Rouge d'Automne

Thank you Yasurella – what a nice surprise – a black with rooibos sweet tea that is quite delicious. Vanilla, spices, and a fruity lift every now and then. Pretty good stuff here!
Equally good as it cools. I love nutty teas this one is a keeper! :)

I could have sworn that I’d logged/drank this before today but apparently not. Or i simply forgot to write a tasting note. Thank you Ysaurella for this sample! Another Marriage Freres tea to knock off my list :)

I don’t think i’ve had chestnuts in a really long time, so i can’t say that this tastes like them. However there is a deliciously pleasant “nut” and vanilla flavour to this tea that is wonderful! I also really love the way it smells. I really like that there is no bitterness to this and there’s almost a sweet fruity taste that disappears almost right away when you sip it.

Thank you again for the wonderful swap Ysaurella

This was from a sample swap with Ysaurella, oh many thanks for the generosity, this is lovely. It really tastes just like marrons glacés, well with maybe some vanilla.

A couple of random notes because can´t really focus too much but before I forget it:

- I thought I was being generous at scooping this up, but I should have been even more generous at dosage. Not too hot and not too long (for a black tea) seems perfectly suited to this – enough to bring all the flavours of the marrons and some body for the tea underneath and not a hint of bitterness or bad manners from the tea. And it is rather sweet on its own. It might be better with some milk, must try but when I brew it stronger.

- This is to my mind an afternoon, or even an evening tea. And like its name, oh such an autumnal thing. Weird of me to impose such rules to just a tea, that there is a time of the year and a time of the day for it, but this is it.

- It really really tastes just like, intensely like, marrons glacés. Just repeating, but I kept thinking it from first to last sip.

- On the other hand, marrons glacés do not quite taste like roasted chestnuts or what I sometimes call a “chestnuty” note to some chinese black teas. Chestnuts roasting for me are one of the ultimate Autumn smells and I even divide mentally into different smells flavours – raw chesnuts (can be very good if of a variety where the the inner peel gets loose easily), the smoky charcoaly smell of chestnut sellers´s carts on the street, the little almost burnt bits on some street bought chestnuts, the different taste to home oven roasted chestnuts. Marrons glacés are lovely, but a different kind of chestnut. And not one I got any emotional ties to – but maybe that is lucky, if I had any strong feelings for marrons glacés I would have ordered somehow a tin of this before finishing my cup! It really is that amazing at being a marron glacé tea.

This is another tea sample from Ysaurella! Thank you!

I initially thought I would add some stevia to this cup, but when I smelled the tea, which smells rich & sweet, I decided to leave off with adding anything & enjoy it plain. It is very tasty! I like chestnuts, but have never had them candied, & that sounds interesting!
I love vanilla as well. There is also a hint of spice. Maybe I’ll sweeten the next cup, & see if it enhances the flavors. Then again, maybe I won’t! :)

First : Ruby Woo Scarlett, Mélissa, you are both right : Rouge d’Automne exists in 3 versions : Black, Green and Rooibos.

I do agree the name of the tea itself is confusing as for a French speaker Rouge means as well rooibos – Most of French people probably use more thé rouge than rooibos)

Initially when I added this tea to the steepster database it was for the black blend (the only one I tasted)

So my note is for the Black version : I am desesperately in love with Rouge d’Automne.
First time I tasted it was during a lunch at Mariages & Frères. A tea is included in the menu as beverage and I wanted to taste especially this one.

I sniffed it before the Lunch and wanted to buy a full bag and wanted to ensure it wouldn’t be a mistake.

It was definitively not a mistake : the Vanilla + Chestnut are just a dream : a creamy and sweet dream.

The mix is really working fine – It may be not a very subtile mix, definitevely not the finest Mariage tea but I do really love it and I do really love it very very very much.

It has just started snowing here — lovely fluffy snowflakes! A cup of black tea is calling to me and this one seemed most appropriate. I actually don’t get much of a scent from the dry leaves. It’s a little surprising since I was expecting something a little sweet or perhaps spicy.

Sipping… Well, I’m not getting very much flavor at all. It’s a nice black tea with that mouth & throat drying aspect. There is a very slight sweetness in the background, but mostly it’s just the black tea base. My experience with chestnut teas says that the drying black tea actually lends itself to the chestnut texture. But in this case, where is the chestnut? The Vanilla? The texture is all there, but not the flavor.

I hope to figure out how to bring out more flavor because I’m not too impressed with this cup.

Sorry to contradict Melissa (see her review above) but this blend can be bought both with a black tea base and a rooibos base. I went for the rooibos version as I could tell this would be an afternoon tea for me and the less cafeine after noon, the better in my case.
It smells wonderful – it’s very sweet. I was disappointed with the taste as I think it’s lacking in complexity. Once you’ve hit the vanilla and the ‘candied’ part of ‘candied chestnut’, it’s all over. Needless to say the chestnut is lost in this sweet fest. It’s a shame, I was really expecting a lot from this blend but I’m guessing I’d get about the same taste with a mixture of vanilla, sugar and a touch of caramel. I’m finishing this but I won’t be repurchasing.

5 minutes with milk works best for me.

I already had one pot of this tea, kindly sent by Ysaurella. It was one of those days when other issues derailed my concentration from the experience.
Today, as part of my grand mission to empty all received samples, I decided to try it again.
When looking at the tea, it looked more like a normal MF blend, than to the picture used. Sure there are some small yellow and brown pieces, but in less quantity and with much smaller sizes than on the picture. It does not matter so much, MF usually does not care much about the look of the tea, just the taste, so I cannot hold that against this tea.
After brewing, my first impressions were quite similar to what I remembered: a mellow, strongly blended with no flavors really striking me out, though it indeed is flavorsome. A very pleasant blend, especially for the afternoon.
Then I got busy and forgot the remaining half of the teapot. When I came back to it, it was more cool than lukewarm, which does not bother me much, as I definitely do not need warming. Vanilla is there at the beginning of the sip, a nice very natural tasting vanilla. Then there’s a long lasting after taste staying all over my mouth and lips, that indeed is marron glacé: super creamy, sweet, really decadent tasting. My lips especially feel like I’ve just eaten some. Amazing!
Real marron glacé are not a favorite treat of mine and I usually cannot eat one entire. However it turns out that as a beverage flavor, I really like it and it makes for an unusual brew.
In my opinion, this is better at “room temperature” than hot.
I’ll most probably buy some, both for myself and for my in-laws who are completely in love with real marrons glacés.

First of all, this is primarily a black tea. Not a rooibos.
Secondly, well, that was good! I’m not usually a black tea person, I don’t like them, I don’t buy them… I can’t appreciate them for ‘’what they are’’. Failed romance much?

Candied marrons, with a spicy aftertaste, making it automnal, changed my mind. It’s very round, but tolerable. Reminds me of David’s Pumpkin Chai, which is also my sort of thing. Someday I will understand…

ce the est tres bon quand on le goute on a l impressions d etre en automne c’ est a dire qu’ il porte bien son nom .