ESP Emporium

Another surprising tea! Recently picked up a Groupon from ESP and gave them a try. Pretty happy so far from what I’m seeing and tasting.

This one smells like an Apple Candle. Perfect on this cold day. The white and green teas are very light and you can really taste the apple and it really does taste like an apple dessert of some sort. I’m on my third infusion and the flavors are still going strong.

Dee-lish!

A very good dessert tea!

This is one of the weirdest smelling things I have smelled (that smelled good). I don’t even know what it was that I was smelling. This is nice and spicy, though without sweetener it didn’t taste as good.

This is a nice, somewhat typical fruity blend of tea. The oolong base isn’t as good as others I’ve had, but the tea is still enjoyable.

I picked this tea because I needed like 4 more dollars for free shipping – and I’m glad I did. I always think I’m not going to like orange flavored things but this was fantastic. It’s dessert tea!

Thank you TeaEqualsBliss for sending me this tea.

This is a great green Earl Grey. The flavors are light enough to meld well with the delicate taste of the green tea. The overall cup is crisp and delicate, but still very pleasantly Earl Grey! One of the best green Earl Grey teas I’ve tried yet.

I have found that most grape flavored teas taste more like green grapes than red/purple ones. However, this one tastes purple grapes too me. The white tea is a little grassy and I felt that added authenticity to the flavor profile. Nicely done.

I knew I needed to add a mango tea to my permanent collection! My bar harbor tea company one is running a little low.
This tastes very similar, I am happy to say! The green tea base is excellent for the flavor – the taste is smooth and buttery. This is also similar to American Tea Room’s Immortal Green, which I might have misplaced?!

I ordered this because a. I love green tea blends and b. I’ve had ginseng oolong tea and totally love it.
This tea doesn’t live up to my expectations but I still like it – maybe it’s because it doesn’t have the licorice added like the other ginseng blends I’ve had. It’s a very mellow and calming tea, and the green tea is kind of off in the background.

Candy in liquid form.
It’s very similar to American Tea Room’s Choco*Late except it’s more robust and I think I enjoy it slightly more – however, the downside is that it has caffeine and ATR’s doesn’t.

Steep Information:
Amount: 2 tsp
Water: 12 ounces hot spigot water
Tool: kati loose tea system (my Review here.)
Steep Time: a little over 5 minutes (http://steep.it)
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: orange, grassy, a little mint (cross contamination?)
Steeped Tea Smell: grassy, hints of orange
Flavor: grassy
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: grassy
Liquor: translucent olive green

I like it better than most mate I have had, didn’t get much orange, but i got a green tea flavor as opposed to the overpowering flavor i usually get from mate.

This was a gift from TeaEqualsBliss, Thank you!

Pictures: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/12/esp-emporium-loose-leaf-mate-tisane.html

This Oolong is deliciously fragrant. I smell the mango mostly, but, I can also smell apple and passion fruit notes, as well as the lovely scent of rose.

The flavor is a delicious combination of mango and peach with notes of flower and the nutty-sweet-buttery taste of the Oolong tea. Yummy!!!

This is absolutely perfect Holiday blend! Spicy, malty taste of black tea very well combines with nutty, fruity flavors of this composition. Chocolate note gives this blend natural sweetness, so I had my first cup without adding any sugar. Nice treat.

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me a bit of this tea!

This is a really nice tea. I don’t know that I’m getting a “creamy” kind of taste from it as the description implies, but I can definitely taste the nutty quality. Fruity and delicious! I was a little skeptical at first because of the blend of black and green teas but, it works well here. It gives just the right amount of body and backdrop for the flavors.

Nice… really glad I tried this today!

Having the last of this sample as well tonight. I do wish it was a bit stronger in fruit flavor…as a child of the 80s, when I hear “punch” I think “Hawaiian Punch”, and expect to be smacked in the mouth with flavor.

Melanie sent me a few bags of this green rooibos blend! I’m excited to try it. I love rooibos, and have become a fan of green rooibos since Republic of Tea created their blends (which are fantastic if you haven’t had them yet).

This one is actually lighter-flavored than I had expected with the name “Punch”. I had expected this POW flavor hitting me in the mouth, but instead, it’s a very smooth, gentle blueberry taste along with the green rooibos (which is really good in and of itself here). There’s a slight hint of floral (there are sunflower and cornflower petals in here), and it adds to the fruitiness of the cup.

A great tea to have at the end of an 11 hour day. o_O

I’ve had an interesting experience with this tea. I actually tried it about a year to a year and a half ago, and I did not like it. Now, I don’t know if it is because the recipe for the blend has changed, or if my palate is just more accepting of yerba mate now… but, I’m actually enjoying it this evening. I kind of think it’s because I’m acquiring a taste for yerba mate, although the licorice note in this tea is stronger than I remember, and the earthiness from the mate is not as apparent as it was previously either… so… I don’t know.

What I do know is that this has a nice orange-y taste, and I love the licorice flavor and how it sits on my palate in the finish. This is lovely.

This is a very well done herbal. The citrus leans towards being more lemon that orange to be but that is a minor criticism. The star of this is the rich semi-sweet chocolate undertone that lingers in your mouth after you swallow. YUM!