Tea: passion, savoir-faire and tradition

Mariage Frères invites you to share its passion, to travel through an emotional and nostalgic world of tea, by discovering a particular «art de vivre» so called the French Art of Tea…

THE PASSION FOR TEA

Tea, like wine, is a product of ancient, noble civilizations, requiring patient cultivation, transformation, and perfection through careful handling. Tea has its own rituals, and is generally associated with love, friendship, and intense moments (of success and failure). Its multifarious subtleties make drinking tea a game of infinite permutations.
For over three hundred years, the Mariage name has been intimately linked to the history of tea. As the dynasty grew, sons were educated in the principles of their fathers, successors inherited the talent of their forebears.
Aesthetic refinement and a quest for perfection are now the hallmarks of Mariage Frères. A passion for tea has always guided us, favouring the elaboration of principles that today provide the impetus for twenty-first-century tea connoisseurship.
The original Mariage brothers were also steeped in French gastronomy, which helped them to develop, from scratch, the French art of tea.
The finest way to embrace the art of a “spiritual beverage” was to offer teas from all corners of the world, and then associate them with culinary savoir-faire that enhanced the gourmet experience even as it respected fundamental principles and practices.
Over the years, Mariage Frères tea has become synonymous with a lively, sensual, international lifestyle that skilfully combines cultural awareness with aesthetic and gustatory considerations.
Day after day, we ask ourselves what tomorrow’s tea should be like. So in the field we constantly seek the most delicate harvests, while in the lab we devise the most expressive blends.
Fifteen years ago, Mariage Frères launched flavoured green teas. We are pleased to note that tea connoisseurs recognize their excellence and that this new taste has caught on.

PROFESSION

When it comes to tea, professional know-how is both a science—based on knowledge of techniques, geography and, indeed, chemistry—and personal expertise based on the taster’s sense of sight, smell, and taste.
The gourmet professions are characterized by inventiveness, the search for flavours, the use of a given region’s varied resources, and the discovery of new combinations of food and drink. There exist rules, customs, and sophisticated recipes, yet all call for a sensual awareness of aromas and gustatory effects.
The Mariage Frères taster is like an artist who relies on imagination, improvisation, and feeling; just as a perfumer juggles with scents based on familiarity with hundreds of fragrances, so a taster memorizes the characteristics of every tea—each estate, indeed each harvest, has it own individual properties—along with those of natural essential oils made from the leaves, bark, roots, and seeds of numerous plants, not to mention flowers, fruit, herbs and spices.
This heritage of acquired know-how, recorded in ledgers of blends and compositions, is one of our solidly documented production secrets.
Yet perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Mariage Frères’ special art of tea is the way the company has methodically and patiently developed the essential rules for making a refined cup of tea, based on careful control of the steeping process.
This savoir-faire is constantly being extended and enhanced through new, original creations.
Thus the world is indebted to Mariage Frères for the invention of the first tea-flavoured chocolate (Chocolat des Madarins, produced back in 1860) and the introduction of tea jelly, tea-scented candles and incense, iced-tea muslin teabags, and hundreds of culinary recipes (from pastries flavoured with green Matcha tea to a Darjeeling quiche via madeleines made with Earl Grey Impérial).
When it comes to the art of utensils, each year Mariage Frères designs dozens of teapots, tea services, and accessories that play on shapes, materials (multicoloured Yixing clay, biscuit or craze-glazed porcelain, Japanese cast-iron, diaphanous glass), and colours (the yellow of daffodils, the milky white of mornings, the blue of sunny skies, the green of young leaves).
Finally Mariage Frères offers gourmet palates original gastronomic delights elaborated by its own chefs, from savoury dishes to tea-flavoured pastries (madeleines, scones, muffins, biscuits, cakes, truffles, pralines, and so on).

TRADITION

The French art of tea is a blend of past experience with ongoing sensitivity.
Its distinguishing feature is the selection of the finest harvests.
Connoisseurs can pick from a palette of teas ranging from Argentina to Zimbabwe. Mariage Frères’ selection of teas is the most extensive in the world, exploring not only all regions but also methods (from compressed bricks to powdered tea to full leaf tea) and styles (from white teas to fermented teas).
Mariage Frères is determined to uncover the most remarkable estates. Only thorough knowledge of the field and trustworthy relationships with planters guarantee top quality. That is why Mariage Frères tasters visit dozens of estates every season, ensuring delivery of the finest harvests.
The slogan of the World’s Fair held in Paris in 1931 was, “Travel around the world in a day!” A similar trip can be taken in any Mariage Frères retail shop.
Wonderful new surprises appear on our list every month. Remain curious!