Marco Polo

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

I have the muslin tea sachets. This is a very floral-fruity tea…it would make a nice body fragrance/eau de toilette for the Spring/Summer months.

Aroma: Very floral-fruity with a slightness of tea aroma mingled nicely.

Taste: Again, very floral-fruity clean tea palate. This is a clear, clean tasting tea; I would imagine from Sri Lanka or the lighter of Indian teas. There is no mouth feel to speak of or thickness. The floral-fruity [not able to say which fruits or flowers] notes are the most prominent and the tea is a clean, clear compliment to the floral-fruity characteristics with a slight sweetness. A very nice, delicious tea.

Aftertaste: A clean, clear finish. No drying of the tongue, or thick mouth feel. Marco Polo finishes off clean, clear, floral and fruity with a little lingering sweetness but not overly done.

I would recommend this tea for an after dinner treat over fattening desserts…it is that delicious and sweet, but not cloyingly so. I would highly recommend this tea…a must buy!

The most popular flavored blend of Mariage Frères. Has fine bouquet of Chinese and Tibetan flowers & fruits.

When you can’t quite make it to Paris.

Fruitier than L’Opera, yet richer and heavier, so better for a kick. It can be overbearing, but this is one of my go to teas. Works well with honey. In fact, I wouldn’t have it without.

Happy National Freedom Day/Black History Month!

Well, January is gone and I am pleased with how my sipdowns turned out. My main goal was to clear out my 2017 tea stash, and other than still working my way through the 25g package of Yunnan Lily Black, I managed to finish off all the rest! With 2017 out of the way (won’t take me much longer now to finish off the Yunnan Lily Black!), my 2018 stash is rather large and daunting, as the bulk of my bad buying habits were during those two years. Onward ho?

Didn’t buy any tea in January either, aside from picking up a box of bagged tea I had a coupon for at the groceries (I definitely need to clear some space from the “bagged tea boxes” cupboard, and only managed to finish two of those last month, so I should probably try to focus some efforts there this month!) and some THE O DOR samplers from Dustin (thank you, Dustin!) I have never had French tea before, and have been curious reading all the tasting notes about it, but all the French companies sell in huge bags that I am just unwilling to buy anymore.

Looking for a black tea to drink for today (I do have a tea from Aesthete, a black-owned business, but it’s an herbal so that won’t be posted until this evening after I’ve switched to herbal brews for the night), I noticed I had this sampler in my stash, from AJRimmer! Oh, a French tea! Hey, I should try that! Thanks, AJ!

The dry leaf has a soft, gentle perfumy sort of fruity note, but it isn’t overbearing in any way. My head is killing me today and I just CBA to weigh leaf so I dumped a perfect teaspoon, steeped for 3 minutes, and hoped for the best. I’m picking out a brassy/malty quality from the aroma of the brewed cup, but mostly a soft, candy-like strawberry note.

This is a little more bitey than I personally prefer my black teas, which is an indicator that I did have more leaf than I need for my personal preferences in that scoop, so I’m finding the base a bit astringent/drying after the sip. And it does have a sort of brassy/mineral quality to the malty base. It’s coming off as the sort of black that I’d need to add milk to in order to smooth it out some. The perfumy strawberry note comes in later in sip and feels a bit waxy and coating on my tongue, perhaps from how strong the astringency of this tea is. It’s not a bad flavor, just a bad sensation. Other than the caffeine providing some mild relief to my pounding migraine, this cup just wasn’t working for me. Time to be un-lazy and try again.

So, measured 2.5g for 350ml, my preference for blacks, though based on the astrigency I got before and how small/broken the leaf appeared, I dropped my normal 3 minute steep time to 2 minutes (which I reserve for CTC blacks). This did result in a much more pleasant cup for me, with less coating/drying/overall bitterness. There was still some astringency/drying present, but gentle enough to enjoy without milking the cup. Still not sure how I feel about the flavoring; I like the floral-strawberry flavor (almost a lavender/lilac mixed with a sweet candied strawberry note) but still don’t really like the mouthfeel of it, which is still coming off as sort of waxy/oily. Do I still not have the prep narrowed in precisely enough? Is it the age of the sample, perhaps? Or maybe I just am not jiving with this one…

Very much looking forward to continuing to explore French teas!

This is the most mysterious, creamy but happy tea i have in my stash. I wish i was rich enough to gift a can to all of my friends and family. I like this tea a lot. I suspect it has vanilla, and thats funny because i HATE vanilla flavoured tea. I guess it’s done very well.

Okay, I guess I better go ahead and give this a number, finally. The reason I’ve avoided this is that Marco Polo and Wedding Imperial were in my very first “posh” tea buy, the purchase that put me on the road (not very long ago!) to trying more and more teas, and the reason I hardly drink coffee any more. But! I really overdid it with these two, to the point of making myself sort of sick of the taste of them … thus my delayed write-up.

To be honest, I would have waited longer, but I just got one of those fancy new gravity infusers, and had to give a thought about what tea to christen it with. Well, why not the first fancy tea I ever sampled? Marco Polo, then, yes. Unfortunately, I was also a bit hungry, and had eaten some salted almonds just before. Unwise. As a general rule, I’d guess that “don’t salt your mouth before tea tasting” might be a good one. At least it’s a good one for Marco Polo. My first few sips, black with a tiny bit of sweetener, were awful! “Bejabber!” I moaned, “And zooterkins! Truly I have bespoiled this once fair elixir by my own depraved intemperance!”

Luckily, though, those first sips did a good job of rinsing my mouth, and when I added more sweetener and some milk, my old love was back to the lovely, luxurious, creamy strawberry shortcake flavor I remembered. Maybe too much so, since now I’m tempted to have more … and more! But no, I’ve sworn I’ll not ruin any more delights with gross overindulgence. No, really.

/me hums innocently

fantastic aromatic tea. drinking at as i write this review. i get some berry aroma but for me the first aroma that hits your nostrils is the smell of chocolate as you open the tin. the berry flavours and aroma develops in the cup. drink with warm water only. no milk or sugar please.

When I wrote about the green version of this a while back, I was surprised to find I hadn’t written a note on the black version. I know I’ve had this before, but somehow never wrote about it.

I intend to try this at different temperatures and steeping times given the variety others have used. Starting with boiling for 3:30.

In the tin, I smell cocoa and berries. In the steeped tea, I smell berries and vanilla bean.
The berries I smell are red, rather than black or blue, but as between strawberry and raspberry, I get a bit of a mash up. There’s a sweetness that is very strawberry like, but it’s almost like it’s at a distance, which is very raspberry like.

The tea is a clear, medium-dark amber. I wouldn’t describe it as smooth in the sip, but it doesn’t have a bite, either. The aftertaste is quite smooth, though, with a somewhat silky mouthfeel. It’s got a magical French thing going on with the flavors, which are very like the aroma with the added bonus that they integrate and balance seamlessly with the tea base, which has a depth that gives the tea a lot of character.

It’s got to be one of the best I’ve had from Mariage Freres, so it’s no surprise it’s their signature tea. It’s not the best tea I’ve ever had, but it’s awesome and something I’ll want to keep around.