Empire Tea Services

This is an Earl Grey with a white tea base. Looks like this is 11 months old. Ah oh. It comes in a waxy coated paper sack. Hmmm. I open the bag and Mmmmm. Brewed it up and it still tastes very good. Better than I remember. It starts out peppery followed by orange rind mixed with bergamot. White tea being so subtle to start with, I find I have to be patient with the cup and wait for it. Late in the sip it shows up and its worth the wait. This is about $2.30/oz ($8/bag). Empire Tea Services blends their own teas and they are quite good.

Sipdown, 230. Sad to see this one go! It is definitely on the reorder list… the best green Earl Grey I’ve ever tried, and I’ve tried quite a few. The biggest thing is how its not just a regular, grassy green tea that usually gets used for flavored tea bases, but a nutty, buttery lovely green that would probably be delicious on its own. Love these discoveries from tea companies that you might not expect!

Yum yum. I never cease to be amazed by the lovely base of this tea. So unlike your typical flavored green base! I have gotten a little fatigued on flavored greens (that aren’t florals… so mainly fruity greens), but this one is an exception. I now can pick out that this tea is full of awesome natural chestnut notes (before I described them as just nutty, buttery and even cookie-ish). I want more flavored greens like this one.

Special thanks to Liberteas For this one!

This tastes like creamed Asparagus! Wooooo! I really like this! It just might be the best Pi Lo Chun I have ever had – thus far! Very tasty! It has a great sweet end sip on it as well!

YUM! Super YUM!

ETS adds orange to their bergamot and it gives it a unique flavor. Not like Lady Grey as it has lemon I think. It is just different. This I have had long enough the bergamot has mellowed a lot. That is a good thing as the white tea is really shining through. A good choice. Tunes: Blackfoot – Train, Train, Blue Cheer – Summertime Blues, Billy Thorpe – Children of the Sun.

My note was eaten. I picked a sample of this up today at Empire Tea Services. I could not find it on their website. This should use a decaf tea. It is a great evening tea. It is not a big bold cup. It starts light milk chocolate. Next I get light peppermint – yum. The aftertaste is vanilla and black tea. I can’t single out the rooibos or fruits. A nice mellow cup

This usually helps me relax. Last night I don’t think even adding Jack Daniels would help. Was tasty though.

I haven’t had this tea in a long time, which is a shame because it is so delicious. It’s rare that you get a flavored green tea with this much character. A little spiced, a little cookie-ish, a little buttery, and those flavors pair so well with the bright, citrusy bergamot. I was having a hard time trying to decide on a tea to drink this morning (nothing too fruity, nothing too floral, nothing too nutty… I really wanted a spiced tea, but I don’t really keep those around!), but this totally hits the spot.

The aroma is amazing for this tea. It smells so strong – so much like fresh peaches and apricots, my mouth started watering as the fragrance wafted through the kitchen.

It tastes as good as it smells, too. The green tea is well balanced with the peach and apricot flavors – providing a flavor that is sweet and fresh, with a light brothy mouthfeel and hint of vegetative flavor. A really amazing peach and apricot flavored tea.

PS: Thanks to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this one!

I had a steep of this left from yesterday. I added a bit of Zenjala Tea Company’s smoky Bohea. Unfortunately I did not add enough to get the smoky EG I was hoping for. Still with the second of this the vanilla tames way down and it becomes just a smooth creamy delight. I said this was an sip down yesterday. Now I mean it. La sigh. On to the next!

Sip down. Started my day with Earl think I’ll end the work day with Earl. This one is heavy on the vanilla through the first cup but it’s a good one. The bergamot builds as the cup cools. The Ceylon base plays well with both of them.

With TeaEqualsBliss working at feeling better, I thought I would try and pick up some of the tea drinking slack. I failed miserably. I am sloshing as I walk and have not even come close. Miss your notes. Heal soon.

Thank you TeaEqualsBliss for sending me a bit of this tea.

I knew I’d be running some errands early today, and probably wouldn’t have a lot of time for tea, so I brewed this early in the morning in my breville and allowed it to cool so that I could try it as an iced tea (since this is the iced tea version of this blend).

I did happen to take a few sips of it hot though, and I got to say, it was alright hot, but this one is definitely better iced. The primary flavor is that of the black tea, and that’s the way it should be. After that flavor settles on the palate, I begin to pick up notes of the mango, the passion fruit and mere hints of the kiwi. I find myself wanting a bit more kiwi, but, as I continue to sip, this flavor (as well as the other fruit notes) develops a bit more.

A very refreshing iced tea!

After my long day sitting at Starbucks and a long frustrating time installing software at home I needed a cup of mellow. This fit the bill.

Last night’s midnight cup. I learned I really don’t like this without sweetener. Unsweetened it tastes a lot like Tazo Rest (I think that was the name of it). It is too rose and powdery tasting for me. Add sweetener and all these other flavors pop out. It has a decaf black tea base. It takes on a berry like taste when sweet. My wife likes the icky unsweet taste.

Been a while since I have had this one. ETS bergamot is just different from every other I have tasted. Maybe it is the addition of the orange peel. Anyway, I like it. I also like white tea. I find the delicate nature of them appealing. In my mind turning a white into an Earl Grey just seems wrong, but it works. The bergamot drives the flavor profile but the white tea does not get lost under it. I still prefer green EG but this is a pretty good EG even if a little off the beaten path.

Liberteas sent this my way! Thanks a bunch!
I couldn’t find it in the steepster datebase so if you or anyone else knows the direct URL – let me know and I will see if Ricky can merge the two.

This is a Ceylon and Sencha blend with caramel and roasted almonds (flavoring).

It’s quite good. The Ceylon is a mellower-black and that Sencha gives it a hint of grassy/vegetal-ness! The Caramel makes it creamy-smooth and a bit sweet and that almond contributes to the overall flavor…nutty and somewhat-smooth.

These 4 flavors seem to work very well with each other. It’s pleasant and tasty.

Ok, the Zenjala Creamy Earl Grey was a sophisticated cup. The vanilla was very mild and served to tame the uncivilized bergamot. Empire Tea Services calls their version luxurious. My take on this is it is more of a frat house version. The vanilla comes screaming out of the pouch, chased by the bergamot beast in a toga. The Ceylon base is like the bass player in the band, you may not notice him untless he stops, then you realize he was responsible for the groove. There are also hints of chocolate and something like burnt caramel or sugar. This is a party in a cup and I don’t think it is intended for meditative moments. Party on.

I have only been sleeping about 4 hours a night for the last few weeks due to stress. Last night this helped me get nearly 7 hours. Yeah!

This is a weird tea, in that when I look at the list of ingredients I think I shouldn’t like it, but Empire understands blending and this stuff just works.

I under-infused this one only because the leaves are cut so fine I wasn’t sure how intense the flavor was going to be right off the bat.

Under-infusing seemed to fit the bill for my personal palate. This is a brothy-type green! It’s not bitter, it’s not overly grassy or overly sweet. It’s a straight and narrow – bound and determined sort of green! The sort of green tea you would want to have on hand at all times.

So on top of everything else, went to heat up water in the micronuker and after 3 seconds it went Zzzzzzzt and quit. So a quick trip to ‘The Wal-mart’ and I now I have hot water for this mug-o-delight. (One of these days I need a kettle for home) While I enjoy this, it almost seems wrong to add flavors to a delicate white. The bergamot is not heavy and peppery like the green version. It is just a relaxing light cup.

COLD Notes (see previous for HOT):

The Raspberry does seem to pop out more…and it IS a combo of the berry and the Raspberry Greens – such as the leaves! It seems to almost taste more herbally ICED.

Most of you know I don’t add anything to my teas but I think this one would be ok sweetened when doing iced. UNsweetened…I think I actually like it a bit better HOT.

I’m a REBEL. I’m trying a half cup of this HOT first and I have the other half of cup chilling and will review that shortly, too!

HOT:

This is a bold black tea base with a fairly good amount of Raspberry flavor mixed in. Eventho this is an ICED TEA Blend from Empire this is pretty good HOT, too!

It not only tastes like the berry part but also the greens…like the leaves and stem. Pretty Good!

COLD review coming soon…

The tea I’m drinking doesn’t look like this – but it says it’s what it is so here, goes!

It doesn’t really smell like anything and looks like a lighter black tea finely cut instead of a green tea. It infuses REALLY Dark, too, much like a black tea. (Perhaps it was mismarked?)

This has a VERY subtle cherry flavor (so maybe it isn’t mismarked or maybe it’s a black/green blend???) It just seems too dark to be a straight-up green…regardless it’s tasty. It’s not overly scented or flavored at all!

As it cools at room temperature for a few moments it’s starting to taste more like a green but it’s still very dark – much like a green/black tea blend!

Eventho I’m a bit confused my this tea’s name – I am enjoying my cup! It’s yummy! It’s flavor is VERY subtle which is a bit different from Empire’s other teas. I’m a fan of the taste of this one but I’m not going to rate it just yet because it puzzles me overall.

This has a lovely aroma! Tropical and Fruity but not overly so and certainly not artificial – to the nose.

It infuses to a VERY Dark Brown color – near coffee color. It has that bold black tea base with Mango flavor up-front followed by Kiwi and then Passion Fruit. This is very tasty, nicely flavored black, and great both hot and cold!