Mariage Freres

Photo courtesy of Saxon on Flickr

I think this might be my last European post. I’m back in New York and have already thought of a million more NY-centric subjects, just while wandering my Brooklyn neighborhood—happy to be home, to say the least. But since I’m only just back, here’s a last thought on France.

While I drank coffee in Greece, in France, I drank tea. Fancy tea. Fancy French tea sold at these gorgeously sleek food stores like Hediard (http://www.hediard.fr/Corporate/Accueil/), where tea is displayed loose in drawers that you open to sample each flavor’s wonderful scent. Seriously, tea is incredibly fragrant. I never really knew. Here, most of the tea I drink is shuttered up in bags.

The Mariage family of France has been in the tea business for centuries. In fact, they are credited with establishing the principles for the French Art of Tea. A longer explanation of this art can be found here (http://www.mariagefreres.com/Vitrine/Aventure/passion.php?page=aventure/passion&lg=en), but in quick summation, la famille de Mariage explains, “Tea, like wine, is a product of ancient, noble civilizations, requiring patient cultivation, transformation, and perfection through careful handling.”

Mariage Freres, as it is known today, was founded in 1854. Their tea salons are these gorgeous dark wood-paneled apothecaries of tea, where there’s a man at the counter who takes your order and then hand scoops your selection from the many canisters behind him. Tea comes in beautiful black tins boxed up like it’s jewelry. My favorite flavors are Marco Polo and Black Orchid, two black teas with slight floral notes. I guess tea is like wine.

Find Mariage Freres here at Dean & DeLuca