Tea also grows in Colombia, and Mariage Frères has devoted a collection to it, Thés de Colombie, made up of teas, spices and fruits from this country. According to the house, the plantation’s lands, of great purity, are irrigated by clear water from snow-capped peaks, and responsible farming methods give the leaves time to develop intense, fruity aromas.

Pitahaya de Colombia pairs this Colombian green tea with the pulp of dragon fruit, the pitahaya, a cactus fruit with bright pink skin and white flesh speckled with tiny black seeds. The declared ingredients are tea, dragon fruit and a flavouring; the blend may contain traces of tree nuts.

The liquor is clear and fresh. The dragon fruit brings sweet, gourmand notes and a silky roundness that the house describes as sensual, lit by a gentle joy of living; the green tea, in the background, keeps the palate clean and slightly grassy, without marked astringency. A gourmand yet discreet, bright fragrance that calls for a second cup.

It can be drunk at any hour, plain, and takes on another dimension iced: prepared hot, cooled, then served over ice with a few pieces of fresh fruit. It goes with a fruit salad, a pineapple carpaccio, a pavlova, a light lunch.

Pitahaya de Colombia is available loose leaf, weighed to order in our shops in Bordeaux and Nice, from the 5 g sample to the kilo, in a pouch of 30 traditional round cotton muslin tea sachets, net weight 75 g, and in a 100 g iconic black (Iconic) tea tin, airtight and sealed, presented in its gift box. Allow 2.5 g of leaves, or one muslin sachet, per 200 ml of water at 95 °C and three minutes’ infusion, no longer, so that the green tea stays mellow beneath the fruit.