Thé à l'Opéra

Clue No. 2

(See my tasting note for this tea:

http://steepster.com/teas/todd-and-holland/3917-german-breakfast-tea

for an explanation of the game.)

This is my first Mariage Freres green tea and I’m excited. In the can, it looks like sencha and it smells really dreamy. I can smell the greenness, but also a really delicious fruity aroma that is strong but at the same time (to me anyway) avoids the medicinal.

The tea steeps rather more yellow than I’d expected if this is in fact sencha. It smells lovely. I’m not sure what is in here, exactly, but to me it smells like cherries, raspberries, strawberries and maybe some apple. On the spice front I’m not so sure, though I could be persuaded there is a hint of vanilla in here.

I have had so many disappointing flavored greens, I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of taste on this one, but I was pleasantly surprised. First, the tea is absolutely present in the taste, and it isn’t bitter in the least. It’s a somewhat buttery, somewhat vegetal, somewhat herbaceous taste. And the fruit stands up to it without taking it over entirely. It is very well balanced compared to other flavored greens I’ve had.

Maybe I’m just really excited to find a flavored green besides the Samovar Moorish Mint that I’d like to drink again, but I have to give this one a fairly high rating for being in such a (so far, anyway) limited club.

From the beginning, Thé à l’opéra is a shock.

First an olfactive shock with dry leaves : candy berry flavour is so present that we have the impression to open a bottle of perfume rather than a tin of tea.

Drinking it, the taste is not so violent.
The vanilla is really creamy and is a perfect base for the sweet taste of strawberry. Vanilla & Berry’s balance is perfect to me.

The green tea is absolutely not astringent and not bitter (this is always my fear with green teas so it was great news for me)

I always wonder how the tea names are chosen…I have an idea for this one : the red colour is haunting this tea…red like the incredible strawberry’s scent of the dry leaves. Red like the violent shock of this fragance. Red as the beautiful and heavy curtains of the Opera’s stage.

And maybe a little blue like the fantastic ceiling paintings of the Opéra Garnier in Paris…thanks Mr Chagall

Confession : this is about the teabags. They had no tin of this in stock and I wanted and wanted it now, so the teabags. Muslin teabags in a gold foil box, probably wrapped up by french ladies wearing Chanel couture. Hmph. Yes, it´s like that.

But giving it to them, the teabags are gloriously well filled. The box is 30 teabags, each with 2.5 grams, for a total of 75 grams of tea, unlike most teabags box which have 40, 30 grams of tea usually. These are generously proportioned teabags. They are not skimping on tea here. They are not skimping on the quality of the base tea or anything else. No gimmicky stuff for all the preciousness, there is substance. It costs what it costs, but gosh, I do believe they do care about their tea.

And it´s just lovely. Silky smooth green tea, and red fruits (raspberry? strawberry? cherry?) and vanilla. And a really nice green tea underneath.

I am doing several one cup steeps with each teabag (seriously, it´s a crime to throw one of these tea bags away after just one steep. And good chinese green tea is not at its best on first steep, it is more sublime at the second or third time. seriously. Though maybe my palate is just weird that way, but seriously, do not throw good chinese tea away after one dip. ) and like the best chinese green teas, it can hold up to a number of steeps. The best IMO is the second steep.

My second tea from this company – and so far, they have really impressed me. This produces a light green liqour that smells like cherries and maybe strawberries. Vanilla is there – although I cannot say it is a very prominent note, it sort of binds the notes in the scent together and makes it very smooth.

This really is a fabulous tea. It is very smooth and the berry flavour is very natural-tasting (there is nothing worse than berry flavours that taste artificial). On the sip, the taste is mostly the sencha, but with creaminess from the vanilla and berries coming through ever so slightly. The aftertaste is where the berries really shine – sweet, not tart but not cloying.

Mariage Freres has made up for their Lipton-eques blunder with this one. Having not yet tried Marco Polo I can only image this tea to follow in the same vein. It is berry berry Berry smelling. Like something akin to Smuckers strawberry filling or jam.

As a kid there was a breakfast treat that came with a packet of strawberry jam. You could use it to decorate whatever it was it came with… I think is was a pop-tart or something similar. This is spot on.

Out of the bag it is strawberry shortcake’s best friend but when steeped becomes buttery and almost hints at its pound cake or angel food beginnings. So far, I am in love. However I don’t know when I would especially crave this tea but I will get back to you while on deployment on that. I can see this sweet berry tea as having great annoyance properties that could come in handy. Perfume free office spaces be warned with this brew!

Oh and since this is a green tea, go easy on the brewing time less it provide you with a karate chop to the palate. For all the berry in the world can’t hide a bitterly neglected (western brewed) tea. :)

Many thanks to Quiltguppy for this tea! A friend and I tried this one today. The dry leaves smell like candy! Really really like candy! The aroma of the steeped tea is lovely and sweet. I thought it smelled like cherry candy at this point. The green tea base was very smooth…I am thinking it is probably a Chinese green. A lovely tea and very tasty! I may have go pick up a tin next time I go to A Southern Season.

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.

the scent is bright and exciting like:
http://instagram.com/p/X5NjPqIc8Q/
and the taste is smooth and fresh like:
http://instagram.com/p/X5Ny4Boc8h/

i went to the opera house to take pictures and they were selling this tea in the store. i didn’t buy it because i recognized that i was falling for a consumerism trick.
but when i went shopping at Mariage Freres a few days later this tea still stood out with it’s boldness and beauty. and it was my official green tea purchase of the day.

i’m so glad i have a tin of this ready in the wings for spring and summer. so very glad.

Mariage Frères are masters at creating teas that smell heavenly, to which this tea attests. It’s phenomenal! Berries and fresh, green sencha. Lovely!

165/1.5 min – Still, the aroma is strong and enticing. From the first sip, the berries are forefront in the flavor. This is followed by the fresh, grassy green of a buttery sencha. The finish, however, is all vanilla which lingers for a while. (Disclaimer: I do not generally enjoy vanilla.) So, it starts out wonderfully and finishes so-so. Still a great tea and probably outstanding for those who enjoy vanilla in their tea.

Thanks to cteresa for sending me this!
I love mariage freres tea, however never tried their teabags.
The muslin teabags looked so cute!

When I opened it, I smelled something very fruity.
I couldn’t wait to try it so I brewed in a pot. Maybe I added too much water?
When I brewed it, I couldn’t smell much fruits anymore.

In terms of taste – it was very mild, easy to drink.
No bitterness, just very mild green tea taste.

Overall, I liked it! I just wish I brewed it better.
Interestingly though, after I finished a pot and smelled a pot, it smelled just like the tea leaves. I don’t know why I couldn’t sense the scent when I was drinking.

Ooh, another Mariage Freres tea that I didn’t bring back from France! This sample comes thanks to QuiltGuppy. It’s another one that’s been on my “to try” list for a while. The dry leaf smells, to me, just like sweet-tarts candy. Definitely very fruity, but not necessarily a particular fruit flavor I can pick out.

The brewed tea is a golden yellow color, and that fruit aroma remains, but in a more subdued role, joined by the aroma of a buttery, slightly grassy green tea. The taste is pretty spot on to the aroma; it’s light and pleasant, but definitely full of fruit flavor. My cup is actually fairly tart. I don’t get a strong vanilla flavor, but I can detect its presence at the tail end of the sip, giving the overall feel of the tea a creaminess after a sharp tartness.

Quite a tasty tea, really! I thought I might be turned off by the candyish aroma, but the green tea goes a long way to mitigating that. Thanks so much for sending me a sample QuiltGuppy!

This tea is amazing. A bit pricier than I think I will pay, but if I was paid more I would stock this tea for sure.

I cannot place all of the flavors, so I’ll just walk through the experience: the first sensation across my tongue is a mildly fruity, buttery tone. It’s like the aftertaste of a fruit salad. Then, in the middle, I feel a smooth, natural green-tea flavor. The finisher is a mix of green-tea flavor (mild, mild!), fruit, and perhaps something floral? Perfumy, but I can’t identify a specific scent or flavor. Slightly astringent and a touch bitter in the after after taste. This is an absolutley delightful tea.

This is a complex cup. There are more flavors happening and more parts to the taste than I described above, but I can’t pull them apart enough to catalogue. I think it would taste great with sugar, though I can’t see spoiling this intricate experience. This is a good tea for lovers of all experience levels, though I think experienced drinkers might appreciate it more than neophytes.

Cteresa packed a teabag of this tea by way of a surprise with the swap we had agreed upon. Thank you, Cteresa!. While I was sipping this tea the first thing that came to mind was that I would really like to order some of it…

This tea actually has what I miss in Theodor’s Place Saint Marc: balance between the tea base (a very smooth green tea), the fruity top note (red berries) and the vanilla impression in the aftertaste. Everything comes together beautifully in a well rounded and balanced taste.

Finally get to try this renowned tea from MF!! I love it though Marco Polo is still my favorite. It smells of candy and more precisely, bubble gum! But I don’t mean it tastes artificial, rather you can tell the berry and vanilla flavours are all natural… That is the amazing part! Goes really well with strawberry macaroons I think!

Yes indeed, this tea is somehow some kind of melody. A bit reminding of those chewing-gums which make great bubbles … but the delicious green tea adds a very nice tea-“Spirit” to the musical play. In the end it lacks a bit depth, but still is overall a good tea, which i like especially for watching TV series – did someone hear “soap-opera”? ;)

I got a bag of this tea from a friend to take on my trip, but I couldn’t resist and well… here it goes. Really really lovely. Thanks P!

I love this tea. You can either drink it hot or cold, it still has a fantastic taste. I find that mixing it with some soy milk, the taste reminds you a little of cookies.

When I read the description of this tea, I thought it might be too sweet and fruity. However, it’s my FAVORITE fruity tea. The green tea is light and the red fruits and vanilla work together perfectly. It’s aromatic and perfumed without being cloying.

I’m about half-way through. I bought 3.5 oz at Dean & Deluca for $20.That’s $11.50 for 2 oz (which is just a bit higher than the standard $6-$8 / 2oz at Teavanna).

It’s great if you drink it cold.