I got a sample of this tea in my swap with brandy3392… thanks for sending it my way! I’ve had moderately good success with ESP Emporium’s teas, so I thought I would likely find this one pretty tasty. And it’s true, I do!
The mango flavoring that ESP uses (or rather, ESP’s wholesaler) is distinctive… the aroma of this is strongly reminiscent of their Shalimar oolong, which is also mango flavored, even though the latter tea has a lot of other things going on. It’s not really the scent of a juicy ripe mango so much as a tasty mango-flavored candy. In this case, it works because I happen to like that flavor. The flavor of the tea is pretty similar to what you would expect from the aroma, with hardly any grassiness or greenness from the sencha base. The mouthfeel is really smooth and buttery, though, which is pretty awesome. Overall a tasty, candy-esque tea, though I think I prefer my mango teas to have a slightly more natural flavor.
