Mariage Frères

This tea is the greatest of all time. It has so many layers and is so delicious. It’s warm and spicy, a little astringent but hard to oversteep.

It smells so good but then you can actually taste so many of the flavours, the spices, the aroma really opens up. Almond, amaretto, marzipan, brown sugar, warmth, orange zest, all of its pieces are there.

It’s so funny because I’d make it if I knew I was going to have a hard day at work, to fortify me before I left, but I would also make it on a day off to celebrate my freedom. Stands up well to re-steeping and is something you can appreciate either by individual flavour or altogether. Love this tea and order it in bulk, obviously, lol.

Pleine Lune is a beautiful tea, and one I will hold very dear to my heart.

My mother brought it back from Paris for me, as a gift. And I will always remember trying it for the first time. It was very evocative, smelt lovely and rich, and had steady almond black tea base. It’s almost buttery, quite dark in colour and has lovely spiced notes.

My selection is a group of little muslin, cotton teabags and I love each and every one of them. The flavour is bold, and I would recognise it anywhere. The first time I tried it, I had never really had much tea before, and I thought ‘this is what drinking tea is like.’ I was quite young at the time, but it’s stuck with me and it’s for that reason that this is one of my most treasured teas.

This tea is full of almond and evening spices, and the whole taste ties in very well with the name. It tastes a little like a Christmas tea. I would happily drink this tea any time, with or without milk or sugar. It’s a very nostalgic tea, and I will always keep it in my tea pantry.

This was the first morning in a while that I haven’t kicked off with medicinal herbals, and I am excited to get back to trying out different and wonderful teas! I’m starting off with this sweet treat, which was a wonderful surprise in my swap from Moraiwe – thank you!

Today felt like a laid back morning, so I put the kettle on the burner and got out one of my 16oz hand thrown mugs. The online conversion resulted in something like 1/2 teaspoon per 7oz. I prefer to err on the side of richer tea, so I added about 1-1/2tsp of dry tea, 1 tablespoon of beet sugar (I’m trying out the Teavana German Rock Sugar), and steeped for 5 minutes.

My first impression is cinnamon and cream, with the black tea aspect cheerful in the distance. The aftertaste is slightly fruity, but I don’t think my poor, abused senses are up to figuring it out quite yet. It might be an aspect of the beet sugar. I’ll have to use the other half of the sample when I’m back to 100%. Overall, I’m just amazed at how… smooth this tastes. No jarring notes, nothing that seems out of place – it’s gorgeously blended together. It does leave my tongue a little dry, but then that’s fairly standard for cinnamon teas.

I’ve heard about this company before, but this was my first tangible introduction to them. Thank you again, Moraiwe, for this opportunity!

Update: This holds up surprisingly well on the second steep, so I asked my husband (who escaped the cold) for his opinion. He agreed that there was a slightly fruity aftertaste, but said it was just too faint to identify. And he liked the tea, too! ;)

Yesterday I went to a Mariage Frères tea room with my daughter and I picked this one out from the biiiiigggggg tea card.
I wanted to taste it for ages and it was in my shopping list.
Let’s say it was perfectly brewed as Mariage knows to do so.

I was weak to me, weak tea base, weak raspberry and blueberry flavours. I had a hint of Vanilla. I was very disapointed by this experience tea.
Especially as well because having a tea at MF is very expensive 10 € for a full teapot (it was 9 € 3 months ago ! and it was already very expensive !)
So I was upset against myself to have made a wrong choice.

It is not a bad tea but it is a meh tea for me.
At least I can take it off from my shopping list

Big thanks to Scheherazade for sharing some of this tea with me! I’ve always loved the reviews about Marco Polo, but unfortunately didn’t have the same experience. I found the black tea version to be disappointing at best. I love rooibos and knew I just had to try the rooibos version of Marco Polo!

Giving the tea a sniff… I notice the woody rooibos scent followed by a bit of berry and sweetness… quite promising! Sipping… ooh, this is lovely! I taste fruit, flowers and the rooibos all mixed up together. There is also something a bit like vanilla that adds the nicest bit of sweetness. How tasty! I wish that I had been able to detect all of these notes in the black tea version, but I actually think that given the choice, I’d still like this one more. As far as the floral note is concerned, I can’t put my finger on what it tastes like.. I’m thinking of a bunch of flower petals, to be honest. So very happy to have tasted this blend! Will definitely purchase this in the future.

SIPDOWN!(224) I tried cold brewing this one to see if the flavours would be more to my liking. Turns out as a cold brew this is a very green tea. The flavours get a little lost in the cold brew. Overall, this isn’t my favourite tea – but that’s not surprising given that it’s a green tea and my preferences lean towards black/puerh. Still glad to have tried it so thank you shmiracles!

thank you Shmiracles! I’m trying to get into some of my swap samples that i have been neglecting, especially since they’ll be quick-er sipdowns than my large bags of tea lol

Another green tea for the afternoon…crap work calls. more in a bit.

I’ve been erring on the side of caution re: temperature and steep time with my black teas lately, and that works really wonderfully with Paris Ginza! It has hints of strawberry, which I’m loving- it’s light and fruity, but with a robust body that doesn’t taste too strongly of caramel. One of the best teas I have- I’ll definitely be investing in more Mariage Freres when I get the chance!

i got this sample thanks to Sil!
i will probably try to buy some.
it reminds me of the Mariage Freres Macaron tea. something about the perfumey scent it gives off dry.
i had one cup. and then my sister came down from her room and we had another cup right away.
and then i cradled the last of the un-brewed leaves in my hands like a baby bird.

Second time I’m logging this. My sister brought some back from her trip to Europe 3+ years ago. I’ve been hoarding the tea bags she gave me and finally drank some this weekend. I had a great productive weekend! But didn’t do anything I should have done. Saw an awesomely staged satellite opera on Saturday, Agrippina.
Still – let’s just assume that this tea helped me get things done!

oh my, Scheherazade my sister is an earl grey fanatic. so i gleefully brewed this up to surprise her.
got out the nice tea cup set.
even got out the little spoons.
i like this tea for it’s balance of boldness and subtlety.
delicious.
my sister once accused me of never buying earl greys. i said ‘of course not, that’s what you’re for!’.
but i would buy this one, i really would.

now back to my fic in which iron man proposes to captain america. dingaling wedding bells dingaling.

This tea is my first Mariage et Frères. The odour was not convincing but I’m appreciating the deepnss of the violet taste.

Ah boo to buying mandatory large packages of unfamiliar teas! I absolutely HAD to buy more Macaron tea and my mother wanted Wedding Imperial so we split shipping charges to order from Mariage Frerès. I figured I ought to get something extra to make the order efficient. I saw that this was a best seller and went for it.

At least it is palatable. It has a wine aroma from dry leaf to cup and I’ve already expressed my dislike for alcoholic-like flavors. Perhaps that is why this one is so popular though. Fortunately, for me, the wine notes aren’t too strong and there is a pleasant fruitiness about it. When it is very hot, it kind of gives off a perfumy aroma like the smell of department store samples in a catalogue. That wore off as it cooled and doesn’t come through in the flavor.

I’ll be taking a sample of this to my parents and if they aren’t so keen on it, I’ll have plenty for swapping! :)

Thanks Shmiracles! Mmm the dry leaf smells amazing! The flavor is just as good. It’s juicy and bursting with berry flavor. It’s very smooth and there is no sign of bitterness with the base. This reminds me of homemade strawberry/raspberry jam. Oh this is such a lovely trea

I requested a sample of Iskandar during my previous visit in a Mariage Frères shop.And hopefully.
I have already drank it in the past but never purchased it. In my memory it was a nice tea but is it good enough to me to purchase it ?
The answer is NO.

I can taste some astringency, tolerable. The point is tolerable is not a synonymous of enjoyable for me.
The first sip is incredible, so strong , so powerful : flowers flowers and flowers. Mainly violet but not only even if I am not able to say which other flowers have been used here.
There is a hint of mint as well.

It’s a lovely cup but too much “parfumey” for me. I don’t know if you see what I mean but sometimes the flavours seem more like perfume rather than aromas and this is the case here. Alas this is something I have difficulties with.
I can recognize this is a very lovely and well blended tea but not for me.
It can probably be a beautiful ice tea because while cooling the astringency is diminishing.

EDIT : almost cold, there is almost none astringency and the perfumey taste totally disappeared – I really prefer it like this

After seeing a comment I made regarding rhubarb pie Sil generously sent some very fancy samples my way, two of which are rhubarb pie flavoured. I’m not very good with words but I’m (figuratively) oozing gratitude.. oozing is probably not the kind of imagery I want to convey but hopefully you get the point! My day was made.

I decided to try the Yunnan sample first because I can be a pretty flustered individual when I care and this kind of tea is usually a lenient one. It takes multiple steeps well, tastes light, and is fine with or without milk.

The flavour is sweet and smooth with a bit more of a build than the other Yunnan teas I’ve had. I’m not getting the pepperiness that I sometimes get from the others. Zhu Rong Yunnan is the same kind of tea as this, right? That was a fiery one, while this Yunnan is more refined with a smooth astringency that makes it an ideal cup for a light breakfast.

I don’t think I’ve coaxed everything out of it yet. Maybe a gongfu session will trick some of the other flavours out. Thanks again for giving me the chance to try this, Sil!

My first tea from Mariage Frères! I’ve been eyeing a bunch of theirs for some time – they have so many intriguing blends, although I do wish they’d provide more information in terms of ingredients, or at least more concrete descriptions of each tea’s flavor profile – and this one seemed like it’d be totally up my alley. Green base? Yes, please – that’s how I like my flavored teas best. Fruity? Definitely. Floral? Tell me more, Mariage Frères! Plus, “a blend of fragrances recalling the ripe fruit on a tray laden with offerings”? I’m sold.

So, my expectations were high. And, unfortunately, this tea is not meeting them. It’s very sweet. I wouldn’t say the sweetness resembles the flavor of any particular fruit, or even possesses a quality I’d consider fruity in a generic way. It reminds me of something, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. There is a bit of a generic floral taste, but it’s nothing particularly complex or exciting. The sencha base is solid – it’s light, smooth, and ever-so-slightly vegetal – so that’s a point in Bouddha Bleu’s flavor. The tea has a sweet aftertaste that I don’t entirely care for – but, I can finally place the not-quite-fruit flavor: bubblegum. Definitely bubblegum. I happen to pretty much hate the taste of bubble gum, so that’s kind of killing this tea for me.

I’ve tried Bouddha Bleu both hot and iced (brewed hot and then chilled), and have had pretty much the same experience each time. I really wanted to like this tea, but it’s just not living up to the hype (or the price) for me.

I haven’t had it for a while and in my memory it wasn’t my kind of tea.
Kindly cteresa sent me a large sample of it as I can drink it again.

It’s a a nice tea, smooth tea base, round, with strawberry and vanilla taste. And that’s it for me.
I’ve never understood why this one especially is the best seller of the brand – It’s a nice tea but really some others are really better to my opinion.
Now I have to confess strawberry is not my favourite berry and by the way not my favourite flavouring.
Having said that, Marco Polo is, without reserve, a very good tea but I do prefer a lot of others MF.

Smelled nice dry. Though I didn’t really care for this after it was brewed. It might’ve been just the way I brewed it, but this was a little too bitter for me. I could very faintly taste a bit of caramel after adding sugar, but I just couldn’t get past the bitterness. Ah well. Not bad to try from a swap.

Sipping the last of my sample of this tea from Shmiracles. It’s all gone and I can’t buy any more just yet. Money is not showing up according to schedule.
(´Ａ｀。)

I did it, I braved another sample. This one is from Shmiracles again (it’s the never-ending box (^^) ). I’m getting to the point where I have to talk myself into getting into my sample box rather than going for the old favorites. All that work to heat the water and dirty up an infuser or teapot not knowing if it’ll be a cup worth drinking. . . especially considering how little time I have to devote to my tea rituals. . . it takes courage! and today I found some ヽ(^。^)丿

And what do you know, for the second time in a row, a sample turned out to be fantastic! I was worried about this one as it had so many so-so reviews, but at least nothing too negative. So I brewed it up and watched my second ever episode of Dr. Who (I actually sat down for the full 45 minutes this time! I know, No way right?)

I like this one quite a bit. The dry leaves smell so yummy and the final flavor doesn’t disappoint. I like the tea base in this and I like that the fruity apple flavor isn’t so strong to cover it up. I am always a fan of subtle flavor.

Sipdown #49

Finished this off with some unsweetened almond milk and agave. Mmm mm! Thanks to Shmiracles for the sample!

WOW! The dry leaf aroma is pure salted caramel! OMG, it smells INCREDIBLE!!! I’m brewing this up immediately!

I requested this tea from Shmiracles because I’ve heard so many great things about Mariage Frères teas. The downside is they’re so expensive and you can only buy large quantities of them. BUT, I’m going to France in October!!!! So, I figured I can save shipping costs and pick up some tea while strolling the streets of Paris! Still, it’d be best to try a few things first and figure out what I want to buy exactly.

And this brings us to today and my first Mariage Frères tea!!! Thanks Shmiracles!!!!

Wow! Have I already said wow? Well, let me say it again! WOW! The brewed tea aroma is even better than the dry leaf! It smells of black tea and salted caramel. Holy cow, this is going to be good! First sip sans additions…mmmm, malt and caramel show up first. Then a hint of bittersweet cocoa appears in the middle. Then more caramel, salted this time, appears at the end of the sip. THIS IS GLORIOUS!!!!!!!

I feel like cackling like a mad witch right now. This is a magical tea! First of all, it’s assam. And I don’t even like assam. Second, everyone finds it really strong and leaning towards bitter. I hate bitter and hardly ever drink black tea straight. But this is great straight! (Rhyme unintended). :P I’m sure with milk and sugar it would be a delicious dessert treat too. But even as is, it’s a really really delicious cup of tea!

Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable. I love this soooo much! I can’t wait to go to France to stock up on it. Wow! :D Thank you sooooo much to Shmiracles for sharing this amazing French creation! I am in love!!!!