ESP Emporium

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – January 2023 Tea #3 – My oldest green tea

I love the idea of a prompt focusing on the OLDEST green in a cupboard. (I wouldn’t mind seeing this for other types of teas in future months, white tea, rooibos, etc… note to Ashmanra…) This is the oldest green! Not close to finishing it! I think it was a free sample and if anything, it’s a nice experiment in the aging of a flavored green tea. There is STILL some flavor here! Strawberry and lychee! How old is it? Let’s see… according to my first tasting note…. ELEVEN YEARS OLD. whoa. A shame, as this is a rare flavored green tea that received a rating of 90 from me. The photo is lovely too.

First, the unsteeped leaves in my sample bag do NOT look like the picture up there. But I love the idea of this tea. Jasmine, roses, strawberry.. they should all work great on such a great green base. They DO, but I expected a stronger flavor maybe because of all the great ingredients in it. The flavor itself is very fresh and clean. Floral and slightly fruity. The steep color is a light yellow. I’d say it’s a great tea, I just wish the flavors were stronger!

I got this in a swap from Azzrian. Thanks!

Basically this breaks down to a chocolate, coconut tea. They seem to be balanced pretty well. They show up holding hands instead of brawling for my attention. I remain unimpressed with the actual tea here. It’s gotten lost. It must be a pretty mellow tea. I did use an extra scoop in the pot. I tend to do that because I have a funny sized pot. It’s 42 ounces instead of 40 ounces.

The real problem with this tea for me is I have a tea that is much like it but better in my opinion. I get more tea taste and support flavors with the Buccaneer from SerendipiTea. I’m glad I got a chance to try it though. So, thanks again Azzrian.

I just love the look of the unsteeped tea. It has some great things in it: pistachios, sliced almonds, pink peppercorns. The smell is interesting. It’s sweet. Both the scent and flavor remind me a bit of a dessert roll with orange icing or like a creamsicle flavor with less orange. And in the ingredients list, orange is actually listed so that makes sense. I think the majority of the flavor comes from the last ingredient: flavoring. I don’t see the flavor coming from the almonds, pistachios, cumin or peppercorns. It’s more of whatever kind of flavoring they add to it. Maybe I didn’t steep it at a high enough temp or long enough time. The black tea itself isn’t a strong flavor, but you wouldn’t really want a strong base to go with these flavors. Overall, it’s a good tea. But I wish the ingredients would have shined more than the “flavor”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapacho

I used to drink this a lot until I gave it all away to a friend who had another friend who was ailing from something. She thought it might help her. I have no idea if it did or not.
I am one of those people who believe in tea’s medicinal qualities, as well as herbal healing etc however that is not my primary reason for enjoying and drinking tea.

Still I felt it fair to post the link above so those who are inclined can learn more about Lapacho.

This is a very nice tea – lapacho or otherwise it is very well blended with excellent flavorings! Just like a creamsicle with a light peppery bite.

This may appeal to Missy and Dylan or anyone who enjoys a chai. While it is not a chai and does not have most of the flavors IN a chai it is somewhat spicy although not overly so and has a great earthy base from the lapacho.

This reminds me of walking in the woods sucking on a fresh orange with that little added kick of vanilla which came through in both taste and mouthfeel.

I will enjoy this somewhat regularly – even more so in winter. Would be quite excellent iced as well.

Note steep time does not go high enough – you DO in fact steep this for 25 minutes then allow to sit just a little.

Sadly I have to agree with CHAroma.
This tea is okay and all but its flavored more like those cheap chocolate eggs you get in your easter basket as a kid, or adult, whatever floats your boat.
The aftertaste is artificial and it coats the top of your mouth in a cloying way.
The coconut is decent though as I have had my share of bad coconut flavorings – its just that there really wasn’t much OF it so maybe if it had more of a presence it would have tasted bad too.
I should not say BAD as this is not BAD – I too would not pass it up but I would not seek it out and won’t re-order it.
No offense to ESP as they have many blends I have tired and enjoyed thus far with my first order from them.
IF this had been the ONLY chocolate tea I had ever tired I am sure I would like it a lot more but I would still identify that fake chocolate flavor no matter what yet needing a chocolate tea fix is what it is so I would like it more if I had not tried better such as Butiki’s DELICIOUS Raspberry Truffle!
http://steepster.com/teas/butiki-teas/22052-raspberry-truffle
I’m just confused by this blend. Dried coconut and coconut flavoring yet the cocobut really does not stand out.
Chocolate chips AND white chocolate chips. Makes me wonder if I stuck a piece of white chocolate in my mouth with regular chocolate (no indication here if it is milk or dark by the way) if I would even taste the white chocolate. Now I need to try this WIN a reason (excuse) to go buy chocolate (again).
Seems to me that the darker chocolate would cancel the white out.
I had to investigate … I dumped a bunch of the dry tea into a cup.
Very large shavings of coconut .. tasted pretty old, lack of much flavor other than just slightly nutty.
Chocolate “chip” more of a fanning of chocolate! I mean TINY – almost did not identify it in the blend at all! Tasted of very bitter milk chocolate EWEEE.
White chocolate – although white in a black tea base was even more difficult to find these “chips”! They are dry and powdery and chalky. SO tiny I could barely pick one up and they mushed between my fingers easily when I did! It did not taste that bad though.
So what we have here is a half hearted attempt at what could be a very nice blend but sub-par ingredients were used.
ESP is going to hate me probably with this review and I cringe to think of that but I have to be real.
I am getting more and more discerning as I try more teas and while I hate to sound tea snobbish … I don’t know how to end that sentence.
So now the cup has cooled a bit and I thought maybe more flavors would come out however it is the opposite. Its as if they took a nap on me.
And this is after munching on chocolate chips and coconut – I should be getting some of that residual flavor but no.
I will rate this low – I would rate lower due to just being completely disenchanted with this tea as a whole but because it is not NASTY and I am not duping THIS cup although I will dump the rest sitting in the pot due to just not wanting to fill up on tea I don’t care for and keep room in thy belly for those that I do – I won’t rate TOO low.
Into the trade box you go Bon Bon!

Thank you Amanda for requesting this in a trade! I have not enjoyed this in a long time and it was well overdue!
It is very pleasant!

Wow really can’t believe no one has reviewed this yet! Well I just have to say it then ….
FIRST
okay got that out of my system…
A delightful savory yet sweet tea that is not too sweet at all nor overly savory. I feel this blend is quite masterful honestly.
A hint of tangy but not tart lemon.
Ripe sweet strawberry.
Followed by herbaceous notes that have a graceful presence.
The tea steeps to a typical red rooibos color.
While it sounds like it would smell amazing the aroma really doesn’t “do it” for me.
In the bag it smells sort of chemical like.
Steeped I really only get a slight berry note.
It is a really pretty dry tea though with dried berries, and a decent presence of pretty rose petals although I do not taste the rose in the tea.
Now there is a slightly tart after taste but I get that with pretty much any lemon flavored tea but the tart is only in the after taste.
This would also be delicious iced.
I would order this again.
Price is fair 1.76 oz or 50g for 5.50 (and up)
https://www.espemporium.com/p-390-strawberrylemonbasil-rooibos-tea-blend.aspx
Mainly because I love a good strawberry lemon tea and have been searching for a great savory tea and I LOVE LOVE LOVE basil so this pretty much has me unless I find something similar and better.

Its good – its really quite good – but I feel like there is something missing. Its not so much the flavor itself, as it tastes quite yummy but its more that there is this lacking in the mouthfeel! I want something more robust and creamy perhaps, something that sits in my mouth more heavily and says “HEY I’M HERE!!!! I’M DECEDENT!” This is almost too polite to me.
Its crisp not cloying thats for sure but in this case I would not mind a little more cloying!
At least grab me and tell me you love me too!
I love mascarpone, I love tiramisu, I grab that stuff and shove it in my mouth and devour it!
I want to feel that way with this tea!!!
I do enjoy it quite much, and I am sure I can add some milk, or creamer, or whatever and doctor it up but I don’t want to doctor it up I want to love it just the way it is.
Isn’t that how love should be?

Anyway – the romance is on simmer for now yet not simmering, it certainly is not on FIRE!
Yet I am still very fond of it.

I think I am avoiding the break up because I still see such good qualities and such potential in this tea, yet potential is not what IS, only what could be with some changes.
We should strive for THE ONE, and not settle for what COULD be, or POTENTIAL!
SIGH I am just not one for liking to change things that are not of my own creation.
Wait oops I thought I was speaking to a client for a moment – sorry this is the tea forum.
My bad.

Per DaisyChubb’s recommendation, I added 1/2 tsp of China Rose Tea OP to 1 tsp of Bon Bon. Oh boy, I forgot about the scum that this one puts out. :/ It doesn’t look very appetizing. The aroma smells a little conflicted. Am I a rose tea or a chocolate/coconut tea? I thought they would have blended together better…

But on to the taste! Hmm, I’m not so sure about this. I know it’s not the rose & chocolate combo that is off here. I’ve had that combination before in Love Tea #7 by DAVIDsTEA and it was to die for! Honestly, I think this Bon Bon base is just so bad that it can’t be salvaged by the lovely China Rose Tea OP. :( Sad. Lowering the rating from 66 to 30.

3/5 ESP Emporium Teas

I tried this twice before reviewing and rating. I really wanted to like it. I did. But I’ve had similarly flavored teas that were much better. It’s like the difference tasted between a Hershey’s kiss and a Lindt truffle.

I tried this sans additions and it wasn’t very flavorful. It pretty much requires milk and sugar. But the overall flavor is like plastic infused chocolate. It’s slightly chalky too. Definitely not milky, creamy, mocha goodness.

The tea base is really weak, and I had even doubled the recommended leaf amount. The brew is very light brown, almost muddy brown. There’s a bit of oil and scum from the artificial additives. I tried a second steep too, and the chocolate was much quieter. It was mostly weak tea with coconut, even though I steeped it for about 8 minutes. Maybe it’s just the fact that they’re artificial flavors that makes me not like this? I’m not sure.

It’s not bad tea that I would turn down, just like I wouldn’t turn down a Hershey’s bar if I really wanted chocolate. But would I seek this out over another chocolate bar? Probably not. I’d probably go out of my way to get the Lindt because I’d enjoy that more. That’s exactly the way I feel about this tea. It’s good and I’ll drink it. But I won’t re-stock it.

It was pretty cheap though, so no complaints there. I’m open to swapping it if anyone is interested. I know others have enjoyed this much more than me.

2/5 ESP Emporium Teas

After the unexpected but awesome caramel popcorn tea, I’m wicked excited to try this one! I’ve been eyeing the Ryokucha tea by Samovar for probably a year now. But the price is kind of steep and they were sold out of sample sizes for months. So, by the time they re-stocked, I had moved on. Still, Ryokucha was calling my name. This looks just like it!!! I’m hoping it’ll be similarly yummy since everyone loves that one so much.

The dry leaves smell pretty much like genmaicha. There are lovely, large pieces of rice but not as much matcha as I would have expected. The resultant brew is slightly green, but not bright matcha green. It pretty much just tastes like genmaicha too. It’s a little disappointing, but maybe I used too little leaf. It does taste slightly watery. I’m going to start over!

Take two! I doubled the leaf amount this time. Muuuuch better! The overall mouthfeel is silky smooth, which is actually quite interesting. There’s slightly more matcha flavor now, but still it’s much less than what I expected. I can also taste a mildly grassy sencha underneath the toasted rice. Mmm! There is some astringency near the end of the sip, but it’s tolerable in small doses. i.e. don’t chug this down!

If I treat this like it’s just a genmaicha, then it’s great! But I really wanted a matcha genmaicha, and in that respect, it’s a little lacking. Still, the silky smooth texture and lovely toasty grassy flavor is pretty yummy. I will definitely drink and enjoy this! Hey look at that, my cup is empty! :)

Wow, this tea is surprising me this morning! I let it steep for a lot longer than usual and then added skim milk and Truvia. It has a very creamy taste to it, like I poured in some heavy whipping cream instead of plain skim milk.

The result is insanely delicious! This tea tastes nearly identical to caramel ice cream!! Yum! Raising the rating from 81 to 83.

1/5 ESP Emporium Teas

This is my first ESP Emporium tea! I just got my shipment yesterday, and I can’t wait to try these! The packaging was very nice and minimalist. I’m not sure how airtight it is because the bags don’t have a ziplock. You just fold them over and secure with a bendy thing, similar to a Starbucks coffee bag just a whole lot smaller.

I chose Caramel this morning because I wanted something sweet. The dry leaves smell like caramel and black tea, so we’re off to a good start. But I couldn’t really find any caramel pieces. The picture on the site makes them seem abundant. I fished around for a while and eventually found one. Hopefully they all just fell to the bottom of the bag or something, and I’ll find more later.

Anyway, I followed the steeping instructions on the bag, even though I don’t usually steep black teas for 4 minutes right out of the gate. The resultant brew is dark and yummy smelling! Oddly enough, the aroma is nearly identical to 52teas’ Buttered Popcorn…really strange.

I think it’s finally cool enough to try. First sip is sans additions. Okay, the flavor is definitely not buttered popcorn, phew! I’m not really getting caramel though either. Oh wait! There it is! It doesn’t appear until the aftertaste. Hmmm, it’s definitely not very strong for a tea that’s supposed to only have caramel flavoring. I expected to drown in sticky caramel sauce. Time to add some sweetener and skim milk to see what happens.

Just as I suspected, the caramel flavor is more pronounced with additions. It is quite yummy. I’m not floored by taste, but it’s enjoyable. It’s just so funny how much this reminds me of Buttered Popcorn. Except now with additions, it tastes like caramel popcorn. That’s really unexpected, but I’m kind of liking it. Maybe it’s the same black tea base or something? I dunno.

If you’re looking for a knock-your-socks-off caramel tea, this probably isn’t it. But am I glad I got it? Yes, siree! Bring on the caramel popcorn!

Yea, this one is not for me. When I smelled the dry leaves I was concerned that it would be too cinnamony and make my tongue do that weird thing where it feels like my taste buds swell. Brewed, however, there’s hardly any cinnamon flavor at all and there’s some other flavor there that I don’t care for, something vaguely savoryish? I don’t even know how to describe it but I don’t care for it at all. It’s almost as if the 4-5 minute steep time that scared me with the other two black teas I’ve ordered from them finally impacted the tea and made it an odd bitter. It’s going up on the swap wall if anyone wants to try it.

This was another tea from my recent amazon deal. The smell of the tea smells like what it says, an orange cookie. I made it over the weekend and, while it was good, it lacked the punch of flavor that I got from the bon bon tea from ESP. It was pleasant and good and I could taste the orange but I was missing the cookie. Overall a good tea but I don’t think I’d order it again.

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – March 2023 Tea #2 – Your oldest black tea

Checking for my oldest black tea by shuffling my Steepster cupboard by ‘recent’, this is the one!  It was an agreeable enough smoky tea.  Smoke neither too strong or light.  Same on the black tea base. I think it might be keemun. I liked it!  Time for it to be gone.
2023 sipdowns: 27

Ancient Alphabet challenge – R

Now that this is ancient, the smoke is all but gone BUT that means there is room here to notice that this base black tea is quite delicious. Not a horrible Ceylon covered in smoke, but probably keemun. It’s delicious. All of these old teas have really been shining. So I think this Ancient Alphabet challenge was successful in reminding me that the old stuff is still worth steeping up, even more so than I previously thought.

I love the smokiness of a russian tea. I guess that is the main characteristic of a “russian” tea. I usually can’t keep my russian teas with my other teas — they smell that strong. This one is more of a mild scent and flavor. It isn’t too smoky, so it could be for someone who wants to try a smoky tea and then if you like it you could try a stronger one. (The Choice Russian Caravan is pretty strong for a tea bag — one of the couple I’ve tried.) But with this one, the flavor isn’t even that strong for a black tea. It’s still good though, just mild. Maybe I should have steeped it longer and at a higher temperature.

I cannot resist a tea deal so when ESP Emporium popped up on my Kindle, I had to go for it. Before ordering the deal I scoped out the tea and made sure there was stuff I’d want and this tea immediately caught my eye. If you follow me you know I’m a bit of a chocolate teaaholic. AND I love coconut so this was a no-brainer.

I opened the bag this morning and the tea smelled so fantastic I was expecting it not to taste as good. Holy heck though does this tea deliver! It’s fantastic! It’s almost like a combo of chocolate tea with Teavana’s Cha Yen Thai (another one of my favorites).

Like the other reviewers mention, the black tea base is very mild. I was a bit concerned about the long steep recommended on the bag because I often find black tea gets bitter if you do a first steep longer than 3 minutes but not this one.

It’s smooth and delish and wonderful. I even ended up putting in a bit too much brown sugar splenda, which can often ruin tea, but this weathered it well. Looking forward to a second steep tomorrow.

This smells wonderful. I can’t fully describe the scent, but the dried leaves smelled kind of sweet and orange-y. I wouldn’t say it reminded me of a cookie. Once steeped, the tea smells more mellow – less sweet, but now with a hint of cinnamon.

The taste is lovely. It’s a good balance of spice from the orange peel, cardamom, cloves and then there’s a lightness to it that prevents the flavors from overwhelming you.

This tastes like mango more like mango nectar than fresh mango. In fact, it’s so generic “fruity” nectar that if you told me it was apricot nectar flavoured I would believe you. Despite the generic fruit taste, the green tea base – Chinese Sencha – is decent. Nice full mouthfeel. I would use the majority up iced because I generally prefer hot green tea plain despite what my cupboard of 52teas implies.

Mastress Alita’s January sipdown challenge Tea #6: A tea with bean notes

So I might be cheating here in two ways – my brain doesn’t usually associate tea with bean flavors, so I say it’s VANILLA BEAN. And the second way I’m cheating — since I didn’t have any vanilla teas that were close to sipdowns, I thought I would allow myself one pass a month to count one challenge tea as NOT an official sipdown, as long as it was the oldest of that type I am drinking and counting for the challenge – so for example, my oldest vanilla tea and not something newer. This is the oldest vanilla I have. Not quite a sipdown yet, but I’ll get there.

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge Saturday, May 22nd: National Vanilla Pudding Day Tea #2

additional notes:  I wanted to go with three vanilla teas today!  One the newest, not yet reviewed, one the oldest vanilla tea, and one no caff.  This is the oldest!  So old that actual vanilla bean was actually included in this blend.  I’m sure it would be a very expensive blend if made today.  (Though no vanilla beans left on the rim of the mug, so how can it really have vanilla bean?)  I can appreciate the vanilla but this base is still quite bland flavored. I originally rated this quite high!