Vivaldi

I had an odd amount left over in the packet after transferring this to a tin, so I thought I’d steep it in the interest of clutter reduction. I suspect that I may have under rated some of the other Mariage Freres blends because I was feeling my way into my system for the teas with the French thing, a/k/a the je ne sais quoi, at the time. I would discount from this the ratings on the Earl Grey and the Breakfast Blends because those I would have rated much more along the lines of others of their ilk rather than the more mysteriously flavored blends.

I went a bit to the opposite extreme with this today. I overleafed and steeped hotter than before.

I think the happy medium is going to be overleafing, but slightly less, and steeping just a little cooler. The first time I had this it was a tad on the thin side, and today it is perhaps just a smidge too strong. However, I can definitely enjoy the flavors today.

What those flavors are is apparently a mystery. Mariage Freres’ description doesn’t say and some folks are getting tropical fruits from this. I’m not, really, though the banana reference makes some sense, because of the creamy interplay with the fruits. To me, it’s mostly dark red fruit. Berry, more raspberry than anything else but maybe a little strawberry, and some plum/prune/currant. Definite red fruit notes. And something along the vanilla/chocolate continuum. I found a seller on the internet who says this is chocolate and cassis. http://www.furansunocafe.com/produits.php?no=400&lg=en&base=salon_de_the That makes sense to me, but it’s not overly important.

With the magical French blends from Mariage Freres, Dammann Freres, etc., the individual flavors concern me less than they do with other blends. I’ve said before that I like to be able to distinguish each flavor even if the tea takes an ensemble cast approach.

But the French blends seem to beg for a more impressionistic tasting experience. I often feel while I’m drinking them that I’m tasting them through the gustatory equivalent of Renoir’s dappled sunlight, or Monet’s reflections off the pond at Giverny. Whether I can distinguish chocolate or black currant, or any other flavor for that matter is about as important to me with this tea as finding a hard edge in a Monet painting.

Which is to say, not at all.

Mariage Frères describes this tea on their web-site as: “A highly original orchestration of the essences of selected fruits. Harmonious aroma and flavour.”

Very helpful! What selected fruits are in the orchestra? They promise harmony and not cacophony. I got this tea based entirely on the name. I know that I’m a Pavlovian dog when it comes to names. If Lipton’s packaged their tea bags as “Beethoven’s Ninth Tea” or as “Van Gogh’s Struggles” or as “Jay Gatsby’s Jazz Age Party Tea” I’d probably be slurping it up.

Yes, name yourself or your tea “French Impressionism” or “Italian Opera” and you’ve got my credit card number. In this case, however, Mariage Frères did not disappoint me. I get a taste of vanilla and chocolate both along with a fruity mélange of perhaps strawberries or currents? The fruit is hard to pin down but I know it’s there. The aftertaste is not to be trusted but having had a full mug I will say this: aftertaste of banana? Or a little pineapple?

Yes, this is a symphony of fruity chocolate with some vanilla. Have you ever had a “banana baby?” They sell them in my local supermarkets: http://www.dianasbananas.com/our-products/

Anyhow, elegant tea is delicious and the aftertaste runs riot in the mouth mimicking the essence of a Diana’s Banana Baby. It seems like a very French thing to do—a bricolage of high and low art; bringing Vivaldi to the tropics; having Jerry Lewis be the lead tenor of a Bach Requiem Mass.

I’ve been tasting a lot of French flowery/fruity/chocolatey tea of late and it’s often difficult to distinguish them. What makes each one unique? Vivaldi has most certainly established itself on my palate as distinctive. As Randy Jackson might say to this tea, “You’ve made it your own”.

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

This is from Doulton! Thank you!

Mariage Freres does not provide much in the way of a description for this tea. So it’s up to me to try and figure out what is in this. I love a challenge – bring it on!

The scent is reminiscent of chocolate covered strawberries. Upon tasting, I’m getting something creamy (banana?) and the faintest hint of tart raspberry. This is most interesting. One of the things I’m enjoying about this is that it doesn’t seem to be astringent. It has some creaminess, like vanilla or banana, that calms down the black tea. I think adding some milk to this would put the creamy factor on 12.

I recommend anyone who wants a tea adventure to try this. Since it lacks a description, it doesn’t fill your head with subliminal thoughts of what you’re supposed to taste. And since I’m not sure if all of the notes I detected were truly there, I can conclude that this tea was full just general delicious things.

I only have one more cup’s-worth after this one…bummer…BUT…Today I paired this with some Chocolate Granola I made last night and I am chomping on that and sippin’ on this…and let me tell you it’s a perfect match!

I do see that I have to hurry up and get with today’s steepster trends…so stay tuned…I’ll play…why not! LOL

I broke into this black tea and swore it was going to be another berry or dark fruit monster. I don’t mean monster like The a l’opera, that’s strawberry shortcake on crack and I mean that in the best of all possible ways. Vivaldi has the aura of something so sinfully familiar to one who loves to bake or craft personal creme brulees.
There is a section in my cupboard of goodies devoted to the various forms of vanilla and to open this said cabinet is a delight. I honestly can’t say I can tell all the differences between my vanilla but I know what I use each of them in.

Vivaldi is a voluptuous bourbon vanilla in the strictest of senses. She is loud verging on fruit but soothing, dark and tempting… If Dita VonTesse was a tea, I might say this was her. This is not a tea I would share excepting with the “boyfriend who would draw me a bath on a bad day!”

I will place this tea in my “waiting for my prince to come” category, which includes the sappy chick-flick night.

Vanilla-y. Mmmm.