Pleine Lune - Full Moon

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Astringent, Brown Sugar, Caramel, Cherry, Cinnamon, Clove, Ginger, Mineral, Orange, Tea, Vanilla, Wood, Almond, Artificial, Marzipan, Nutmeg, Berry, Chocolate, Nuts, Sweet, Cream, Stonefruit, Flowers, Spices, Chestnut, Honey, Stewed Fruits, Amaretto, Caramelized Sugar, Creamy
Sold in
Bulk, Loose Leaf, Sachet
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Nattie
Average preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 4 min, 0 sec 9 oz / 276 ml

Currently unavailable

We don't know when or if this item will be available.

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88 Tasting Notes View all

  • “A birthday week tea rerun (trearun?). I figured this would pair well both with the chocolate cake and the almond cake in case someone else wanted tea. It was so nice to get to see everyone in the...” Read full tasting note
    95
  • “Happy Christmas! Today is Christmas with my eldest daughter because she will be in Ireland for Christmas, so we let her open her presents and have her stocking and we are just spending some time...” Read full tasting note
  • “assuaging my lack of weekend with this lovely tea…. in my other class, studying psychoanalysis, they asked us if ‘i have at least one relaxed, easy evening a week to do what i want and go to bed...” Read full tasting note
    91
  • “mmmm… I received this one in a swap with Ysaurella I am really enjoying this one. I’m not sure if it’s the sample that i received but i’m not getting as much of the cherry notes as others. I...” Read full tasting note
    82

From Mariage Frères

The splendour of a ‘Full Moon’.

Inspired by that heavenly body and the realm of dreams, this poetic blend combines fragrances evoking the feast of the full moon: fruits, rare spices, and the sweet taste of honey.

A true moonbeam.

Splendeur de la pleine lune.
Inspiré de l’astre lunaire, royaume des rêves et des chimères, ce mélange poétique réunit les parfums symboliques de la fête de la pleine lune : les fruits, les épices rares, l’amande et le goût sucré du miel.
Thé de lumière.

PREPARATION ADVICE FOR 1 CUP :
Amount of tea leaves: 2.5g
Best water temperature: 95 °C
Infusion time: 3-5 min

About Mariage Frères View company

Company description not available.

88 Tasting Notes

95
303 tasting notes

A birthday week tea rerun (trearun?). I figured this would pair well both with the chocolate cake and the almond cake in case someone else wanted tea. It was so nice to get to see everyone in the same room for once – we all work very different hours and the building is pretty big. I’m often out and about, too, so there are some people on the staff I adore but don’t get to see more often than once a month or so.

(To make this post a little bit more about tea – the cleaning staff teased me about my tea cupboard. And, uh, rightfully so.)

Anyway, I got everyone caffeinated and sugared up, so let’s hope we all get a lot of work done before we collapse around lunchtime.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec
Stephanie

Birthday week? woo!

keychange

Don’t worry about non-tea things in your notes! I love reading snippets about peoples’ lives.

Tea Pet

Happy Birthday week!

Sil

Birthday weeks! much better than birth-DAYS…shorter than UN-birthdays :) hope its an awesome week my dear! :)

Dexter

Happy Birthday – have a great week!!!

Greg_2tea

Sounds like a nice proper tea. Keep it up!!

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3219 tasting notes

Happy Christmas! Today is Christmas with my eldest daughter because she will be in Ireland for Christmas, so we let her open her presents and have her stocking and we are just spending some time together. In addition, we told her about a puppy that was saved from animal control by the no- kill shelter. She has a broken leg and has pins and wires and screws and a plate and they needed a home for her to recover in, and she really wanted to meet the puppy before she leaves so we picked her up tonight! She is resting in front of the fire with her new toy elephant and has eaten voraciously. Apparently someone forgot to tell the little pup that she is badly injured and must rest. If her leg doesn’t heal properly, it will have to be amputated, so we are praying the fix “takes.” Here she is:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24998856@N06/8267840867/

I got to open my gift from my daughter’s fiancé and this was it! I know, I know! What a great guy! We decided to have some after supper tonight as a celebratory cup.

I made it in my new Krups which I positively love and we are using several times a day. The base is sooo smooth, the almond flavor is dominant without being overbearing, and it is sweet and light, even refreshing, on the palate. Good gracious, the French really know how to scent and flavor tea!
This is an elegant cup and I shall enjoy every bit of it!

Even my daughter who does not like black tea is drinking it. She likes it!

Hesper June

What a sweet puppy! Merry Christmas to your daughter.
This tea sounds yummy:-)

ashmanra

It is good! I love almond scent and flavor!

Josie Jade

Congrats on the little pup, adorable! And the tea sounds wonderful too!

Rebecca Lynn

D’awwwww, puppy!!! You’re lucky your daughter has a tea loving fiancé. Jealous of that Pleine Lune!

JacquelineM

What a beautiful lil pup! My boss adopted a dog that was in the same situation, and sadly his leg had to be amputated. The great news is that Grendel is completely fine only having three legs. He is super sweet and even comes to spend the day in the office now and again — he runs everywhere with his three legs and jumps on my lap even! I’m hoping that the setting takes, but even in the worst case scenario, I bet she will rise to the occasion. If only we could all be more like dogs.

I have a little bit of this tea and I’ve been saving it for my Winter Break — just a few more days til ahhhhhhhh!

cteresa

Puppy is a beauty! My best to her! (And happy holidays to all of you by the way).

I love Pleine Lune! It´s such a staple tea for me. My favorite way to have it (even if I usually like my tea plain) is with honey and a drop of milk – that way is one of the most conforting teas i ever had!

ashmanra

JacquelineM: I am almost holding my breath because this little girl wants to PLAY! She is rather hyper and is supposed to be kept calm with as much movement restriction as possible! And this is how she acts while medicated! Whatever would she be like unmedicated??? :)

cteresa: that sounds delectable! I will try it that way, too!

Shmiracles

this is such a great post. everything about today warms my heart. so happy for you!

Claire

Oh my goodness cute puppy! I hope she heals properly and feels better soon.

Invader Zim

Oh my goodness! PUPPY! I mean, it sounds like a good tea…but overly cute puppy! I hope she heals right!

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91
390 tasting notes

assuaging my lack of weekend with this lovely tea…. in my other class, studying psychoanalysis, they asked us if ‘i have at least one relaxed, easy evening a week to do what i want and go to bed early’. must admit i snorted…. and then i may have guffawed. but this tea slows time down for me. makes it feel like my answer could be ‘yes’ for the duration of my cup….

Fjellrev

I HATE when people make comments like that, especially professors. Like are you kidding me?

JustJames

yup. lol…. right up there with my other class saying they expect 6-8 hours a week outside of class. i sit at 24 AVERAGE. the charity hasn’t had anyone tech savvy to run the social media portion. i am waving maniacally at you, looking completely deranged… can you see me? lol.

Fjellrev

Have professors forgotten what it’s like to be a student? I know that they have a ridiculously busy schedule themselves. I can’t imagine. But if they really think you’re only spending eight hours on their class per week, outside of class, they are sadly mistaken. And that’s not even “studying” which is what I consider putting in your own extra voluntary time to review stuff or whatever.

Ysaurella

I am so happy Pleine Lune helps you ! This is my favourite tea, so comforting and friendly :)

Sil

pleine lune is such a good tea!

JustJames

just stopped by starbucks which is carrying one of my drop boxes (collecting obsolete but functioning cell phones) they had 30!!!! with the chargers!!! i was expecting…. okay, i don’t know what i was expecting, but really not that. the donation box was crammed full and they another box in the back. HOLY CRAP! let me frame this a tad more: one store, suburban location, less than a week.

i am stunned. they’re all going to uganda.

OMGsrsly

Woohoo! That’s awesome, James! Also, good luck with your classes. :)

JustJames

thank you =0)

i have committed a year to Africa Calling. i predict very little sleep this year, lol.

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82
14991 tasting notes

mmmm… I received this one in a swap with Ysaurella I am really enjoying this one. I’m not sure if it’s the sample that i received but i’m not getting as much of the cherry notes as others. I really like the smoothness of this tea – the base blends really nicely with the flavours. i really like the spices in this tea. Now that I’ve been sitting with this tea for a bit, the cherry comes out at the end of the sip in the after taste. it lingers in my mouth, blending with the spices in sips that come after.

Thank you so much for this Ysaurella

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec
Ysaurella

glad you loved it ! I personnaly never get the cherry notes anyway… and the sample is really new as I am obliged to buy a new bag of Pleine lune each month due to my too high consommation of this tea :S Pleine lune is really an almond and honey tea to me with vanilla and behind but very very far I get the fruits (citrus mainly). It may contain some cherry but I wasn’t able to detect it

cteresa

I strongly suspect the cherry is a steepster myth. Just discussing it with dinosara, because I was surprised she mentioned cherry and google can only find references to pleine lune and cherry in english and in the couple years, since somebody on steepster said it had a cherry note (but did not mention the cloves or honey)

I really think there is no cherry at all. French site says “exotic” fruits, i.e. tropical fruits, but even so surely in the background.

Ysaurella

agree cteresa – however exotic fruits are not so obvious for me in pleine lune, I really wonder which exotic fruits they are supposed to use here…

Rob Rauschenberg

I love this tea but no cherry was detected here.

Terri HarpLady

As I recall, I really enjoyed this one as a delicious honey & Almond treat, but I don’t think I found cherry in it.

cteresa

Ysaurella, exotic fruits from theri description in the french site only (and cherry surely never an exotic fruit for a french person right?). Though I the french description also mentions citrus, agrumes, which in retrospect might there be a hint there. They say rare spices (rare? what are rare spices? around clove which makes me feel vindicated, clove indeed.

Ysaurella

I sent a msg on MF’s FB page know if there is cherry in…I am awaiting an answer…

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98
807 tasting notes

A Big THANK YOU to Ysaurella for sending me a healthy sample of this fine tea!
I adore this tea!
It is perfectly blended, NO astringency.
I taste notes of cherry, cinnamon, vanilla, almond, spice, and flowers but it is not overly floral and the spices are not taking over the cup!
These notes dance in perfect unison with each other and blend into one delightful cup.
I will be ordering more of this to have in my perma stash.
You can see my full review here: http://sororiteasisters.com/ on the 22nd.
I knew I had to try this tea as soon as I saw the name of it and I am thrilled THRILLED it did not disappoint!

Fjellrev

Sounds delish.

ashmanra

I just got this as an early Christmas gift from my daughter’s fiancé! It is good, isn’t it? It smells divine…I may put the leaves in a warmer to scent the living room.

Ysaurella

I am particularly happy you loved it as Pleine Lune was the point of departure of our swap. This is really a delicious and very comforting tea.

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3294 tasting notes

This is a sipdown of the generous sample sent to me by Ysaurella!
It is delicious, & when I place an order someday with Mariage Freres, this will be on it! It is a tasty almond sugar cookie!
Thanks again Ysaurella!

Ysaurella

I love converting people to Pleine Lune :)

TeaBrat

sounds yummy!

Rie

Looks gorgeous~!

Josie Jade

I’ve got to try this!

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1112 tasting notes

I keep trying to pinpoint the flavors of this tea, but being exact doesn’t do this tea justice. It has a bit of magic to it. Almond, cherry, spice. Floral on the end on the sip. Something sweet.

Nope. Still doesn’t describe the experience. How all of the flavors dance together to make something indescribably delicious. It tastes more like a liqueur — no. A dessert — no. A candy — no.

I think this is one you have to taste yourself.

The nicest treat I had all week. Thank you Ruby Woo Scarlett!

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec
ashmanra

This is what my futures son-in-law gave me for Christmas!

TheTeaFairy

I love how Mariage Frères name their teas…Your description of this one just enhanced that, some magic that you have to figure out for yourself :-)

Madeline Alyce

Sounds delicious!!!

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100
408 tasting notes

Pleine Lune is MY tea : the one I would keep with me if I was obliged to live on a desert island for years (hoping I could boil some water on the island !)

I love everything in Pleine Lune : the loose leaf full of wonderful petals of flowers (blue & yellow), the amazing smell of almonds of the dry leaf, the quality of the black tea base and the flavours after infusing.

The main flavours are really almond and honey.

To me Pleine lune is an opulent tea.

Pleine Lune is one of the best seller of Mariage Frères, a very popular tea of the Mariage card.

Some people have it with sugar and milk, I don’t. I have it plain because it’s already a very sweet and generous tea.

I drink it every morning when I have time enough (the week end so !) because I refuse to drink it quickly without paying attention enough to it.

I can really say : Pleine Lune you’re a star …at least you’re MY star.

Azzrian

On my wish list now! :) Sounds dreamy!

Azzrian

WOAH it was already ON my wish list … now it makes me think its supposed to be ordered!!!

Ysaurella

I’m looking forward to see you tea note :) If you like creamy teas it should be a tea for you.

Azzrian

I went to buy it – then found ANOTHER I wanted – then realized I need to NOT spend the money right now SIGH Soon though SOON!

Ysaurella

I see what you mean…I went this afternoon in a small tea shop near home because wanted to buy Coquelicot Gourmand of Dammann Frères – they didn’t have it…I went out of the shop with 2 other Dammann Frères teas…

Nicole

Sounds lovely!

Perspicacitea

Oh, that sounds so good! I wish I were able to get some here.

cteresa

It is a special one indeed! I got 50 grams last winter and am going to have to restock.

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89
2201 tasting notes

This tea is one that I had wanted to try for a while because people always raved about it and said it was a great almond tea. Almond is one of my favorite flavors, so of course I wanted to try it, even with the cherry notes, which I don’t typically care for. Thankfully MissB sent me some!

I tell you that one thing I wasn’t expecting was the spice. I guess I didn’t read the description, or somehow blocked it out? At first I wondered if I had been thinking of the right tea. But yes, I was, and the spices are less prominent in the flavor than they are in the aroma.

First, I have no idea how much water MF recommends for their little muslin sachets, which is what I have. I went for my usual 12oz, but I don’t know if that was proper. I also forgot that I usually steep MF teas at less than boiling to stave off bitterness, although that probably entirely depends on the base tea.

This is without a doubt the smoothest MF tea I’ve ever had. It’s impressively smooth. Not a hint of bitterness, and not too robust for me. It is sweet, even, with a rich lingering almond flavor and light, warm spices. The only thing that is keeping me from rating this into the nineties is the cherry, and that is entirely my personal dislike of cherry flavoring. The subtleness of the cherry and how it meshes with the almond does make it more tasty than most other cherry flavored teas, however. Glad to have tried it.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec
cteresa

Cherry?

Yvonne

This sounds absolutely wonderful.

Dinosara

Well at least my brain said cherry, and it wasn’t alone as others have tasted cherry as well. :) They don’t specify the “fruits”.

OMGsrsly

I kind of wish that MF had a mixed tea box available at Holt Renfrew. 2 bags each of a bunch of different teas. That would have been so awesome. I keep reading tasting notes and regretting I didn’t buy the tea. :)

cteresa

They hardly ever say the ingredients of their teas, though the trick is they are much more explicit in the french site than in the english language one – and I think in japan they have to explicitly declare ingredients.

The french site says “un thé noir, des fruits exotiques, des agrumes, des épices rares autour de clous de girofle, des amandes et le goût sucré du miel.” so black tea with exotic (tropical?) fruits, citrus, rare spices (rare? IMO clove), almond and honey. They don´t say but I think there is some vanilla there

Cherry interesting, must check – they have a vanilla tea called Black Orchid in which indeed there is a cherry note, but which I had never noticed before somebody else pointed it. Pleine lune

Dinosara

I wonder if it is because there is something about cherry and almond that is often associated, so people are interpreting a blend of tropical fruits as cherry because of the association. It is kind of weird how our brains can be suggested a flavor that may or may not be present. I wonder if I would have tasted cherry if I hadn’t read tasting notes before saying that they had tasted cherry?

cteresa

I was sniffing it just now (though not tasted it), just to see if I could pick up some cherry and to be honest, no. But will try again – like I said with Black Orchid there is a cherry note I never tried.

There might also be a cultural thing. Americans use (artificial I think) cherry flavour a lot more than europeans – I think it is a default flavouring for medication right? (here is strawberry or apricot, eurgh). Cherry coke, cherry candy. In mainland europe cherry flavour is more unusual, I remember how exotic I thought my first cherry coke was (in Sweden, I think). Maybe americans are more used to associating a fruity note with cherry?

I can think of one cherry and almond tea, which is Compagnie Coloniale´s christmas tea, but the cherry is very up-top there and the almond very on the background. But will check, this made me curious, particularly if several people are saying it is there!

Or, if it´s a sample, are you totally sure it is Pleine Lune? Sometimes teas get totally mislabelled accidentally. Pleine Lune is a really pretty black tea, little blue flowers, little bits of almond, the dry leaf smelling mostly of bitter almond, honey and a little bit of cloves….

cteresa

sorry, realized it was a teabag, and of course their muslim teabags got the tag with the name of the tea – I think 12 oz (300 ml right?) is just right for those teabags. They fill them quite well with 2.5 grams, they can stand to even enough water for two middle-sizeish cups.

Ysaurella

Dinosara that’s funny as a drinker of Pleine Lune since ages I never get any cherry note. Next time I’ll go to a MF tea shop I’ll ask if there is cherry in but I need to bet right now I would say no.to me this is more Vanilla (Vanilla is a spice too), cloves, almond and honey blend. I’m happy you found a MF blend you liked :)

Dinosara

Yup I was going to say, initially I thought it might be a different tea but the sachet has the tag right on it. :)

I do wonder if it is a North American vs European thing, as most of the North Americans have ID’d a cherry note but Europeans seem to say nope. Tastebuds are funny things.

Ysaurella

it may be the point, of course, different markets so different products

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90
362 tasting notes

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.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 15 sec
Angrboda

I’ve heard that bitter almonds are somewhat toxic as well, but for some reason I always assumed that it was a different sort of plant entirely.

cteresa

Bitter almonds are toxic, a bit – but it is one of those things, they are so bitter and mouthnumbing that anybody is unlikely to eat enough of those for any real damage. Apricot kernels or apple seeds as well – they are also toxic, same compound or something similar and same taste.

But bitter almonds occur naturally in sweet almond trees, one in a hundred or a thousand (something like that) almonds will naturally be bitter. Though it only turns bitter when exposed to humidity, chewing them or something (really). But there are also other kinds of almond tree, which are not the normal sweet almond, which give just bitter almonds.

You usually need some ammount of bitter almonds mixed with sweet almonds for a few recipes – in the south of Portugal for marzipan (or amarguinha liqueur), in Italy for amaretti biscuits.

Ysaurella

it is really weird you didn’t get the blue cornflowers in your blend.
That’s right Pleine lune dry leaves smells like Amaretto

cteresa

I went and double checked and Ok I take that back. It has got the cornflowers indeed, though in mine they are pretty faded, and I recognize the almond and the other thingies I can not quite name (Coriander? peel of something?). Cornflowers were just much less blue, oh well, this tea must have oxidized some, I bought by weight from a tea shop. It is still awesome though!

I should write another review, I think I have cracked how to do this, with honey and milk, and I think this is becoming a staple for me.

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