Mariage Frères

SIPDOWN! This was a lovely tea to have been lucky enough to receive from ysaurella Merci encore madam! I love the sweet delicious caramel. I am still torn by all the lovely teas that she sent as to which was my favourite.

Another tea from ysaurella! Ill refrain from rating this until I can get back to my computer but I am thoroughly enjoying the delicious caramel and chocolate of this tea. Even my other half tasted this and liked it. Altogether win from marriage freres!

Thank you so much madam!

Thanks to Sil for this sample.

I can’t recall if I have ever had a straight yunnan before. I find this taste to be odd. Not odd in a bad way, it’s just different than what I expected. I did brew it at work so I have no control over the temp of the water I used but it was probably under boiling point.

The tea brews a nice golden colour. It smells sweet and maybe a hint of vanilla. The tea tastes light and kind of sweet and earthy. There is a bit of an astringent aftertaste but it not too bad.

This is a nice light breakfast tea in comparison to a strong one like English breakfast.

Thanks to cteresa for sending me this!
I love mariage freres tea, however never tried their teabags.
The muslin teabags looked so cute!

When I opened it, I smelled something very fruity.
I couldn’t wait to try it so I brewed in a pot. Maybe I added too much water?
When I brewed it, I couldn’t smell much fruits anymore.

In terms of taste – it was very mild, easy to drink.
No bitterness, just very mild green tea taste.

Overall, I liked it! I just wish I brewed it better.
Interestingly though, after I finished a pot and smelled a pot, it smelled just like the tea leaves. I don’t know why I couldn’t sense the scent when I was drinking.

I was afraid to try this hot, so i opted for a cold brew on this one instead because of the scent. It turns out, cold brew was not the way to go on this one. It was bitter and perfumey and citrusy. I had a couple sips and then had to say no. Into the share pile it goes as I’m fairly confident that even hot i won’t enjoy this much. Thanks to Ysaurella though for the chance to try a new tea! :)

Thank you Sil for this sample.

This tea smells delicious. It smells like a strong black tea but there is a berry smell to it, red berry, maybe strawberry. The smell is a mystery.

The taste of the tea can be descibed as nothing other than delicious. Ther e is the subtle black base, but there is also a strong berry taste. I would say a mix of strawberry, blueberry and sweet cherry flavours.

Thank you Sil for giving me the opportunity to try this tea. I think it is just going to have to go on the shopping list.

SIPDOWN!

I cold brewed the last of this sample from Ysaurella the other day and I can say that this is a MUCH better tea cold brewed. It becomes a lot less floral and the blending of the green tea just works out better. Glad i got to try this one cold brewed.

Hmmmm my preferences run to black teas instead of green. That being said, this isn’t a terrible tea. It’s a little perfumey for me, but it’s not a terrible tea. As i’ve come to see, marriage blends their teas very well so that you get both the flavours and the tea base. Would i purchase this for myself? No, but only because I am not overly a fan of floral/perfumey type green teas.

Thank you Ysaurella for sharing this with me! :)

While i am still enjoying this tea, i think i like it less than i used to. There’s something about the blending of the spices that i’m just “over.” That doesn’t make the tea any less delicious, it’s just not really for me anymore.

french tea for paris planning lol. I am still enjoying this tea, and i really love the muslin bag sachets that MF has. Something about them just feels fancy! haha. I really don’t feel like i drank enough tea today. Ah well… c’est la vie!

noms. this as a tea latte was exactly what the doctor ordered this evening. I’m trying to decide what else to have tonight but for now, the addition of milk to this just smooths out the edges and makes this a wonderfully divine treat!

i haven’t had a chance to drink any tea tonight because i had three orders to organise. I really wanted to at least get the teas in to my cupboard and my spreadsheet so that after i package up my tea care packages this weekend, i’ll be able to organise my ACTUAL cupboard. lol i like having this one from time to time, so i’m glad i picked up the teabags over christmas. i don’t need a TON of this in my cupboard but i do like the blend of spices in this one, especially with just a teeny, tiny bit of sweetner.

Final Count: 113 and a new tea pet!

got distracted tonight… picked this up at holt’s today and came home and promptly had a cup. I could only get this in the tea bags but they’re beautiful muslin bags so i’m quite happy with them, especially since they’re still less than 1$ per cup. :) It’s nice to have this one back in my cupboard for a bit….just wish i could get american breakfast!

Final Count: 67

Sipdown! Thank you ysaurella for this one! I have really enjoyed getting to sample this one. It’s not my favourite of the batch that she sent my way but it is for sure one of my top picks from her. The cherry notes trailing in the background of the sip are what makes it for me. It’s not an overly fruity tea at first sip and then bam! Hello cherry almond! :)

Here’s to a great Good Friday! Full of tea and being out in the sun….soonish ;)

mmmm… I received this one in a swap with Ysaurella I am really enjoying this one. I’m not sure if it’s the sample that i received but i’m not getting as much of the cherry notes as others. I really like the smoothness of this tea – the base blends really nicely with the flavours. i really like the spices in this tea. Now that I’ve been sitting with this tea for a bit, the cherry comes out at the end of the sip in the after taste. it lingers in my mouth, blending with the spices in sips that come after.

Thank you so much for this Ysaurella

I am almost out of this one. At first when I tasted it this month, I was relieved that the bitterness in this one was gone from aging, but also gone were a lot of the other notes I liked in this tea. Oh well, I wonder how the 2014 teas are going to be…

Could it be that this is actually better now that it’s aged a little bit? It could be that or the fact that I have been seriously working on my over-leafing habit. Either way, it was kind of too tannic for me at first. This is quite nice, but I don’t know if I’ll order this again soon. It’s pretty pricey for something that I don’t really love, but maybe it’s worth it for someone who loves First Flush Darjeeling Teas.

Yum. Following the steeping instructions from Mariage Frères’ website makes so much of a difference. This tea now lives up to the rating I gave it. I had a feeling that the flaws I was tasting were due to too much leaf or too long of a steep (or both). Thanks Excelcior for pointing out the error of my ways!

At first I was very much underwhelmed by this one. But the more I drank it, the more I liked it. The finish I found to be too tannic and bitter. I do think I may have over-leafed this one, and that may be the reason for the harsh aftertaste. I’m giving this a hopeful rating, but I will knock it down if using less leaf doesn’t improve the finish.

Wow! I’ve been on a green tea kick lately. This was a sample from Crowkettle
and I must say, this little guy is pretty darn good! The leaves are just beautiful and it has this light, sweet and fruity taste. The smell is a cross between fruity and floral.
Just mmm!

This was my cup of the morning. I meant to reach for the Margaret’s Hope FF, but put this one into my teapot instead. The infuser was still damp from being washed, so I couldn’t put the leaves back. I was hoping I would like this tea better the second time drinking it…

The dry leaves had a very sweet smell. The mouthfeel was really smooth. I could smell some cherry, sandalwood, light florals. It left a mint-like cooling sensation and closed up the back of my throat a little bit (not drying, but a tightening). For as green as this tea is, it has some strong tannins! I was actually disappointed that the flavor of the tea wasn’t more interesting. The aftertaste was very weak.

Well, the first tea I’ve ever tried from New Zealand… And I wasn’t disappointed!

Dry leaves: sweet, typical oolong scent, with a hint of condensed milk

Taste / Mouth Feel: The sweetness of the vanilla really comes through; it reminds me of a milk oolong in some respects, like the relatively heavy, silky mouth feel. There is a ‘green-ness’ to it that the milk oolongs don’t have, though this doesn’t – to me! – taste as pronounced as the usual difference between a ‘standard’ and a milk oolong. This tea reminds me of a custard cream biscuit dunked in some oversteeped assam – biscuity, custardy sweetness with a tinge of bitterness.

Brewing Particulars: I used MF’s recommendation of 95 degrees for 5 minutes.

Subsequent brews: This tea carried itself for two brews, but by the third steeping, it was losing the sweet notes, and gaining a little bitterness.