Tea jelly: how to serve it, from breakfast to a festive meal

What is a tea jelly?

A tea jelly is a sweet jelly made with a tea infusion in place of fruit juice. Those from Mariage Frères follow a short recipe: cane sugar, tea infusion, fruit pectin and lemon juice. They are cooked in copper pans, following the house's traditional method, and sold in 240 g jars. Each one captures the fragrance of a particular tea, from the Gelée de Thé · Marco Polo to the smoky Gelée de Thé · Tarry Souchong. All are gathered in our tea jelly section.

Tea jelly or tea jam: what is the difference?

The difference lies in what is cooked. The French decree of 14 August 1985, amended in 2004, defines jam as a mixture of sugars, fruit pulp or purée and water, and jelly as a gelled mixture of sugars and juice or aqueous extract, without the flesh of the fruit. Tea jelly follows the same logic: the infusion plays the role of the juice, fruit pectin makes it set, and the jar stays translucent, with no pieces. People often search for “tea jam”, but it is indeed a jelly that you will find in the jar.

Which tea jelly to choose, according to your tea?

The simplest way is to start from a tea you already love: each jelly keeps its character, fruity, floral, spiced, smoky or vanilla. The table lists, for each one, the tea it is made from and the uses given on its product page. All share the same basic ingredients, with a rooibos infusion replacing the tea infusion in the Bourbon jelly, and all may contain traces of nuts.

At breakfast and teatime: what to spread a tea jelly on?

The fruity and floral jellies are first and foremost served on bread. The Gelée de Thé · Marco Polo, the Gelée de Thé · Earl Grey Impérial, the Gelée de Thé · Darjeeling Impérial, the Thé au Tibet jelly and the Montagne d'Or jelly go on brioche, a warm scone or a slice of buttered toast. Their product pages describe a melting, barely set texture that extends the tea hour.

For plain yoghurt or fresh cheese, several product pages suggest the same idea: a spoonful of jelly placed on top. This is the case for the floral Gelée de Thé · Éros, the Marco Polo and the Gelée de Thé · Bourbon. The latter is made from a vanilla rooibos infusion, naturally caffeine-free: it suits any time of day, and children's teatime too. Vanilla lovers will find the same fragrance in our rooibos.

A simple way to serve a tea jelly is alongside the tea it is made from. Marco Polo on bread with a cup of Marco Polo, brioche with Earl Grey jelly and a cup of Earl Grey Impérial: the two echo each other. For both teas, the product page gives 2.5 g per 200 ml of water at 95 °C and a 5-minute steeping time.

Tea jelly on the savoury side: cheeses, cold meats, foie gras

The Gelée de Thé · Tarry Souchong is the one that finds its way to the savoury table. Made from a smoked black tea, it gives a dark jelly whose smoky note accompanies aged cheeses, cold meats or simple toast. It also slips into breakfast, for those who enjoy bold flavours. The other teas with the same character are in our smoked teas section, and our guide to Lapsang Souchong and smoked teas ranks them from the lightest to the boldest.

The Gelée de Thé · Earl Grey Impérial also has its place beside foie gras: this use is given on the page of the gift set that contains it. To build a whole festive meal around tea, our tea and Christmas dinner guide suggests pairings, from aperitif to dessert. For fresh cheese, the page of the floral Gelée de Thé · Éros suggests it too.

For the festive season: the Noël jelly and the Coffrets Connaisseur

The Gelée de Thé · Noël is flavoured with the black tea Esprit de Noël and its gentle spices. Its product page intends it for gingerbread, brioche and toast: on a slice of Pain d'Épices au Thé Noël, from the same house, it extends the same fragrance. The other Mariage Frères gingerbreads are in our gingerbread section.

For gifting, the Coffrets Connaisseur bring together, in a black case, a 100 g tin of tea and the 240 g jar of its jelly. The Coffret Connaisseur Noël contains the tea Esprit de Noël (T921) and the Noël jelly; the Coffret Connaisseur Marco Polo contains Marco Polo (T918) and its jelly. The Coffret Connaisseur Earl Grey Imperial pairs Earl Grey Impérial (T8002) with its jelly, and the Coffret Connaisseur Éros pairs the tea Éros (T911) with its own.

The product page of the Coffret Connaisseur Noël designs it for the weeks of Advent: the tea for winter breakfasts, the jelly for brioches, scones and crêpes. To compare these gift sets with the house's other gift sets, from the duo to the largest, our guide to Mariage Frères gift sets presents them in a table.

How to store a tea jelly once opened?

Unopened, the jar should be kept away from light and heat, as stated on the Coffrets Connaisseur product pages. Once opened, it keeps in the refrigerator. All our tea jellies carry the same allergen statement: they may contain traces of nuts. If you are giving one as a gift, bear this in mind, and check the packaging if in doubt; in the Coffret Connaisseur Noël, the tea Esprit de Noël itself contains almond.