ESP Emporium

The steeped tea smells lightly, not a strong scent here. It has a slight berry scent to it and a bit of the nutty associated with Oolongs. It’s a delicate fragrance.

The flavor is light, has a hay or nutty taste, a mild maltyness in the back of the mouth. Maybe a vegetal edge along the sides of the tongue. It’s also a touch floral. As it cools there are a lot of different aspects that come out.

It tastes like it’s somewhere between a black and oolong, really. It has a bit of both to it and not quite completely either.

The tea is very festive looking, in the bag. Colorful and very candy-like in scent.

Steeped, it is a pinkish, orangish yellow and smells of apple and mostly the lemongrass, giving it a bit of a Pez scent… again, candy-like. As he just passed by, my husband commented that it “smells like strawberry shortcake -the doll, not the food”, so each his own lol.

The flavor is much less sweet than the smell. The apple and lemongrass flavors balance out pretty well. The apple is very mild and like dried apples without the sweetness, just plain apple without the sugar. The lemongrass taste comes from the back of the mouth and tongue. I can’t pick up any of the raspberry that is listen in the ingredients.

It’s a pleasant fruit tea, but nothing outstanding or gotta-have about it, to me. One I’ll use for trade and a rare cup… might try it cold-brewed and/or as iced tea and see how that goes… perhaps I’ll find more to it with some experimentation.

But anyways, a good tea that I’d recommend to fans of apple and lemongrass.

This is my first (and last, most likely) chocolaty tea, so bear that in mind.

The smell of the unbrewed tea is of bitter chocolate and something artificial-scenty. It’s strong and, IMO, nasty.

The brewing scent is the same, I had to stand several feet from it while it steeped. I couldn’t stand to be close to it.

I’d read the ingredients and noted the chocolate contents before buying it, but since it was named Peach Truffle I thought, well, maybe all the ingredients together made that flavor somehow -because sometimes teas DO surprise you.

No.

Once it cooled enough I sipped it. The flavor itself isn’t bad at all, but I can’t report on what it tastes like because I had to sip it while trying not to breathe so that I wouldn’t smell the horrid scent of it. I truly couldn’t stand to be near it and breathe in. I’ve struggled to take 3 sips and have now just wrote it off as “I don’t like it”, officially.

This would likely be a great tea for those who do like chocolaty scents and teas, so I’ll use it for tea swaps. But I won’t be tasting anymore myself.

Scent is a little fruity, has a sweetness to it.

The flavor, too, is a bit fruity… maybe strawberries or something like that. Also has that rich brown flavor of Assams. Malt comes out as it cools but is not strong. It’s a moderate to strong tea. Long finish is slightly burnt, charcoal flavor.

It’s quite pleasant; I think I’ll keep it around for a stronger Assam option.

Second Steeping: Charcoal flavor is less, but so is everything else. Short finish, nothing greatly catching about the flavor in general or specific. Okay, but I’d rather trade or give it to someone else who might get more out of it than I.

First steeping: This is a solid, but rather run-of-the-mill assam. Warm notes on the middle of the tongue and a charcoal flavor in the finish. Some herbal touches. Generally ok but nothing great.

Revisiting a past favorite. I steep it for 2.5minutes, with 5g of tea to 12oz of water.

It’s still what I consider a great Assam. It’s strong but not overwhelming, has that burnt flavor that comes across the middle and back of your tongue, a slight malty taste, and is full and round in the mouth. The finish is lasting with the burnt classic Assam flavor.

A very full and strong tea, but not bitter or too intense, IMO. A good morning or late evening cup. I can see this being good with milk and/or sweetener, but I prefer it without.

I can’t believe there are no ratings for this by me. This is my favorite Assam in my cupboard and the one I drink most often.

Normally I have it hot and it’s wonderful.

Today I’m reporting on the experiment of cold-brewing it.

Just like when hot it’s excellent. But very different.

It’s not at all bitter from a longer-than-expected brew time (I forgot about it, it’s been in the fridge about 20 hrs).

It’s sweeter than hot-brewed. Very floral tasting and feeling through the roof of the mouth with a sweet honey-ness in the back of the mouth and throat when swallowed. The finish is dark under the tongue and a light feeling at the roof of the mouth. The flavor is complex but refreshing, at the same time. I can’t fully describe it. -But I definitely can recommend it.

I’m running low on this and it’s delicious both hot and cold; I’ll have to buy some more!

I actually got this from House of Tea but am too lazy/busy to upload a new profile…
but the description matches more or less.
The orange zest really pops out in this one, as does the spiciness. I’m not sure I like it- which sucks because I assumed I would and now have 100g! does anyone want to swap?
The licorice is throwing me off, that odd sweetness that reminds me of medicinal tea… oh… and it’s 50% roasted mate so it has less maltine in it. Not that it matters. Just puttin it out there in case anyone wants a trade!

This tea smelled quite biscuity when I opened the bag, with a hint of nuts and spice in the background. It reminds me of SpecialTeas’ Almond Cookie actually. There’s not a lot in the scent or flavour that makes me think of butter OR truffles so I’m not sure why they gave it that name. The flavour is like baked cookies with a distinctly nutty flavour. It’s quite smooth in the mouth and would make a nice dessert tea I’m thinking. A little bit of milk and sweetener might really make the flavour pop.

Thanks to Dinosara for giving me this tea to try.

It’s been a very crazy week for me, so I needed one of my favorite comfort teas. I love this tea so much! It’s chocolatey, creamy, and has just a bit of coconut flavor. This is a very flavored tea (you can’t actually taste much of the black tea, but that’s okay). Prepared with milk and stevia.

On a personal note, please send your best wishes and prayers to Minot, North Dakota and the surrounding areas. Thousands of us lost our homes this week due to record breaking flooding. Sometimes just knowing that others are thinking of us makes picking up the pieces a bit easier.

Let me start by saying that I’ve enjoyed a number of the teas/tisanes I received in my first order from ESP Emporium. (Their Ceylon Blackwood, Darjeelings and Monk’s blend were all very good.) However, they don’t appear to do chocolate flavors well.

This rooibos smells strongly of orange peel and that carries over to the brewed product. You can see small chocolate chips but they are simply not potent enough to impart flavor to the beverage. I will say that this particular rooibos was fairly good. It didn’t have the menthol-like breakdown product that is present in some cheaper stock.

This was OK. It didn’t elicit a negative reaction but it won’t make it on the reorder list either.

I got a sample of this (and a few other teas) from Rachel (RachanaC) from her teatra.de site. Thank you so much Rachel – they got here so quickly and I’ll be going through them in the next few days, I’m sure. :)

This smelled almost coffee-like when I pulled it out – and since I’m doing some studying for end of the semester finals I figured I could use this to keep me awake for the night! The smell actually seems reminiscent of the Javavana Mate from Teavana. That is strange to me, because the ingredients are quite different. I see some coconut and chocolate shavings (yum!) in the dry leaf.

I used 3 tsp. of leaf to 500 ml. water in my Breville, per steeping instructions. Once steeped the aroma turns more to the chocolate side of things – a dark chocolate smell to be specific. After the cup has cooled a little, I taste the black base and get the coconut and chocolate more on the swallow/aftertaste. I think there’s a faint hint of coconut but it’s not too strong considering the huge shavings that were in the sample. The black tea is strong but not bitter, which is always a plus for me.

This is a pleasant tea. There isn’t anything that stands out about it, so I probably won’t be buying more when there are so many other teas out there to try, but it is nice to sip on while trying to cram a semester’s worth of information (back) into my brain…

Tried this cold brewed.

The flavor is again very light for an Assam. Closer to a Darjeeling. The cold-brewed tea is vegetal and somewhat sweet, with maybe a hint of berries in the finish.

It’s not bad, but I’ll not bother cold-brewing this one again.

Scent has fruity, sort of raspberry, notes. The taste is lighter than most Assams, giving a delicate impression… not as dainty or light as a Darjeeling, but more so than other Assams I’ve tasted. It’s also a bit floral in flavor. A very pleasing cup of tea!

This is another not-so-chocolatey entry from the ESP Emporium chocolate sampler. The picture shows chocolate chips but I don’t think this bag has been within 10 miles of a cocoa bean.

The fragrance of the blend, both in the bag and prepared, is of caramel and rose. While not unpleasant, it’s not what I would expect from something called “chocolate cake.” The flavor is a strong caramel (there are actually mini caramel chews in the mix) and there is a lingering tart, floral aftertaste. Again, the flavor isn’t bad but I really wanted something with an obvious chocolate note.

Thanks QueenOfTarts!

Finally got round to trying this today. It is really good to have right now as it is a really warm day and this is a nice, light, summery tea. I used a lot of leaf brewing this and so it is very flavoursome. It really is juicy, like a watermelon, which is quite nice. It is also very sweet without any sweetener.

The initial fragrance leaned towards cream and berries with little indication of chocolate. Prepared, there was a subtly sweet, baked-goods aroma.

The taste was disappointing. While the tea base was of a fair body and the slight slick of coconut oil gave it a creaminess, there wasn’t much flavor. The ingredients list includes both cocoa bits and chocolate chips but I couldn’t detect these in the slightest.

This was part of a chocolate sampler pack that I purchased. I hope I have better luck with the remaining teas.