Provence, whose fiery nature is rich in scents, gave its name to this tea. According to the Mariage Frères product sheet, Thé en Provence is a great black tea with a friendly roundness, paired with fine red berries and lightly flavoured with gentle lavender and rose petals. It is presented in a collector's bottle with a double lid containing 80 g.

The ingredients are tea, Provence lavender flower, rose petals and a flavouring; the blend may contain traces of nuts. The house file lists it among its Jardins Premiers. The black leaf is speckled with lavender flowers and pink rose petals, and smells of a July garden.

The liquor is round and amber. The red berries open first, ripe and sweet; the lavender follows, soft, kept in check by the rose, and the black tea gives the whole a supple base and a warm finish. Lavender, so easily overpowering, is dosed here with restraint: you smell the garrigue, not soap.

It is drunk in the afternoon, plain, with a red berry tart, calissons, navettes, or a honey and lavender cake. Iced as an infusion, it keeps its fruit and flowers and becomes a terrace tea, to be drunk at the hour when the cicadas fall silent.

Allow 2.5 g per 200 ml of water at 95°C and five minutes of steeping. The airtight bottle protects the leaf from light and makes a lovely gift. La Boutique du Thé, official Mariage Frères stockist since 1999, offers it in its shops in Bordeaux and Nice.