly need to be stronger than it naturally is.

Taste

Orange Ginger Mint tea, sounds like it would be an awesome tea. The flavor, by objective standards, ought to include the fruit flavor of oranges, a biting flavor of ginger and a cool mint taste. The tea smells like ginger and ricewater, so the consumer is adequately prepared for a robust tea experience.

Orange Ginger Mint unfortunately falls flat. I originally was prepared to rate this as an "average" tea because of the robust ginger flavor of the tea. However, the more I drank of it, the less punch the ginger flavor had and the undertone of a watery flavor ultimately became the dominant flavor. In all of the mugs and pots I have had of this tea, I have never tasted either the orange flavor or the mint taste. I love mint, I would recognize it and my palate can pick it out. It's not here to be tasted!

With a teaspoon of sugar, Orange Ginger Mint has less of the ginger bite, but the watery aftertaste is also accented. Cold, Orange Ginger Mint is just bitter like ginger and that flavor it good, but not incredible.

Nutrition

The ingredients to this tea, make it sound like it ought to be incredible with the dominant ingredients being ginger root, spearmint and orange peel. There is nothing in the tea that cannot be pronounced.

In terms of nutrition, this tea is devoid of it. One 8 oz. mug of this tea provides nothing of nutritional value to the drinker. There are no calories (save what one adds from sugar, which I recommend), no fat, sodium, or protein. There is no caffeine as the ingredients are devoid of it.

Storage/Clean-up

Orange Ginger Mint tea is very easy to clean up after, even if one gets it on fabric. The tea bags may be disposed in the garbage, or composted if you have a good garden and/or compost pile. The tea itself will not stain a mug and it may be cleaned up easily by rinsing out the drinking vessel.

Orange Ginger Mint is a rather light tea and as a result, it will only stain the lightest fabrics it comes in contact with. As a result, it is highly recommended that one not let it linger on anything they wish to protect and not have stained. It may be cleaned off if the spill is caught quickly, but if it lingers, it is not at all easy to wash out of clothes, linens or other fabrics.

Overall

Orange Ginger Mint is a disappointingly tea that does not live up to the flavor potential of its name.

For other beverages, please check out my reviews of:
Duff Energy Drink
Celestial Seasonings Zingers To Go Peach Delight

3/10

For more food, please check out my index page!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts.  May not be reprinted without permission.



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