Thé des Signes - Dragon

I’m back on steepster …with a Dragon tea.
Mariage Frères does a special edition each year with a tea for the Chinese sign of the year.
until February it is the Dragon sign…so I hurried to buy it because it won’t be available after this date.
I wanted the tin…but the scent pleased me very much as well so I rushed after work Place de la Madeleine to buy it + 200 gr of Pleine Lune and 100 gr of Oolong Fleurs d’oranger. I am poorer now but happy with my teas.

The tea taste is not so promising as the scent. I think the green tea base should be similar to Sakura 2000. There is just a hint of slight astringency but very very very slight.

It is a fruity tea (goji berries), incredibly perfumed but not unforgettable.Anyway MF doesn’t sell it by weight to refill so that’s great, I have a beautiful tin to put another tea I love more.

I have no more brown crystal sugar (no way to find some here in my new town)…so I will give another try asap I find some in Paris.

I coveted this tin and the others of the same series, or just about almost all of Mariage Fréres special edition tins. I always resist due to prices and so far, when I have had a chance to try those teas I am glad I have resisted the impulse. This is nice, but not quite dazzling enough for that sort of prices (unless you think the tin worth it, and from what I have seen it just might be).

Ysaurella very kindly sent me a sample in a swap and rereading her taste notes I pretty much agree with everything. Wonderful fruity smell, rich juicy goji berries, a grassy slightly astringent green tea, a very refreshing tea. I think this would make a great iced tea! But somehow not quite a great blend for my taste.

And I can not help but wonder, are they going to make a tea called Rat when it cames time for it?

Mariage Frères Advent Calendar – Day 21

This is a beautiful goji berry flavoured green tea. It’s fruity, buttery, and nutty. I also pick up sunflower notes, which is always a warm, cheerful thing to taste at winter. Overall, it reminds me a little of another of Mariage Frères tropical fruit green blends, Locombia Colombia because of the sunflower-ness); I liked that tea quite a bit.

I see MF has a zodiac series – all of which heavily feature goji berries. Interesting choice! I also like the advent’s reference to the upcoming new year here.

Steep Count: 2

Oof, another flavored green… :P This one came from the lovely and generous Dexter. Who knows why I requested a flavored green tea, I assume probably because it’s Mariage Frères and I figured it would be worth trying regardless. We shall see! This has a similar sencha base to the other greens I’ve been drinking – very flat and long. The goji berries are all covered in tea dust, so I can’t really see them until I empty the tea into my cup. Dry scent is vaguely fruity.

The steeped tea has a somewhat tart berry-like scent that reminds me of fresh raspberries (I’ve never eaten a goji berry, so I’m not sure what they’re like). The green tea base is slightly grassy, but quite smooth and unobtrusive. I can barely taste the goji berry flavor, but it does remind me of fresh raspberries. I’m not sure how old this sample is, so I’m going to withhold my rating on this one.