Balthazar

I received this sample thanks to lovely cteresa

The dry leaf scent is fantastic as 99% of the MF blends. On the picture, it reminded me a lot Prince Igor but now I can see it “in real” it is different, dryer than Prince Igor.

The fragrance of the liquor is very special, very green, toasted green tea. This is to me the leading note, almost smoky and then, behind, almond.

Drinking it, to me the dominant flavour is exotic fruits and almond but a different almond from the one used for Pleine Lune, a dryer one less creamy.

It’s clearly not a spicy tea despite the presence of cinnamon (very discrete).

Balthazar has definitively its own personality as cteresa said.
To me it has nothing common with Pleine Lune except almond.It may not be its cousin…
Balthazar has the MF signature for sure. The exotic fruits are what I’ll remember from this blend, but non sweet exotic fruits.

A very nice tea (mix of green and black teas)

I went tea shopping, oh it was fun, but I run out of tins and containers. I really got to continue the purge.

This was one of my new buys, and maybe the one I was more enthusiastic about. The dry smell is just sublime – almond, a bit of cinnamon, something gingery and something fruity (the passion fruit I guess).

Brewed, it is lovely, but I screwed up making it. The MF website says 95 degrees for 3 to 5 minutes. I was afraid of putting such hot water in a mix of green and black tea, used colder water and well I got to test doing as they say.

The taste is slightly different brewed up, the almond is still very much there but tamed. The cinnamon (and other spices?) go to the background. The fruitiness is dry rather than sweet, reminds me a lot of this maracujá, passion fruit, liqueurs which are typical from Madeira and which I rather like. I misguidedly put some brown sugar on it and that was a mistake. The almond and spices puts this firmly in my mind in Pleine Lune territory, and honey does wonders to that tea, but Balthazar is just a different personality, Pleine Lune´s older cousin rather than her twin sister.

Ah, I think this would make an awesome Christmas tea, if you do not require a lot of body from a Christmas tea. Its scents are so Christmas-y to me!

Not your typical in your face flavored black tea by Mariage Freres. Floral and charming and a beautifully done black tea which I will have to spend more time on… or with? :)

I was surprised by this tea..to me, it has notes of dark chocolate and cherries- actually the first whiff of it reminded me of those old fashioned chocolate-covered cherries, but not sweet or cloying.