Hallelujah, one of Mariage Frères' holiday teas for 2020: "Mariage Frères enriches its collection of black gourmand teas with this heavenly fruity and festive creation. Citrus and fruit notes, embellished with vanilla, mingle with the vivid and sensuous flavours of black tea. The cup is velvety, generous, festive and joyful." €26 at Mariage Frères.
The 2020 limited edition Sakura tea from Mariage Frères: "To celebrate its 20th anniversary, the new SAKURA 2020 blends a magnificent green tea with a flowery aroma of cherry blossom sprinkled with delicate rose petals. Seductive, the cup swaddles the palate in never ending smoothness. The superb emerald canister is decorated with a shower of dazzling fuchsia flowers to evoke the magical poetry of cherry blossom season." 80g for €26.
Another option for a Chinese New Year tea: Mariage Frères Year of the Pig tea (from the Thé des Signes / Asian zodiac collection) with green tea, rooibos, goji berry and rose. €26.
While growing up in the hot and steamy South, I loved autumn and its coolness, and you’d think that after Seattle’s oven-like temperatures and dangerously smoky skies this summer, I’d be looking forward to autumn. Wrong. I’m already counting the weeks till spring and wishing I could move to Buenos Aires for the next six months and enjoy spring and summer all over again. Perhaps I’ve changed (emotionally?) but fall feels sad this year; I reckon it’ll be dark, sodden, the beginning of The End — the interminable winter months.
This year I’m going to avoid sentimentality, Japanese death poems, lethargic piano music and drama (I won’t be stoking my self-pity). I’ll tackle my negative autumn (and winter) moods with fun things…
From the French Summer Tea collection at Mariage Frères, Violetta: "...a new black tea, flowery like a Parisian folly, heady like the summer in which to drink it – iced – all season long. Floral notes, fresh and sensual: white flowers and spring time violet, clear and sprightly." 160g in a black glass jar with measuring cap and a pack of envelope filters, €40.