Mariage Frères

JacquelineM was kind enough to send me some of this in a tea swap! I decided to try this one first because it smells too good to resist! Definitely smells like a good tea for this icky, rainy day! It really does smell like strawberry shortcake. YUM.

Brewed, this tea still smells delicious, but not as much like strawberry shortcake as the dry leaves do. There’s definitely black tea in there with a hint of fruity. It kind of smells like what Thomas Sampson tastes like, but with fruit too. YUM.

Since I rarely put anything in my tea, I decided to try this first without adding anything.

:sip: OH. MY. GOD. This tea is delicious! It’s like… PERFECT. Even without anything in it. It’s got a light flavor, with a little bit of sweetness and fruitiness. It’s the perfect balance between the flavoring and the tea itself, and it’s just heaven!!

Unfortunately, I think this means I’ll have to buy it now. :P Goodbye, sweet monies! Hello, delicious tea! :D

Thanks again, JacquelineM! I LOVE IT. ♥

The second steep was by far better than the first. The wonderful fruit flavors were more pronounced and the fragrance just as long lived. I do believe I found blue berries in the mixture… total yum

This is a naughty little black tea with a voluptuous fragrance that makes me desirous to taste this beauty side-by-side with Vivaldi or Jamaique. If you are smitten by either of those teas, you’ll adore Myrtille.
Exquisite with with blackberries and whipped cream (home-made of course) or a warm marion berry tarte.

Having a pot of this so late in the night is not a standard practice for me, but when I saw I still had a few teaspoons left from what Jaime had sent me, I knew it was what I wanted this evening.

I can’t say much that hasn’t already been said, but I certainly enjoy this dessert-y treat of strawberries and cream (more creamy because I added milk and sugar to it). YUM.

3rd and final steep from the leaves. Enjoyed with a tiny bit of cream. Still getting a nice floral berry flavor from the tea. Will be picking up a full tin of this soon. I can’t see being without this tea.

2nd steep with no additives with boiling water for 4 minutes.

This is steep has a floral aroma with a slight hint of strawberry and a very fine black tea base. I really enjoy this tea both with additives and without. I feel more sophisticated drinking it without the cream and sugar, as it really brings out more notes in the tea.

I hope I can find marco polo vert in the near future. Will have to search the interwebs.

Thank you Jaime for sending me a very generous portion of this wonderful tea!

I made the first steep up with cream and sugar. I remember sampling it this way and it was remarkable. This was like liquid strawberry ice cream blended with black tea. Like a strawberry nesquick, but much more fancy and made with real strawberries. This was utterly sinful with my breakfast yogurt. Definitely buying this soon!

Then I read other tasting notes about adding cream and sugar and how much of a difference that made. So I decided to do so.

Zomg! This tea is so amazingly dessert-ish with cream and sugar. It makes me so happy inside. I wish I could eat it with strawberries and cream and enjoy the two together. The strawberry flavor in this is so awesome, I really enjoy the way this tea is flavored.

Thanks to Ricky and Soccermom for both sending me samples of this. I will covet them until payday when I can pick up my own tin!!!!

Sample from the amazing takgoti!!!

I used 4 teaspoons for 16 oz water, 5 minute steep, but the tisane is too weak for my taste. The berry and baked custard (really! baked custard!!) flavors are delicious, but very watery. What a shame!! I think I have enough left to try three teaspoons in 8 oz water and see what happens some other night. Le sigh! If it were only stronger, this would probably be the loveliest rooibos ever created!

Had this over EB this morning, I don’t think I should of done so.

I was so intrigued by this tea that I almost bought it instead of Marco Polo at Gumps. I ended up buying both.I have this thing for breakfast teas, I don’t know quite why, but I wanted to try this blend labeled “French Breakfast”.

So I crack the tin open, and take a whiff: definitely some Darjeeling was mixed, that or Nepalese. The quality was good, black leaves, with contrast, and scattered dark greyish greens. Because of the fact that it had some Darjeeling/Nepalese in it, I cut fifteen seconds off my brew to cushion. (I dislike brewing with seconds). I did this in my 24 ounce white teapot. It gave me a nice amber rose cup, with the taste familiarity of muscatel and the mix of earth and grass, nutty; the definite characteristics of a Darjeeling/Nepalese. I wouldn’t say it’s completely full bodied, but it’s take was smooth, and it’s finish was astringent. Elegant throughout.

The second cup I added light agave nectar which eliminated the sharp finish. The third cup I added agave nectar and 2% fat milk (I really wish I had WHOLE milk on hand). I think the body is lost, and my sweetener took over, something that happens if you ever try having additives to Darjeeling/Nepalese teas. Because of that this tea is not as versatile as some other breakfast blends.

I wasn’t disappointed with this tea. I’d recommend it to black tea skeptics, this or FF Puttabong Darjeeling. This tea was very enjoyable, and I was glad I purchased it from Gumps. There sure are better blacks out there than this though, and because it’s price for questionable quality leaves, its lack in versatility, and it’s production, Zhi Tea’s Classic English Breakfast still reigns supreme for my morning cup.

I’m lowering my score on this after having another pot last night.

I am a huge ‘skeptic’ on flavoured teas, not a purist, but I just tend to stir away from them, especially after some flavored teas didn’t play nice with my taste buds. Some like Black Currant (Enjoying Tea.com), White Peach (Adagio Teas), Mango Black (Zhi Tea; makes a good iced tea though), California Fields (Mighty Leaf Tea,) and some things like that dreaded Earl Grey Bravo (Adagio Teas), and even some overly flowery Jasmines.

So I hear about the “legend of the flavoured teas”: Mariage Brother’s famous Marco Polo Blend. So popular to a fact that when I went to Williams & Sonoma to pick up a tin, they told me they were sold out the very day they restocked. It’s reputation proceeds itself. I consider myself lucky to pick a tin up at Gumps the same day. However, I think I may be overstating this tea.

Now lets dedicate a short some of this on the moment I open this tin; as I was expecting most flavoured teas to have their odour reek from the tin the moment it’s cracked open. Some flavoured teas are so dank, that their scent permeates outside the tin! (White Peach). The the scent of Marco Polo, was tame. It came to my nose with it’s exciting strawberry-maplelike scent, candylike almost, but very sophisticated. I spent a good three minutes just enjoying the aroma this tea tea. The leaves weren’t surprisingly different than other flavoured blacks, a little more fuller of a OP, with contrast of browns, and some lighter blacks. But I still say this is more than decent quality for a flavoured tea.

I brewed this like most blacks: five minutes at boiling, in my 24 ounce white teapot. The cup yielded a medium amber cup, with a mellowed aroma of the tin. The take was surprising to me. Medium-full body, it was mildly fruity and sweet, the flavouring almost bypassed my tongue in a way… to travel to my nose. Either the flavouring of this tea wasn’t as strong as I thought it was, or the heat of the boil just killed all the flavour. Either way, it finished up medium, and somewhat sharp.

This tea strangely finds a place between enjoyable and tolerable for me as I am not a fan of flavoured teas. I tried my second cup with light agave nectar, which leveled the sharp finish; and the third cup with 2% fat milk, which ‘almost’ makes me say this would make a “damn fine cup of tea”. I will make this again but with WHOLE milk or maybe even half and half.

Good luck trying to find a tin of it. It’s a bit more expensive on the web, and some high end pricey stores like Gumps in SF and Williams & Sonoma have limited stock. I consider my score to be high for a flavoured tea. This tea made me accept flavoured teas a little more, which is what I was looking for. It changed my opinion of flavoured tea, and it reminded me of Strawberry Black (Adagio Teas). If you know people who love flavoured teas serve them this, or buy it to entertain your nose. I couldn’t have this everyday. If you are a sceptic on flavoured teas, try this, and it may change your mind. 


I’ve had the black tea version of this and really enjoyed it. But this is the rooibos version. [insert dramatic music here] I’m a little nervous but mostly intrigued because the dry leaf smells awesome. Sort of perfume-y but in a good, vibrant but soft citrus-y way that makes me want to keep sniffing. It’s a little spicy, like a citrus-floral pepper. I can’t stop sniffing this. Every so often I get a hint of warm woody (but not sour) rooibos so I have hopes that this will be another rooibos that my brain allows me to enjoy.

Post-brewing, the citrus smell has turned into almost a feeling – a fresh tingle as I inhale over the cup. There is a little smell of woody rooibos, but not sour and it’s very mild and seems to blend with the spice smell/feel of the tea.

Sipping, this is pretty gentle. I made this a little thin on the leaf by accident so that might be some of it, but I think for the most part, it is just a gentle tea. Soft and relaxing. Citrus-y and light with a clean and woody taste seeming to anchor the light floral citrus. I’m not really tasting much of any spice just floral, almost perfume-y, citrus and light wood. The wood taste is actually quite nice – like smelling a board of pine that’s clean and sanded smooth – but not recently because it isn’t strong at all but maybe a few weeks ago. And since then it has been sitting in a cold shed outside, close to nature but all cleaned up. Or maybe I’m just projecting childhood memories of how my dad’s workshop would smell in winter when it was too cold to be out there even with the kerosene heater on. Like woodwork happened there once and would again. But getting back to the tea…

The flavors overall are very soft but not delicate. And even though it is light and floral and citrus-y, it manages to be a warm, cuddly tea – partially because of how the flavors combine and I think also partially because of the rooibos woody base. I don’t think this tea is for everyone – I imagine quite a few people would feel like they were drinking perfume. But I kind of like it. It’s basically a soft, floral Earl Grey but not the typical Lady Grey take on a floral EG.

My last sip was forgotten in my cup for a bit so it got pretty cool. I think that’s the reason why it was 90% rooibos. So I like this tea better warm when the flavors really show up and the rooibos is in the background, but even that last sip was pretty good. Noticeably rooibos with hints of floral citrus instead of the other way around. I think if the whole cup has tasted that way, it would have been too rooibos-y for me to enjoy but as it was, I quite like it.

::gasp:: Another rooibos I like! This has to be a sign of the Apocalypse.
2.5g/8oz

Too sweet, too much like bubble gum perfume.

This is so perfect. I wouldn’t do anything to change it…it’s so dreamy. I need to get some of this pronto. Perfectly fruity and slightly floral…..desserty with milk and sugar. Oh my.

Dark dry leaves smell like strawberry jam, as does the steeped tea. Full-bodied, strawberry-fruit flavored, although not as sweet as I expected. Almost a coffee-like back note that is most pleasant in the morning. I will try steeping longer and adding milk/sugar as others have done for evening dessert!