Mariage Frères

Soo, umm, accidentally hitting “esc” loses you your tasting note. The more you know.

Anyways, this is sweetly caffeinated.

Sweet fruity genericness and lovely black tea, because I still have my cold. I do like this one, but I don’t think I’d get 100g.

Thanks, MissB. :)

Thanks to MissB!

This is definitely strawberry, although it is a delicate and floral strawberry. There are other notes too, but IDK what. I just had it for the strawberriness today.

It was good. Not outstanding or amazing, just good.

Yes, this tea is more tannic than most Darjeelings…it’s bold, a deeper amber than other SFTGFOP’s I’ve had from Mariage Freres. The first year I had it – I think 2010? – it was more floral, rose-hinted almost – but I haven’t perceived that rose note in the last two years.

I usually brew Margaret’s Hope at 5 degrees f lower than boiling because of the higher levels of tannins.

A flavored darjeeling…light body, lightly favored – honey-vanilla with a touch of something floral. Very pleasant if you’re not into strongly-flavored teas.

I didn’t get any bergamot, but they may have changed the flavor in the last year.

Goodbye, last cup of Victoria. This tea had the prettiest silvertips. Oh, silvertips.

Sipdown!! (200)

Oh Marco Polo Rouge, it was fun while it lasted but now we must part ways. Thank you Scheherazade for sharing.

I have one more cup left of this. I will actually be sad to see it go. It is rooibosy but not the woody/medicinal type. It is timid and provides a nice smooth base for the hint of strawberry flavor. I think I may prefer this to the Marco Polo with the black base but I am not sure. Nonethless, I want to thank Scheherazade for sending this my way.

I was very nervous when I smelled this as the rooibos was very strong. However, in the steeped cup the rooibos, though present, is more muted than I expected. There is also a hint of strawberry which is nice. I don’t think I will be getting more when the sample runs out but I probably won’t have any issues drinking the sample either. Thank you Scheherazade for the chance to try this tea.

I recalled loving this tea and was excited to finally get it restocked. Somehow I seemed to have gone wrong with it because I’m not getting the delicious cup I remembered. It was very heavy on the tannins and the acidity sat hard in my stomach. Maybe I had a creamer I liked better than what I have access to now? Maybe I was using different steeping parameters? I’m not sure what the difference is, but I hope I figure it out quickly!

Having this straight today and enjoying the cup. Tried a longer steep at a lower temp and it seems to be working well. No bitterness at all.

I have been drinking a ton of tea lately, but haven’t posted any notes! Classes started so I’m usually brewing two thermoses worth of tea to get me through the day and drinking them while I’m out. I do sometimes find it hard to get through a whole thermos of one tea when I’m used to switching it up every cup if I get the urge. I found out today that if I can add one more class to my schedule this semester, then I only need an art history class to fulfill the requirements for my degree! It’s so close I can taste it! Unlike this tea at the moment. :/

I have had a bunch of chest congestion lately that seems to be migrating to my sinuses which makes tea drinking a sad and frustrating event. I can taste a little malt, but that is about it.

This is a really unusual tea for me to love so much, being that I’m a flavored tea kinda gal, but I do love it! There have been times when I have craved it’s malty tobacco flavors. So glad I stocked up on this when I was last in California! Tonight it is helping me through the holidays which are almost over, hopefully it won’t keep me up tonight since I’m drinking it super late. I hate this time of year and will be glad when it has past!

I thought I wanted this tea this morning, but it just isn’t hitting the spot for me at the moment. After having a tea yesterday that had tobacco notes in it, I realize that this tea does too. I think that is the flavor I wasn’t able to put a name to in a previous note. I steeped it at a lower temp, but it just seems bitter in a way that is distracting me from the rest of it today. Strange how being in the right mood for a particular tea can be the difference in a good or bad experience with it!

I have been drinking this a bit lately, which surprises me since it isn’t my usual type of tea. Today it is a little on the bitter side at the beginning of each sip, but then mellows out into it’s usual tastiness. I may try a shorter steep or lower temp next time.

I’m not usually a big breakfast tea fan, in fact I’m totally baffled by it and don’t understand what makes a tea breakfast type, BUT despite all that I’m enjoying this cup. I got a small bag of it in bulk while tea shopping in California, figuring I’d give it a try since I wasn’t likely to be able to find sample sizes again. This is a really solid heavy tea, relying on heavier base notes. I get a deep smooth malty flavor which isn’t bitter at all! I’ll be interested to see if it grows on me.

I am just starting to explore breakfast tea and have little concept of what they encompass or have as defining characteristics. I’m smelling a little smoke and something else that I can’t name once this tea is steeped. The taste is hard to describe as well. It tastes hearty. It is smooth at first in the way I have come to expect MF teas to be and then the smokey aftertaste kicks in with a little bit of bitter in it. Adding sweetener brightens the flavors a little, but doesn’t really enhance it much. The aftertaste is now a little more leathery. Adding milk mutes a lot of the flavor in the sip, but makes the aftertaste stand out a little more. I’m not quite sure what to think of this tea. It is puzzling and I’m not sure I can appreciate it for what it is.

Sipdown!! (148)

Thank you to both The Teaist and Scheherazade for sharing this tea with me. I expected to love it given the rave reviews but tbh I am less than impressed. It is good but nothing I would write home about.

Today, I am comparing it both hot and cold brewed. Personally I think I prefer it cold brewed as there is a nice berries and floral element that really shines. Hot the flavors are a touch muted. Although ultimately I will not miss either flavor profiles now that the tea is gone. Nonetheless, I am extremely grateful I got to try this.

I have wanted to try this tea for so long. To me, it is THE tea you think of when someone mentions Mariage Frere so I was very excited when I received some in a swap from The Teaist. However, sipping on it now, as I procrastinate by watching Reign, I can’t help but feel sort of disappointed. This tea is smooth and has a nice hint of strawberry but there isn’t much more to it than that. Maybe I am crazy but I just don’t see what the fuss is all about. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it isn’t a bad cup, just not really special either. I am glad I have more of this tea to play around with but as it tastes now, I don’t think I will be too heartbroken when it is gone. Thank you The Teaist for sending some my way. This isn’t an easy tea to get a hold of in Canada so you certainly helped me satisfy my curiosity.

This was another sample from MissB, albeit one I’ve had before. Apparently MissB actually sent me previous sample I had, too! I think there was a bit of a misunderstanding because MF also has another tea called “Lune” that is not this one, and that I haven’t tried, but I am still happy to have more of this. Previously I had a sachet, and now I have loose tea.

Today, my cup was super almondy with a hint of spice. Before I had issues with what I thought was cherry flavoring; I think I had gotten the ideas from previous reviews, and somehow my brain convinced me that even though there is NOT cherry flavoring, that I was tasting cherries. I’m not even sure I would call this cup distinctly fruity (there are some unspecified fruits in the blend), I mostly just tasted almond and a hint of spice. So I am glad that I got a chance to try this again, to set me straight on it. It is, in fact, quite delicious.

This tea is one that I had wanted to try for a while because people always raved about it and said it was a great almond tea. Almond is one of my favorite flavors, so of course I wanted to try it, even with the cherry notes, which I don’t typically care for. Thankfully MissB sent me some!

I tell you that one thing I wasn’t expecting was the spice. I guess I didn’t read the description, or somehow blocked it out? At first I wondered if I had been thinking of the right tea. But yes, I was, and the spices are less prominent in the flavor than they are in the aroma.

First, I have no idea how much water MF recommends for their little muslin sachets, which is what I have. I went for my usual 12oz, but I don’t know if that was proper. I also forgot that I usually steep MF teas at less than boiling to stave off bitterness, although that probably entirely depends on the base tea.

This is without a doubt the smoothest MF tea I’ve ever had. It’s impressively smooth. Not a hint of bitterness, and not too robust for me. It is sweet, even, with a rich lingering almond flavor and light, warm spices. The only thing that is keeping me from rating this into the nineties is the cherry, and that is entirely my personal dislike of cherry flavoring. The subtleness of the cherry and how it meshes with the almond does make it more tasty than most other cherry flavored teas, however. Glad to have tried it.

So far I kinda like this tea. It is kind of fruity floral, but not any one thing that I can put my finger on and pick out by name. It is nice and smooth with the green tea hanging out in the background, but so far isn’t anything I have to have in my cupboard. We’ll see if it grows on me.

At first, I was a little apprehensive to try this tea blend.

Black tea, and white tea? With rose, and lavender? To me, it sounded like it would be too floral, too citrusy and have little balance. (I was so glad I was wrong.)

Mariage Freres balance their teas very well – the strong base of the black tea was softened by the subtler white tea base. The floral, citrus lavender flavour wasn’t overpowering and the rose was very sweet and fragrant. I didn’t necessarily taste the white flowers but I felt like they added an overall smoothness to the blend and helped this tea to have a beautiful finish.

My only recommendation would be not to drink this tea in the morning with breakfast. It is an afternoon tea and should probably be kept that way – unless your breakfast is tea cake and madeleines, which I would not be opposed to. The friend I tried this tea with really didn’t like it, so it all comes down to personal taste, but I love this tea and I’m very happy with it.