ESP Emporium

When I got into my bag of tea I noticed that all the starfruit slices are sticky! Uh oh!!! I’ve never had that happen to tea!

With that said, I should really drink this tea down! This cup wasn’t too bad – I added a bit more extra leaf than normal. The fruityness was improved, but the white base is still unappealing. So disappointing!

OMG STARFRUIT TEA! STARFRUIT TEA!

This tea is a light, fruit strawberry tea hot. I get a teeny bit of starfruit flavor. Sweetened and iced, the strawberry and papaya pops more – reminding me of candy!

However, I was hoping for more tangy flavor and stronger starfruit flavor. The white base was flat, losing the full potential of this tea.

My full review (with lots of pics) on my blog, the oolong owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/starfruit-strawberry-from-esp-emporium-tea-review/

Got this in a trade from Novi although she sent this to me almost a month ago and I just got around to opening it, oops.

I have to say, this smells pretty terrible. Almost like an alcohol type scent to it, that type of oily smell. I’m kind of afraid to try drinking it. I’m almost certain I don’t want to drink this whole pot.

Well the taste isn’t as terrible as I expected, but it’s extremely artificial tasting. And the oily/alcoholy feeling is back in the back of my throat and I don’t like that at all. I’m sure it’s from the ‘flavouring’ that they added. This is pretty gross and I’m not going to finish it. Thanks for the swap and I’m glad I got to try it, but blech.

so i got this tea as one of the first teas my sister in law gave me and its been hidden in the Cupboard since. So i had it in a box at work and thought Hmm that seams like a good one for today!! Not sure how long i steeped this tea for i got lost at work and was filing paperwork finaly yawned and was like im to tired for this right now, came back to my seat and sat down and took a sip….. This is good tea!!!the herbs are upfront and center i dont tast much chocoalte and the orange is Slightly there but the favors all mingle so well. I feel revived and ready for more work lol. thank you Care for this Wonderful tea i love it! Would defintly buy this tea!

Sipdown! 822.

I’m enjoying this one more than last time. Not getting the weird alcohol association I previously was, although I did get the grapey aroma. Flavourwise, however, I taste peach moreso than anything resembling grape. Not too bad, but not a keeper either.

Thanks to momo for this sample!

I initially got a whiff of a grapey aroma from the dried leaves (which made sense as it has “vineyard” in the name, but it doesn’t much taste like grapes… and I see they aren’t even an ingredient, haha. Once I get past the lack-of-grapes bit, though, I can taste quite a nice fruity tea! The primary flavour I’m getting is peach, I think, not really strawberry, but it’s fairly good. Very little black tea flavour, other than some astringency, but that may be because I used a pretty short infusion time.

While this tea is pretty tasty, unfortunately it’s reminding me too much of some sort of alcohol (no idea what, though), and I’m finding that offputting enough that I wouldn’t pick this up myself. Not so offputting as to not finish the cup and later, the rest of the sample, though!

I wasn’t sure what I would think of a caramel tea, but I really liked it! It is definitely different and feels decadent. I drink it in lieu of dessert.

This tea really has a lot of rose buds! It is pretty and elegant and strangely addicting. The description is right…the tea is perfect for Valentine’s Day! It is very “floral” with a noticeable hint of bergamot.

I was excited to try this tea as I love a subtle smokey flavor. Russian blends often work well but a full on lapsang souchong can be too much. This tea has a much more delicate flavor then I was expecting. It tastes more like a basic black tea then anything with a smokey flavor. Maybe I can slightly pick up the smoke…nothing to exciting. It’s okay tea, made with good steep time / temp but that’s about all that is going on with this cup

What an interesting looking blend, not as attractive as it’s picture but never mind. This is a pumpkin tea that doesn’t actually contain any pumpkin which is a little disconcerting as most companies have something in there (pumpkin seed, candy, roasted chunks..anything).

The raw mixture has a spicy edging on sweet scent similar to a weak Chai. Once steeped it’s dark red/brown with a sweet and earthy scent, creamy too.

Creamy, sweet, spicy, melon, smooth, silky and light. It doesn’t taste like pumpkin which isn’t too surprising since it doesn’t actually contain any but there is a slight earthy tone there in place of it. The melon is more noticeable which is interesting…a spicy and creamy melon tea. The rooibos is not that thick (thankfully) and the sweetness is at a modest level.

As far as this tea goes as regards to being a pumpkin tea I would say it was a huge let down. As a rooibos blend it’s rather nice, a little different and considering I love melon it’s turned into an unusual treat for me. Not my favourite by far but drinkable at any rate.

I feel almost wary to rate this tea right now… When I first brewed it, I hated it. There was just some aspect of the taste that didn’t work for me. So I left it sit for a while… Tepid was still not great. The only time I liked this tea was a few hours after being brewed drank alongside a bowl of curried rice noodles. Was it the cold tea? Was it that anything would taste good to cool my mouth down after the curry? I can’t be sure.

Time for another break and I have worked up a well deserved thirst for watermelon so I used the last of this tea to make a pitcher of iced tea. It still tastes like sweet watermelon nectar but the apple is stronger than it was for the hot version. I think I prefer it as an iced tea the best, it’s so juicy and sweet. Perfect. :)

I’m sad to see the end of this tea :(

Thank you Chuckieroy for this tea. He is my watermelon friend. :)

I brew this at work this morning to get me through the heavy snow storm that started last night.

I brewed 2 tsp with boiling water for 10 minutes. The liquid brewed to become a lovely pink colour and it had a pure sweet essence of watermelon.

The flavour was as good as the taste but it seemed a little fruitier than just the watermelon. It’s still very tasty and I think it would be perfect as an iced tea.

This tea just wasn’t very good… From the bag, it smelled amazing… like a peaches and cream, almost. The smell made me very excited to taste this tea! It smelled just as good brewed, and I could definitely enjoy a candle that smelled like this tea. Sadly, the tea tasted almost like a candle! The peach flavor was nice, like a light cling peach. But there was a terrible, waxy aftertaste that made it difficult to even finish the cup – I think I’ll be passing this tea onto a friend (or enemy) because I can’t ever see myself drinking this again on purpose.

Thank you to whoever sent me this in the adorable princess bag! The aroma of this tea is heavenly. The flavor is even more so! It’s creamy, fruity, and warm. It has a nice, natural orange flavor followed by a buttery, creamy note.
Thanks again!

Still the best iced tea I’ve ever had… only needs a little bit of sweetener to shine. The flavor doesn’t come off as overly artificial, even though it obviously is.

I still wish the loose tea looked more like it does in the picture – the photo is beautiful, and filled with currants, but its almost like soup commercial – they put all of the currants from the whole 4oz bag in the picture to make it look better.

Raised my rating from an 81 (hot) to an almost perfect score! This is one of the best iced teas I’ve ever tasted. I will absolutely buy this again. It tastes so much like Welch’s white grape juice, and that is such a comforting flavor to me that I can’t imagine ever letting myself run out of this blend.

First off, my tea doesn’t look much like the picture… there seem to be way fewer currants in my tea than are in the picture. However, I don’t think it affects the taste of the tea at all. It really does taste like white grape! Sadly, there’s no tartness to the flavor, like there would be in a white grape juice. But this tea is also something I never expected it to be… Its almost comforting, and I never expected that from a grape flavored tea. Not one of my favorites, but I’ll probably buy it again, when looking for a change.

So refreshing! There’s a clear lemon taste and a fruity sweetness that I’m sure is the honeydew, but it doesn’t overwhelm (nor is it overwhelmed by) the sencha. I want to get more and try this iced!