ESP Emporium

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!

Smells like a gentle lemon/orange green tea mix. It’s a more gentle flavored green, too. I can taste the green tea first then the orange then the lemon jumps thru and then a floral taste and then back to green tea. This is a very satisfying but not overly done (or loud) green!

Sip and Send to a friend :)

small taste tonight with perhaps another quickie tomorrow before sending off the rest to a friend. COLORFUL :) HAPPY!

Backlogging…fruity, nutty, smooth

This is highly scented – very nice! And it LOOKS lovely! :)

Post infusion…everything seems to come together to create it’s-own aroma which is much different from before infusing but still VERY nice! I can smell the orange and floral tones a bit more than the others but not by much and I can smell a little something that reminds me of candy, too!

It has a very nice/pleasant yet slightly juicy and floral taste to it but it’s certainly GOOD. I am very happy with this tea! Soooooo glad I got to try it!

I’ve had my ups and downs with Mates!
This one changes my mind!!!
I really like this one!
:)

It’s very energizing with lots of true-orange but slight hints of licorice and floral notes…WOW! Mate Success! Woot! Woot!

This smells awesome! Like a mixture of Mango, Apple, Lemon, Passionfruit, Flowers, etc…

WOW! VERY scented! Nice!

I can taste the Oolong, Flowers, and fruity flavoring. Everything mixes well together. I’m drinking hot right now but I can see this ICED in my future!!!

Thanks to Azzrian I was able to have a bit more of this! It’s delightful! I had to crack my black tea streak with something! This did the trick :) See previous notes!

I don’t think I have ever tried a true Lapacho. I read that I am to infuse for up to 25 minutes! WOW!!!! Is that right? LOL

Anyhow…

Smells like orange prior to infusion. As it’s infusing you can smell the vanilla too. It also has a sweet wood smell – slight – sweet

As it continues to steep it smells more and more like a creamsicle.

I’m sampling a sip here and there as it continues to steep. So far I am at about 15 minutes…it does seem to get better and better tasting the more it continues to infuse but I am very impatient. LOL

Okay…at 20-ish minutes I couldn’t wait any longer! LOL

I did noticed it gets LESS bitter and smooths out the longer it sits. It’s quite smooth at 20-some minutes and juicy and thirst quenching. I’m getting more orange than vanilla…next to no vanilla but then again it probably pulls back the orange flavor a bit and makes it more smooth…so I guess it all works out.

I must say this is different from anything I have prepared but I really like it.

In the words of Sheryl Crow…
A CHANGE WILL DO YOU GOOD
:)

Backlogging from last night…it wasn’t as good as my first attempt…but still ok…tasted more like coffee or toffee and less like tea or truffle or peach. But I do remember my first impression and I will stay with the rating.

Smell of Dry Blend: Peach, Chocolate, Nutty, Black Tea, Almost a flavored Coffee type smell
Smell of Tea after infusion: Peach, Chocolate, Flavored Nutty Coffee-esque
Coloring: Dark brown with a little murkiness…hard to tell because it’s very dark in color.
Taste: Black Tea with Nutty and Peach Flavorings. Maybe a hint of flavored coffee taste…but not much at all.

This was certainly a treat. The warmness lingers long after the sip goes down. A creative blend that does work well!