Mariage Frères

So today is a morning for mate. Why? Caffeine.

After spending the night writing a paper, I am not getting prepared to take a break from paper writing to go write a quiz. Then I get to return, finish the paper, and work on study notes due tonight. Luckily, all this work also means today is the last day of class and I am a mere 3 exams, one quiz, and one paper away from finishing the semester and hoping on a plane to Florida. Yay!

Anyways, about the tea. JustJames sent this to me and as I have said before, it is delicious! Today I am get strong notes of creamy vanilla combined with mate. Different than I remember it but still very good. Thank you JustJames for sharing this with me!!

Backlog as I had this earlier in the day but did not realize there was a page made up for this tea.

JustJames was kind enough to share this with me and honestly it is delicious! I had no idea what was in this tea other than mate but I decided to trust JustJames and try it blindly. My palette is not advanced enough to detect each note and every ingredient. What my unsophisticated palette could detect was some mate, but there is also a floral note which is enough to give the tea a nice flavor without being overwhelmingly perfume-y as many florals tend to be. Drinking this cup, I had a lot of fun trying to pick up on all the different subtleties and flavors and though I am not great at pin pointing the various components, I am certainly enjoying this cup nonetheless. Thank you very much for sharing it with me, JustJames!

sipdown…soo sad. I’ve finished the tin of this that i picked up in december and it’s a sad day. The more i’ve had this, the more it’s grown on me, though i think american breakfast is still the winner. This will go on the wishlist for one of those days that i order from MF…july? :)

soooooooo my notes are going to be pretty lazy tonight. Had a long day at work, went for a walk in the sun after work and then came home to try and start sorting out the GIANT BOXES of tea that Terri sent me. it’s taken me half the evening to get them all in to my cupboard. This tea was my morning tea (one of) and was a delicious start to the day. but was also like 15 hrs ago lol

Keychange made me think of this one the other day so i opted to have a cup of this today. Still quite lovely and though i DO prefer american breakfast, there is for sure a place in my cupboard for both. :) I’ll be sad when this one is gone..and that should be soon unless i horde it…which i might haha

Another breakfast tea from this morning. While this one is malty and has a slight chocolate note to it, it’s not as sweet as american breakfast and comes across as a little bolder and stronger. Still a delicious tea that I can get behind having in my cupboard! This is my kick in the pants in the morning tea, while american breakfast is an easier, gentle push out of bed :)

Brewed a cup of this much earlier in the morning. I had to open the seal to send some off to a tea friend so i figured that i was safe to try a cup before the holiday season ends in case i decided i MUST have moar! This is a highly satisfying cup of tea. It doesn’t scream cocoa but there is for sure a malt cocoa taste that runs through this cup. I can see enjoying this one until the last of it is gone :)

I’ve never tasted the candy this tea is based on, but I love rooibos and was more than willing to give it a try. Some of the HG collection teas aren’t very strong with their flavors (aromas are another matter), yet are quite pleasant in a light, unobtrusive way. This one had medium strength flavors, but… Not sure what these flavors are, but it’s quite probably the strangest, and one of the most unpleasant rooibos teas I’ve ever had. There’s a particular kind of sweetness that reminded me of bad cream in cheap cakes. Or even cheap alcohol! Milk did not help at all. Oh course, it could be a perfect imitation of the calisson taste, but I wouldn’t know.

Sipdown!! (well sort of as the last cup is being sent off to Courtney).

Thank you MissB for sharing this with me. I find that I often forget it but when I do finally remember to make a cup, I am always pleased with the taste. This has a great peach-apricot flavor with a hint of strawberry deliciousness right at the end of the sip. It really is a nice tea but for some reason, I just don’t think about it all that often.

Thank you MissB for your generous swap package! Inside said package, I found a sample of this tea and I am really glad I did. This is not a tea I would have picked out on my own and I realize now I would be missing out. This is quite a delicious cup of tea. It is smooth and fruity while not tasting artificial or over-the-top. Thanks MissB! I can’t wait to try the other teas you sent :)

My first Mariage Freres tea! Thanks so much Shelley_Lorraine for the sample!

This tea has a wonderful soft natural apple and almond flavor, with a hint of frosting or pastry floating around in the background. The base tea is mild but pleasant and unobtrusive. This is very enjoyable! Especially for those of us that like our tea to taste like a bakery treat sometimes :D

A rare Laos tea with a smoky aroma, but it’s nothing like Lapsang Souchong, or any Keemun I know. I could say it has an earthy flavour, but it’s not at all like puerhs. The taste is… wet trees, moss, and smoke? With a dry, gingery finish. I wish I could try the non-ginger version (called Champasak, I believe). Brewing this gongfu style made me even more confused about the flavours here. A tea to return to, periodically.

This is a blend of white, green, and oolong tea, with ginger and liquorice root. As you can imagine, dry leaves give off a rather complex aroma, full of subtleties. Sweet-ish and gingery. As for the taste, well… The liquorice root doesn’t really enter the equation at that point. Ginger does, but it’s never as strong as in Indian Chai, or similar spicy drinks.

As for the actual tea, well, if you’re lucky, brewing this at high temperature you may get a yummy gingery drink, with translucent liquor. And a lower temperature, around 75 degrees C, may deliver to you a very gentle, sweet cup, like a complex white tea with very subtle floral notes. Trouble is, if you’re unlucky, you’ll just get a very average, light green tea with ginger, a very poor green version of Chai.

So, an interesting and somewhat strange blend, but its worth a try if you like conducting experiments every now and then. It may also yield interesting results when brewed gongfu style, something I haven’t tried with this tea yet.

Sipdown, 112. Just like I thought, amazing cold brewed! So fruity and sweet and delicious. I could drink gallons of this tea cold brewed and never get tired of it. I know it’s a funny thing to say, but MF teas make some of the most fantastic cold brews I’ve ever tried. Yum!

Thanks to MissB for a sample of this tea. The description sounds very interesting (fig, peach, and apricot) and I love figs, so I am happy to try it out.

I have to say, this is definitely the most success I’ve ever had with a MF tea. No strange bitterness, no odd tartness. It’s smooth, fruity, and tasty. Huh. I actually do taste the fig in this one, what I don’t quite taste is the peach. That’s fine, fig and apricot are nice. And yeah, there does seem to be some red fruits (strawberry, cherry) buried in here as well. A nice, fruity black tea for sure. I am certain this will make a delicious cold brew and the rest of this is earmarked for that!

Well, better boil your money…

“Rose d’ Himalaya” used to an excellent Arya Autumn 3rd flush Darjeeling with a NATURAL aftertaste of rose! A very subtle and refined tea! This particular Arya garden that produced this rarity burned down in 1998. (This is what I’ve been told in 1999 in the Bourg-Tibourg shop) M.F. still reproduces and sells a tea under the same name, adding rose oil to a regular Dargeeling. Really NOT the same.

Delicate and refreshing! Very good!