Mariage Frères

Sipdown, 165. Cold brew.

Let me tell you, this tea was freaking awesome cold brewed. Like, I want to buy a tin and keep it around just for cold brewing. Except that probably wouldn’t be very financially sound. It was so deliciously almondy, creamy, with light, juicy fruitiness. Here, it tasted like a macaron, delicious and sweet. If I was just rating the cold brew I would rate this into the 90s for sure.

Mmmmm another tea in the travel much yesterday. Mostly because this was a sipdown but I was fairly sure that my parents had managed to find more of this while in Paris. I was right – though the way my dad tells it, they had to go to 5 different shops and make the shop keepers dig through the back cupboards for it. But they succeeded. They picked up this one and wedding imperial for me, as well as a dragon well tea from another famous? Shop in Paris that specializes in Chinese tea. All I know currently is that it comes in the most interesting boxes and that I’d rather sneak my dads puerh and box lol but I 100% wil enjoy what they brought back. Dad also picked up mf’s most expensive? Or almost most expensive silver needle, which I haven’t yet tried :)

Another of the samples Ysaurella sent me – thank you again! Cara and I had this the other afternoon, but I had no chance to make a note then, so finished off the last of it in a small cup just for me. I think if this one had tasted as good as it smelled, I’d have been in trouble. I sniffed and pondered and sniffed some more, and finally came up with strawberries and cream with vanilla sugar. And some undefined but gentle floral note. Now, I haven’t eaten strawberries and cream for ages (although soya cream is a really good substitute these days), and have no idea if cream actually smells, but this is still what my sniffing was telling me. The cup itself didn’t have quite the same richness and depth of flavour, and again, my imperfect tasting gave me very slightly underripe strawberries, vanilla and again, that elusive light floral taste. (Is it the sunflowers? They sure look pretty, but even tasting one gave no clue as to whether or no they taste sweet. Yes, I do regularly taste the leaves after infusion!) Very nice, and the black & green tea base is very good – though I wouldn’t have got green myself, I don’t think. Perhaps if I hadn’t had Ysaurella’s careful preparation notes to hand I might have got the green in the bad way?

I’ve tried the Pleine Lune as well, but going to brew it up again for tasting note for that, but so far, I’m extremely happy that the Pouchkine has been the hit of the teas Ysaurella sent for me. This way, I know which Mariage Frères teas I want to get when I get to the London shop, but am not so smitten I have to pay MF shipping rates to Ireland Right. Now.

I’ve come to learn that I don’t care much for flavoured greens, but this is probably my favourite one. It’s also my favourite of the four mariage frères tins that I was gifted almost a year ago, and the only one I’d repurchase.

It drives me absolutely bonkers that I still don’t know what it’s scented with. That’s actually part of the reason I’ve taken so long to write a tasting note for it. I just end up frustrating myself with “mystery flavours” instead of enjoying the tea, which all of me agrees on being fruity sweet and mildly floral (isn’t that enough to know?).

The tea tastes light, smooth, and sweet, before an moderately astringent and tart finish- which makes me think citrus rind or seed. That smoothness reminds me of the best moments of a juicy orange, but I have a feeling that there is more than one fruit behind this cup. The lingering aftertaste is a gentle fruity sweetness.. like that of a ripe frozen persimmon!!! I tried frozen persimmons for the first time a week ago and I am almost positive that that is what I’m tasting. Sorry. Mid-tasting note epiphany. I’m so freaking excited; if I identified that right this tea puzzle would make a little more sense. Hopefully, that now familiar flavour sticks around in further sessions with this tea.

Backlog:

I selected this sample from Shmiracles as my after dinner tea with an episode of Merlin. I am surprised that there are so many just-average ratings for this tea. My only issue with it is that raspberry is my least favorite berry. Other than that, I think that this is an excellently blended tea. The flavors don’t taste too sweet or artificial and there is absolutely no questionable aftertaste (as I have found all too common with many flavored teas). This is like the tea version of a berry blend juice. If I liked raspberry more, I’d give it 100.

Backlog from yesterday.

I don’t think I know what a macaron. Is it the same as a macaroon? If so, then I don’t understand this tea at all. If its something different then, it may be ok. I’m not sure what I think of this tea. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t love it. I only steeped it for about 2 minutes and still was a tad bitter.

Thanks shmiracles!

No 11:
The dry leaf smells gently of mandarine & jasmine.
This was a pleasant cup, & I’ll probably give it another go before the box sets off to Canada.
NEXT!

Another tasty treat from shmiracles. I read the reviews ahead of time and was planning a 2.5 minute steep but I was 15 seconds late and this tea gets bitter fast! Luckily it wasn’t too bitter and the creamy chocolate and caramel still shine through. I really like this. I would really think about ordering more of this.

sipdown! thus beating my “goal” for this weekend of getting to 290. 289! and there’s still a few more hours left in the day….though maybe not too many since i am beat! release weekend = no sleep and we needed up having to roll back at the last minute so pretty much it was an all nighter for no reason. Now to see if we have to do it again in may or we bundle it into the june release. ugh.

final verdict no this tea? I’m not a fan. there’s a bitterness that i can’t seem to get rid of no matter how i steep it. It’s not a BAD tea but when i think about mousse au chocolat…there is no comparison for me! Still though, thanks so much shmiracles for this sample since i do love trying mariage teas! and even though it’s not the most amazing it was still a treat! :)

Another decadently exotic sample from Shmiracles.

I was pretty excited about this one. the leaves look and smell good enough to eat! The brewed cup isn’t quite so decadent (for me, anyway). It’s got a sort of tart or liquor-like flavor about it. The chocolate is there, but I’m not too fond of liquor flavor with occasional exceptions. I was hoping for more of a creamy backdrop for the chocolate.

But this really is all for the best. I still fear the day when I am tempted to spend more on shipping than on the tea in order to get it from afar!

Sipdown, 167.

When I started this note I was angry at having not gotten my car back from the mechanic even though he promised it to me today, but I just got a call and it’s done. This is especially important because I am driving it to DC tomorrow!

Anyway, this tea was made to soothe me… This time I made it strong with milk and sugar and it is deeeelish. So so chocolatey, and more mousse-like now. An indulgence, but a slightly less indulgent than actual chocolate mousse.

Thank you Shmiracles for this sample!

The dried leaves smell incredibly yummy. I checked on Steepster before I brewed it and took the advice to keep it short. I did 2min30sec.

I am picking up on the coconut flavor that one of you other reviewers mentioned too. I do absolutely love a good macaroon (and, incidentally, so does my siamese cat) or German chocolate cake, but I’ve never liked coconut in teas. It usually makes me feel sick. But this isn’t coconut though, now is it? It’s coconut-esqu minus the horrid after-taste that real coconut teas give me.

I do like it quite alright, but I’m not in love by any means. I’ve been pretty picky about dessert teas, so no surprise there. However, I like it a whole lot better than most of what I get from Della Terra. The sweetness of this one is not rediculously-over-the-top. Unfortunately, the coconut-like flavor, while not at all nauseating, is too reminiscent of the teas I don’t like and it is putting me off just a bit.

I’m afraid to try too many samples from exotic over-seas companies because i am afraid that I will love them and won’t be able to acquire them easily! I let my husband take a sip from my cup and he loved it. I told him, well, that’s too bad. (^o^)

I have the habit to drink the Dammann Frères Violette.
This one is just so different, incredible.
The DF Violette is more a candy Violette, the MF Violette is a flowery Violette.
That’s it ! I like both.
The tea base is really nice, smooth. The flavour is for sure floral and it just tastes like a violet. I get something additional, something like a hint of acidity, like a cloud of pure lemon juice- but I don’t think there is lemon, this is weird.

I like both blends but prefer the Dammann Frères one.

Let’s see how this one goes! Thanks again to Shmiracles for samples of these teas.

I was quite shocked by how many cocoa hulls are in this tea. I swear it is like half hulls and half black tea. As such, it smells soooo chocolatey dry, and also steeped. I steeped this one a bit cooler than I have previously with MF teas, hoping to combat any potential bitterness, although yes, I know, not all of their black bases are the same.

I seem to have a had some success! There is no doubting that this is chocolate! Quite a nice dark chocolate, and the base is smooth. There may be some tiny bitterness here, but it is like the bitterness of fine chocolate, like eating a really dark chocolate bar. Hmmm, I just got a sort of semisweet sip that was quite nice! This really is one of the most authentic chocolate-tasting teas I’ve tried, so major bonus points for that. Unfortunately for me, I’m not the biggest dark chocolate person. I know! I do enjoy it, but I also much prefer milk chocolate… I just don’t like bitter things, even bitter sweet. On the other hand, dark chocolate is better than no chocolate, so I am still enjoying this cup. Thanks again Shmiracles!

I am just coming back from the Mariage Frères shop Place de la Madeleine in Paris.
I needed to refill my box of Prince Igor …so bought 100gr BUT of course I cannot enter a MF shop without buying other teas…
I wanted to taste this one for ages so here it is !
I am terrible with vanilla : I had too much vanilla teas or ice creams made with a stupid artificial vanilla now I am suspicious.
I generally refuse any vanilla ice cream except those of 2 or 3 brands and I do the same with teas.

Knowing Mariage Frères I was sure the vanilla was a good vanilla and I am not disappointed at all.
This is a sumptuous Bourbon vanilla…meaning the Vanilla comes from the following islands ONLY : La Réunion, Mauritius,Madagascar or Comoros. This is the same Vanilla as the one used in Wedding Impérial but of course here no caramel and the tea base is not an assam but probably a Chinese tea and it is so mellow, awwwww love it !

This blend is perfectly balanced between the flavour and the tea base.
I think it can become one staple.

I got some of this from Dustin in a swap and also Scmiracles sent me some because she is totally awesome!!

I tried this once a few months ago at my local fancy tea shop, but then she never had anymore in stock. Speaking of fancy, I feel fancy when I drink it.

It does get pretty strong pretty fast and I remember the lady at the tea shop telling me this, so I steeped it at 95 degrees and only for about a minute and a half, I do not regret that decision as I can actually taste a hint of bitterness even at that time!

It’s delicious though, chocolatey and caramelly and the scent of the tea is intoxicating. I know it’s all in my head because it’s my curse to always want things I cannot have, but I swear it even SMELLS like quality. It’s so nice to be able to try this!

My ultimate life goal of visiting Paris one day (and England for that matter) is just emphasized now because when I get there someday, I will absolutely be raiding Mariages Freres!

Thanks so much for the samples, you guys :)
I am truly enjoying my cup of this while I rewatch Season 5 of True Blood, two of my favorite things at the same time, too much awesomeness!!

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

As a Spring Flush tea, this Jungpana represents a difficult tea to judge. In 2011, the First Flush Jungpana was among my favorites, highlighting all the tastes a fine Spring Darjeeling has to offer. In 2012, the Jungpana lost some of its flavor and was a very light tasting Darjeeling.

This 2013 Spring Flush Darjeeling is more similar to a Summer Flush than a Spring Flush. It has the bold, brisk, astringent taste of a Summer Tea. It retains some if it’s fruity flavor of years past but this is all together different when mixed in the the astringency and the bold taste.

As a Spring Flush Tea, it fails to please. It has none of the complex, light tasting, multitude, of floral and fruity notes. The stringency is strong, harsh, overbearing and does not accentuate the overall taste. Gone is the very slight, not at all sour stringency which brings together and heightens the taste of all the complex flavors.

Hopefully all the other teas of my purchase, will live up to the gold standard of a Mariage Freres Spring Flush tea.

I haven’t yet decided how I feel about this one. Thank you Shmiracles for this one! I’m going to refrain from rating this one, because I got busy and was unable to really take notes. I know that mousse au chocolat is still my favourite of the two but that’s as far as I can recall. This one impressed me less but it wasn’t bad at all!

This was really lovely, with lots of that bergamot fragrance I love and require. Going to have to savor this batch for sure, ‘cause for me once it’s gone it’s gone, alas.

My days lately have been starting out ok but then taking nosedives in the afternoon. Not good for my productivity, which makes me more upset and down (since part of my anxiety is about finishing off my dissertation). I needed a tea this afternoon that might improve my mood, and my intense love of macarons made me grab this one.

Surprisingly enough this is not my second or even my third macaron-flavored tea. And even though I had kind of written Mariage Frères off after a number of failed attempts with their teas (there is something about the black base they use for most of their flavored blends [eta: that I have tried] that I dislike), I jumped on the chance to get a sample of this from Shmiracles. Thanks so much!

The first thing I smelled in the dry leaf was almond, but then when I sniffed closer it was slightly floral and a bit fruity. I didn’t even realize that there was both apple and amaranth in here before I opened up the Steepster entry for it, but I guess they’re coming through! Steeped, it smells similar but more appley. Perhaps like an apple-almond pastry, which is to say not much like a macaron to me, but I’ve also never had (or seen) an apple-flavored macaron (side note: now I am thinking about macarons at Laduree and my mouth is just watering).

Hmmm, innnteresting. This reminds me of another apple tea I had once, I think it was a “sweet apple” blend from a tea house in London. Also, a bit like the Trois Noix from MF that I had. Nutty, yes, not particularly strongly almondy (but it’s macaron, not marzipan, so that follows), and definitely appley. Also, I’m afraid that it has a bitter aftertaste that I just can’t get behind. I mean, the main part of the sip is pretty tasty (though I would argue not particularly macaron-ish to my tastes), but the aftertaste grows out of it and it isn’t meshing with my tastebuds. I don’t think I have the courage to steep it for 13 minutes like Shmiracles who said that took care of her issues with the aftertaste, but maybe I’ll try it. I might also cold steep the rest of it because I always have prefered MF teas cold-steeped! :P

ETA: I just took a huge drink of this while also breathing in deeply through my nose, and suddenly got macarons. This tea has like a weird inverse parabola of tastiness for me where when hot it was tasty (no bitter aftertaste), then when it was warm it was not so tasty (strong bitter aftertaste), and now that it’s cooled further it is tasty again (waning bitter aftertaste). Oh, MF, pretty sure I’ll never “get” your teas.

shmiracles! I will have your little tea babies for this one :) i think there IS magic in this box after all.

So part of the reason i REALLY wanted to try this tea is that there’s an ongoing joke in my family about mousse au chocolat. My grandmere? She was from belgium and back in the day was one of the few woman in her day to train at le cordon bleu. It was there that she learned to make mousse au chocolat. As the story goes, she taught my dad to cook and shared with him the family recipe for mousse au chocolat. My entire life i have heard about my grandmere and her famous mousse au chocolat. Which my dad promised me when i was about 7, he would teach me to make…which he has never made in his life for us…which he still has not taught me how to make. And folks? i LOOOOOVVVEEEEE real mousse au chocolat…not to be confused with “chocolate mousse,” that they often serve in restaurants here in canada…which never seems as delicious as it ought to be…as the mousse au chocolat that i’ve had in france.

So when i found out about this tea via shmiracles, i had to try it AND coicidentally my parents were in Paris at the time. So my dad got an email from me: If you can manage it, i’d love for you to pick up this tea while you’re in Paris. I figure it’s the least you can do since you refuse to share grandmere’s recipe with me. :) All in fun of course. So now they’re back…and i suspect they found it somewhere in Paris, since i clearly challenged my father, but i won’t know until i see them again.

So for now, i’m content with this sample from Shmiracles…which is downright amazing! I lost track of steeping it..but this is delicious. It’s not sweet, it’s more like a rich dark chocolate mousse. i think with a bit of milk and sugar, this would turn into an amazing cup of chocolate goodness, but i love this the way it is. Dark and sinfully delicious.

Edit: resteep of this in the morning is also delicious!

So pretty with the flowers. Dry and brewing, the sweetness of almonds really comes out along with some floral notes—reminds me a lot of Korres’ Bitter Almond scented line of bath products (a compliment as it’s one of my favorite fragrances, and rather unique, not just the usual everyday “nut” scent found in products).

Funny about the Korres Bitter Almond aroma, because upon drinking it reminds me of their Vanilla Cinnamon line. The spices are warm and sweet, and there’s some cherry and vanilla too. All of these things in, say, a cheap drugstore lipgloss, that is to say artificial with a heavy hand, would turn me off, but here they’re beautiful and intoxicating. That said this is indeed quite sweet, so you have to be in the mood for that.

I have a feeling I’m going to have to mete out my MF experiences in order to prevent getting too used to the loveliness, ‘cause my across-the-ocean US pocketbook can’t afford to make them a habit. Hope I don’t start to feel like Icarus flying too high towards the sun only to get burned, ha.

Sample Sipdown!

This is the final sample from my trade with Ysaurella, which was a wonderful trade for myself, but not so good for her, as the package I sent got stuck in customs…or drank by somebody there?

Tomorrow will mark a week that I sent a 2nd package. Everybody think successful thoughts, please? It seems like everybody else’s packages have made it through. Hopefully mine will as well!

This is a flavorful tea with just the right amounts of almond, vanilla, orange, cinnamon, & cloves. It does have a very celebratory holiday taste. Thank you so much, Ysaurella, for all of the lovely teas that you sent to me! :D

My dad picked up an ounce of this at an unidentified specialty food store, and I’m just going to have to make him identify it, because wow. This is some luxurious tea.

The dry leaves smell really sweet, sort of like vanilla caramel. I saw that people were having issues with bitterness, so I kept my steep time at 3 minutes (per usual) and used a bare teaspoon of leaf and never had a problem at all. In fact, this is the creamiest tea I’ve had to date. It feels amazing in my mouth and really does taste like milk chocolate caramel. I think the assam is present enough to keep it from being too sweet, but I can see this being classified as a decadent dessert tea. (My dad says it had better be fantastic at the price he paid, so I am definitely not going to ask him, haha.)

Truly sad to see the bottom of the bag on this one.