Mariage Frères

I got several teabags from a friend of mine who ordered it straight from paris. I personally have not been to well acquainted with Mariage Fieres teas as its quite rare outside the US or elsewhere without ordering online. Its certainly a fine treat as the tea itself is quite in harmony with the bergamont and mint which really complemented each other well. The first sip was like a rush of cool breeze in my mouth and a citrus finish, the gunpowder definitely gave it a nice calm feeling. I feel an urge to hug my friend for this generosity and certainly shake the hand of the Mariage’s tea master!

The citric tartness of Yuzu Rind, complement the drink, it’s not a tea for those who don’t like tart teas, but its a good tea if you are wanting an inbetween from an herbal fruity tea and a pure green tea.

Seven samples finished in seven days? Yeah, I’m behind because this is number three! O.o

I have already covered how Cteresa sent me Brave Tea and Interesting Tea. She also sent me Coveted Tea. I’ve had this on my shopping list for just about forever, but never really got around to making an MF order. It’s the New Shop Syndrome. It’s really difficult to shop in a new place for the first time. I tend to have to decide to do so well in advance of actual shopping, otherwise I just end up stocking up of old favourites instead. So MF is one of those places that I never got around to. I don’t think I’ve ever even tried anything from them before, which doesn’t make it easier to shop there for the first time.

So Cteresa is hitting two birds with one stone for me here. If this one comes out well for me, MF is going on the list of the next shopping spree along with Yumchaa. (That just leaves one space open. I’m still undecided about that one, but I do have a few potentials to check out. Three orders at a time seems to be what I’m comfortable with. I probably ought to make it one order per month instead, really.)

Anyway, so let’s see about this much coveted tea. Strangely enough, I’m not actually concerned about disappointment should I turn out to not like it.

The aroma is very sweet and pleasant. It’s quite chocolate-y and also kind of cake-y and vanilla-y. There’s a vague hint of something fruity if you really look for it and knows about it beforehand, but it’s not noticable and it’s not directly recognisable as strawberry. I really enjoy this aroma. It’s like liquid sweets, only not as cloying as one might have feared. It’s very pleasant indeed.

The flavour, however, is strongly strawberry. I’m really surprised at how strawberry-y this is! I can’t remember ever having met such a very strawberry-y strawberry flavoured tea before. It’s amazing! I’m getting a little chocolate underneath, but mostly it’s just the berries. There’s something creamy about it too, and it reminds me of fresh strawberries served with cream or a fat milk and sprinkled with sugar, a very classic summer dessert in Denmark.

Yeah, MF is definitely in the next order group. No doubt about that. I knew there was a reason I’ve been wanting to try this one for so long!

Another one from Amanda! She spoiled me!!!

I have been wanting to try this for a long time! It was worth the wait!
I’m on my 2nd cup and it’s lovely. It’s a nice black tea base – medium strength and even from start to finish with a different sort of a vanilla flavor…it’s vanilla but….sugary-frosting like…but isn’t really creamy, per say. It has a toasted-bread like flavor right at the end of the sip and lingers slightly into the aftertaste but the vanilla kicks in again by then. It’s unlike other vanilla’s I have tried and it quite special. Neat flavored black tea :)

This is just my cup of tea. I am infatuated. It is as silky and smooth a lapsang souchong as I hoped.

No real taste notes quite yet, I let it cool to much before drinking, which is not totally fair. But if you love lapsang souchong, this one is something indeed. (If you do not like lapsang souchong, you are not worthy of this one, put it down)

Well well, so this is FRENCH lapsang souchong. It´s a totally different lapsang souchong, while being very lapsangsouchong-ey, than my usual beloved but run-of-the-mill Twinings.

I brew it wrong, did not give it the attention it deserved, but even so I think there is the potential here for a mad love affair.

ah, a warning, this tea is for acknowledged unashamed lovers of Lapsang Souchong only: – first, you probably won´t like it if you do not like LS;
- second it´s a waste of this tea to have people who do not love LS drink it. Let´s save it for the rest of us, ok?

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 absolute favorite tea.

Rooibos + vanilla is an unbeatable formula and rarely goes wrong. Rouge Bourbon, i.e. MF’s rooibos vanilla, achieves a perfect balance between rooibos and vanilla. You can taste both the candy-like sweetness of vanilla (Bourbon Vanilla, according to MF) and the unique earthy flavour of rooibos. MF has again done a amazing job, though as a vanilla lover I actually won’t mind some imbalance… haha ;P

The description of this says “very refined”. Yep. It is. It is also remarkably easy and comforting. I keep forgetting about this, it´s one of the cinderellas of my tea collection, and it is so unfair.

Just brewed a cup, and oh my it was so lovely. And because the small cup was just not enough, I did not resist trying the rest of the pot, which had been steeping for 10 minutes or more. And it was still good which is something rather miraculous. For all the chic and elegance of this tea, it´s also so forgiving and right for just about all occasions.

It might spoil me for all other earl greys. And it just might destroy my relationship with Lady Grey.

This is as tibetan as Marco Polo is related to anything Marco Polo himself might have encountered – that is, no relation at all. This is, to my mind, the fanciest, most french, most feminine earl grey blend ever. There are other things there, but bergamot is most emphatically there and puts it clearly on earl grey territory in my mind. But if Guerlain made Earl Grey tea, this would be it – I can sense the vanilla and rose there, and it just amplifies the other many little scent notes, this is like a symphony of flavours, with bergamot as soloist and all those many other support notes as an orchestra behind it.

(I got no clue why they think this reminds them of Tibet. Then again i do not know why they call Marco Polo that)

This tea is awesome.

Dry the leaves are quite large are smell of a natural, soft, sweet vanilla definitely not overpowering or artificial.

Hot the smell is divine it’s a vanilla teacake cooling on a windowsill.

The ‘tea’ component is very light, and as far as away from bitter as you can imagine. I infused it for quite a long time and seemed it to make the tea sweeter rather than stronger which was awesome!

The vanilla is a sweet vanilla – very sweet and so tasty.

It’s the perfect afternoon tea. Absolutely delish! I highly recommend this to everyone. :)

Eros has an aroma just as beautiful as that of Marco Polo, but the note is floral (resembling rose fragrance!) instead of fruity. I took a sip eagerly, confident that this would become another favourite of mine -

Yes, it is a truly delicate and yummy tea. It is sweeter than love! Wait, there’s a strange taste developing in my mouth… It’s bittersweet and a bit earthy, in a way that I don’t find very pleasant. WHAT IS THAT?

Sadly, the same experience repeated in every sip – it was delicious at the beginning but it ended with the weird, puzzling taste. Sigh! I googled the ingredients of Eros as soon as I came home, and then I got it – it’s probably hibiscus again!!!! I had only had hibiscus in the form of herbal tea, so usually the result was extreme tartness rather than the tinge of bitterness found in this tea. Now I have learnt another lesson about evil hibiscus! I will do a better job in detecting its presence next time.

This is the first MF tea that I don’t enjoy! :(

In my country we distinguish between the flavour/scent of almond and bitter almond. Bitter almond is not a depreciative, special trees are grown particularly for them (though bitter almonds do show up naturally in every batch). The bitter almond is the one with the strong smell and taste, sometimes you need a little of the bitterness to make the sweet better. Normal, sweet almonds are lovely, their skins usually holding almost all the flavour, but for that almond scent and a bit of bite, usually we need a little bit of bitter almonds to provide that. Nobody wants to have bitter almonds on their own,besides being bitter they are mouth numbing and I think poisonous as well, but they are needed.

All this to say, that bitter almonds are what we usually think of when we think of almond scents, sweet almonds being almost scentless. This tea is, to my taste, strongly scented with bitter almond. With I think some vanilla, cinnamon and coriander in the background, very subtly. The black tea is not wimpish but I got no clue what kind of tea it is, the almond is STRONG. I like it. Particularly with a little bit of milk. But do avoid if you do not like that bitter almond thing (or almonds in general).

PS – just to add, the tea I got does not at all look like the photo here on steepster. No blue (cornflowers?) flowers at all.

Almond. With some spices – a hint of cinnamon and maybe clove as well. And other things. First time I tried this, and it was not love at first sip. Don´t get me wrong, it is very very nice flavored tea, but then again considering the source and price, so it should be – I am not sure (yet) if it is going to became one of my MF favorites.

This is very very fruity – I convinced a friend to order a teapot so i could try this, she did not love it unfortunately. And neither did, not quite, I. It is maybe trying too hard. It´s floral tea with straight ironed dyed-platinum hair and long fake nails. It´s too much, thank you very much.

It tastes strongly (nicely but too much and too sweet) of loquats (nêsperas!) to me, can not spot any other fruit (maybe some citrus?), though it also smells a bit floral.

I will try this again if I can, just to make sure, but it is probably not going to ever be my cup of tea.

Thank you very much, Indigobloom for sending me a sample of this to try!

Tibetan flowers… the smell of this tea is quite beautiful! It’s a very smooth, rich black tea with a very red fruit taste. I think it is quite elegant and lovely and different. Definitely seems like something a French company would make. =) I think this is very good but I’ve been shying away a lot from floral teas in general as of late so my rating is a bit biased perhaps.

This is one of my favorite teas and it is hard for me to find where I am so I stock up when I can! I love the taste. If you do not like to drink your tea strong then you need to brew this tea on the lighter side as it can tend to be strong and overpowering for some tastes. For me I love it that way. It is a sweet tea and I love that I do not have to add anything to it.

Day #4 of 24 and tea of the afternoon……

This tea comes to me from Dinosara and her round the world travels. Thank you! I really like this. It is a fruity/floral version of Earl Grey with a light hint of vanilla. The tea base does look a bit more like a Darjeeling than a Chinese black tea. It kind of reminds me of Viennese Earl Grey from Harney & Son’s, but with a lot more flavors going on. It amazes me that even with all those flavors, they seamlessly complement the tea base. If I ever do order from Mariage Freres, this will be on my list. Very relaxing and enjoyable.

15 oz mug, 2 tsp tea, 209 water, 4 minutes. Very lightly sweetened.

First found this tea when visiting my sister in CA. It is amazing. Very smooth taste and smells wonderful. My goofy brother-in-law took the sachet and used it as a airfreshener in his truck.