ESP Emporium

I want to be sure I give this tea a fair try before giving up on it. This time I added 2 generous teaspoons of tea to a large mug, added boiling water and steeped for 3 1/2 minutes. I even used spring water rather than my usual tap water.

I added a splash of half & half and sweetener and gave it a taste. Once again I was let down by the flavor of this tea. I thought the first time I made it I had over-steeped the tea, almost cooking the leaves, but even with a shorter steep time this tea tastes weak and dominated by bergamot. I can smell the aroma of the creamy vanilla but can’t taste it.

This tea is not so awful that I won’t finish up the rest but I regret ordering the 100g size. I’ll keep toying with the steep times and water temperature and hope I’ll finish the sweet spot to produce a better cup of tea.

When I open up the bag in which the tea shipped I can smell the bergamot and a touch of cream/vanilla. It smells promisingly yummy.

I made a cup of tea following the instructions provided by the vendor – 1 tsp of tea per 6oz water, a steep time of 4-5 minutes and water temperature of 205-212F. When I sniffed the steeped tea the bergamot was the primary aroma that tickled my nose. I did smell a hit of vanilla or cream as well.

Upon tasting I was disappointed. The bergamot flavor came through but not much else. It overwhelmed the flavor of the black tea and the cream/vanilla. In fact the flavor seemed almost faded, as though this tea had been sitting in the back of the cabinet for some time.

I really wanted to like this tea but I find myself disappointed by its lack of flavor and complexity. All I get from each sip is bergamot and not much else.

I just received my order from ESP Emporium (woo hoo!) and this was the first tea I decided to try.

The description is yummy and the tea looks wonderful. When I opened the package, the aromas of cinnamon and star anise wafted up to my nose. As it steeped those flavors intensified a bit.

When I sipped it (after adding some half & half and a touch of sweetener) the licorice flavor of the star anise seemed to overpower the other flavors. I think I detected a bit of the cinnamon but it was very mild, unlike its tantalizing aroma.

I want to give this another try. It’s not bad at all – the licorice flavor is good, but it’s not what I expected based on the description.

Tea #19 from HHTTB2

The name of this tea totally made me think of of chocolate truffles filled with buttercream. Or something praline-esque.

Obviously I was not alone.

Obviously I was wrong.

So, as I was sitting here reading the ingredients while my tea was steeping, I was very much having second thoughts, and reviewing my life decisions that brought me to this point. (I jest.)

Once brewed up, this smelled mildly spicy. I definitely got cumin, coriander, and pepper from the aroma. It smells a bit like my kitchen when I’m making Aloo Gobi. There should be some cinnamon all up in here!

While the truffle mark is all sorts of confused in here. This is a really nice savory tea, with a very gentle amount of spice with notes of nuttiness. All packaged nicely with a smooth butteriness.

On second thought, this would make amazing tea-infused dark chocolate truffle coated in pistachio nuts. Oh man oh man oh man.

Decided to try this one out of the Traveling Teabox B. Hmm… I can’t decide if the flavor is good or not… My boyfriend said it tastes like breakfast. Like eggs and hollandaise sauce.. It does have an odd taste to it… It’s sweet from the berries but I don’t think the ginseng blends well. I keep trying to like this cup but.. I just don’t think it’ll happen..

Tea #12 from Another Traveling Tea Box

So I’m not sure if I did something wrong or it was something else. I don’t think it was me because I followed the instructions on the package. Though maybe I over leafed it since I drink 8oz and the instructions were for 6oz.
Anyway, this smelled good in the bag, and even the wet leaf had a vaguely fruity smell to it. But the execution pretty much fell on it’s face. It was very bitter for me (and my Mom who was over having dinner). Even after adding sugar it was undrinkable. I’m debating on if I want to try again with less leaf and shorter time since I think 4 min is much too long to brew black tea. At least, for me it is.
I’m holding off rating this until I try again, or I’ll just leave it unrated because I’m not sure I want to try again. Lol.

Tea #9 from Another Traveling Tea Box

I’ve had this box for nearly a week and I haven’t gotten though everything I wanted to try yet. So I figure I’d better get my butt in gear and start trying some stuff. Lol. This is the 2nd tea I’m hoping to get through tonight, though I started later than I wanted, so we’ll just have to see.

This one smelled very fruity in the bag, though it did have a vaguely plastic-y sort of edge to it. But mostly I just smelled fruitiness.

Brewed I get plenty of fruit and it’s actually a pretty tasty tea. Straight it tastes like unsweet fruit juice. The fruit comes out so much better after adding a bit of truvia to it. Though it’s still strangely weak/watery tasting to me. Maybe that’s because I’m used to drinking black/oolong tea that have a bit more body to them. Next time I might try brewing this a bit longer, or possibly upping the temp a bit higher just to see what happens.
Watery-ness aside, this is one green tea that I wouldn’t mind actually ordering in the future.

Tea #10 from Another Traveling Tea Box
Yes, I’m missing a few numbers because I’ve tried some other teas from the box before this one, but I haven’t gotten around to putting reviews up here. I have them all written down in my notebook, so I’ll be putting them in after this one. I just wanted to write this review while I’m drinking it.

So this one smelled nice in the bag, and while I have my reservations about anything with green tea in it, I figured what the heck.
The ratios were a bit loose so I tried 1 1/2 tsp @185* for 2 min. I think I should’ve tried 2 tsp because this came out a bit watery tasting for me. But it was still a nice cup. I didn’t get an overpowering green ‘veggie’ type taste from the green tea, though I’m not sure if that’s the oolong tempering it or I’m just starting to get more used to the overall taste. I get a vague fruity tartness that, after I added a bit of truvia, pretty much went away and left just a fruityness behind. I didn’t get any sort of vanilla that apparently should be here after reading the description that’s up for this tea.
It was still nice, just probly not something I’d order myself because currant just isn’t really something I care for taste wise. But this was definitely not one of the ‘pour it out after one sip’ sort of green teas that I’ve had in the past.

Tea #14 from Traveling Tea Box C

When I first made this up it had a slightly bitter hint, but adding a dash of milk made it completely vanish. This is a good one! Not something I’m going to go out of my way to purchase, but fun to try!

It smells like lime but there is also a strong coconut element there too. Like some sort of posh tropical cocktail I could just imagine drinking on a beach in Hawaii…with Alex O’Loughlin from Hawaii 5.0 sitting next to me of course. wink wink

The flavour is strongly coconut again and it takes over the lime and citrus tones. The coconut is sweet and creamy, rather fresh and pure tasting which is a nice surprise. In the after taste there is a slight sourness from the lime which is where it really makes itself known amongst the blend but it remains very mild.

I really like this blend, it’s subtle but very exotic and fresh. I have a fair bit of this left too so I can try and play around with the temperature, maybe try it iced.

The more Oolong I drink the more I realize I love the heck out of it. The first time I made this I made a whole pot and boy was I glad. Easy to drink and smooth on the palate, I could drink this pretty much daily.

Tea #42 from Another Traveling Tea Box

A pretty standard Green Currant tea. I don’t get any of the vanilla flavor that is described, but the currant has a nice sweet-tart flavor. Good, but nothing special.

Tea #30 from Another Traveling Tea Box

You ever just smell a tea and know you’re not going to like it? While I gave it the benefit of the doubt, that ended up being this tea to me.

The dry leaf smell was, while not necessarily chemical, very plastic and artificial. That taste unfortunately bleeds into the tea. I don’t get much in the way of pineapple, but the passion fruit and strawberry both come through with the sweetness and flavor of candy. Maybe it would be better cold steeped, but I don’t necessarily care to find out.

Tea #29 from Another Traveling Tea Box

Last caffeinated cup of the day. Probably shouldn’t have picked something with ginseng, but I’m used to insomnia, so it’ll be nothing I’m not well acquainted with if it happens.

I don’t love this tea, but it did help me realise that I like ginseng in my tea the most when I can’t taste the ginseng. I’d suspected as much, but it’s the only component here I’m not loving, so that pretty much cements it.

The sencha is very sencha-y, the strawberry is light and fresh tasting, the rose and orange blossoms add a subtle sweetness. Then there’s the slightly spicy, very earthy ginseng and that component seems so out of place. I guess it gives the cup a kind of mellow edge, but it’s not for me.

Tea #25 from Another Traveling Tea Box

I think by name association, my brain wanted this one to taste like grapes. Or at least kinda grapey.

Spoiler: It doesn’t.

The combination of flavors in here weren’t quite peach, but were almost peach. There’s a little bit of tartness in the aftertaste, that is definitely tangerine flavored.

I don’t dislike this one, but I could give it a pass.

I thought this was a pretty decent rooibos tea. I could detect both the pineapple and coconut flavor (I added a small amount of rock sugar), but neither was overwhelmingly strong. I’ve had it twice as a wind-down evening tea, and I’ve enjoyed it both times. It’s not good enough to get again, but I’ll happily finish what I have.

(Sample from silentrequiem. Thanks!)

Tea #17 from Another Traveling Tea Box

I don’t really see this as a summer tea (at least not hot), but it works great for fall.

Basically, it’s a lemongrass-green tea with more interest. The base is unremarkable, and maybe a little overwhelmed by the other flavors. The dominating flavor is the lemongrass, but there’s a definite sweet orange note, possibly more orange blossom-y. I don’t necessarily pick up the strawberry as strawberry, but there’s a sweet berry note that lingers.

It’s tasty, but I’m not blown away. Or even really all that excited.

Traveling Tea Box C #11
Wow! Yup! This is a chai! And yup! It is spicy! You get the black pepper and anise right away and all the normal chai spices last. This dry leaf smelled just like any other chai…lovely. and the same as it steeped. This was fun tea to try! Its not one I would keep or buy but I loved trying it. I turned it into a latte q little later to see if the spicyness calms a little and it does but it is far from lost. And is not too bad:)

Tea #34 from Another Traveling Tea Box

This was an interesting tea and while I generally like currant teas, I didn’t care for this one. The flavor of this is both sweet and tart, but it was a bit more tart than I care for.

Tea #27 from Another Traveling Tea Box

This ends up being a pretty generic tasting berry green tea blend. I liked the lemongrass in it and I’m not usually a fan, it balances out the strawberry well. I really should have paid closer attention to the ingredients, I didn’t realize this had marigold in it, no wonder my lungs are getting itcy… I’m allergic to it, so this one had to be dumped out.

Tea #26 from Another Traveling Tea Box

I made this last night with the intention of drinking it so I wouldn’t fall asleep on the couch… and then I fell asleep on the couch before I could drink it. When I woke up it went in the fridge so I could have it iced today.

I really don’t like this tea iced, it has an almost gritty texture to it that is just odd to me. I didn’t really notice it last night while the tea was hot. I’m also not really a fan of the overall flavor. I can taste the orange blossom at the end of each sip, even though I’m not a fan of it, I think it really balances out the blend a bit. I’m getting a somewhat berry flavor, likely from the freeze-dried strawberries and can hardly taste the rose at all.

Tea #9 from Another Traveling Tea Box
The list of ingredients for this tea immediately struck me as odd, what in the world is a peach crunchy and why is it in my tea? I tried not to think about it much and just enjoy the tea, but odd ingrediends like this always bother me.

I think I probably should have tried this as a cold steep rather than drinking it hot, but it was in the 40s when I woke up making it more of a hot tea day. The flavors in here didn’t exactly remind me of peach, but it was pretty close, just a tad sweeter than I would expect. Peach is such a hard flavor to translate well into tea. I think the freeze dried strawberries helped cut the sweetness down a little.

Tomorrow is suppose to be warmer so I may take a few Tablespoons and cold steep this to see if I like it better.