ESP Emporium

Decided to try this today. It smells very cinnamony, with a pastry smell mixed in. After steeping, it smells more like really sweet cinnamon, a little less of the pastry. I had to gulp this one down really quickly before lab started, so I didn’t get to take time to taste. However, I remember it being a bit weak and watery. It was more cinnamon and a bit of tea flavor, not much pastry. I’ll have to give it another go when I have more time.

I have no idea if this is ESP Emporium as my Mom got it as one of my Christmas gifts from The British Pantry in Tecumseh, Michigan.
Interesting tea….I can taste the marzipan and certainly orange. Not sure if I would get this on my own, though probably wouldn’t turn down a cup at my Mom’s.
I had planned on doing this at 200, but I automatically hit the BOIL button, but it came out good. I will try and remember to do 200 next time, to see how it rolls.

I made this iced last night and drank it with a spicy dinner – it was everything I had wanted out of an iced herbal – I brewed it with a little sugar – it was slightly sweet and VERY tart.

Oh ESP Emporium, your pictures are always so pretty but your teas never actually look that way.

This is another one of those teas that just smells like a cocktail. Not really grape juice to me at all, more like some fruity sort of drink where you question the actual fruit juice involved.

It definitely did not smell like something I wanted hot, so I figured I’d have it iced with lunch.

Now that it’s steeped, it reminds me of sparkling white grape juice. Not bad, pretty refreshing.

I am kind of meh about flavored white teas now that I think about it. They are great for iced tea of course, and I won’t have a problem finishing this one that way, but I far prefer the flavors of straight white tea if I’m gonna drink a white tea hot.

Thank you Chuckieroy!

Another tea in the Traveling Tea Box (A) – this smelled DELICIOUS! Slightly sweet and almond-y.

I haven’t had a blend with green tea and green maté before, which was interesting. But this doesn’t taste like Black Forest Cherry cake to me – I’m not sure what it tastes like exactly. There’s a sweetness to this (almond?), but I don’t taste cherry. It’s not bad, just not what I was expecting based on the description.

Thank you momo for this sample.
This smells awesome. The taste is not so awesome. It is mellow which is nice, but its just lacking too much. Shame too because I love the name of this one. What I don’t understand though is where do these tea companies come up with these names? How did an Enchanted Forest come up at all during the creation of this tea? It is pretty, maybe thats why.

I don’t know why I took so long to try this one. It makes a lovely iced tea!

It does remind me of Lime Jello Salad from 52teas but a bit different. The creaminess in this one comes from coconut, and the coconut also adds a nice flavor. There’s a lot of lemon in here too so it’s not straight lime. Not sure I like that part because it tastes a little fake.

Coconut and lime are awesome together, though. This really isn’t that interesting of a tea to say anything else about. It’s pretty fluffy so it needs its space for steeping. It has a lot of twigs in it. I pulled one out that looked like a toothpick. No thanks.

I wish this actually tasted like black forest cake, or just cherry. It tastes like amaretto, but not the good kind, the kind that gets too almond flavored for my tastes. The floral aspects of the tea kind of help, but when your taste buds seem to seek out the flavors you hate, all the flowers in the world cannot help.

I was totally hoping the coconut in here would do something. It doesn’t even make it seem a bit creamy. I guess this one is not for me. I’d love if the green tea was a little more prevalent, along with the coconut. It probably is for some people, and all I can taste is almonds!

Augh I went to some friends’ house last night to play Cards Against Humanity (offensive/evil/awesome if you’re a terrible person game like Apples to Apples) and of course the house rules were winner of the round chooses someone to take a shot. Four shots and four hours of sleep later, I am not feeling so nice this morning and wishing I hadn’t made plans to meet a friend for Ethiopian for lunch. Of course I don’t have anything good for hot tea with me so I’m drinking iced tea before 8am. I’m already on my second glass of this because holy dehydration.

This brews up super light. It’s kind of worrying at first but it definitely has flavor. It’s not particularly green apple to me, but it’s apparent the fruit flavor is apple, with a bit of kiwi. I’m surprised it’s as good as it is because I’ve learned not to expect much of anything kiwi flavored.

The base tea is okay, it gets bitter way too easily which is tough when the tea looks like water even after 2 1/2 minutes. That’s really about the limit of this it seemed like, but the temperature might have been a bit higher. It’s easy to just drink down which I attribute to it pretty much just tasting like flavored water for the most part. I’m wondering if it really needs the space to steep in like a basket rather than a t-sac, but I wasn’t in the mood to strain. Next time I’ll try that though so maybe the green can really show through in a more delicious manner.

Why do I watch a sport that requires getting up early? At least its something interesting, two people I know were watching Australian hockey last night and I do NOT get it at all. Who seriously cares? One of said friends from last night is Australian and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t care about it. I guess it’s impossible for some people to get a life in the offseason or something. I ranted about this for half an hour before bed apparently but SERIOUSLY this one girl is STILL UP now watching this stuff.

I should be sick of peach by now. I mean I even ate one while waiting for this to cool.

Good thing this really lacked on the peach at least for me. It’s just chocolate. But artificial chocolate.

I can’t even take another sip.

The rest of this is definitely all yours, Kittenna. It seems you love it or you hate it but there’s only 3 other reviews. Mine makes it split.

Bleh. It might be the spices or something but this just is not for me.

Thanks brandy3392 for this nonetheless!

Ugh why don’t teas stay added to your cupboard? I added this not even a day ago! I just got back from getting my growler filled up and I am not going back outside again until it’s under 100. So gross.

Before I start drinking that, since hardly walking causes profuse sweating (and you can’t even breathe because it is most definitely a ozone code purple day just like yesterday, it’s terrible). I cold steeped this last night and am now drinking it.

SO much better than I expected! It comes on strong with the lemon though upon taking a sip, almost like a more natural tasting green tea lemonade. It quickly mellows out with the honeydew mixing in. It’s a very refreshing combination. This is well done, I might give it a try hot if I don’t run out of it for iced tea this summer.

Neither fruit flavor tastes very artificial, which I also appreciate. As usual, I could do with a bit more of a green tea flavor but it did end up steeping a pretty long time, almost 17 hours.

I had been drinking this last night, I did a lazy cold steep on it. Some is still left so I’m eating a real peach with it. I saw something last night say refrigeration makes them less tasty, which I think is a lie. This one is tasty, really juicy, and oh they are so much better cold.

So anyway this tea is odd because it doesn’t have peach in it, it has “peach crunchy” according to the bag. It’s made from pureed peach, tangerine, strawberry juice, and carrot juice. It still pretty much tastes like peach though, maybe a lot sweeter. Then the other strawberry pieces also help with that. There’s a bit of a berry flavor, but it’s mostly peach.

This bag got pummeled pretty badly by UPS, who made it look like the box was dropkicked by an elephant. I’m confused because Teavana sends stuff UPS, and I’ve never gotten a box that looks so horrible, and they’ve dented a few of my DavidsTea boxes but not to the point of causing damage. Both of those companies ship from further away than ESP Emporium. It’s so weird. It seems there’s more dust than usual because of it, so I’ll really probably be sticking to cold steeping this one. It’s perfect for iced tea anyway.

There is a balanced fragrance of orange and chocolate, but the orange comes through a lot stronger when drinking. However, the chocolate does make a showing as an aftertaste.

The tea smells good, although it reminds me of an artificially flavored chocolate. I’m still a tea-tasting novice, so I can’t add much. The flavors do combine smoothly, though I’m not sure how the tea can be “creamy” as others have described.

I can’t taste the chocolate or coconut that makes up this tea, but there are definitely essences of sweetness.

Really strong coconut and pineapple flavours make me wonder if it’s all natural. I do see tiny flecks of coconut and dried pineapple (maybe freeze-dried). Compared with 52tea’s Piña Colada Honeybush, this one is MUCH stronger in the expected flavours (however, red rooiboos instead) but does it make a difference if one “cheats” with chemicals? Right now I like it and the price is good. 250 gm/$20.95 so this should last me a while and it stretches my enjoyment of the other one too. Haven’t mixed the two yet; not sure if that would improve either though.

Interesting… unlike most coconut teas you can taste the coconut. The chocolate is also strong, and the combination of the two makes a faintly soapy aftertaste – not unpleasant, just unusual! I will have to try this again before rating – it’s not exactly what I expected, and I’m not sure if I like it yet!

Cup is, as stated, a light copper color. I forgot about this description and over-steeped my first cup, thinking I’d used too little leaf. Aroma is sweet, with brief floral notes as the cup cools. Flavor reminds of mint, marjoram perhaps, with a bitter bite at the swallow … due to the oversteep, I think. Little astringency in the hot cup, but increased with cooling. This calls for a new cup, with better steeping parameters.

Tea friend ashmanra sent me a cup’s worth so I could compare to my old-faithful Monk’s Blend from Culinary Teas (Metropolitan/Mlesna). First, this is several years fresher than my old-faithful, so all the flavors are stronger - but the floral/bergamot vibe comes through first. I’m not normally a floral fan, but the vanilla balances it enough I don’t feel like I’m swigging my Mother’s Day bouquet water.

Thanks for the treat!

Another tea from PaulMTracy! The aroma of this tea is quite good – it has a candy-fruit scent. But when sipped, the taste insisted, “I am a French tea!” There is such a mix of flavors in the tea, and they balanced them so well, that I really feel as though I am drinking a cup from Dammann Freres or Mariage Freres. The grenadine is balanced by the soft vanilla, and the tea base tastes so much like the base for some of the French teas I have tried – a tad astringent but not much, probably to balance with all the many flavors mixing here. A very enjoyable and social cup of tea! Thank you, Paul!

Thanks JoeCool (Nichole) for sharing some of this. I’m not normally an Earl Grey fan so I’m not rating it (my palate is too inexperienced). But this smells nice and tastes like your typical Earl Grey. Heavy on the bergamot. Watery fruit loops every time. (taste)