Mariage Frères Advent 2021 – Day 12
The third advent tea that’s part of the “In Love” series – which consists of bagged green oolong mixed with blue pea flowers. sigh This is not my favourite collection (make oolong looseleaf), but I also feel super pampered with this focus on green-ish teas.
This one says it contains notes of plums and cherries (as per tea satchet label), and rose petals (on the website description). It’s all pretty light and, at first, indiscernible from the past fruity oolong teas. But then it opens up for me; the stone fruits are bursts of subtle honeyed fruit sweetness, and provide a less subtle signature tangy sour quality to the finish. These flavours build as I continue to sip, as does the dryness. Halfway through, the fruity floral sweetness is near candy-like (and I am thinking of Japanese sweets now – especially rose flavoured hard candies). The floral and vegetal base is hard to discern from the blush of added flowers, which possess similar notes.
Steep Count: 2 – this tea is not great when it cools. Nope.
Flavors: Butter, Candy, Cherry, Drying, Floral, Honey, Mineral, Nectar, Pepper, Plum, Rose, Smooth, Sour, Stonefruit, Sweet, Tangy, Vegetal
I don’t think there’s much tea leaf in the tea bag, and it’s weirdly light (ethereal!) even for an oolong, so I started doing this near the end too!
I think the peaflowers take up a bit of space in the bags. The Milky Blue Absolu leaves unfurled significantly when released from the bag, but it didn’t have a bunch of other ingredients like the peaflowers in it.
Yeah, the Milky Blue was alright! Also, another reason to be resentful of the peaflowers..