A madeleine, and childhood comes flooding back. Mariage Frères has taken the idea seriously: Madeleine is a green tea with the flavour of madeleine, a creation the house describes as mischievous and indulgent, presented in a red collector tin with silver highlights, within its Héritage Gourmand collection.

The base is a green tea, to which the house has added calendula petals, vanilla and flavourings. Ingredients: green tea, calendula, vanilla, flavouring; the blend may contain traces of nuts. Dry, the green leaves speckled with orange petals smell of hot butter, vanilla and cake fresh from the oven.

The liquor is clear and fragrant. The vanilla comes first, then that buttery, soft note that makes the madeleine, and the green tea beneath brings a vegetal freshness that keeps the cup light and stops the indulgence from becoming heavy. No sugar, yet a delicate pastry sweetness lingers into the finish.

It is drunk during the day, plain, at teatime, with a madeleine, naturally, or a financier, a brioche, a quatre-quarts; a cloud of milk makes it almost creamy. Iced, it surprises with its vanilla freshness. It is a green tea for those who did not think they liked green tea, and for anyone nostalgic for the teatimes of the past.

Allow 2.5 g per 200 ml of water at 95 °C and four minutes of steeping. Madeleine is offered in a collector metal tin containing 100 g of flavoured green tea, a red and silver tin that is kept; store it closed, away from light and odours.