Mariage Frères

Suprisingly this is nice. Prior to tasting this, I was ambivalent- I hate bergamot and love mint. The verdict? not bad. The bergamot is subtle (how is that possible?) and gives a tang to the mint. I think I like this one…

Got a sample of this from the fabulous Lena, and was really excited about it, since it was a Mariage Freres tea. I like Marco Polo, and wanted to give more of their teas a try.

I didn’t get quite the flavor hit out of this tea that I did Marco Polo. I tried it with and without a milk additive, and it just didn’t do it for me. It was a good flavor, and a nice tea, but not something I’d seek out, or spend money on.

Love this tea and another delight from my Mariage Freres samples. This tea is like liquid perfume combining the flavors of rose AND fruity apple. The inexplicable part is the flavors combine into something light and refreshing. One warning- don’t let this tea get lukewarm! Boy when cold, yuck! The odd rose and apple combination just does not work…

Thank you so much to Auggy who sent me this after I begged and beseeched.
I’ve got a theory about this tea. My theory is that a shipment of Marco Polo was making a grand voyage around the world on the a tea vessal as elegant and sumptous as the Queen Mary 2 ocean line. Only the best for Mariage Frère’s Marco Polo. The ship washed ashore near Cape Town, South Africa and poor Marco Polo had a bad concussion and wandered the streets in a fugue state. Then a Rooibos Ruffian came along in a dark alley and took advantage of Marco Polo.

Thus was born “Fall in Love”. I taste the same berry notes as Marco Polo, but this love child has those crude Rooibos elements that I don’t like very much.
If anyone can spin gold out of a rooibos, it is Mariage Frères, and if I had to drink this again, I would not complain. But I will not buy it.

It’s me, honey, not you….

And another cup from the Traveling Tea Box. An “Easter tea” for Easter morning!

Again, I didn’t know what to expect, but I really like Mariage Freres, so I had gotten a sample. And it was fabulous! This actually reminded me a lot of Mighty Leaf’s Orange Dulce, but instead of the tea being overpowered by the flavoring, the tea stood alone and the flavor was much more subtle. Very good tea!

This is supposed to be flavored with bergamot and vanilla. First, I should be clear: I am not a fan of bergamot. Unfortunately, in this tea, the sole flavor is bergamot. Maybe someone, who is a Earl Grey fanatic, would be able to discern the other flavors. I could not. So as a basic Earl Grey, this would be OK. But nothing special…Sooo, I was disappointed….

This’ the last of this, and to that, I shed a tear.

I couldn’t remember if I’d tried this with milk and sugar yet, although I vaguely remember an instance in which I added too much, so I decided to add a bit to my first cup from the pot. Just a very small splash, and a touch of sugar. It doesn’t need much, and the milk makes it as smooth as silk. It’s actually very enjoyable this way—all the flavours come through quite strongly. Perhaps even moreso than without the additions. Very delicious, even if I think processed white sugar has a weird taste to it. I prefer honey, but I think that would disrupt the flavours here.

So I’ll be removing this from my cupboard, because my tin is now empty (although I plan to resteep, at least), but this’ still on my shopping list.

Taking the rest of this without sugar or milk. Mm. This cup came out slightly strong, since I was using up all the rest of it, and most of it was quite a lot of small leafcrumbs. Thus, perhaps just a tad bitter without milk, although it’s oddly bitter but smooth on the tongue.

Thanks again to the quiet life for sending this one to me.

I have been trying not to drink this, in fear I will exhaust my sample, but it’s hard to stay away. It’s very delicious.

Still a little hot. I’m impatient. Light and berrylike. Mmm. I should try it with milk again, but I’ve never been much for milk, and I’m really enjoying it just how it is. Next time!

Drinking this again. Not getting that sort of chocolatyness this time, just light and fruity. It’s not strong, but still quite enjoyable. No milk or sugar again. I’ll have to do another comparison next time; I don’t know if I enjoy it more with or without milk.

The quiet life was nice enough to send this to me, in its own little sample tin (which I love, and will definitely reuse for travel tea afterwards). Another tea from my shopping list! I feel like I’m really doing some work on it.

Anyways, the tea itself smells fruity and sweet and chocolaty (is it supposed to? Huh) and reminds me somewhat of H&S’s Paris (which makes sense because I remember a few tasting notes saying that it’s probably a nod to Marco Polo anyways).

She was nice enough to provide the steeping instructions on the side, so I shouldn’t be messing anything up. Hurray!

I’m trying this plain first. Maybe I’ll add milk and/or sugar to the last cup from the pot, or just wait until next time.

The wet leaves smell just as delicious (and a bit stronger), perfumy and a bit like strawberry, with a good black tea smell in there as well.

First sip… I got black tea, and then a sudden aftertaste of strawberries. The tea taste is strong (astringent, but somehow ALSO very smooth), and is then followed by the berryness, and almost sweetness. The more I sip, the stronger the berry flavour comes (and the more it fades away from strawberry and joins just ‘berry’).

There’s an almost chocolatyness to it as well, I think. Hrm.

Added a bit of sugar and milk to the last of this cup. Okay, maybe too MUCH sugar. I realize I am not very adapt with sugar portioning. But there is definitely a sweetness and taste that isn’t from the sugar in there. The addition of the milk also makes it unbelievably smooth, almost silky. I think just milk and no sugar would taste very nice as well. Otherwise, I would have just jumped past the sugar for the honey, but I assume the taste of the honey would have overwhelmed it.

I went to throw the rest of this cup back and smelt vanilla. Mmm.

Back to no milk/sugar. And I think I can taste that vanilla I smelled a moment ago. I don’t know. Weird. Still, delicious.

I always wish I had more experience with flavoured teas, since most of the tasting notes I read rave about the flavour, and most of what I get is only in the smell, but I’m glad I got to try this anyways (and I still have a fair amount left in my tiny sample tin!). It is delicious and smooth, and the flavours are subtle, but actually there.

Edit: A continuation, as I resteep this. The smell is much stronger now, and I realize that it reminds me a lot of The O Dor’s Place Saint Marc. A lot!

The taste is a bit more evident, which is nice. Although the smell is really reminding me of Place Saint Marc. Berry and vanilla.

Mmm.

I’ve really gone off rooibos teas. Somehow I can’t get the sense of sawdust out of my mind. I purchased this tea before I knew that I had to limit the rooibos in my life. It’s a superb rooibos with no false flavors and a strong vanilla taste. I am not certain about detecting the bourbon or any kind of liquor—maybe next time I’ll watch for it more closely.

So far Eros is winning my Mariage Freres top-affections. But this is nice and very vanilla-y for an evening tea.

Forgotten how much I liked this tea- chocolate and caramel. Yum! It is VERY bold and definitely needs milk and sugar.. It is so bold (and certainly not frilly, perfumy, or prissy) I am even suprised that this is a French tea.

This is a bold vanilla (and other mysteries)-flavored tea. And its flavors are strong enough to have an imperial air…

At first, it seemed slightly astringent (maybe due to the assam base), but once I added some sugar… Boy did these flavors bloom! I could detect vanilla- a lot , caramel a little bit, and even some chocolate. Somehow, these flavors combined into something else altogether!

Next time, I will try this w/milk and it is definitely strong enough to handle it…

Had this iced today after working in the yard. My first iced tea this year in fact. Supposedly, in Paris, they serve this tea iced and I can see why. The florally- lemony flavors were sooo refreshing after today….

My first Mariage Freres tea. Upon opening the package, the tea smells lemony w/other fruity fragrances. The tea is very tangy but yet not overly strong in lemon flavor. The frangrance from the brewed tea is perfumey and is not even similar to the tea taste…

This would be excellent iced w/a little sugar thrown in….Or even frozen like a sorbet on a hot day…

This is my second green tea I had blended by a French company. And both teas manage to be subtle, sophisticated, and flavorful… At the same time, I can never identify any discrete flavors

The potential of this tea was too much for me to ignore so I thought I’d try again. This time I used twice the leaf. I also increased the steep time a tiny bit but that was totally by accident and I’m kind of guesstimating as to how much over I went.

The cup is much darker this time and a little murky looking but nothing too disturbing. The smell is very similar but a little thicker. Perhaps a bit of a woodsy custard this time? Again, smells a lot like Marco Polo with a custard note as it begins to cool.

Okay, I don’t get it. Maybe my taste buds are broken. TWICE the leaf and I’m still like, “Okay, so where’s the flavor?” Yes, yes, there is some flavor but I feel like I should be knocked over with flavor and instead I have the urge to close my eyes and concentrate to actually taste what is going on. And what is going on? Mostly custard with a hint of slightly under ripe berry and then, at the very end, a twinge of too much concentrated rooibos. I tried to slurp to see if that helps and oh dear goodness, stop. Let’s not do that ever again. If rubbing alcohol were raspberry perfume flavored, that would be a slurp of this tea. Faint though it is, the custard is mucho mas better.

Bottom line: a very soft tea with hordes of exciting potential but ultimately it falls short. It’s not a bad tea, just disappointing.
6.1g/8oz

I’ll admit it – I sniffed this for a while. It smells creamy and like a tart raspberry or unripe blackberry. Oddly enough it brings to mind a thick, heavy but faintly lemony custard. I have no idea why this is making me think of lemon custard because I don’t think I’m supposed to. But I am. I should probably concentrate on the berry thought but I keep going back to lemon. Anyway. I smell a bit of warmish almost spicy that might be the rooibos. But it also might be the unripe blackberry so I’m going to say I can’t really catch any rooibos.

Once the hot water hit the leaves though, gak! Sour and berry and sour and wood and sour and rooibos all over the place. Noooo! But I shall soldier forward and wait for it to brew! Fortunately, once it has been fully steeped and put into my cup, the rooibos smell is much milder. The smell reminds me of this morning’s Marco Polo with a blop of custard in it. Not that I’ve ever put custard in my tea. I wonder if adding a little sugar would turn the custard into creme brulee because that would be awesome. Anyway, the rooibos is an infrequent back note hiding behind the custard. And now I’m just smelling it to put off sipping so here we go.

Huh. This is… pretty bland. It tastes maybe like a fourth steep of Marco Polo with a custard edge to it. How is this possible? As it cools, a little more flavor pops up but we’re talking third steep of Marco Polo or maybe a fairly week second steep. There is custard and berry and water. That’s pretty much what I’m getting. The flavors mesh nicely with the custard a little more towards the front and the berry a little more towards the back, but they overlap and flow well. And don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that there is virtually zero evidence of rooibos. But a little more flavor would not go amiss.

Okay, I refuse to rate this right now because I’m so mixed. If I can brew this tea where it actually tastes like a first steep and not a second, this could be pretty freaking awesome. But right now? Yeah, no so much.
3g/8oz

This tea is good. It’s soothing. Yet it does not “pop” in my mouth with the excitement that a Mariage Freres tea typically manages.

According to the web site,
“Easter bells are ringing in a gourmet treat: the flavour of a black tea scented with fruits and citrus, spiked with notes of noble spices and sweet overtones for a heavenly delight.”

I expect a superb experience from Mariage Frères and I would give this tea a second chance. I may try to find it new and see if it gives me that Blair-Waldorf-on-“Gossip Girl” sense of privilege.

I hope to lay hands on some more of this tea and return to give a revised report.

Had to get my Marco Polo in this week! :P

Couldn’t resist having some of this today! YUM!

OM NOM NOM.

Definitely wanted to start my day out with my new favorite tea! :D Glad I did! Yummmmmm.