Mariage Frères gift sets: the gift sets compared, from the duo to the Grand Coffret Henri

Which Mariage Frères gift set should you choose?

The right gift set depends on what you want to give: teas to adopt, an afternoon tea treat, a discovery in small quantities or a panorama of the house. Gift sets of two or three 100 g tins suit someone who will drink these teas for a long time. The Coffrets Connaisseur add a jelly. The music boxes and the Grand Coffret Henri are rather for tasting many different teas.

The table below arranges the gift sets in stock in our Nice shop by number of teas. For each, it gives the contents as stated on its product page, the tea types, whether it contains caffeine and the profile of the person it is intended for. All are also presented in our tea gift sets section.

Two-tea gift sets: two 100 g tins to adopt

A two-tea gift set offers two large 100 g metal tins. It is the format that lasts: 100 g makes around forty cups per tea, and the empty tins can then be used to store loose leaf tea. It is a gift for someone whose favourite type of tea you know.

• The Coffret Marco Polo & Noël brings together the fruity and floral black tea for all year round and Esprit de Noël, a black tea with gentle spices, apple and almond.
• The Coffret Bohème pairs two flavoured green teas: Thé à l'Opéra, with red berries and spices, and Vert Provence, with rose and lavender.
• The Coffret French Dream sets two black tea chais side by side: Chaï Parisien, mellow and fruity, and Chaï Earl Grey, which adds bergamot to the spices.

If the recipient is especially fond of Marco Polo, our comparison of the versions of Marco Polo will help them continue the discovery in loose leaf.

The trios: three 100 g teas around a single theme

The three-tea gift sets each follow a theme, which makes choosing simpler than it seems: a moment, a type or a style. These are generous gift sets, 300 g of tea in total, suited to an already curious tea lover or a household where several cups are drunk each day.

• The morning moment: the Coffret 3 thés World Breakfast brings together French Breakfast Tea, chocolatey and malty, Russian Breakfast Tea, with citrus, and English Breakfast Tea, full-bodied, which takes milk well.
• Flavoured black teas: the Coffret Garden Party gathers Marco Polo, Esprit de Noël and Earl Grey Provence, with bergamot and lavender.
• Three types: the Coffret 3 thés Chefs d'Œuvre offers Flower Moon (blue tea with almonds), Esprit de Noël (black tea) and Vert Provence (green tea).
• Blue teas: the Coffret 3 thés Bleu Indigo brings together Marco Polo Blue, Opéra Blue and Thé Bleu des Légendes, three flavoured oolongs.

Oolong, which the house calls blue tea, is a partially oxidised tea, between green tea and black tea. The Coffret Bleu Indigo thus lets you rediscover familiar flavours on a different leaf. Our oolong guide explains this type in more detail.

The caffeine-free trio: the Coffret Sweet Dream

The Coffret Sweet Dream contains no caffeine: it brings together three red rooibos, a South African plant that contains none. Marco Polo Rouge echoes the fruity and floral flavour of the house's emblematic tea, Rouge Métis is floral, Rouge Bourbon smooth and vanilla-scented. It is a gift for someone who drinks their cup after dinner, or for the whole family. Our rooibos guide tells you more about the plant.

A tea and its jelly: the Coffrets Connaisseur

The Coffrets Connaisseur pair a 100 g tin of tea with a jar of extra jelly made with that same tea, in a black presentation case. The jelly is spread on brioche or a scone while the same flavour is in the cup: it is an afternoon tea gift more than an assortment. Once opened, the jelly keeps in the refrigerator.

• The Coffret Connaisseur Marco Polo: 100 g of Marco Polo black tea and 240 g of its jelly.
• The Coffret Connaisseur Noël: the Christmas tea with cinnamon, apple and almond, and its jelly, for the weeks of Advent.
• The Coffret Connaisseur Earl Grey Impérial: a spring Darjeeling flavoured with bergamot, and 240 g of matching jelly.

Discovering in small quantities: music boxes and Tea Break gift sets

To let someone taste several teas without committing to large tins, Mariage Frères offers two music boxes of four 20 g teas, each with a metal measuring spoon. According to the product page of the Coffret Thé à l'Opéra, 20 g makes about eight cups: enough to form an opinion before adopting a tea in a larger format.

• The Coffret Thé à l'Opéra plays a Puccini aria when opened. It contains Fantôme de l'Opéra (floral green tea), Aïda (black tea with citrus), Élixir d'Amour (fruity and floral) and Rouge Opéra, a naturally caffeine-free rooibos.
• The Coffret Madame Butterfly plays “Sakura, Sakura”. Its four teas, Madame Butterfly (white), Kabuki (black), Paris-Kyoto (green with yuzu) and Thé des Samouraïs (sencha), sketch a Japan seen from Paris.

The Tea Break gift sets are for those without a teapot: a white porcelain mug bearing the house logo and 30 cotton muslin tea sachets, or 75 g of tea. The Tea Break Marco Polo gift set suits every season; its twin, the Tea Break Noël gift set, contains a black tea with cinnamon, almond and apple. One muslin per 200 ml of water at 95 °C, 5 minutes, directly in the mug.

The Grand Coffret Henri: eighteen teas to embrace the house

The Grand Coffret Henri is the most extensive of the Mariage Frères gift sets in our shop: eighteen round tins, from 8 to 25 g depending on the tea, for 302 g in total. It pays tribute to Henri Mariage, who founded the house in Paris in 1854 with his brother Édouard. According to its product page, Henri took a tasting case with him on his travels, and one example is kept at the tea museum on rue du Bourg-Tibourg.

The gift set covers every type. Among the pure teas: the white tea Yin Zhen, the yellow tea Huang Cha, the green Gyokuro Kansai, the blue Opium Hill, the Darjeeling Delight Haute Couture, the smoked Lapsang Chinbara and the Pu-Erh Fleur de Thé. Among the flavoured blends: Marco Polo Sublime, Earl Grey French Blue, Casablanca, Lune Rouge and French Breakfast Tea. Each tin carries its own brewing instructions.

What if no ready-made gift set is right?

A ready-made Mariage Frères gift set comes with its own teas. If you already know what the person likes, you can create your own gift set of 4, 6, 9 or 12 teas, each in its own tea tin, choosing from the types in our catalogue. For more festive ideas, our guide which tea to give for Christmas sorts our gifts by profile and by budget.