Mariage Frères

I am drinking this brewed hot and poured over ice today. I made it a bit weaker than I usually do for hot brewed iced tea, four teaspoons to 1.5 litres, but I think it is just about perfect. I find the lighter flavour really refreshing and the colour is beautiful.

I upped my rating a little too because I have enjoyed it more iced. Yum!

I went off florals for a while after struggling to get through some very intense examples but haven’t had one in my cupboard for a while so was very pleased to receive this as a gift. I’ve also never tried a MF tea before either so was really excited to try it.

Sometimes I find floral teas a bit soapy but this is a fruity floral so manages to avoid that. There is no mistaking that you are drinking flowers but it also manages some restraint and isn’t overwhelming. I think the description on the box of “a tea for lovers” is wonderful too, though I could also see it as “a tea for a ladies craft circle” which also happens to be my kind of crowd haha.

Ooooh… an absolutely fabulous way to ring in the new year! This is an excellent chai with a wonderful balance of spicy and sweet. Jake and I both love it, and it’s totally going on the shopping list.

Thanks so much OMGsrsly for giving me the opportunity to try it!

This is a cheat note – I’ve had this numerous times already. It’s been this year’s holiday tea, as I got if for Christmas. Well, sticking with the theme, it was technically a cheat Christmas gift. Something I was supposed to get did not arrive on time and so I was tasked with finding a temporary replacement thing for myself (I’m sorry, but I really do love when this happens). No peeking! (I would like to emphasize I avoided the ‘no pekoe-ing’ pun here. Again – kindly award points accordingly.)

So T, who was visiting, kindly agreed to being dragged to Dagnino – that’s where you go if you need to get your Mariage Frères fix in Rome. There’s a nice full wall of MF tea on the upper landing – both tins and bags. I got a tin, but I think you could get as little as 50 grams. And yes, I know I should add this to the tea store review part of the site, but not today.

They made me a very pretty package and I expressed unparallelled surprise as I unwrapped it.

In the tin, this carries a nicely mellow note of caramel vanilla. I thought this would be a knockout, heavy vanilla – the Vanilla of Vanillas, because that’s what island vanilla is to me. In the kitchen, I use Nielsen-Massey’s Madagascar Bourbon, and I was hoping for something along those lines.

Alas, no – not in the cup either. But that doesn’t make it bad at all; in fact, it’s quite lovely – milky, almost; round, comforting and velvety. I’m surprised I like this as much as I do, considering how present the tea base is, but maybe I’m growing up, or something equally terrifying.

So the hunt for the perfect vanilla tea goes on, but I look forward to spending some serious quality time with this one while I look.

(And writing that made me realize these tea notes could be read as dating notes and now I will never be able to stop thinking exactly that as I scroll down my dash. Thick, sweet, lush, fruity, entertaining, playful, full-bodied. This is going to be so bad.)

[Purchased at Dagnino in Rome, December 2013.]

This is a tea I did not expect to bring home with me. I am always on the hunt for good rooibos, particularly in Winter. I am rooibos-picky, I like rooibos strong and seem to crave a nightly cup in all these winter evenings.

I wanted a new Mariage Freres rooibos, but was expecting to want Rouge d´Automne (the rouge rouge d´automne if that makes sense). I was not too enthusiastic about Vert de Provence (the original take of which this is is a spin-off), and floral rooibos, did not seem appealing. Plus, lavender in tea just not my cup of tea (with some exceptions). But sniffing the samples, there was no competition – it smells as divine as Vert de Provence did, but with a punch from the rooibos probably.

And brewing it up, it lives up to its scent. The rooibos adds something to the floral and fruity exhuberance, it is just fabulous. Love it.

(btw is there just a tiny touch of juniper here?)

I don’t typically like flavoured black teas (other than Earl Grey and bergamot-based teas), and Marco Polo is a rare exception. It’s flavourful without being overwhelming, making it easy to drink, and perfect for a cold morning.

Ah, this is lovely. I think Mariage Freres is excellent at perfecting a take on a classical idea and this is a perfect classic christmas tea – cinnamon, candied orange peel (or maybe clementine?) and a hint of cloves, so balanced. The base strong enough but not bitter, a perfect French Christmas tea.

Time for French Breakfast!
I’m not really good at actual breakfast – I had a danish, and a medium double-double from Tim Hortons. Sugar, yes?

So I don’t need any additives to this. Just pure black tea.

So I think this was one of the ones I bought from Sil! She went out on a fancy tea shopping trip when she found out they were available locally, and lazy me just said I’d buy some off you. :P

So I’m enjoying this. It’s a nice brisk black tea, malty and not too sweet. To be honest, it’s nice, but not as knock-my-socks-off as I had hoped for, especially when compared to Bolder Breakfast, or Laoshan Black.

But that’s ok. I can’t afford to buy a tin of this and every tea out there. :) I’ll enjoy this while I can.

This is a backlog note from last night but I have quite the story. I steeped this in my timolino and went off to school. I parked my car and quickly grabbed my stuff because a shuttle from the parking lot to the actual campus was about to come. I realized halfway up the hill to class that I forgot my timolino! I wasn’t going to spend 20 minutes just to grab it so I left my mug for when I returned to my car to go home. When I returned, my tea was still hot! This was 4 hours after parking my car and in the cold. Color me impressed!

Onto the tea. I do like this tea mainly for the peppermint. My sore throat has turned into a small head cold so the peppermint has been soothing for me. Also I have tasted other rooibos teas and nothing compares to Mariage’s rooibos for me. They have some body and other rooibos feel like I’m drinking dirty water.

Still love this tea, in fact I made a big pot of it because it’s relaxing to drink while I knit. It’s smooth, I feel like it has some body to it because it doesn’t have a slightly watered taste that I get when I drink Davids rooibos teas.
I’m not a rooibos fan but this tea is starting to make me into a fan.

Yep I still really enjoy this tea. I had a very rough day and this is making the end of it much better than the way it started. The slice of chocolate cake I have also helps. The peppermint isn’t too strong and I can pick up some of the rose now.

Very pleasant mint tea with the rooibos to add a little something. I’m not sure what because I’m horrible at picking up flavors in my tea, but it’s tastier than my last mint tea which was also loose leaf. Maybe the rose also has something to do with it. Regardless this is very nice and relaxing and is the second Mariage Freres tea I have tried. I can also get 6 steeps out of this which makes the cost of the tea easier to swallow.

It is time to go into another happy place. I have a lot of work to do before I can study for another midterm next Tuesday. Luckily Monday is a holiday, however I have plans to go into San Francisco for part of that day.

Light with a hint of floral. Next month my friend is going to Paris for her honeymoon so I asked her to get me some MF teas while she was there.

Still the light and floral tea I remember it being. I forgot how good MF’s teas are when you want something very simple and slightly fragrant.

Now back to studying.

I’ve had too many gross teas lately so I treated myself to some MF green tea. I still fancy this one quite a bit, it smells very floral but it has a delicate taste with a hint of sweetness. I need to invest more in MF’s teas once I finish going through the rest of my stash.

I needed this. It’s New Years Eve, I ate a ton of food that is all kinds of bad for me to prepare for the usual resolution of losing some pounds and eating better. This tea isn’t overly sweet or floral and I’m trying to convince myself a cup of green tea will make me feel better. Happy New Year!

My first Mariage Freres tea! I love green tea and i’m not big on flavored green teas but I took the leap. The tea itself smells very floral and fruity but upon brewing you really taste the green tea with just a hint of sweetness. I quite enjoy it because I’m not huge on overpowering flavors with my green teas.

Sipdown!! (164)

I enjoyed this tea earlier so much that I decided to make the rest of it. Unfortunately I may have not had enough dry leaf for a cup so the taste is very watered down. This is not how this tea should be remembered as it is so much better than this. Thank you JustJames for the sample, this tea will be greatly missed.

Mmmmm….Thé de Lune! This tea is one of the few florals that I actually really enjoy. I am sipping on it now and watching Blackfish, a documentary about the killer whales at Sea World. The two are a very strange combination as the tea is so delicate and floral and reminiscent of sunny Parisian afternoons while the documentary is talking about the deaths of trainers and the dangers of keeping the whales in captivity. Nonetheless, both are very interesting. Thank you JustJames once again for sharing this tea!

FYI, this tea is pretty good cold. I did not intend on having it that way but as I brewed a cup, my mom suggest we go shopping to buy a tea thermos of all things so this got left behind on the counter. Now I have a tea thermos so I can take it with me but today it was cold and not bad at all. It is a little more floral this way but still pleasant. Thank you again, JustJames!

I have said many times that floral teas are not for me. However, occasionally a floral tea comes along that is simply an exception to that rule. This is one of those tasty exceptions. This is a beautiful cup of tea. Vanilla, blackberry, flower – all swirling together to make a tasty cup. This is sweet but in a delicate sort of way that is often associated with wonderful French treats (think macaroons or Paris Brest). It is a tea like this that invokes visions of sitting outside a Paris cafe in the moonlight sipping on a delicious cup of tea while the Eiffel Tower sparkles in the background. Thank you JustJames for sharing such a great tea with me :)

http://steepster.com/discuss/6555-dear-steepster-team-dot-dot-dot-happy-holidays-and-thank-you RIGHT OFF THE BAT I THOUGHT I’D LIST A LINK TO A ‘THANK YOU STEEPSTER TEAM’ THREAD. they work unbelievably hard on our behalf for a place that all of us love— tis the season to say a hearty thank you!

it has been MONTHS since my awesome swap with Ysaurella…. you know, the one that changed my whole tea persona? well, THIS blend has been a holdout this whole time. Ysau wrote very clearly on the bag 95 degrees, SHORT STEEP. i did short steeps! several times! i think the problem was not the time, but the temperature. it’s a black tea that wants to be treated as though it’s an oolong!

aha! homo sapien brain succeeds over tea…. wow, that really shouldn’t read as victorious as it does, lol.

very nice feather in the mariage freres cap. this is a jasmined black, but the bend of the two creates a new hybridized tea element. (momentary distraction as i ponder the concept of a periodic table of tea elements….)i taste less jasmine and more pepper, alternating with thyme and mint. quite striking! the base blend doesn’t taste like a back or a green either! instead it’s entirely new.

not happy steeped as a black though, lol. has to be steeped as an oolong. but maybe that’s just in my kitchen… could be a different story in yours.

I’m upgrading my note for this Oolong, it’s just so gooooooood, incredible.
It is so mellow,I am in love.
I feel so alone here, none additional note about this tea and I would love to see your reviews soon here dear Steepsterites.
This is a great great great tea.