Rose petals on a grand cru Darjeeling: Darjeeling Rose Camélia brings together, according to Mariage Frères, fine black teas from Darjeeling with a remarkably developed taste, recalling muscat and ripe fruit, enhanced with rose petals. It is offered in an iconic 100 g tin, metallic, black, airtight and with a crimped lid, presented in its gift box.

The leaves, a beautiful jade green, carefully made and hand-rolled, fine and long, have white tips, a sign of delicate plucking; our catalogue grades them SFTGFOP1, the highest grade for a Darjeeling. Ingredients: tea, rose petals; the blend may contain traces of nuts. No added flavouring: the rose is that of the petals.

The infusion is amber and bright. The cup is fruity, both round and lively, sparkling, long on the palate, with a gentle floral touch, in the house’s words: the muscat roundness of the Darjeeling carries the ripe fruit, the rose slips behind a light floral note, and the fine tannins give that liveliness which marks high-grown teas. It is a floral Darjeeling, not a rose-flavoured tea.

Best enjoyed in the afternoon, plain, without milk or sugar, with scones, a fruit cake, a rose macaron, or a mountain cheese. The whole leaves can be infused a second time, and the cold infusion, unsweetened, reveals the rose with delicacy.

Allow 2.5 g per 200 ml of water at 95 °C and five minutes of infusion. Darjeeling Rose Camélia in its iconic tin keeps best closed, away from light and odours, and the tin, once empty, can still be used to store another tea.