Lime, ginger, and a blue tea to carry them: Majestic Lime & Ginger rests on three sensations, which Mariage Frères describes as bursting, brilliant notes with an intense flavour, lighting up the roundness of the tea. The house calls it fresh and absolutely majestic.

Blue tea, or oolong, is a semi-oxidised tea: its velvety texture rounds off what the other two flavours have of most lively. The declared composition combines blue tea, flavouring, blue flowers, ginger and lime; the blend may contain traces of nuts. The ginger and the lime are visible in the leaf, and the dry nose gives a pleasant prickle. It carries the house’s Jardin Premier label.

The liquor is golden. The lime opens on a sharp acidity, greener and more aromatic than that of the yellow lemon; the ginger follows, warm and slightly peppery; then the blue tea wraps everything in a long, soft finish. A frank, tonic tea, but without harshness.

It suits the whole day: hot at lunch, with Asian cuisine, a fish with lime or a ginger dish, or in the afternoon with a lemon cake. Iced, it is remarkable: infuse it hot, pour it over ice cubes and add a slice of lime; a sorbet or an exotic fruit dessert suits it well.

Majestic Lime & Ginger is offered loose leaf, weighed to order in our shops in Bordeaux and Nice in sample sizes from 5 g to a kilo, and in a black metal tin of 100 g, airtight and sealed, delivered in its gift box. The measure is a little more generous than for a black tea: 3 g for 200 ml of water at 95 °C, five minutes of infusion. Reseal the bag or the tin carefully, away from light and odours.