Rouge Bourbon

This tea is nice, not special or great.

I had a high expectations from this tea because of its name – Mariage Freres.

Method: in a tea bag
Amount: heaping tea spoonful
Sugar: yes

When I tried it the first time, I was very disappointed. I was expecting something smooth and rich vanilla flavored tea. Instead, what I got was rooibos with a VERY mild scent of vanilla. I thought it might become better if I add some milk. So I did. No, it didn’t improve at all, it actually made it worse because the vanilla scent got even thinner.

I wasn’t quite ready to throw away an almost full can of rooibos tea. What I did next was to increase the amount of tea from heaping tea spoonful to 1 1/2. It got a lot better!

I think the key to have this tea is to go really generous with the tea leaf, and use new tea leaf for every cup. It seems not very economical but the vanilla flavor wears off after first cup. I think I’ll try other flavors of rooibos from MF but not sure if I would buy this one again. I’m just glad that I found a way to finish the canful of tea and enjoy it at the same time.

Had a mug of this a few days ago and it was fine. Rooibos forward which is to be expected, and the vanilla notes had a slight fruity and almost alcohol lean but not in an offensive way. Better as it cools as that brings those elements more to the forefront of the sip. We’re talking authentic vanilla and not the more Westernized interpretation of the flavour where we really mean cream/custard. Kind of a boring vanilla rooibos, if we’re being honest. Nothing wrong with that, though! It makes it a very reliable/classic sorta tea.

Not rating because it’s my introduction to rooibos, so I don’t really even have a baseline for comparison. I must say, though, that having now had a few cups of this, I think rooibos is just not my thing. I’m not fond of the woody (not even woody — twiggy? bark-y? hamster shavings-like?) flavor. I’ve loved drinks like barrel-aged oaky wines and peaty whiskies, but to me that’s an elegant complex flavor intermingling with another interesting, assertive, contrasting flavor, whereas the rooibos just seems flat, one-note, like something you’d grudgingly drink to sort of remind yourself of tea if you couldn’t have tea … like WWII rationing or something. Apologies to rooibos lovers!!

Does what it says on the tin. Thankfully this blend uses the good kind of rooibos: just woody, without tasting medicinal or tobacco-y. The vanilla is natural and fairly light. Especially for a caffeine-free option, this makes for a pleasant, simple cup. I suspect there’s probably something comparable out there for less, but I wouldn’t mind having this one again at some point.

My last bag of this! We are entering our deep freeze weekend, so I will be drinking LOTS of tea in the next three or four days. Right now it’s -4F (-20C) and that’s the warmest it will be until Tuesday. It’s possible that I will skip church on Sunday as it is expected to be -23 with a wind chill of -40. It will get up to -12F during the afternoon, but Monday will be even colder. See? Excellent tea drinking weather! The perfect weekend to snuggle at home with a book and tea.

I am not tremendously fond of rooibos, but it’s not bad here. I’ve been impressed with the Mariage Freres teas I’ve tried. Although I won’t stock this one in my 20 Teas tea chest I’m glad to have tried it.

Thanks to Dustin for sending me some of this! The trick to this blend is to steep it with a cinnamon stick. I don’t know why, but that really brings out the vanilla and a touch of creaminess. The rooibos base here is quite good, too – woody and clean. One of the better vanilla rooibos blends I’ve had.

This is the first time I’m trying a tea from Mariage Frères. The muslin sachet is very unique and charming!

This one has a strong rooibos aroma with a touch of vanilla. Initially it brews to a lovely orange color, and after the recommended 6 minutes of steeping, becomes an intimidatingly deep red. The brewed aroma is enchanting—rich and herbal, and softened by the vanilla. The flavor profile of this one is decidedly complex, at turns woodsy and rich, almost spiced-sweet. It has an effervescent, liquor-like undertone that is complemented by the vanilla, and a lingering sweetness like preserved plums. My experience with red rooibos is limited, but this one convinces me that a good rooibos has a complex profile that can be as enjoyable as a black tea, and is more than just a caffeine-free backdrop for other flavors. Thanks to beelicious for this sample as well!

This is the third of four teas that I snatched from the bargain bin at Dean & Deluca last weekend. I tried two black teas by Mariage Frères a while back and found them both interesting. I’m not a huge Rooibos participant but I’m not a hater either.

When I opened the French company’s trademark black tin, I was smacked between the nostrils by a very powerful aroma. It may be because I have been a teetotaler (teatotaler would be more accurate) for a long time, but the smell did seem to be strongly like bourbon. If so, I wondered if I could pass the breathalyzer test after the huge snort I took of the unbrewed red leaves.

No brewing instructions were on the package so I used the ones I found on Steepster: 205 degrees for five minutes. The steeped liquor was bright reddish-gold. The aroma brought flashbacks to the last time I drank Rooibos tea. Again, the remainder of the odor contained my recollections of bourbon with a splash of vanilla.

The flavor of my first sip was overwhelmingly vanilla. I could taste the Rooibos underneath and perhaps the bourbon in the background. If there is no bourbon in the ingredients, the power of suggestion related to the title of the tea got the best of me.

As I continued sipping from my cup, the flavor of the tea became totally-vanilla-times-10 to my taste buds. I do like vanilla so that wasn’t a problem per se. However, I would have liked more complexity in the taste attributes. The aftertaste screamed…you guessed it…vanilla.

All in all, this selection was not unpleasant. I’m sure I will eventually empty the tin. I just was not bowled over by anything in the taste (except vanilla). I expected more of a flavor bouquet from this French tea maker. Since I didn’t pay a premium price for it, I won’t complain…too much.

When we were at Dagnino this weekend, I also picked up some samples (and possibly a tin of something, but I will admit to nothing). They sell single bags for €1, which is pretty fair if you just want to try something out. I’ve always been curious about this one, and I’ve been craving rooibos lately (clearly something is wrong) so I grabbed it.

The bag smells of vanilla, however not the vanilla of MF’s Black Vanilla – something even subtler and lightly spicy. I’m still on the lookout for that true, boozy, rich Bourbon vanilla I had hoped for in the black tea, but this is a step back, more than anything. Flavour wise, this is pure gingerbread to me. Vanilla? No. Cloves. That’s all the sweetspicyness amounts to for me. This is a little frustrating, as gingerbread and individual gingerbread spices are some of the all-time worst flavours for me.

What saves this one, though, is the caramelly vanilla notes right at the end of the sip. This is what lingers, and it’s pretty comforting. I’m drinking this in bed, and it makes me want to wear my mom-knit socks and be all autumnal.

This one is not for me, though, in spite of the fair rooibos and endsippage noms.

[Sample bag picked up at Dagnino in Rome, April 2014.]
[Polished off in Rome, April 2014.]