diff --git a/src/Parser/Tokenizer.php b/src/Parser/Tokenizer.php
index 28a5dbf..7f4be44 100644
--- a/src/Parser/Tokenizer.php
+++ b/src/Parser/Tokenizer.php
@@ -144,8 +144,7 @@ private function doStrings(&$tokens, $char, $i) {
 		if ($char === self::STRING) {
 			$string = $this->extractString($i);
 			$length = strlen($string)+1;
-			$char = $this->getChar($char);
-			$string = str_replace('\\' . $char, $char, $string);
+			$string = str_replace('\\' . $this->str[$i], $this->str[$i], $string);
 			$tokens[] = ['type' => self::STRING, 'value' => $string, 'line' => $this->lineNo];
 			return $length;
 		}
diff --git a/tests/GeneralFormatterTest.php b/tests/GeneralFormatterTest.php
index 60ba153..43cd148 100644
--- a/tests/GeneralFormatterTest.php
+++ b/tests/GeneralFormatterTest.php
@@ -176,6 +176,19 @@ public function testFormatDateCustom() {
 		$this->assertEquals($this->stripTabs('<div>5th Oct</div>'), $this->stripTabs($template->output()->body));
 	}
 
+    public function testFormatDateCustomEscape() {
+        $xml = '<div class="created">--</div>';
+
+        $tss = '.created {
+        content: data(create_time);
+        format: date "jS M Y \\a\\t h:i a";
+        }';
+
+        $data['create_time'] = '2017-05-30 10:52:00';
+        $template = new Transphporm\Builder($xml, $tss);
+        $this->assertEquals($this->stripTabs('<div class="created">30th May 2017 at 10:52 am</div>'), $this->stripTabs($template->output($data)->body));
+    }
+
     /*
      * Nl2br Formatter Tests
      */