ESP Emporium

Wow really can’t believe no one has reviewed this yet! Well I just have to say it then ….
FIRST
okay got that out of my system…
A delightful savory yet sweet tea that is not too sweet at all nor overly savory. I feel this blend is quite masterful honestly.
A hint of tangy but not tart lemon.
Ripe sweet strawberry.
Followed by herbaceous notes that have a graceful presence.
The tea steeps to a typical red rooibos color.
While it sounds like it would smell amazing the aroma really doesn’t “do it” for me.
In the bag it smells sort of chemical like.
Steeped I really only get a slight berry note.
It is a really pretty dry tea though with dried berries, and a decent presence of pretty rose petals although I do not taste the rose in the tea.
Now there is a slightly tart after taste but I get that with pretty much any lemon flavored tea but the tart is only in the after taste.
This would also be delicious iced.
I would order this again.
Price is fair 1.76 oz or 50g for 5.50 (and up)
https://www.espemporium.com/p-390-strawberrylemonbasil-rooibos-tea-blend.aspx
Mainly because I love a good strawberry lemon tea and have been searching for a great savory tea and I LOVE LOVE LOVE basil so this pretty much has me unless I find something similar and better.

Its good – its really quite good – but I feel like there is something missing. Its not so much the flavor itself, as it tastes quite yummy but its more that there is this lacking in the mouthfeel! I want something more robust and creamy perhaps, something that sits in my mouth more heavily and says “HEY I’M HERE!!!! I’M DECEDENT!” This is almost too polite to me.
Its crisp not cloying thats for sure but in this case I would not mind a little more cloying!
At least grab me and tell me you love me too!
I love mascarpone, I love tiramisu, I grab that stuff and shove it in my mouth and devour it!
I want to feel that way with this tea!!!
I do enjoy it quite much, and I am sure I can add some milk, or creamer, or whatever and doctor it up but I don’t want to doctor it up I want to love it just the way it is.
Isn’t that how love should be?

Anyway – the romance is on simmer for now yet not simmering, it certainly is not on FIRE!
Yet I am still very fond of it.

I think I am avoiding the break up because I still see such good qualities and such potential in this tea, yet potential is not what IS, only what could be with some changes.
We should strive for THE ONE, and not settle for what COULD be, or POTENTIAL!
SIGH I am just not one for liking to change things that are not of my own creation.
Wait oops I thought I was speaking to a client for a moment – sorry this is the tea forum.
My bad.

Per DaisyChubb’s recommendation, I added 1/2 tsp of China Rose Tea OP to 1 tsp of Bon Bon. Oh boy, I forgot about the scum that this one puts out. :/ It doesn’t look very appetizing. The aroma smells a little conflicted. Am I a rose tea or a chocolate/coconut tea? I thought they would have blended together better…

But on to the taste! Hmm, I’m not so sure about this. I know it’s not the rose & chocolate combo that is off here. I’ve had that combination before in Love Tea #7 by DAVIDsTEA and it was to die for! Honestly, I think this Bon Bon base is just so bad that it can’t be salvaged by the lovely China Rose Tea OP. :( Sad. Lowering the rating from 66 to 30.

3/5 ESP Emporium Teas

I tried this twice before reviewing and rating. I really wanted to like it. I did. But I’ve had similarly flavored teas that were much better. It’s like the difference tasted between a Hershey’s kiss and a Lindt truffle.

I tried this sans additions and it wasn’t very flavorful. It pretty much requires milk and sugar. But the overall flavor is like plastic infused chocolate. It’s slightly chalky too. Definitely not milky, creamy, mocha goodness.

The tea base is really weak, and I had even doubled the recommended leaf amount. The brew is very light brown, almost muddy brown. There’s a bit of oil and scum from the artificial additives. I tried a second steep too, and the chocolate was much quieter. It was mostly weak tea with coconut, even though I steeped it for about 8 minutes. Maybe it’s just the fact that they’re artificial flavors that makes me not like this? I’m not sure.

It’s not bad tea that I would turn down, just like I wouldn’t turn down a Hershey’s bar if I really wanted chocolate. But would I seek this out over another chocolate bar? Probably not. I’d probably go out of my way to get the Lindt because I’d enjoy that more. That’s exactly the way I feel about this tea. It’s good and I’ll drink it. But I won’t re-stock it.

It was pretty cheap though, so no complaints there. I’m open to swapping it if anyone is interested. I know others have enjoyed this much more than me.

2/5 ESP Emporium Teas

After the unexpected but awesome caramel popcorn tea, I’m wicked excited to try this one! I’ve been eyeing the Ryokucha tea by Samovar for probably a year now. But the price is kind of steep and they were sold out of sample sizes for months. So, by the time they re-stocked, I had moved on. Still, Ryokucha was calling my name. This looks just like it!!! I’m hoping it’ll be similarly yummy since everyone loves that one so much.

The dry leaves smell pretty much like genmaicha. There are lovely, large pieces of rice but not as much matcha as I would have expected. The resultant brew is slightly green, but not bright matcha green. It pretty much just tastes like genmaicha too. It’s a little disappointing, but maybe I used too little leaf. It does taste slightly watery. I’m going to start over!

Take two! I doubled the leaf amount this time. Muuuuch better! The overall mouthfeel is silky smooth, which is actually quite interesting. There’s slightly more matcha flavor now, but still it’s much less than what I expected. I can also taste a mildly grassy sencha underneath the toasted rice. Mmm! There is some astringency near the end of the sip, but it’s tolerable in small doses. i.e. don’t chug this down!

If I treat this like it’s just a genmaicha, then it’s great! But I really wanted a matcha genmaicha, and in that respect, it’s a little lacking. Still, the silky smooth texture and lovely toasty grassy flavor is pretty yummy. I will definitely drink and enjoy this! Hey look at that, my cup is empty! :)

Wow, this tea is surprising me this morning! I let it steep for a lot longer than usual and then added skim milk and Truvia. It has a very creamy taste to it, like I poured in some heavy whipping cream instead of plain skim milk.

The result is insanely delicious! This tea tastes nearly identical to caramel ice cream!! Yum! Raising the rating from 81 to 83.

1/5 ESP Emporium Teas

This is my first ESP Emporium tea! I just got my shipment yesterday, and I can’t wait to try these! The packaging was very nice and minimalist. I’m not sure how airtight it is because the bags don’t have a ziplock. You just fold them over and secure with a bendy thing, similar to a Starbucks coffee bag just a whole lot smaller.

I chose Caramel this morning because I wanted something sweet. The dry leaves smell like caramel and black tea, so we’re off to a good start. But I couldn’t really find any caramel pieces. The picture on the site makes them seem abundant. I fished around for a while and eventually found one. Hopefully they all just fell to the bottom of the bag or something, and I’ll find more later.

Anyway, I followed the steeping instructions on the bag, even though I don’t usually steep black teas for 4 minutes right out of the gate. The resultant brew is dark and yummy smelling! Oddly enough, the aroma is nearly identical to 52teas’ Buttered Popcorn…really strange.

I think it’s finally cool enough to try. First sip is sans additions. Okay, the flavor is definitely not buttered popcorn, phew! I’m not really getting caramel though either. Oh wait! There it is! It doesn’t appear until the aftertaste. Hmmm, it’s definitely not very strong for a tea that’s supposed to only have caramel flavoring. I expected to drown in sticky caramel sauce. Time to add some sweetener and skim milk to see what happens.

Just as I suspected, the caramel flavor is more pronounced with additions. It is quite yummy. I’m not floored by taste, but it’s enjoyable. It’s just so funny how much this reminds me of Buttered Popcorn. Except now with additions, it tastes like caramel popcorn. That’s really unexpected, but I’m kind of liking it. Maybe it’s the same black tea base or something? I dunno.

If you’re looking for a knock-your-socks-off caramel tea, this probably isn’t it. But am I glad I got it? Yes, siree! Bring on the caramel popcorn!

Yea, this one is not for me. When I smelled the dry leaves I was concerned that it would be too cinnamony and make my tongue do that weird thing where it feels like my taste buds swell. Brewed, however, there’s hardly any cinnamon flavor at all and there’s some other flavor there that I don’t care for, something vaguely savoryish? I don’t even know how to describe it but I don’t care for it at all. It’s almost as if the 4-5 minute steep time that scared me with the other two black teas I’ve ordered from them finally impacted the tea and made it an odd bitter. It’s going up on the swap wall if anyone wants to try it.

This was another tea from my recent amazon deal. The smell of the tea smells like what it says, an orange cookie. I made it over the weekend and, while it was good, it lacked the punch of flavor that I got from the bon bon tea from ESP. It was pleasant and good and I could taste the orange but I was missing the cookie. Overall a good tea but I don’t think I’d order it again.

I love the smokiness of a russian tea. I guess that is the main characteristic of a “russian” tea. I usually can’t keep my russian teas with my other teas — they smell that strong. This one is more of a mild scent and flavor. It isn’t too smoky, so it could be for someone who wants to try a smoky tea and then if you like it you could try a stronger one. (The Choice Russian Caravan is pretty strong for a tea bag — one of the couple I’ve tried.) But with this one, the flavor isn’t even that strong for a black tea. It’s still good though, just mild. Maybe I should have steeped it longer and at a higher temperature.

I cannot resist a tea deal so when ESP Emporium popped up on my Kindle, I had to go for it. Before ordering the deal I scoped out the tea and made sure there was stuff I’d want and this tea immediately caught my eye. If you follow me you know I’m a bit of a chocolate teaaholic. AND I love coconut so this was a no-brainer.

I opened the bag this morning and the tea smelled so fantastic I was expecting it not to taste as good. Holy heck though does this tea deliver! It’s fantastic! It’s almost like a combo of chocolate tea with Teavana’s Cha Yen Thai (another one of my favorites).

Like the other reviewers mention, the black tea base is very mild. I was a bit concerned about the long steep recommended on the bag because I often find black tea gets bitter if you do a first steep longer than 3 minutes but not this one.

It’s smooth and delish and wonderful. I even ended up putting in a bit too much brown sugar splenda, which can often ruin tea, but this weathered it well. Looking forward to a second steep tomorrow.

This smells wonderful. I can’t fully describe the scent, but the dried leaves smelled kind of sweet and orange-y. I wouldn’t say it reminded me of a cookie. Once steeped, the tea smells more mellow – less sweet, but now with a hint of cinnamon.

The taste is lovely. It’s a good balance of spice from the orange peel, cardamom, cloves and then there’s a lightness to it that prevents the flavors from overwhelming you.

This tastes like mango more like mango nectar than fresh mango. In fact, it’s so generic “fruity” nectar that if you told me it was apricot nectar flavoured I would believe you. Despite the generic fruit taste, the green tea base – Chinese Sencha – is decent. Nice full mouthfeel. I would use the majority up iced because I generally prefer hot green tea plain despite what my cupboard of 52teas implies.

Espemporium.com recently had a good sale, so I bought some, even though I haven’t bought anything from them before. I was crossing my fingers that they were worth the money, since I don’t have much to spend. Luckily, this one is delicious. Black teas with vanilla flavor is probably my favorite tea, so this one was an obvious choice among all of the amazing sounding teas ESPemporium has. The steep color is a medium brown. The scent is sweet. I wouldn’t necessarily say this is a typical vanilla flavor, but I’ve never really been handed genuine vanilla and been told “This is genuine vanilla”.. There is obviously many different flavors of vanilla depending on how authenitc it is, so it is hard to say with this one. But I think it’s a good flavor anyway. Definitely different. Smooth and sweet and a great pairing with the black tea, which is neither too strong or too light. Basically perfect enough to showcase the vanilla flavor. Actually, the flavor is almost so strong that I can’t really taste the black tea.

I’m usually not that into teas where the additions are mostly floral, but I am enjoying this. I guess it’s probably all in the flavoring, because there is a bit of fruit to it. The flowers alone would make it rose, which I can definitely smell in the tea, but something citrusy makes it far more palatable for me.

Or I might like rose. I have no idea.

This is really easy to drink, but as it cools it starts to taste more of all the flavoring rather than the tea. I could taste the green before, but now it’s more like fruit and flowers.

So, next time I will use something that retains heat better, because I like this a good bit.

Thanks for sending me this, brandy3392!

Wow, talk about weird. I went to look up ESP Emporium on Google and looked at the map on the right, wondering why things sounded familiar…they’re based right in the middle of where I used to live in Illinois as a kid.

Anyway, this is nice to look at as a tea and all but where’s the chocolate? Don’t call something chocolate cake if it doesn’t even taste like chocolate! I took matters into my own hands and added chocolate syrup. Now it actually tastes like chocolate but it kind of completely defeats the purpose of everything.

Otherwise, it just tastes like a caramel honeybush, which isn’t bad, but it’s not called caramel honeybush.

Thanks for sending me some of this, brandy3392!

Thank you to Melanie for this ample sample! This is a nice evening Rooibos created it appears by ESP Emporium for Valentines Day. It is a long steep (8-10 minutes) producing a medium cognac liquor that smells like chocolate almond biscotti but tastes slightly sweet and not almondy at all. The full 10 munute steep and a bit of sugar brings all the color and flavor to fullness. More rose color from..uh…roses and rhubarb (can’t taste rhubarb so it must be adding warm roundness instead of acid) and the slightest hint of floral. Rooibos is there in the dry finish. Since Rooibos can sit and cook…getting better and better throughout the day, I think that having a fine tasting one around for one of those busy project days when you just can’t watch a pot is fantastic. This would be a nice addition. Not complicated but comforting. Sweet and desserty, not too chocolate or floral and not needing sugar or milk but good with them also. There are natural and artificial flavors and soy and rice in the mix but used well.

Hmm… I wanted to like this, but I didn’t think it tasted like chocolate at all. All I got was rooibos (a strong, grassy rooibos) and a sharp, almost sour chemical taste (the cream perhaps?) I get the same note from another ESP emporium tea, so there appears to to be a note that does not agree with me. It could, in fact, be the coconut, but I’m not certain. I could not finish my cup, which is rare for me. I’m glad I didn’t pay full price – this one goes to my husband, who probably won’t notice the things I didn’t like!

I love coffee. I don’t drink it as much as I used to, but sometimes nothing will beat the rich and bitter taste. I was intrigued by this tea’s description, although I was a little afraid of the “freeze dried yogurt granules” promised in the description. They are not evident in my bag, but I do see large pieces of what appear to be coffee beans. I gave it the recommended 5 minutes and ended up with strong black tea with faint coffee overtones. Honestly it’s not bad, but to tell you the truth I’d rather just have the real thing.

Thank you, brandy3392, for sending me a sample of this. I kind of really love this tea. It’s got a great balance of rooibos flavor, which is sweet and grassy, and the chocolate and coconut flavors. It smells so delicious, too.

I got a sample of this tea in my swap with brandy3392… thanks for sending it my way! I’ve had moderately good success with ESP Emporium’s teas, so I thought I would likely find this one pretty tasty. And it’s true, I do!

The mango flavoring that ESP uses (or rather, ESP’s wholesaler) is distinctive… the aroma of this is strongly reminiscent of their Shalimar oolong, which is also mango flavored, even though the latter tea has a lot of other things going on. It’s not really the scent of a juicy ripe mango so much as a tasty mango-flavored candy. In this case, it works because I happen to like that flavor. The flavor of the tea is pretty similar to what you would expect from the aroma, with hardly any grassiness or greenness from the sencha base. The mouthfeel is really smooth and buttery, though, which is pretty awesome. Overall a tasty, candy-esque tea, though I think I prefer my mango teas to have a slightly more natural flavor.

This isn’t the first time I’ve tried this tea, I actually tried it some time last week, but I forgot to log it.

This was a very unexpected tea, mostly because I failed to read the description or the list of ingredients. I purchased it based solely upon the name Butter Truffle. My sweet tooth could not resist the name.

But that is not to say that I’m disappointed, because this is rather delightful. It has more of a savory quality than I expected, but, it is quite nice. I’m loving the smoky tones of the cumin and the warm peppery notes, as well as the hints of sweetness from the almonds, pistachios and hints of citrus.

YUM!

Here we have a flavoured oolong that Dinosara shared with me. I quite like fruity oolongs in general, possibly as a result of that raspberry oolong from ACP. That one has made the idea of flavoured oolong appeal to me (although it certainly depends on what they’re flavoured with )

This one is rose and tropical fruits. Mango and passion fruit and also aconia berries. I have no clue what aconia berries taste like.

The aroma is rather tart, and I’m easily picking up on the passion fruit. The tartness of the aroma smells sort of juicy and bright orange-y red. I wonder if that’s the berries. I can’t find much in the way of mango at all here.

The flavour is unexpected. The first thought at the first sip was something along the lines of, “nutty, what?”. It’s a sort of mix between walnuts and hazelnuts, but it’s unmistakably nutty and wee bit woody, and it’s especially evident on the swallow and in the initial phase of the aftertaste. This stuff may smell like the colour of flame, but it tastes decidedly brown.

Second sip brings me some fruit, and again it’s primarily passion fruit. Slightly weird tasting passion fruit, which must be the influence of those berries. If I knew what they were supposed to taste like, it would have been a lot easier. I’m not getting all that very much out of it than just the passion fruit, so this tea isn’t making me all that much wiser, apart from a suspicion that they’re probably somewhat tart in flavour. On the other hand, aren’t must berries kind of tart in flavour?

I’m getting nothing in the way of mango, but the more I sip, the more I’m getting a floral top layer of rose. I’m not super keen on floral teas as most of them are either too perfumed or dusty tasting. I’ve met a few that were surprisingly nice, but in general it’s not something I have actively sought out on my own. This one has a rather strong floral note there, but it seems somehow detached from the rest of the flavour. Like a roof rather than a top layer, really. I’m honestly not sure how I feel about that. Generally I would prefer to have the flavour experience a fully integrated one, but in this case I kinda like having the floralness sort of off to one side. It’s easier to deal with there.

I have come to the conclusion that the nutty notes that I’m getting out of this must be coming straight from the base. It’s funny I’ve never really noticed oolongs being so nutty before.

All in all, I’m not sure this is a tea that I would necessarily need to come back to or miss once the sample is gone, but now that I’ve got a cup, it’s quite enjoyable. Just not one I think will stick around in my mind much. As usual, interesting to try though.

I don’t want this to be taken the wrong way but this tea is wonderful with fruitcake. I mean really good fruitcake that’s more a plethora of real dried fruit than cake. It pairs just beautifully. The tea tastes like dried fruit and the chocolate hint makes it ideal with dessert. I’m not a big herbal tea drinker but this is a wonderful no caffeine choice. I usually steep it for around 5 minutes but I have veered closer to the 10 minute cap on occasion and it’s still yummy.