Mariage Frères

Jesus Christ this tea gets me every time.

This has black tea and as far as I can tell strawberries and vanilla. This smells mostly like vanilla. I brewed this up. And you can taste a slightly tannic black tea with vanilla and a hint of strawberry. The strawberry in here in nice while I can not taste I’t alot. The vanilla you can really taste but to me it tastes to artifical this really I’s just ok to me.

Very nice for lazy Saturday mornings and the strawberry cream flavor combines beautifully with Silk Soy Creamer. Mmmm.

A sweet fragrance of vanilla and strawberries rises from this enticing reddish brown brew. The taste carries the strawberries and cream through, though there is additionally a strong black tea underneath with some bitterness and astringency. The sweet taste lingers in the mouth like good cream. From sniffing the dry leaves I’d thought it might be too powerfully sweet for a morning tea and might be better in the afternoon, but the strong tea is a good enough contrast and the sweetness is subtle enough that this is not an issue.

Yet another tea I am finishing from my stash today…I can really smell the spice today. I infused an heaping-helping because I didn’t have just-enough for another cup…so I figured WHY NOT.

I can taste the spice, too…cinnamon??? This is one of the few teas I like where the cinnamon is ‘just right’.

Received another sampling of this in the mail today! YAY! Thanks Melanie J.

Masculine scent – very nice!

The color of the liquid is a little lighter that I remember it but – it’s the taste that counts, eh!?

Still comforting, still a nice cup

I received this in a swap as well. The sample wasn’t very large so I oversteeped what I did have. It’s a little perfumy to the nose…maybe more like Cologne. It’s not as dark in color as I thought it would be but then again that may have been due to the amount that was steeped. It’s a pleasant cup but no individual tastes come thru too much to be individually identified. I can taste a very little bit of a vanilla-bourbon type aftertaste if you really think about it. Regardless..it’s ok…I would like to try more from this company if I could ever find it.

EDITED NOTE***
I tend to use a larger Tea Cup so…I think this had a lot to do with it. Had I used a regular size cup I am sure it would have been stronger and darker. I really did like it and hope to find more of this brand locally.

This tea is amazing. A bit pricier than I think I will pay, but if I was paid more I would stock this tea for sure.

I cannot place all of the flavors, so I’ll just walk through the experience: the first sensation across my tongue is a mildly fruity, buttery tone. It’s like the aftertaste of a fruit salad. Then, in the middle, I feel a smooth, natural green-tea flavor. The finisher is a mix of green-tea flavor (mild, mild!), fruit, and perhaps something floral? Perfumy, but I can’t identify a specific scent or flavor. Slightly astringent and a touch bitter in the after after taste. This is an absolutley delightful tea.

This is a complex cup. There are more flavors happening and more parts to the taste than I described above, but I can’t pull them apart enough to catalogue. I think it would taste great with sugar, though I can’t see spoiling this intricate experience. This is a good tea for lovers of all experience levels, though I think experienced drinkers might appreciate it more than neophytes.

Simply delightful!
I ordered a tin of the loose tea based on its reputation. The dense, compact leaves smelled as if I had somehow landed in a delectable strawberry field. I was transformed from a dreary November afternoon into a fruited dream world of sweetness. I thought of some of the lucious music I know—-if you like Puccini at all, this tea is the equivalent of that gorgeous candied aria, “Chi il bel sogno di Doretta” from “La Rondine”. Ah! mio sogno! Felicita!

But I really should be referencing the sweets of France—perhaps this tea has an Italian name because it well represents the robust spectacle which is Italy? It is based on tea leaves from China and Tibet, so it really is an international melange.

I am now lusting after the jams made by Mariage Freres.

I typically try a tea dark and then decide whether I want to add sugar and/or milk. I think that Marco Polo could handle those but I was into the deliciousness so much that I could not bring myself to change one single thing.
I understand that this tea is more costly, but it is worth it.

Brewed at 70°C in a big teapot.
I’m not a big fan of the Yuzu flavor. It was ok though, the flavor is strong enough without being overwhelming. This tea is only avaible in metal box for now, making it way over-priced.

An excellent tea, with subtle fruit notes, but not sweetish. I like it very much.

I love the rich fragrance that steams up from a pot of marco Polo. I can never decide what it tastes like, except delicious.

A very pleasant cup, bright russet color, with a not-too-strong vanilla flavor. My favorite choice for when I don’t want caffeine.

My favorite tea from Mariage Frères!

An excellent tea, though not my favorite from this company.

Brewed in a small teapot, 90°C.