Mariage Frères created Paris-London for the inauguration of its first Tea Emporium in London, and the house also sees in it a friendly nod to the Entente cordiale signed between France and England. An exclusive composition, rich in ideas and daring, as the occasion demands: the meeting of two capitals in a single cup.

The base is a spring black tea from the Himalayas, young and fresh, which the house blends with a white tea. On top, a bouquet: rose petals, bright and fragrant, lavender with an English accent, vivid and generous, delicate pale white flowers. The declared ingredients are tea, flavouring, lavender and rose; the blend may contain traces of nuts. The tea carries the Jardin Premier label.

The liquor is round and floral. The rose gives the “touch of Paris”, the lavender “the note of London”, and the white flowers bind the two. The spring black tea brings a fine liveliness, far from the robust morning blacks, the white tea a velvety softness. The lavender, often overpowering, is kept in check here by the rose: the balance is floral and fruity, what the house calls very high couture.

It is an afternoon tea, for an English tea time reimagined in the French style: scones, shortbread, rose macaron, raspberry tart. It is drunk plain, without milk, so as not to mask the flowers, and when iced it becomes an elegant summer drink.

It is offered loose leaf, weighed to order in our shops in Bordeaux and Nice, from 5 g samples up to 1 kg, in a case of 30 traditional round cotton muslin sachets, net weight 75 g, and in an iconic black metal tin of 80 g, presented in its gift box. Allow 3 g of leaves, or one muslin sachet, per 200 ml of water at 95 °C and five minutes of steeping.