Learn more about Mariage Frères teas, with their Christmas Tea Club or their gourmet Afternoon Tea!
5 min read
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For 10 years, the Christmas Tea Club, organized by the luxury Mariage Frères tea house, has allowed all the tea enthusiasts to create experiences in the run-up to Christmas, allowing people to discover different approaches around tea. This can involve introductions to premium teas, among many other specific themes, such as white or flavored teas. In addition, this Christmas Tea Club is a good opportunity to highlight emblematic creations which allow us to discover certain teas which have marked history. Strong of this successful concept, the Mariage Frères house has decided to launch a new delicious moment, baptized Afternoon Tea. By AP
Therefore, this Christmas Tea Club is available every Saturday until January at the Eiffel Tower store. Available upon booking, this tea celebration would introduce you no less than eight remarkable teas from the wide collection, accompanied with a guide for more explanations (photo credits: AP).
All the teas offered during this moment are all labeled Jardin Premier, because they respect certain organic cultivation constraints. A label now universally recognized in a more or less readable tea World. This tasting takes place through different categories of tea, the first phase of which is distinguished through several emblematic ranges of tea.
Thus, the first part is characterized by white teas which are very precious because they have been handled as little as possible and can in fact be re-infused several times in their drinking potential lifetime. Then, a Japanese green tea, from Wazuka, near Tokyo, is offered like almost all teas in Japan, which are dedicated to green teas.
A tea with vegetal notes and cloudy colors, extracted using dry, very hot steam, to make the leaves to lose their moisture. It should be noted that green teas mature more quickly than white teas, so they must be consumed more quickly. However, they can be stored for several months in a refrigerator or even a freezer.
Please note that in the Sencha tea category, there are 20 subcategories while Matcha teas (which means “powdered tea” in Japanese) come in 6 categories. These families are defined according to their grade, the time spent in shades or even their colors.
A blue tea from New Zealand is then offered which is highly oxidized, up to 80%. Plus, a black tea, heavily roasted, denotes our usual tea habits with notes of chestnut and tonka. The following tea is a ripe Pu-Erh tea, from Vietnam, including black tea, here harvested in 2007. A tea which is fermented in earthenware jars, to age the leaves faster than usual. A back and forth which will stress the leaves, to make a tea with more vegetal notes.
Next, you may pursue your Christmas Tea Club with the flavored tea category, starting with a Christmas white tea, called Rhapsody. A sort of festive tea whose pink liquor is obtained from beetroot, but also enhanced with pearly almond and other spices. This reference is one of the few teas offered by Mariage Frères in the form of hand-sewn muslin bags. What follows is the new Balthazar tea reference, a surprising blue tea with fragrant indigo liquor. Here we find a scent of almond and orangettes, less spicy than Christmas tea. On top of that, let’s discover Rose Milonga maté, which grows mainly in Latin America and which counts a lot of tea. Most often consumed in a calabash and served using a straw, also acting as a filter.
Mariage Frères Tour Eiffel, 56 Rue Cler, 75007 Paris (France) / Phone : 00 33 (0)1 43 19 18 54. More information on their official website / The Christmas Tea Club happens every Saturday and Sunday, from 2nd December until 31st December 2023, from 11am to 12:30pm, for 65 euros per person. Upon booking by mail: teaclub@mariagefreres.com
If you’re into gourmet moments, the Afternoon Tea, is proposed in two stores in Paris and also in Tokyo salons, is a new formula which allows you to discover tea, while savor associated food pairings, naturally cooked with tea. To accompany your favorite tea, some salty appetizers, like the Christmas ball is filled with foie gras, lacquered with a gel which was infused with Christmas Orange tea. Then, followed by a little chou with blackcurrant confit and finally a salmon flower, lightly infused , accompanied by plain Granny Smith apple. Everything is of course infused with Christmas Song tea. To complete this first phase, let’s pursue with a selection of pastries.
Starting with Mon Beau Sapin, flavored with Burgundy blackcurrant and infused with tea, topped with some Bourbon vanilla whipped cream. Thereafter, a Christmas Gold Cake contains gianduja chocolate and caramelized hazelnuts, infused overnight in a Christmas tea syrup. The third one is La Neige d’Amande, a true ode to almond, starring almond snow with marzipan and white almond. This is followed by a revisited Paris Brest, made with a freshly orange zested mousseline cream and again caramel. At last, taste the Parisian Holiday scones, with candied oranges along whipped cream, and topped with Rooibos Christmas tea.
The Afternoon Tea moment is proposed upon reservation, for 65 euros per person or 122 euros for two persons, at Mariage Frères, from 12pm until 7pm, until February 2024, more information on their official website.
- 30 rue du Bourg-Tibourg 75004 Paris (France) / Phone : 00 33 (0)1 42 72 28 11.
- 260 rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré 75008 Paris (France) / Phone : 00 33 (0)1 46 22 18 54.
