Mariage Frères

I was lured in by the name of this tea and design on the label a few years ago, but it has yet to win me over. I have a hard time with a lot of the almond flavoring French companies use. It’s more of a powdery floral high notes version of almond and is much different than the deep toasted flavor that a lot of American companies use. This cup is all high notes. I do get some spices in here along with the powdery (think the scent of baby powder) almond and at one point I got notes of gelatin vitamin capsules that vitamin E and D come in, which reminded me to take my vitamins for the day. Not a very flattering description of a tea! I’m going to try this tea a few more times before I give up.

No one in my family is a serious baker (my maternal grandmother casts a long shadow). Once in blue moon cookies may happen. When they do, they come with a warning from my mom: “don’t overuse the vanilla. Don’t try to taste the vanilla extract straight up. You will regret it.”

Judging by the profile of this tea, no one ever offered similar advice to Mariage Frères.

The vanilla flavour is intense. Some might say too intense. It’s bold, sharp, vaguely alcoholic, and a stark reminder that vanilla does derive from an orchid and that the orchid in question probably hates you.

It’s just a lot, and there’s nothing to really balance it out. The black tea base isn’t naturally sweet or rich enough to make it feel like a finished dessert bake; it’s malty and astringent, with maybe a hint of something starchy and velvety.

I think the recommended steeping parameters of 95C for 5 minutes are the best bet for this tea. Some milk can help too, as does skipping straight to the second steep. A dab of maple syrup, or the right honey, may also be a welcome addition. Then you arguably have a breakfast raw pancake mix tea. Otherwise, this tea is a bit like eating the raw ingredients sans sugar. It’s like drinking vanilla extract.

Do Not Recommend. But, also – does anyone want this?

Picked this up because of the pandan leaves in it, and it really does make for a pretty interesting cup of tea. Very thick mouthfeel and really buttery taste and texture that makes me think a lot of milk oolong. However, it also has notes of sticky rice and a hint of coconut. Probably not something i’d want to drink all the time since it is quite buttery/milky and that’s a type of flavour that (for me, anyway) is a little more situational. However, it was so snuggly and comforting!

I’d often heard about Marco Polo, but I’d never really researched its profile or flavours. To tell the truth, the name conjures up visions of grand adventures to distant lands, perhaps with a touch of Russian mystery, akin to Kusmi’s blends, or the delicate charm of Darjeeling. However, this particular blend surprises with a soft strawberry-cream flavour more reminiscent of a continental European breakfast, unlike the bolder strawberry-cherry notes of Dammann’s Quatre Fruits Rouges.

The leaves, though small and broken, exude a juicy cherry aroma that is both inviting and comforting.  It may not sweep you off your feet instantly, but it offers a subtle sweetness that is undeniably charming. While Quatre Fruits Rouges was love at first sip with its rich, jammy depths, Marco Polo offers a slightly drier, more restrained experience.  Yet, it remains a refined and enjoyable choice.

Although I find myself leaning toward Mariage Frères’ Wedding Impérial or Trois Noix, or even the Paris blend from Harney & Sons, I’m pleased to have given Marco Polo a try. It didn’t disappoint.

Your sleepiest guy reporting for duty.

The color of this tea is so deep, dark, and rich that, paired with the warm spices and a touch of astringency, it exudes red wine and makes pinning down the flavors just a little more difficult. All of that and the fact that I am, in fact, bad at it, but I also find it interesting how divided the reviews on this tea are when it comes to the profile. What we can all agree on seems to be that it is very dark.

The fruitiness is most pronounced in the aroma of the dry leaves and has me dancing between strawberry and apple, but clove infused with the sweetness of cinnamon emerges as the prevailing flavor of the steep. That will have to satisfy us, as the exact ingredients appear to be a guarded secret and picking through the leaves isn’t the most forthcoming occupation to this end. The weather is a little warm still to fully appreciate this one but I am sure it will have its time.

my mum was given this tea as a gift and then brought it along with us on a trip so that i could enjoy a nice cup of tea while we were away.

i don’t know if i would recommend this tea! it is mariage freres, so of course it is drinkable, but i’m not really sure what it’s trying to be. my first thought upon hearing the phrase russian breakfast was that it would be smokey, but instead it was a lot more citrusy and malty than i thought. almost lemony! this tea feels like it has a lot of top notes but then it all sort of disappears, which surprised me. apparently you can enjoy this with a little milk and i imagine you could but i don’t know if i’d like it with milk in?

it is totally re-steepable so you definitely get your money’s worth but i’m not sure if would purchase it. it’s a mild breakfast tea, but not to my taste which is unusual for me because i usually really like breakfast tea!

Pleine lune presented a rather jarring bitterness, with a pronounced note of bitter almond. The aromas were exceedingly strong, which might fare better as an iced tea. The mouthfeel was notably thick and accompanied by a certain astringency that brought to mind cough syrup, despite my efforts to steep it gently.

This particular brew struck me as overly perfumed and robust. The flavour combination seemed cluttered – too many flavours without the elegance one might anticipate.

I wonder if my experience was a mere anomaly or a rogue batch that somehow escaped Mariage Frères’s usual quality control. I had good expectations, but I was left disillusioned. It fell short of the grace and depth I associate with Mariage Frères and other French teas.

(Not exactly sure why Steepster marks this tea as unavailable, I just bought it in Paris) The first occasion upon which I sampled this tea blend, my nostrils were regrettably congested (whether due to a mere cold or something of greater concern, I could not ascertain). Upon finally being able to appreciate its aroma, I was nearly moved to tears. The sumptuous scent alone is an olfactory marvel. This exquisite tea, with its deep, rich aromas of sweet chocolate, ranks among the finest I have ever had the pleasure of tasting. I confess, I do harbour a particular fondness for chocolate teas. Although the packaging advises steeping for 5 minutes at 95°C, I reckon a slightly more delicate approach of 4 minutes at 90°C is ideal to avoid any bitterness.

Strong smell of amaretto but also something else… vodka? treated wood? marascino cherry? Once brewed, I don’t get that strong smell any more, just a sweet smell of almond essence. It’s good, but I really think that this kind of flavour is best enjoyed with a tea that can withstand a warmer brewing temperature (in other words, black tea).

My nose is still a bit blocked from the cold but its smell is reminiscent of a dessert nut with a strong almond presence like marzipan. While other nutty hints might be there (pecan, walnut), the almond takes center stage. The first sip offers a robust black tea base, but the marzipan-like character translates beautifully. The almond essence isn’t overpowering, but it adds a unique and delightful twist to the classic black tea experience.

Gonna be honest, I expected to not love this one but I thought it was pretty solid. In typical Mariage Freres fashion it’s basically impossible to find an ingredient list (which drives me insane), but it’s pretty clearly meant to be a dragonfruit forward blend and I did feel like it tasted fairly strongly of dragonfruit. That’s a tough flavour to emulate and commercial dragonfruit products sometimes just taste like fruit punch. I got some of that fruity punch thing here, but waaayyyy less sweet and with a ton more natural floral flavour which feels (to me at least) a bit more authentic.

The green tea base smooth enough with a pretty strong grassy note, but I definitely got the impression it’s the sort of tea that would quickly slide into coarse, bitter territory with hotter water or a longer steep time. The grassiness with this more subdued pink tropical note does feel right though, just emotionally. And of course I don’t only taste dragonfruit here – I feel like there’s maybe some guava sneaking in there and a bit of pear!? The pear is interesting though because people often say dragonfruit tastes like a watered down pear. So, am I tasting pear subconciously because I know that? Am I tasting pear because a pear flavour was added to the blend to lean into that comparison? Or am I tasting it because there’s truth to the comparison and it’s just a note I’ve isolated from the dragonfruit flavouring being used?

THIS IS WHY I WANT INGREDIENTS LISTS, MF!!!

Anyway… A gentle fruit blend with a tropical lean that I’m not at all mad about.

I just finished off a mug of this and it was really delicious! Very, very strong spearmint notes but that sweet, crisp mint is so refreshing with a playful sort of tingly mouth sensation to go alongside the taste. I just taste a hint of the yuzu addition, but I appreciate the small bit of brightness it adds to the mug. Overall this is smooth and agreeable, and I think a really nice summery blend from MF.

I’ll write a better tasting note for this another time but I just wanted to capture that I made a hot cup of this earlier in the week and though I drank it super absentmindedly while working at my desk I stil lfound myself very impressed with how smooth and pleasant the strong naturally sweet notes of spearmint were.

I’ll have to taste again, though, to better evaluate exactly how I feel about the whole mojito positioning – particularly the yuzu incorporated.

Though still present, this is a more gentle smoke than your typical Lapsang Souchong, which makes it a perfect mid-afternoon cuppa when you want something full-bodied and aromatic. I’d probably recommend it to people curious about smoked teas but who are either intimated by the full blown flavour of a classic smoked Lapsang or who have, pun intended, been burned by smoked tea in the past. It’s quite approachable!!

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/C3n9OQvuxg0/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g6K4o0UKLY

Cold Brew!

I think I’ve just decided this isn’t my favourite MF blend. It’s busy but also, at the same time, lacking clear flavours!? Floral, mostly, with some fruity elements. Very perfume-y but less so cold than it was hot. This was easier to sip on. Less obtrusive and chemical-y tasting. I guess I got orange/orange blossom, rose water, and lychee at different points. Nothing in the way that I’d want it, and not balanced. Eh.

I think the name of this tea is super cute and, on paper, the idea of lychee, orange blossom, and rose all together sounds really pleasant. However, steeped up I found this to be very busy tasting. The lychee sticks out a little bit, but mostly it’s a weird combined mix of fruits and florals that morphs into something very generic tasting? Not unpleasant, and the body from the black base really helps keep this grounds since there’s so many aromatics at play. I just feel like there could have been a little bit of editing with the mix of flavours here to create something more balanced. Sort of a mid tea overall.

I hate MF’s stupid gimmick of adding butterfly pea flower to oolong blends. The swampy green colour this tea steeps just makes it feel so much more cheap and tacky, and it’s a shame but I love the crisp, sweet notes of rhubarb with the floral undertones of the oolong. Marco Polo in general is such an iconic Mariage blend and this rhubarb flavour really does sing on the black tea base, but it almost like it more on the oolong. They just compliment really well.

That liquor colour though… So gross.

I love this tea! I agree with Sil that it’s everything I had hoped Marco Polo would be. The combination of strawberries and caramel is perfection. I get a little raspberries too which is nice. To me, it’s like drinking a delicious berry dessert right out of a French pastry shop. It’s layered and balanced, and just lovely. It tastes as good as it smells, which I love too. I keep coming back to this one over and over.

Once again not loving the sickly green cup colour from the combo of oolong and butterfly pea flower, but wow what a taste! I’ve been on a very big IRL yellow plum kick, and that’s started trickling now into my LLT cravings as well. This was such a good translation of that very light, bright and almost whimsical sweet yet sour plum note with soft, floral undertones. Was a lovely early evening sipper.

I think I liked this??

This is a new MF blend that appears to maybe be for Lunar New Year? It’s supposed to be plum blossom flavoured which I thought was very unique and fun. Steeped it certainly has both floral and stonefruit notes but I just don’t know that I either make me think of plums? It’s tasty though, and plums are also a notoriously hard flavour to capture in tea.

What it does taste like is sweet, bright and lively apricots or nectarines. Not so sweet or cooked down to be jams or compotes, but more of a puree/curd type of vibe where there’s still some natural acidity and tangy. The floral is a little orchid-like, and does seem to be more from the oolong itself. I love the combo though – it’s very fresh and cheerful in tone and I think that words with something that’s in theory linked to fresh starts and celebrations.

All of that said… it steeps a dreadful swamp green colour because of Mariage’s stupid gimmick of adding butterfly pea flower to all of their oolongs. I wish they’d stop. It’s not very pretty, and it feels drastically at odds with the actual taste of the tea.

I think I’d need to try this again to really form a proper opinion, but I definitely didn’t think it was bad. I personally love this more classic/mono-flavoured blending tea on black tea bases where it’s so tea forward with just a gentle flavour addition. My main sticking point here (which is why I think I need a retaste) is that while the tea had a fresh and tropical flavour I didn’t immediately clock it as specifically mango – and I think with this blending style you really do have to NAIL the namesake flavour for it to really work. Especially at Mariage’s price point.

Cold Brew!

Largely just like drinking straight, cold brewed rooibos but with the tiniest hint of vanilla. More an aromatic and vaguely alcoholic vanilla (like extract) and not something creamy/custardy. I love the taste of straight rooibos though, especially cold. It’s like a mix of honey, nut, and mineral notes and I found it very refreshing even without a very intense vanilla note.

Hot cuppa from earlier this weekend. I was really craving vanilla quite a lot the past few days, and from memory I didn’t recall loving this blend but I wanted to revisit to reevaluate. It’s not that I was remembering it being unpleasant, but more just kind of whelming. I let it steep for a very long time, and honestly I enjoyed this mug a great deal. It was best as it was starting to cool down. I felt like that was when the more aromatic, borderline marshmallow-y notes of the vanilla were most apparent. Not creamy necessarily, but a little sweet with that smooth woody rooibos base acting as contrast. Almost like a boozier liqueur/alcoholic undertone and a smidge of red fruit. No complaints.

Had a mug of this a few days ago and it was fine. Rooibos forward which is to be expected, and the vanilla notes had a slight fruity and almost alcohol lean but not in an offensive way. Better as it cools as that brings those elements more to the forefront of the sip. We’re talking authentic vanilla and not the more Westernized interpretation of the flavour where we really mean cream/custard. Kind of a boring vanilla rooibos, if we’re being honest. Nothing wrong with that, though! It makes it a very reliable/classic sorta tea.