Without
the Mariage family, the experience of tea in France
and throughout the Western World would be quite
a different one. With a history of three centuries,
a family name that can be connected to Louis XIV
and, in the more recent past, the effort of two
young visionaries, the fine purveyor Mariages
Frères has reinvented the art of taking
tea and created its own trend: French tea.
If
you've ever had a cup of Thé des Poètes
Solitaires or Thé Rouge Bourbon in Paris
or Tokyo, you are familiar with their highly refined
world of teas, including rare tea accessories
and exceptional tea and food pairings. You're
aware of the famous scent that tickles your imagination
and makes your mind wander to countries far away.
The fragrance is a conglomerate of luxurious eight
hundred of the finest teas in the world such as
Opium Hill, a blue Thai tea, Neige de Jade, a
white Darjeeling tea and Gyokuro "Precious
Dew," a fine green Japan tea.
If you're not familiar with Mariages Frères,
you will be charmed after browsing through The
Art of Tea, a beautifully illustrated,
heavy, coffee-table-style book, which recounts
the history of Mariages Frères from their
early beginnings in the 17th century to their
renaissance in the early 1980s and finally to
the fabulous affair it is today. Etymologically,
the last name refers to the French verb "maréier"
or "to run the seas." The book traces
the family roots to merchants from Lille who started
in the Eastern Trade in the 17th century, trading
exotic goods. In the 1660s, one Nicolas Mariage
was sent by Louis XIV to trade with the Shah of
Persia, while his brother Pierre traded on behalf
of the French East India Company.
When
tea became a popular beverage within wealthy French
circles, the Mariages were among the top dealers
who imported and sold it. Mostly it was green
tea from China used for health purposes. As tea
became a fashionable pastime of the aristocracy
so did luxurious tea cups, pots and other utensils.
At the same time in England, tea was enjoyed as
well, but in comparison to France, less aristocratic
circles soon had access to it and it became part
of the average person's lifestyle.
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Rouge Bourbon Vanille |
In
1854, Mariage Frères was founded as a tea
and vanilla import firm, soon supplying prestigious
hotels, salons and stores with fine teas from
China, India and Ceylon. Not much changed until
the early 1980s when the last of the family, Marthe
Cottin, then in her 80s and without a successor,
ran the business the way she had learned it from
her father and grandfather. New blood came in
the shape of two young men, Richard Bueno and
Kitti Cha Sangmanee. Sangmanee realized that for
the business to grow, they would have to offer
only the finest product available, a tea they
saw as "French-style tea."
The
book tells the history of the famous tea house,
recounts their efforts and travels all over the
world to seek out the finest teas, to design their
own tea ware based on models like cast-iron kettles
from Japan or ear, to create tea scented candles….
and finally to invent a gourmet cuisine to go
with tea with recipes that use teas as an ingredient---all
in the spirit of developing their idea of French
tea. In the recipe section, we fell in love with
an easy recipe for Matcha Tea Pound Cake.
Today,
they own five tea houses, three in Paris and two
in Tokyo. At number 30 rue du Bourg-Tibourg in
the artsy Marais district of Paris, tea lovers
enter a very refined world, but a comfortable
well aged one full of history. There are hundreds
of tea canisters and the tea is weighed on the
same old scales. In the restaurant, patrons enjoy
classics like the "snob salad" (with
salmon and foie gras) and tarts the "Colonial"
pastry cart, while upstairs in the museum lies
the family's personal collection of old labels,
boxes and crates and precious tea service pieces.
If you haven't had the pleasure, it is high time
If
you don't have a chance to travel to any of their
locations any time soon, visit their website
to browse and purchase their offerings.
Locations
in Paris:
30 rue du Bourg-Tibourg
Le Marais
Tel: +33(0)1 42 72 28 11
LE MARAIS
13 rue des Grands-Augustins
Rive Gauche
Tel: +33(0)1 40 51 82 50
260 Faubourg Saint-Honoré
Tel: +33(0)1 46 22 18 54 |
In
Tokyo:
Suzuran-Dori, 5-6-6 Ginza
Chuo-Ku, Tokyo
Tel. : 03 3572 1854
Meiji-Dori, 3-14-25 Shinjuku
Shinjuku-Ku
Tel. : 03 5367 1854
3-2-1 Ginza
Chuo-Ku, Tokyo
Tel. : 03 3563 1854
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