Open the drawer, and the first notes of “Sakura, Sakura” drift out of the gift set: Mariage Frères has housed four teas in a music box that plays the famous Japanese air of cherry blossoms in bloom. The Coffret Madame Butterfly is as much an object as an assortment, and that is what makes it a gift.

It contains four 20 g teas and a metal tea scoop. The house presents them as a story in four acts: Madame Butterfly, a sweet, fruity and floral white tea; Kabuki, a black tea with wild fruits of the Far East; Paris-Kyoto, a green tea flavoured with yuzu, the Japanese citron mandarin, balanced by a touch of vanilla; and Thé des Samouraïs, a characterful sencha with citrus, exotic fruits and vanilla.

Three tea types, then, white, black and green, for four creations and four flavours, which together draw a dreamed Japan seen from Paris, that of Puccini’s opera whose name the gift set bears. The ingredients declared for the whole include tea, flavourings, marigold flowers, sunflower, orange blossom, rose, wild blackberry and mango; the gift set may contain traces of tree nuts. The detailed composition of each tea appears on its packaging.

Infusion parameters vary by tea: white needs cooler water and a longer time, sencha lukewarm water, and black tea water just below the boil. Each tin carries its own instructions, and the scoop lets you measure the leaves without scales.

It is a gift set to give, for a lover of Japan, music or simply tea, and a pleasant way to discover four creations from the house in small quantities before choosing one in a larger size.