Lu Yu, in the 8th century, was the first apostle of tea: his Classic of Tea is the oldest treatise devoted to the leaf and its preparation. Mariage Frères has dedicated to him a blend that the house calls divine, combining a very smoky tea with a full-bodied tea scented with bergamot. A strong and fragrant tea, it sums up, and without milk.

The smoked tea, dried over a resinous wood fire in the Chinese tradition, gives the woody and resinous notes; bergamot, the citrus of Earl Grey, brings its zesty freshness. The precise composition is given on the packaging and on this sheet.

The liquor, amber and powerful, opens on a frank smokiness, more pronounced than in the Smoky Earl Grey from the same house; then the bergamot cuts through it, and the full-bodied tea gives a tannic structure that holds the length. It is a tea of character, for those who like to be woken by their cup.

It is drunk in the morning, plain, without milk or sugar, and pairs with a savoury breakfast of eggs, bacon and cheese, or a brunch. During the day, it accompanies smoked salmon, grilled meat or a mature cheese, and surprises pleasantly with dark chocolate.

Allow 2.5 g per 200 ml of water at 95 °C and five minutes of infusion. Lu Yu is sold loose leaf, weighed and packed to order in our shops in Bordeaux and Nice, from the 5 g sample to the kilo, in a pouch that keeps its smoke and bergamot apart from the other teas.