diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index 826968b..0b77997 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 include README.rst
 include package.json
+recursive-include armstrong/esi/templates *.html
 prune build/*
diff --git a/armstrong/esi/templates/esi/esi_tag.html b/armstrong/esi/templates/esi/esi_tag.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5410516
--- /dev/null
+++ b/armstrong/esi/templates/esi/esi_tag.html
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+<esi:include src="{{ esi_url }}" />
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/armstrong/esi/templatetags/esi.py b/armstrong/esi/templatetags/esi.py
index f343423..841d6a9 100644
--- a/armstrong/esi/templatetags/esi.py
+++ b/armstrong/esi/templatetags/esi.py
@@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
+import copy
 from django import template
 from django.template import defaulttags
 from django.template.defaulttags import URLNode
+from django.template.loader import render_to_string
 
 
 register = template.Library()
-esi_tmpl = '<esi:include src="%s" />'
 
 class EsiTemplateTagError(Exception):
     pass
@@ -25,14 +26,22 @@ def render(self, context):
         except KeyError:
             raise EsiTemplateTagError('The esi templatetag requires the esi context processor, but it isn\'t present.')
 
-        url = self.raw_url or super(EsiNode, self).render(context)
+        if self.raw_url:
+            url = self.raw_url
+        else:
+            url = super(EsiNode, self).render(context)
+            if self.asvar:
+                url = context[self.asvar]
+
+        render_context = copy.copy(context)
+        render_context['esi_url'] = url
+        result = render_to_string('esi/esi_tag.html', render_context)
 
         if self.asvar:
-            url = context[self.asvar]
-            context[self.asvar] = esi_tmpl % url
+            context[self.asvar] = result
             return ''
-        else:
-            return esi_tmpl % url
+
+        return result
 
 @register.tag
 def esi(parser, token):