Mariage Frères

50% zesty fruits, 50% quality china green, indeed refreshing. I bought this for the collector tin and to get a break from all the floral Mariage Frères stuff. I might get Iskandar next. I am toying with the idea of making cocktails with those.

Devastatingly floral sencha. I added rose syrup to make it less heady/spicy. It does smell like a garden only an old lady could properly take care of.

Backlogged.
Om nom nom.

I just read this is Dita Von Teese’s staple, then remembered I have this in my cupboard!
Went on to try it with sweetener and almond milk.
Lesson: Always trust Mariage Frères.

I’m not really a black tea * shame * fan but this tea’s good on it’s own and has a great violet aroma. Might try it iced. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking.

What a beautiful tin! Well, it does hurt my eyes a little.
I think this one is limited edition, so I’m reviewing this one more for fun than posterity.
The dry smell is ultra-citrusy – but – when brewing you can smell the peonies and fruits alot more. The color of the tea is clear forest green (!).
On to the taste, it’s so sweet (and without tartness), flowery, an fruity. Refreshingly green. Not one bit harsh or bitter. This tea is a miracle. You could just leave it steeping, forever, and it would never turn it’s back on you. It’s a feminine beauty. It’s the happy QUEEN.

400ml of water at 195F
1 generous table spoon of tea
Steeping time 5 minutes (yes, 5 minutes)
1/4 teaspoon of highly refined sugar

Teapot warmed and rinsed with hot water. Tea leaves placed into the teapot and left standing for 30+ seconds to build up the aroma.

A very green tea with a fresh scent. This First Flush Darjeeling is very different in taste when compared with other FF Darjeelings from Mariage Freres. Floral and almost grassy in tea, in leans toward a fine Japanese Green tea in flavor. The astringency is stronger in this tea than other Mariage Freres Darjeelings which leads to a slightly sour aftertaste. This is my wife’s favorite tea out of all the 2012 FF Darjeelings we have. As for my rating, it is slightly lower than previously reviewed Darjeeling. This is due to the higher astrngency masking the depth in taste of this tea. I have lowered the steeping times in several brews which controls the astringency yet the shorter time tends to decrease the release of the different flavors this tea contains.

As with all FF Mariage Freres Darjeelings, this is also an exceptional tea.

400ml of water at 195F
1 heaping tablespoon of tea
Steep for 4 minutes
1/4 teaspoon of highly refined sugar

As I usually do for all Darjeeling, I heat the teapot with hot water, then discard the water, add the tea and let it stand for 30 seconds allowing the aroma of the tea to develop. The green scent of the tea is on the moderate side.

This 2012 First Flush Namring was quite a surprise and completely different from the 2011 First Flush Namring. While the 2011 had a very pronounced green/freshness in taste, the 2012 has a better balance of flavor, taste, aroma, and contained all of the classic qualities of a FF Darjeeling. The astringency is very slight adding body and character to the tea. The flavor is bold and brisk yet not over powering. All of these characteristics makes the 2012 FF Namring an exceptional Darjeeling.

The flavor fully opens up after 3 minutes of steeping. Very smooth from the first sip, and there is little to no aftertaste.

A smooth bodied fruit tea, that smells deliciously and tastes even better.

I went to one of my favorite stores yesterday, and came across this tea. I’ve never heard of this french company before then. It looked like a pretty good tea to try. It says it’s the perfect tea for 5:00, but I had it with breakfast today. The smell was floral, and fruit-like. The leaves were very typical of a Darjeeling: multiple colors of green, yellow, and light brown. The tea leaves were actually quite beautiful looking.
Because this is the first tea of this company I’ve tried, I decided to do a “quality check”, to make sure the stem to leaf ratio was small. Thankfully it was. I brewed the tea for about 4 1/2 minutes, at which point I decided that was enough to taste the full body. The aroma of the brew also smelled floral, but lost it’s fruity scent. To me, the tea tasted great. It seemed like the mixture of a white and a black tea. It was as smooth as silk, and filled with flavor. It wasn’t too brisk, nor too light. It sat somewhere in the middle. This company seems promising enough to try some of their other teas, which I hope are as good as this.

Smooth and delicious.

Le the n’est pas parfait. Je savait c’est le meme qualite de Twinings….

How’s that for some bad French! I will say that the tea is better than my French, but this tea can often be a bit strong with the flavors, not letting the tea shine through. Overall, a good tea, I probably won’t reorder it though. I got it as a gift from an uncle who visited France, and I think that it is ideal as a gift tea. It looks quite French in the packaging, and it is loose leaf.

I remember the first time I found this tea, I was in the Mariage Frères on the Place de La Madeleine, it’s a funny little shop without the full tea room as you would find (for example) in Rue Bourg Tibourg in the 4th, no this was in an area surrounded by the exclusive epiceries of Hédiard and Fauchon. Thus, though they did not have a tea room (why bother when you are competing with Laduree too?) they carried quite an extensive range of teas, not to mention a complete selection of the paraphanalia of tea: everything from sables au the (Tea flavoured biscuits!) to mousselines de coton (muslin tea bags, either filled with your tea or empty) to théières (tea pots sounds much more profound in French!) and all sorts of items.
Thus, the sight of this tea on my shelf in it’s bag, and even the handwriting of the lovely man who sold it to me, still make me think of the discovery of this wonderful tea – why? Because it reminded me that it’s not all the same, not every tea is the same.

And how, is this “fruit green tea blend” (how boring sounding??) so different?
Well, firstly, from the first wiff when you open it, you are hit in the face by Lavender – uniquely, it has not just the flowers but, I remember the Mariage Frères assistant pointing out, the oil of lavender and rose in it – so it’s quite unique because lavender is not used that often in blends of tea, because it can be overpowering.
In amongst the flowers, there are herbs like rosemary and thyme, which also feature strongly in the scent, and touch on the taste too. Amongt the herbs, you can subtlely taste the flowers (rose, violet) and the fruits (lemon, orange, berries).

The other thing i love about this tea, is after transporting me to Paris on looking at it and deciding to grab it off the shelf, when I open it I am then transported to Provence: over a month spent walking the hills of Venasque (nr Avignon), smelling the lillies, the lavender, walking through “le voie des cerises” – the avenue of cherries, and finally spending hours carefully tending vineyards in the early spring to get them ready to bud and grow all summer.
All of that, in a tea, not sure how that is possible, but it does remind me of it!

The brewing?
I would definitely use 1.5 desert spoons for a 6 cup pot, and use water off the boil, and brew very quickly with this particular tea – the colour comes out a very awesome bright green, and is super refreshing, like drinking a valley full of flowers and trees.
I can recommend it any time of day, but I think the lavender definitely gives it an aspect of unwinding, so perhaps evening is better.

Anything else?
Just an lovely tea, exceptionally well blended – I gave the man in the shop a description of what I was looking for: not a black tea, something a bit outside the box, with unusual flavourings that blend well with a lighter tea and he pondered for a while, and found me 3 different teas (including this one) and I think I bought all three!

Finally, the masterpiece I have been building up to.
This is the first Marco Polo Blend I tried, I had been obsessing about Rooibos for years, and then when I found this I bought 100g in a Boite du Thé withouth trying it, and have since got a re-fill of 200g on a successive Paris visit.
The is something just amazing about this blend, I can drink it any time of day, with or without milk, and never ever get sick of it, I’m “always in the mood” for this tea, and it helps me set to work on the task at hand.
How to brew?
I put 2/3 desert spoonfuls of it in a 6 cup pot, as rooibos doesn’t suffer from tannins and I can re-steep the hell out of this baby.
Water has to be boiling or just off, and I prefer to warm the pot as it makes it brew better, and it’s fine with milk or without, if I have brewed it strong with milk is best.
Anything else?
Colour, once brewed, is lovely, taste is so fruity and rich and warm, not at all heavy, a really excellent brew!
And very reasonable in price too.

So, I have almost completed the round robin of all the Marco Polos – and I am determined to finish! As I said on the Thé Blanc of the same name, the Marco Polo Flavour is simply beautiful.
I was in fact drinking this yesterday, I suddenly rediscovered all my Mariage Frères teas that had been hiding in their beautiful Boites du Thé!
It may seem unncessary to have a green and a white version of this tea, but honestly, it tastes so different, and the brewing is so different.
How would I brew?
Well, 2 desert spoonfuls of leaves in a 6 cup pot, simply because I like to re-steep, and if you don’t have enough of the flowers in there the later brews taste like straight green tea otherwise.
Brew this one, easily for close to 3mins, this makes sure the flowers have come out into the tea properly.
And I ‘d say 85 degrees, so not as cool as the white tea, but not boiling either because I prefer a calmer slower brew with slightly less hot water – and I found the re-brews benefitted from this too.
What about taste?
It’s fresh, light, cool and sort of like drinking a forest – that sort of dewey taste you get when you breathe in your garden early in the morning!
And the successive re-brews are just beautiful too, definitely worth 3 (I might have done 4 last night actually!). And I always notice how lovely a colour this is when it brews in the pot, no murkiness to be found her, just a lush grass green.
Anything else?
Absolutely worth it, comes in a “Boites du Thé” for 100g, which is the most efficient way to purchase this if you want a tin, because it costs less than buying the tea and a boites separately, and the Mariage tea boites are excellent quality, with beautiful images and a proper label instead of my illegible writing!

I don’t actually own this tea, I only ever drink it if I am in a Mariage Frères teahouse and have the opportunity to drink it at my leisure, when they have brewed it to perfection for me!
This tea is clearly very very popular, so I won’t go and review it again, we all know the blend is awesome and special.
For anyone who likes this tea, I would strongly recommend:
Thé Blanc Marco Polo
Thé Vert Marco Polo
Marco Polo Rouge
And finally, Sablés au Thé, au Saveur du Marco Polo Noir – these are “tea biscuits”, flavoured with the original marco polo tea flavourings, but they aren’t sweet or savory, just somewhere in between – one of these goes perfect with your first cup of Marco Polo of the day! They are available on the Mariage Frères website: http://www.mariagefreres.com/boutique/FR/fa+sables-au-the-marco-polo+E33.html
Voila, enjoy!

I have always loved the Marco Polo flavourings, but there is something truly special about having them mingle so beautifully with the flavour of Pai Mu Tan.
How do you brew?
As with any white tea – concentrate on your brewing methods. I prefer “lighter” teas to not have very much of a bitter/overbrewed sensation when I drink them – if I wanted that I’d buy tea that was supposed to be brewed darker.
Consequently, I own every variety of Marco Polo except the Black tea version (although there are some beautiful Sablés au Thé flavoured with Marco Polo Noir which I would recommend to have with you first cup of the day!).
Back to Thé Blanc Marco Polo – I use a 6 cup pot and about a desert spoonful of tea in the infuser, unless I know I want to rebrew several “quick light” brews, then I will add a little more and steep a little less to get more out of these beautiful but expensive leaves.
I brew for 2mins 30s, check colour and if necessary for another 1 minute. Water temperature, has to be off the boil completely – I would recommend boiling the kettle walking off and doing something for 5 mins before coming back to pour. I have definitely noticed this makes the second brew of the same leaves easier and tastier.
How should I describe this tea for flavour?
Like the Thé Jaune d’Or, also by Mariage Freres, this is a light and refreshing tea – not so much a comfort drink to have late at night, or an envigorating wake up tea to be had first thing – this is a during the day tea, in which you can taste the fruit (esp first brew) and the warm honey and vanilla, with complements the warm honey character of the Pai Mu Tan underneath – but it also has a chocolatey note, especially in the raw leaves.

This sencha sakura smells disgustingly sweet—not only is it flavored/scented by cherry blossoms, but the recipe uses quite a bit of cherry oil as well. It smells almost like Dimetapp, a children’s cold syrup. And it tastes like it, too. There is no subtlety to the flavor. The smell overpowers and delivers the same medicinal taste. I can hardly taste the Sencha, because the cherry overpowers so much.

I must admit, I do not usually like fruity/scented teas (other than jasmines), so if you do like strong scents/fruity flavors, this tea may be for you. However, I have had sencha sakuras that are scented/flavored with cherry blossoms alone, and they were much more tasty and subtle in flavor. The cherry just enhanced the sencha—rather than taking over the entire experience as it does in this tea.

So, I FINALLY have a weekend off! I had been working 18 days straight, then I had a weekend conference in Maryland… and finally this weekend came rolling around. I felt like I haven’t had a chance to relax and breathe. Now is the chance. I came home and opened my tea cupboard. :)

I received a sample of this in a swap. I’m sorry I forgot who gave this to me. Who was it? Thank you so much! This tea is absolutely delicious. I had no expectations since I didn’t know much about this tea. I only knew that it was a black tea that had a fruity and floral scent to it. I only am reading the description now. On my tongue, it is slightly sweet and tasted very much like strawberries. I LOVE STRAWBERRIES! This is so good. There is mild astringency, but with sugar it nearly went away. I would imagine this is good in milk. I bet this would taste like strawberry milk!

This was the first Darjeeling I ever had from Mariage Frères, and I still buy it regularly. It is quite tasty and a great deal for its price. Definitely not the most delicate Darjeeling Mariage offers, Darjeeling Princeton is a great everyday tea that’s quite soothing.

I’ve found that steeping to 5 minutes, as the site suggests, makes the tea a bit bitter for me—I prefer a steeping time of slightly over 3 minutes. The tea steeps to a golden brown color. The taste is lightly woodsy but rich. I like to drink it in the morning.

I received this sample from cteresa and the following was written before I looked it up on Steepster.

I smell… coconut, vanilla and some sort of fruit.

The flavour is a bit rough, which I attribute partly to the base and partly to the heavy coconut note. There really is a little too much coconut in here for me. I get vanilla in the aftertaste and around the edges, but that fruit is eluding me. I can tell it’s there, because there is a depth to the coconut and vanilla which I get the impression wouldn’t otherwise have been there, but I’ll be darned if I can find that note on it’s own in any way at all, much less find out what I think it is. My bet is on something tropical because pineapple strikes me as something that would fit in here.

And then I looked it up to see that it’s a blend of Assam, chocolate and caramel.

What?

Okay, caramel and vanilla can be confused so what I perceived as vanilla is probably the caramel. Chocolate? Hmmm, perhaps that has something to do with the coconut-y note, although I do still think it’s more coconut-y than anything else. I’m not really sure I’ve ever met a chocolate flavoured tea that I though was truly chocolate-y, which is kind of funny considering how often that note shows up naturally. No fruit, but an Assam base. I can’t find any Assam characteristics underneath the flavouring, but I think that accounts for the sort of rough, slightly astringent feeling of it. Perhaps it’s the maltyness that cheated me into thinking there was fruit involved?

Perhaps it’s because I subconsciously expected this one to be similar to the wedding blend from Harney&Sons?

Perhaps it’s because I’ve got so used to my flavoured black teas being on a Chinese base that it never occurred to me that it might be something else entirely?

Perhaps my tongue just needs to be calibrated?

It’s a pleasant tea, though. Even if it has caused rather a lot of confusion this morning.