Mariage Frères

Oh, Marco Polo! Why do I not like you as much as I thought I would? I have read reviews upon reviews saying that this is a delicious, fruity, sweet and beautiful tea. The cashier commented on the tea saying that it was a big seller and that everyone loves it. I steep the tea and take a whiff. It’s definitely fruity and somewhat creamy… but I just don’t like the flavor. I have even tried this with a splash of milk and little bit of sugar and still.. something is just off! Too much black? Too much fruit? I don’t believe I’ve been over/under steeping or scalding the tea at all. I’m very disappointed since I seem to be missing out on a wonderful taste. What am I doing wrong? I’m out $20 on a whole tin of this thing and wish I could doctor it to make it as delicious as everyone says it is! It seemed like it was the ultimate dessert tea… and boy, do I love my dessert teas. Help?

I ran out of the black tea variety of this one long ago, but still have a little of their red. It hasn’t got anything recognizable besides rooibos in the dry leaf, but my does it have the scent and flavor of a master blend! The rooibos does give it that distinctive flavor as a base, so those who aren’t fond of it should probably steer clear. Wrapped all around the rooibos though is the Marco Polo profile – naturally sweet and featuring just the right amounts of citrus and floral notes. Yummy yummy.

Off on a three-week road trip tomorrow! I’m not taking any of my teas with me and will rely on chance encounters with newly discovered denizens of the world of tea while I’m gone…

Decupboarding, with no plans to restock. I was glad for the experience, but I’m even gladder that the tin is finally kaput. I think I’m pretty close to settling on some staple Earl Greys. I’m not quite finished playing the field, but I have a feeling the end, for the most part is near, with the occasional new thing to try now and then. In any case, this won’t be a staple.

I’m more than three quarters through this tin now and I’m lowering the rating because it hasn’t grown on me during that time. Not only has it not grown on me, it’s actually something I don’t particularly look forward to drinking. It’s not a drastic thing, it’s just a sort of internal monologue that goes something like: oh, ok, guess I’ll have that and finish it up… when’s it going to be gone again? A couple more pots maybe? What can I have afterwards that’s better?

Seriously, I think it may be that I’m just not getting into the darjeeling aspect. I may be too much of a purist to appreciate an Earl Grey that is made of anything other than a fully oxidized black tea base. I suspect that were that the base, the amount of bergamot I’m tasting would seem significantly less and that would put it right about where I want it.

Hard to believe I’m the first to write about this one. But here goes.

I’m starting to get to what feels like the mid-point in my Earl Grey exploration before I settle down with some favorites. I’m thinking a regular, a creme/vanilla, a lavendar, a rose, and maybe one or two others for the Earl Grey harem. I may have to reconsider the Upton chocolate since I haven’t seen any other chocolate Earl Greys. Hmm.

I remember liking another French Earl Grey, the one from The O Dor, quite a bit. I’m interested to see how this will compare.

The dry leaves smell very strongly of bergamot, but I’ve learned that isn’t necessarily indicative of how that agent will show up in the flavor. I noticed from the note here that the tea base is Darjeeling, which I suppose is why the tea doesn’t look overly dark in color. It even has some green to it.

The liquor is a light amber, almost a bronzed golden color. Much lighter than the typical Earl, and explained by the Darjeeling base. The aroma is not at all strong on the bergamot, but it does have a sharpness to it, which I associate with Darjeeling.

The bergamot returns in the flavor, where it takes center stage. This is not what I am looking for in an Earl Grey. I like more of an essence of bergamot, a suggestion around the edges, enough to make it obviously and distinctively an Earl Grey (as I’ve also had teas that didn’t have enough bergamot to seem to me allowed to claim to be Earl Greys) but not enough to scream at me. I’m worried this one is going to sit heavily in my stomach. Which is a shame because the little glimpses of the Darjeeling that I get are quite nice. It has a sort of butteriness to it, which if the balance were struck differently enough to make it assert itself more, could be quite lovely.

It should be noted that this tea is very honest. Its notes say that it is “heavily perfumed” so the centrality of the bergamot shouldn’t be surprising.

I suppose I must be something of an Earl Grey purist, as I didn’t care for the only green Earl Grey I tried, either. Bergamot is such a strong flavor to me that it needs something equally sturdy to stand up to it. But those who love strongly bergamot flavored teas (Miss Sweet?) :-) might really like this.

I found this to be okay. It is unusually naturally sweet and I can’t get past the strange flavor. Behind it I can taste that it is flowery. I think I need to try this again.

BTW, this was one of the garage sale finds at 50 cents for a brand new tin.

Excellent green tea. It has a meyer lemon sweet scent and more of a regular lemon taste with a litte clove or spice mixed in. Well balanced and delecate flavor.

Backlogged….What a great find this one happened to be. My neighborhood is having a village wide garage sale and to my surprise I found 4 different teas, never been opened by Mariage Freres for just 50 cents each. I could hardy contain myself. As it turns out the wife bought these tins to display the tins and not for the tea itself and then never did anything with them so I was the lucky one who got to drink them and this is 1 of 4.

It is a delicious tea with clean fruit and floral flavors. It tasted wonderfully balanced hot and as it cooled off I can tell it would be yummy iced but I will have to make it officially to be sure.

What a great find so glad I went.

I could not find an English translation of this. I ordered this tea from Mariages Freres in Paris because it is smoky. As a lover of lapsang souchongs, I expected to like this and I love it.

It’s not as purely smoky and peaty as some Russian Caravans can be: there is a touch of a kind of perfumed sweetness which reminds me a bit of Upton Tea’s Black Dragon and which highlights the smoke very nicely. I feel as if I am in a Parisian bistro surrounded by a glamourous smoky atmosphere but the smoke is all sweetness and not the least bit offensive.

I’ll have to place another order with Mariage Freres in France later this year; they have so many delightful blends that I don’t think are available in North America: (Vivaldi, Confucius, Elixir d’amour, etc.) I also ordered their Lapsang Souchong jam which is just extraordinary.

This is one of the last black teas in my cupboard that I had rated 80, and after going through all the other ones, this is the one I think deserves a bump.

The flavor is naturally sweet and an almond that doesn’t taste like flavoring. It’s well-integrated into the base, as are most Mariage Freres flavored teas.

We’ll see how it compares to the higher rated black teas, but it doesn’t belong among the last few 80s.

Clue No. 3 “Full Moon” to those of you who are Francophobes.

If the title of this note means nothing to you, and you’re interested in learning about my little game, please read my tasting note at:

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

for an explanation of the game, and my note at

http://steepster.com/teas/mariage-freres/2642-the-a-lopera

for the second clue.

Now, on to the tea!

I am coming to realize that I have a weak spot, a very big weak spot indeed, for cornflowers in tea. They’re just so blue and lovely, in among the leaves. They go well with every color, but for some reason I find them particularly fetching in black tea. This has them, as well as some brown textures which I’m guessing are almond pieces and maybe some vanilla bean pieces as well. An aesthetically pleasing dry mix. It smells strongly of sweet almonds, leaning toward Amaretto rather than the nuts themselves. There’s another strong sweet smell as well, which I can’t really identify as vanilla because of the strength of the almond fragrance, but which, it stands to reason, is what I’m smelling.

It brews to a slightly cloudy chestnut color that smells much nuttier than liqueur-like. Almonds and vanilla. Yeah, I get that. Also get something that reminds me very vaguely of cinnamon and maybe even anise.

The taste is quite nice. I haven’t had a lot of almond teas so I don’t have a lot to compare this to, and the other one that comes to mind also had chocolate in it which is a definite thumb on the scale. But I’m enjoying it, and I am finding myself thinking of what it would taste like with just a tad of milk, or sweetened up just a bit. Or maybe even with some salt to bring out the nut, as LiberTEAS has suggested with other teas in the past. Almond is the predominant flavor here, and it is pretty true to the nut itself. The aftertaste is amazingly like what you get after having cracked open an almond and chewed its inner meat into oblivion. The tea supports this well, but is definitely second violin.

I’m loving Mariage Freres for the most part. They have the perfume of the dry leaves down like no one else for flavored blacks. Mariage me, freres!

Sipdown no. 9 of May 2019 (no. 71 of 2019 total, no. 559 grand total).

I think that historically, I may have been tough on my ratings for green teas. I definitely appreciated this one more as a take it to work tea than I did when I wrote my initial note. It had a subtle fruitiness that was pleasant and not distracting. Mellow and smooth. Sorry to see it go, really. Bumping the rating.

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.

Having the last of my sample of this as my first morning tea today. I need fortification: last field trip of the year for my kindergartener is today and I’m going along for the ride.

I steeped for four minutes this time, and surprisingly I think five works better here. It provides more depth. I’m still not getting an Earl Grey feel. It’s nice, but nothing to write home about.

Doulton provided this as a lagniappe when she sent me the Dammann Freres I’d ordered through her organized buying efforts. How nice to have something unexpected show up, and something I hadn’t yet tasted to boot!

It’s also something of a mystery as I can’t find a list of ingredients for it. Clearly there is black tea. There are also red and blue flowers and a slight rose scent to the dry tea. So I’m going with Alicia on this — rose and cornflower. Apart from that, mild spiciness, like a spicy perfume. Lovely fragrance.

I steeped this for a full 5 minutes, as suggested on Doulton’s label (with a giraffe on it, how cute!) I get a light floral note and some gentle spice as well as smooth tea in the aroma.

The flavor has this, too, plus a suggestion of citrus. I cheated and read the notes others had posted and it seems the consensus is this is bergamot and that this is in fact something of an Earl Grey variation. Hmm. I don’t think I would have got that at all had I not read it. If it is supposed to be an Earl Grey variation, it isn’t succeeding, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I liked the Earl Grey Special from Teafrog even though it didn’t seem much like an Earl Grey to me.

I like this, but it isn’t my favorite Mariage Freres, and it wouldn’t rank among Earl Greys for me.

I think next time I’ll try it steeped for less time and see what that’s like. I rarely steep anything for 5 minutes anymore except herbals and very late oolong and pu erh steeps.

I’m having my final cup of this tin of tea this morning. Continues to be so good. I wish there was a local vendor!

backlogged: drank in the office yesterday with some Sugar in the Raw and Soymilk that I’ve brought into the office. Amazing.Office.Tea!

I bought this tea after reading such rave reviews on Steepster, but have been hesitant to make a cup until I have a thermometer. (I’ve gotten several based on reviews, not gotten the same taste as the review describe, and often it appears to come down to temperature.) However, after reading JacquelineM’s tasting note yesterday (http://steepster.com/JacquelineM/posts/40867) I decided to give this a go. I sweetened with Sugar in the Raw and used Silk Soymilk as the creamer, and Oh My Goodness that was an amazing cup of tea! I LOVE IT. So thanks to all who gave reviews that made me get it, and a special thanks to JacquelineM for getting me to give it a try!

Yay! I finally tried a cup of this today when visiting my friend Kate. It was Fabulous! However, drinking this tea just made me want to get it for my own cupboard, so that I could try it with different steeping parameters and add ins…. so now the big question is: should the next order be from Mariage Freres or from Samovar?!

A big THANK YOU to RICKY for sending this tea sample to me. I was really suprised as I wasn’t expecting him to send me any more teas. I was even more thrilled when I opened the package and it was sample of Marco Polo, which I have been wanting to try forever.

Upon sampling this tea and its yummy strawberry goodness, it erased any yucky memories of the overly salty crawfish that I had earlier at dinner. To me, this is a guiless, childish tea- reminding me of Frankenberry cereal or jujubees or jolly ranchers….

Unlike most other French blends I have sampled, this one is not some frilly perfumy, hot-mess, but a solid, true, and not really sophisticated strawberry flavor.

Thanks to Ricky for sharing this incredible tea with me!
The leaves smell rich, inviting. The first sip….strawberry…real strawberries, just the right amount of sweetness. I could eat this up, so smooth, so rich tasting. I think I just found my dessert tea that I have been looking high and low for:)

Love it… it makes me think about wedding. Rich in scent and great for with milk.