The next time you are in Paris, and you have a day to spend indulging your senses (and tastebuds) with marvelous teas, I strongly recommend booking a leçon particuliẻre or personal lesson from the tea experts at the Eiffel Tower Mariage Frẻres shop. It’s a little pricey at about 600€ but I thought it was well worth the cost which included lunch at the restaurant in the Le Marais Mariage Frères shop across town.
During my lesson, Arthor, an absolute delight, walked me through sixteen different teas, plus two additional perfumes since we discussed the process of smoked tea which wasn’t on my original tasting list. We explored a total of 18 examples perfumes of the seven tea varieties (blanc, vert, jaune, bleu, Darjeeling, noir and Mûr) with the proper preparation and water temperatures, including soaking my green tea option in cold water, and an ice cube to release the notes of the green before adding the boiling water to prevent the most optimum flavor. My favorite was the “Milky Blue”, a fragrant blue tea that is enhanced with the flavor of steamed milk. It was absolutely unreal.
Following my nearly four-hour lesson—and tea shopping, I crossed town for my complementary lunch at their teashop in Le Marias--my favorite Paris neighborhood. It was cute, quiet and quint and to my surprise Charles Blow, the author of The Fire Below, among other great titles was dining. And yes, I totally fan-girled him, like the complete dork that I am. After embarrassing myself, settled at my table and ordered the Salmon Matcha, a Japanese yuzu-flavored, rice tagliatelle with matcha tea, glazed soybeans with ginger, shimeji mushrooms which was all garnished black sesame. I ordered the Earl Grey tea in anticipation of the two, yes two, desserts I ordered—the Splendeur du Tibet, a rich crẻme brûlẻe infused in their iconic “Marco Polo” tea and bourbon vanilla and one of their famous tea ice cream sandwiches. I choose the version made with “Marco Polo Blue” and fleur de del caramel.
Together, my private tea lesson and meal was the absolute highlight of my trip to Paris and well worth the approximately 600 €.
