I have a feeling that Mariage Freres shop people in London are far more friendly than the Paris ones. Now, this is not one of those ‘Parisians are snooty’ things, since I’ve met plenty of lovely Parisians, including lovely tea shop clerks, but Mariage Freres Parisians aren’t among them. I’ve seen other people complain about how they grumble about samples, and I had the same thing – I bought 50 eur worth of tea, and they turned their nose up at giving me a sample! They gave it to me, but they weren’t happy about it.
In London, on the other hand, I bought Chandernagor for a friend and then asked if it would be possible to get a sample as well, and the very friendly shop fella started packing up a sample for me right away – a very generous one, too! (To be fair, so was the Parisian one). And he smiled! So. Much. Nicer. And the last time I was at the London Mariage Freres, the other shop guy had a nice chat with me about his home town. I love it.
Anyway, on to the tea. I don’t love it! I am utterly unhappy that I don’t love it. After reading all the glowing reviews here I had really high hopes that I’d found my perfect classic chai, but it’s just far too spicy for me when I leave it in for long, and not particularly special when I don’t. Sigh. The search continues…
