Mariage Frères

Hmmm… spoiled. Simply spoiled. I made a pot of this to amuse myself before bed and I am a fool.
Having finished my second steep of Florence, I moved to this Silent Movie Starlet. She’s soft, sweet and flowery. The write up says something about moss but I don’t get moss. It’s gentle and clean… very soothing to the palate. I don’t know what I enjoy best, the tea or the Chanel no 5 I’m wearing. They are a perfect pair.

Honestly don’t know how to place this… it’s a ghost or a memory. Perhaps it is the light framed in the fingers of trees. Bold, bright and ever so soft that you can watch the wind dance in the motes of pollen of a swollen spring. Or the laughter of children, a child’s first laugh or your child’s first laugh… this is easily a reflection tea… simply a treasure.

I can enjoy this tea as it is like nothing I have tried before… a natural beauty. She’s often overlooked by the big hussies of flavored temptress teas singing their siren songs from the cupboards of yore! LOL

Dusty sort of tea with a dark chocolate sort of flavor. I will have to ponder this one more at a later date. I do think the flavor evolves more as the tea itself cools.

I used all my remaining tea leaves to make myself a warm tea latte to accompany me through the horrible morning of Michigan snow storm. My first two tries, I thought mostly berries and faintly floral, but today the floral notes are definitely there. That’s what separates it from other strawberry or other berry flavored tea. The flavor stands out very nicely even with the addition of milk, and sugar truly makes a strawberry shortcake like drink that is sweet and aromatic but not overwhelming.

Okay, guys, you were right. Second try, made a strong cup and had it with warm milk and a La Perruche brown sugar cube. Strawberry shortcake it is, and a good one too! It was pretty good straight even though I’m not a fan of sweet berry scent, and very good with milk. I would buy this next time I get a chance. Thank you, SoccerMom!

SoccerMom was so kind to send me three heaping teaspoons of this along with her giveaway. Mariage Freres is rather expensive and a bit difficult to get in the US, so I wasn’t sure if I wanted to invest in a whole tin before I got to try any. So here it is, the famous Marco Polo.

It smelled wonderful, so sweet like strawberry candy, but it was the very same reason why I wasn’t sure if I would like this tea. You see, it turns out that I can be quite conservative when it comes to flavored teas, and when the tea screams out dessert, I get intimidated. But that extreme sweet scent was slightly mellowed out as I steeped it, and I have to say I see the appeal, though it may not be my absolute favorite. Mostly fruit to me, with faint floral notes, perhaps. I certainly enjoyed it, though I don’t know it will be my regular cup. I will have to try it with milk, because people seem to rave about it!

Slightly bitter yet tasty underneath: yes, I’m at work on Saturday morning, but I really do enjoy my job. Also I’m drinking tea.

Happy Memorial Day! And this will be my tea of choice… for a little while at least. I have to pacify my Starbucks cravings while I unwind from duty. Fabulous flavor which ALWAYS fits the bill.

This tea has a personality and is not what I would have expected from a tea entitled Phenix. It is nothing like what I image a bird which could rise from its own ash would taste like. Not even a marshmallow peep version…
At first I wasn’t sure what I was smelling… vanilla, butter or caramel? It’s sweet like a brown sugar bourbon sauce made with a heavy cream. You can smell the richness of… whatever… it smells fattening. LOL It smells divine. Almost like fresh caramel corn and scent lasts through the steeping.

There are little nubbies of goodness mixed throughout the tea and they taste okay. I was afraid they were toasted rice or some other strangeness in the tea but I imagine they are what give this tea its rich buttery quality.

I do advise sticking to the 3 minute mark in steeping because I let it get to close to five and the tea is verging on bitter. Not bad but annoying. Milk and sugar might put this busy body back on track though.

Update: Oh yes, this is fab with milk. Sigh… perfect snacky bedtime tea. Sure there is caffeine but I can’t sleep anyway.

This is my first Traveling Tea Box tea! And it’s very nice. The floral and fruitiness remind me of the TWG 380 tea I have, except not as overwhelming (a good thing). It’s slightly tart, and goes great with a sweet dessert. It’s perfect with French macarons—those sugary things that look like miniature hamburgers colored in food dye. This isn’t a tea I’d drink every day, but it’s phenomenal if you can find the right moment for it.

Brewed in a big teapot.
Well I’m not really into into citrus flavored tea. It reminds me of the (bad) tea you can find in any public coffee machine.
This one is good, it reminds me of Yuzuu Temple (from Mariage Freres too), and I liked this one better.
The tea is oily and the flavor is nice without being too strong or overwhelming.
A good everyday tea.

Mmmmm. A very good cup with a wonderful nose to it. It smells strawberrish mixed with vanilla in the tin and then once it has had time to steep it smells more flowery to me. It is very smooth going down not so much as creamy or silky just that it is not as strong or bitter as some blacks that I have tasted do (I love black teas).
The more it cools off the more flavors I am able to pick up I definently taste berries but not necessarily strawberries more like maybe a black raspberry sorta taste and a very soft floral taste it tastes like the black coffee is going to come out and try to add a bitter taste to it but the berry/floral won’t let the black come out and bite you with it’s bitterness. Almost like the black and the berry/floral are at war but a good war… not that wars are good in any sense but I guess I should say flavor war in my mouth and I am enjoying their war. As I near the end of my cup I get a taste and smell of something familiar yet I can’t quite place it….hmmm I’ll try to figure it out in my next cup! A very nice cup. I can’t wait to try it with some La Madeleine Strawberry Napoleon for dessert YUM.

Casablanca has a strong aroma of mint and bergamot. Steep 10g of Casablanca with 1 liter of cool water and leave it on overnight. It’s awesome for a hot day. Since the tea leaves have a lot of small pieces of green tea or mint, filter them carefully.

The most popular flavored blend of Mariage Frères. Has fine bouquet of Chinese and Tibetan flowers & fruits.

Another red fruit tea from Mariage Freres.
The taste reminds me of The à l’Opera.
It’s good flavored tea : the smell is nice and the flavour present, although the tea base isn’t strong enough in my opinion.

I broke into this black tea and swore it was going to be another berry or dark fruit monster. I don’t mean monster like The a l’opera, that’s strawberry shortcake on crack and I mean that in the best of all possible ways. Vivaldi has the aura of something so sinfully familiar to one who loves to bake or craft personal creme brulees.
There is a section in my cupboard of goodies devoted to the various forms of vanilla and to open this said cabinet is a delight. I honestly can’t say I can tell all the differences between my vanilla but I know what I use each of them in.

Vivaldi is a voluptuous bourbon vanilla in the strictest of senses. She is loud verging on fruit but soothing, dark and tempting… If Dita VonTesse was a tea, I might say this was her. This is not a tea I would share excepting with the “boyfriend who would draw me a bath on a bad day!”

I will place this tea in my “waiting for my prince to come” category, which includes the sappy chick-flick night.

My ‘go to’ tea for any occasion. It is a great standard breakfast tea. If brewed too long, the tannins become assertive – but I like that in iced tea.

A holiday treat – best used sparingly. The cinnamon can overpower. Great for setting a holiday mood, and the fragrance is heavenly.

This is my favorite breakfast tea – a strong enough black to wake me up but with delicate orange flavor to mellow it ou. I drink it black. Makes a good iced tea, too.

This tea was highly recommended as it is the signature tea for a noted chef’s restaurant in Dallas. There must be something wrong with my tastebuds – it reminded me of soap. I have tried it hot and iced and have brewed it several times, always with the same result.