ESP Emporium

This is a very tropical tea! The dry leaves smell of sweet/tart mango, passion fruit and berries. Brewed up the liquor is a medium amber color and the aroma is still predominently general fruity-tropical, but it’s more muted now and I can smell the more of the underlying oolong tea coming through. The flavor maintains all of these notes but I think I can detect some of the rose (faint, and more of a background flavor that just adds to the other flavors).

I was at first skeptical of this tea because sometimes the “berry” flavor in fruity teas can overwhelm all the other more delicate flavors, but I think this is a good balance. There’s so many different flavors they’re hard to pick out individually, but they come together nicely.

The other day I had a cup of China Rose Black from ESP Emporium that I’ve had in my collection for forever, it seems, and it was definitely underwhelming. Not nearly as good as I had remembered, and I was wondering if it was a result of changing palates or old tea (since it just didn’t seem as rosey as it once did).

So I thought this morning I would have a cup of this, which I haven’t had in forever, just to see how this has held up. I got this at the same time as I got the rose black, and it’s been in the same kind of containers during it’s life (ESP’s non-airtight folded bags for a while, then some small tins toward the end).

This one has held up better it seems, though it does seem a bit… old. The flavors just aren’t as strong, but this cup isn’t overly weak or anything. I guess I am finally getting to the point where some of my older teas are fading, which is sad. I’ve been doing better about working through my stash and not buying new teas, but I still have a huge amount right now. Guess I better get drinking!

This morning I needed something safe and comforting and not too busy or complex. Something that would wake me up but not upset an iffy stomach. This worked pretty well. I’m still tired but in better shape than before. This is a nice EGC with a good balance between the bergamot and the cream, and it never gets bitter.

Inspired by my successful cold-steeped Earl Grey Cream a few weeks ago, I decided to try cold steeping this one. Delicious! I really like a cold steeped Earl Grey Cream. The bergamot is bright and fruity, and the vanilla is very creamy, and they play so well together. Bergamot seems to come out strongly in cold steeping, as does vanilla, and in combinations with other flavors sometimes they can overwhelm everything else, but paired together they work very well. I’ll definitely be returning to this one often.

I think my taste buds are still a little blown out from that last tea, so this one doesn’t taste quite as good as usual.
…after a couple of Cadbury Mini Eggs…
Better. I can count on chocolate to smooth over any bad tastes. Now here’s my creamy Earl Grey, although I might have over-steeped or over-leafed a little because it’s a hint more bitter/astringent than normal. Still pretty good, though.

Right now, this is my go-to Earl Grey Cream tea. I haven’t had very many, and I plan to try more, but I enjoy this one a lot and so it pretty much becomes the one to beat. The bright, citrusy bergamot (without being bitter!), complimented by the creamy vanilla, are very well done.

I seriously needed something to cleanse my palate after that last failed experiment, and this one called out to me from my cupboard. I’ve yet to log it, but I’ve had it for a while now. I got this one a while back when I was first beginning my assay of EGs. Now that I’ve had a number of high quality plain EGs, I’m coming back to this one with a slightly different palate. I still enjoy it as I did before, but now I can really appreciate how vanilla-creamy this tea is. I haven’t actually had too many of EG creams yet, but I can see myself trying more definitely. I like that I never have a problem with bitterness when brewing ESP Emporium’s black teas, and that’s true here as well.

The aroma of the brewed tea is strongly vanilla cream, with a sharp note of bergamot right at the end. In the taste the bergamot is more prominent, adding a bit of crisp astringency, but the cream smooths it over. This isn’t an EG blend where you can hardly taste the bergamot anymore; the bergamot black tea is still the main event here, but the sweet-cream flavor is strong as well. Overall well blended between the cream and the bergamot.

The description of this tea makes it sound so good! I was looking forward to all of the individual flavors. I’m tasting just black tea.. a breakfast blend of sorts. No strawberry or cream or rum. If you sat this cup in front of me, I would really think that it’s a plain black, not flavored.

The last time I had this one I didn’t really enjoy it much, but its been long enough that I wanted to try it again just to see. Also, there’s still some vague recollection of having it back when I first got it and liking it ok at least. The dried leaves still smell like sour cherry candy to me. I tried a low temp and a short steep this time since last time the flavor overpowered me a bit, and the liquor is a very pale yellow but it still has a strong aroma. Still very fruity, still smells a bit medicinal, but it doesn’t seem like too much this time.

The taste is much better, and I’ll bump the rating, but it’s still not great. Not one I’d reorder, but now at least I feel like I can finish what I have! The flavor is very light (initially, it got stronger as it cooled), but being as it’s kind of an odd flavor that’s a good thing. The green/white tea clearly isn’t going to make itself known on the first steep, though perhaps on later brews. I think part of the problem is that I still get primarily cherry flavoring from this (as in cherry candy, not fresh cherries), and I don’t really like cherry flavoring. The promised jasmine and rose and mallow blossoms just don’t show in this one.

Eh, second steep’s not much better. Oh well, I guess this one will go back to sitting at the bottom of my cupboard (until I forget what it tasted like and try it again!)

Guess I’m in a green tea mood today! When I first open the bag of this tea the aroma is so powerful; it’s smells sweet and sour/tart, like a sour candy. The dried tea itself is gorgeous: big whole flowers spread liberally all through it. Brewed up, the scent is less powerfully tart, but it still is very fruity, and the taste preserves that. I’m thinking sour cherry is a good way to describe this one? There’s something almost medicinal about the flavor which is offputting. I thought I remembered liking this one better the first time I had it. I don’t really taste the flavor of the green or white teas much.

I forgot how pleasant this tea was. There’s so much extra citrus in the blend that you definitely get hints of lemon and such, but the overall flavor never loses sight of the bergamot. It’s a really nice pairing between the green tea and the bergamot, too; neither overpowers the other. An Earl Grey green can be so nice because you don’t have to overload on the bergamot for it to be the primary flavor, so there’s less chance of getting that bitterness or astringency that can come from too much bergamot. I mean really citrus and green tea go so well together anyway, it’s a natural extension to bergamot. Yum.

Don’t have much to say on this one today, except that it was delicious. And it’s looking more and more like the bird I saw will be a confirmed sighting (second ever in North America!)

Just the ticket this afternoon; I was pondering a traditional Earl Grey but I’m still not sure if I’m really up for a hearty black tea, so I went with this one. Very citrusy-bergamot, with sharp lemongrass lemony flavor. The green tea is present here but not overly vegetal or grassy. Very tasty.

I really like this blend, but I’ve been thinking about Earl Greys and Jasmine today, so I mixed in an extra tsp of my unnamed chinese jasmine green into this cup. It probably ended up being a little too much tea for 12 oz of water, but its still enjoyable. The green tea flavor is strong and grassy, but the underlying citrus of the Earl Grey and the floral of the Jasmine do work well together. I think this one will improve on the resteep when the flavors are a little more subdued.

I’m definitely a fan of this Earl Grey green tea. The flavoring isn’t overpowering, and it maintains the pleasant, leafy taste of green tea, but over all is the fragrant bergamot with lemony citrus. It has the notes you expect from an Earl Grey, but it’s so light and flavorful it’s a different (and lovely) experience. Whenever I want a nice light tea, something with clean and bright flavors, this is the tea I come back to.

I finally figured out what this tea needed – salt. I like my teas sweetened, but every time I added sweetener to this, it just got sickeningly sweet. Adding half a pinch of salt to this really helped bring out the flavor. I’m really enjoying drinking it this way. Prepared with almond milk, stevia, and salt.

I KNOW I drank this before but I can’t find it anywhere on here…strange…backlogging but I will have to review at another time…it was ok but not my fave…

This smells like grape deliciousness! Immediately upon opening the sample from JoeCool (Nichole) I smelled fresh grapes and thought of Welsh’s grape juice. This isn’t a bad thing; I enjoy juice as much as the next kid-at-heart. And the leaves are so colorful and pretty.

I didn’t look up this tea before trying it; I didn’t want to get any ideas about what it SHOULD taste like.

First sip, there is a bit of a smoky flavor I wasn’t expecting. Second sip, it’s still there. It’s not as grape-y as I would have liked, but the smoky flavor is a bit like gunpowder, so I’m cool.

By the end of the cup, I’m left wanting more grape flavor and less smokiness. Bottom line: a decent tea but not one I’d go out of my way to try. It’s prettier to look at than drink, IMO.

Wow! This is one bright up of tea! I had never heard of a tea flavored like watermelon before. The actual dry blend looked more like a trail mix than a tea! HUGE hunks of dried fruits make a bright pink-orange brew. Sipping, this tastes almost identical to watermelon.. maybe melon water? True to the flavor of watermelon and very sweet all by itself! The finish is a little strange, I must admit.. Vegetables? Tart fruits? Drying and a little bit funky. Just different. While this makes for a good cup of hot tea, I think it would be just awesome iced! Thank you to JoeCool for sharing some of this with me. Yummy!

This is one of those teas I know some else will appreciate more than me. There is just too much going on here. I am glad to have had the chance to try this sample but it just isn’t for me.

Now this is good, smooth, sweet, and strawberry. Need I say more? :-)

First impression, “Umm, this is good!” This is a very well balanced herbal tea and rich in chocolate but not overwhelmed. It will be enjoyed.