The Mariage Frères Thé à l’Opéra is unveiled here in its Haute Couture version. The house presents Opera Haute Couture as an exclusive and indulgent creation: a noble green tea with chic notes of red berries, carried by a delicious white vanilla.

The declared composition is simple: tea and flavouring, with possible traces of nuts. All the craftsmanship lies in the aroma, which the house describes as waves of noble red berries and white vanilla, rich and elegant, and in the green leaf that carries it. The tea bears the Mariage Frères Jardin Premier label.

The liquor is clear and fragrant. The red berries open, round, slightly tart; the white vanilla settles afterwards and envelops them without weighing them down. The green tea beneath brings its vegetal freshness and keeps, at the finish, a lightness that a black tea would not have, provided the three minutes’ steeping time is respected. It is a fragrant tea of great softness, precise in its notes, easy to love from the first cup.

It is drunk during the day, plain, at lunch or at teatime, with a strawberry gateau, a pavlova, a raspberry tart or a vanilla custard. Infused then chilled, it becomes an iced tea in which the red berries gain freshness and the vanilla becomes more subtle.

Opera Haute Couture is available loose leaf, weighed and packed to order in our shops in Bordeaux and Nice, from the 5 g sample to the kilo, in a sachet designed to preserve its aromas, and in a black iconic metal tea tin, airtight and with a crimped lid, 100 g, presented in its gift box. Allow 2.5 g for 200 ml of water at 95 °C and three minutes’ steeping time.