Mariage Frères

Sandy is just back from NZ, and had never tried this tea. We wanted a little tea time out in the lovely spring weather after Panera and I thought it would be perfect. I hadn’t had it in a while myself, and it was delightful! After drinking cup after cup of Keemun Mao Feng today this tea was a big change, but a very nice shake-up to the menu! And Sandy really seemed to like it!

Lovely, as always. I drank it first with no additions this morning, then had a cup to finish off breakfast with milk and sugar. A delightful tea!

Delicious pot of tea with hubby this morning. I do find that this tea must be drunk up right away or the last cup is bitter from sediment. That is not a hard task as good as it is! As always on this one, milk and sugar.

When JacquelineM sent me a sample tin of this a while ago, hubby would pick up the tin and sniff appreciately now and then but he was too busy at work to have tea with me and taste it. I finally got him to try it a few days ago and he LOVES it. This is a big deal since up to now he would only drink varying forms of mild Ceylon teas!

He drank a WHOLE POT with his half of the toasted Everything Bagel for lunch. How fortunate that I am getting TWO tins of it for Christmas! :) I was a little deflated, however, when he said, “Mmmm, tastes like Crunchberries.” Not exactly a high falutin’ description of a premium tea, but he DOES love Crunchberries so I supposed it is high praise!

One of my students who has tea with me each week brought a tin of this as a Christmas gift! EEEEE! I made a pot of it today and hubby tried it for the first time and guess what? HE LIKED IT! He is a man who commits to few teas, so this is an important event! Delicious, of course.

Almost finished the generous sample sent to me by JacquelineM! This is my second time having Marco Polo. Somehow I was distracted the first time I drank it, and thought it was good tea. This time…aaaahhh. I paid attention to the reviewers who said to add sugar and milk or cream to really bring out the fresh bowl of berries taste. What a lovely, delicate treat! We now have a little Tuesday tea party with a 6 year old student, her 4 year old sister, and her mom. They loved this!

A sample from JacquelineM – thank you, thank you!

Dry leaves – sniff sniff sniff. Every time he walks by the tin….my hubby is opening it and sniffing. It smells that good.

Steeping – Pouring the water over the leaves releases the strawberry aroma almost immediately. A very long five minutes ensues….

Drinking – First tried it plain, as I like to try all my new teas: very nice, light, and fruity. A genteel cup of tea, not tart at all but nicely berry flavored. I add milk before the sugar this time to see how it affects the cream aspect and don’t note a huge difference, but I only had skim and I know some people like to add real cream to this one. A dash of sugar, and let it cool for a minute and you really release the flavors. Aahhhhhh.

I picked this up myself but am terrified to open it and enjoy it. LOL One day I will break down and pull this treasure to pieces. Perhaps I will save it for retirement… only 8 years away. Lord.

Will post more later…

This is one of those that stands out to me as special, so I don’t have it that much. Today I decided to go for it, and am having several cups. What a nice start to the day.

I was in another town today (giving my last presentation until October!!) and stopped by a store I had never visited but had heard had a great tea selection. And wow, they did! I picked up several things from my shopping list as well as a few things that I hadn’t heard of. And I found this! A friend let me have a little of hers a few years ago. Back then I was interested in tea, but not near the degree that I am now. I’d been looking for it since, and had about come to the conclusion that I’d have to order it from France. So yay for A Southern Season in Chapel Hill, NC!

I was so excited that I didn’t want to underdo it, so I think I might have used too many leaves for this first cup. It’s still amazing, but not quite what I remember. A little sugar makes up for it, though. :)

It’s nutty and flowery. Not quite sure what to make of it. I only had a 1tsp sample that came from overseas in a swap. There’s a bit of a bitter edge to it, but I may have oversteeped since the color was somewhat light (chestnut brown) so I went all the way to 5 min. Smelt very sweet, like caramel/vanilla and honey, but only the flowery taste seemed to come through. Added a bit of sugar and almond milk. Wouldn’t go out of my way to have it again.

I forgot how enjoyable this tea can be. Perfect for today… the end of a long trip and it just might off-set my driving cramps. (Earned from a 12 hour drive with no drinking or bathroom breaks. Don’t try it yourself… invest in Astronaut Diapers. LOL)

Not your typical in your face flavored black tea by Mariage Freres. Floral and charming and a beautifully done black tea which I will have to spend more time on… or with? :)

A good, solid black tea blend. Unlike English or Irish breakfast blends, though, this seemed a bit two-dimensional to me. I did not detect the flavors of chocolate and malt.

It’s ok this tea. I love the way it smells, really, really awesome. But it is too much perfume for me. It is too heavily scented.

This is a tea for the holidays! It is heavy in flavor and screams for a dash of milk. I taste orange, cinnamon and perhaps clove… who knows! It possesses many if not all the spices I use as a base in my oatmeal cookies. But it has the familiarity of a cinnamon and spice air spray by Glade and this to some might be quite the turn on. Who knows?

At any rate, after a return from sea and seeking comfort in a cup of tea at home… I should have stuck to the tried and true. However being me, I tried a new path… or tea. I shall try this again when the grumbles of recent travels have calmed and I am sure to provide some insightful remarks.

I can safely say that despite its wild taste of holiday festivus, it is a pleasant tea not bitter or grumpy. Very unlike its taster… I am sure it will forgive me. :)
Until my second cup then…

YA! So hard for me to even imagine that a tea other then Marco Polo could rock my world so much, this one comes close. It’s like sitting in a peach orchard having a picnic, on a sweet summer day with not a care in the world discussing how beautiful the world is, feeling how beautiful life is. it is very perfect this tea. the alchemy of the flavoring, hits that perfect note. Also I have noticed that mariage freres tea that comes in the tin is so much more fresh and alive, then their tea not in the tin. And the ingredients are just such high quality – unmistakingly high. (that word is not spelled right, but I don’t know how to spell it)

When I saw a photo of the tea, I had to get it. Ins’t it Beautiful?! This tea is really nice, it feels like a soft bang in the morning, sweet but firm. I like it! I don’t know how to describe it well yet, as I am new to drinking tea, but I can say this: I like this tea, but not as much as Marco Polo.