Marco Polo

Glad you like it!!

This one is special. Even non tea drinkers seem to get a mad crush for this one, With friends and family, this and Lady Grey and yumchaa´s rooibos mixes seem t cause special requests “you want me to go make a pot of tea?”. I am very glad you liked it.

I never ordered anything from MF site, though I have been eyeing it covetously – it is quite cheaper there than what I can get here, but with shipping it might end up same prize. And I am lucky enough that there are a few places around here which sell some MF teas by the gram, so I can pick 50 grams of this and that just to try it, and smell it before. BTW do not order wedding imperial without trying both it and yumchaa caramel sweetheart before.

Oh and one more thing, I know about you and rooibos, but the rooibos version of this, Marco Rouge is rather awesome! (be careful with MF Rouge Bourbon, it is fabulous but for people who like rooibos plain only. the vanilla is exquisite but very wimpy-ish, just there to make the rooibos stand out)

Hubby is stubborn about tea and likes very few. This is one he likes!

My first cup was less tha stellar, but the second cup has me antsy to get some more! I usually don’t have additions with anything but breakfast tea, but this one needed milk and sugar to really sing, but with the additions it sang an aria!

I usually don’t add anything to teas either, and working on getting the right stuff in the right amounts to make this shine is really hard for me. I’m going to buy some half & half and see if that helps. How did you make your aria-spouting cuppa?

Just skim milk and a little sugar, plus a quiet enough spot to concentrate on the flavor.

Well, I’ve done all that. Gotta figure out how much milk/sugar I think.

I will get my hands on this tea one day! ONE DAY.

I definitely hope you get some! It’s sooo good. :) If you would like me to send you a sample of it once I get some for myself (I just have a little sample right now), let me know. :)

Oh, that would be awesome. If you could, when you do (if you don’t mind shipping to Canada, that is).

There is a teashop downtown from me that apparently used to deal in Mariage Freres exclusively, but switched companies (to about a year and a half or so ago to O Dor). If only I had known of its existence then.

I don’t mind! :) I’ll probably get some this week or next week. I’ll let you know! Do you have a Williams-Sonoma near you? Apparently they sell it in their stores (but not online). I’m hoping the one near me has it. Otherwise, I’ll have to order online somewhere, and then I’ll have to wait! Horrors! :P

Hmm, the nearest one to me (so says Google Maps) is still quite a ways away and would take a complicated series of buses to get to, I suspect.

The O Dor is supposed to be really good, though, AJ! Have you tried any of their tea?

One, in-store (tea to go); ‘Place Saint Marc’. I’ve only been there that once, though I plan to go back (I just haven’t yet, because it’s fancy and intimidating, and I am uselessly shy), but mostly just to try teas in-store (aside from their high tea, they’ve got tea to go, and a tiny little bar area where you can buy a pot and sit) until I find the one I’m willing to commit thirty dollars to (those tins are expensive).

They have a tea-taster and tea-tasting area, but I missed the person last time, it seemed.

AJ – Good news! I was able to procure the last tin of Marco Polo from my nearby Williams-Sonoma! :D If you would still like me to send you a sample, PM your address to me, and I’ll get it out this week. :)

You just made my day! Which was already going pretty well.

Hmmm…maybe I need to check out the Williams Sonoma store in my local mall…I would love to try this tea….

I highly recommend it, Lori! :)

This is one that has sounded good to me for a couple years. I’ve never run across Mariage Freres in my part of Canada but I guess that’s probably good at those prices! :)

I think Mariage Freres is usually on the pricier side of teas, but Dean & Deluca overcharges for everything too so maybe you can find it cheaper elsewhere.

Uniquity – Williams Sonoma sometimes has this in Canada. Only place I’ve seen so far

Love Marco Polo, but I’ve concluded that Harney & Sons Tower of London is very similar, and a little less finicky. Ashmanra sent me a sample of one that’s a doppelganger, too, from a small tea house. I’ll dig a little and see if I can figure out the name.

I’ve been wanting to try Tower or London. I should try them side by side. Also, just looked up Tower of London on Harney’s site. You get the same amount of tea bags in a waaay nicer tin for less than half the price of Marco Polo. Wow. Too bad the loose tea only comes in 1 lb increments. Too much!

GMathis, that was Anna’s Blend from Tin Roof Teas. Hubby and I like it better than Marco Polo now!

Yeah, that was it! (Now I’ve got to go paw through my packet orphans to see if I have a cup’s worth left :)

Mercuryhime: if you order it loose from the Millerton shop I think you can get however many ounces you want, with maybe a two ounce minimum? You just have to order by phone! And you can get a tin cheaply and they will make a label for it! That is what I did, but I did order the whole pound, lol.

Thanks for the tip ashmanra! I could probably go to the Soho location but I’m lazy. :p

I don’t know what’s up, but I didn’t go to bed either last night. Now that the kids are up, there’s no chance of it.

Awww, we had sympathetic insomnia!

I always visit Steepster when I can’t sleep because LiberTEAS is usually posting reviews all hours of the night. She’s like a zombie-robot-superhero keeping the tea world safe while we sleep… or don’t sleep in our cases.

Not too much info at all, I agree with you completely on this one. It is one of the richest teas I have tried. And, three guesses who gave me a sample?

This stuff is phenomenally good, isn’t it?

Even my hubby loves this one, and he doesn’t drink many flavored teas. This is the one I use to entice him to the tea table.

Teawing, I’m going to go with a “fishy”, Santa like character. How does she have any tea left for herself? That one is generous to a fault with her “blanket” kindness.

Gmathis & Ashmanra, how will any other tea measure up now? I have the same feeling I get when I finish a great book. I almost resent the new book for not being the one I just finished. CRAZY…

ding ding, you win. I have wondered the same myself, then decided she must be the tea fairy queen and just waves her wand….

It, too, want to bathe in it. We would smell magical!

I felt that way about this tea, too, although it wasn’t a no-longer impressive as much as a not-initially impressed feeling. Which I totally never expected! And although I do enjoy the MF teas I brought back from Paris, I’m finding that I like Dammann Freres so much more.

This was from my pre-Harney/Upton days (my first order with Harney was last November, and I am in deep smit.). Marco Polo was my first fancy tea. And was considerably better than most of the flavored Adagio tea I had been drinking.

The sample I tried was phenomenally good!

We’d be happy to take that off of your hands! We are running low on our supply, and the local supplier, well, their prices are a bit steep, so we were preparing to say goodbye! We’ll be in the states in a few weeks, so we wouldn’t even have to worry about canadian shipping, if they’re still available.

@Rita…pm me your parent’s address and I will get it in the mail next week. Will that be soon enough?

Yay! Thank you so much, you are awesome!

My vote goes to Samovar! But then again, I’ve never tried Mariage Freres.

Between your recommendation and today’s Steepster Select, I’m going with Samovar for this order, and MF for the next one. :)

Yay Samovar!

it’s heeeeeeeere!

my husband said that this one tasted like strawberry/blueberry muffins to him. i wasn’t a huge fan, but he really liked it. i like to know exactly what is in my tea, or at least the general flavors…not “secret mysterious blend”. :)

I’m generally that way too, but Mariage Freres is a pretty high-quality, long-lived tea company, so I have some faith that they know what they’re doing. :)

Oh, I don’t doubt what they are doing. I just like to know. A touch of OCD? hehe!