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Feb 19th, '12, 17:14
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Mariage Frères

by TomVerlain » Feb 19th, '12, 17:14

There are a couple of other Mariage Frères topics, but the pictures are of teaware more than tes, so I figured I'd post them here.

I would have taken more, but the salesperson stopped me and said no pictures allowed.

They do have some beautiful things here ( top floor of the alsterhaus department store in hamburg), and a very large collection of teas.

This is as you walk into the shop. There are gold encrusted and silver encrusted tea cakes in the case (left and right).

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Some of the tea cannisters, with the native word for tea on the jar for that particular tea.

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Just in case you have $2,103.60 in loose change on you, you can get this stunning silver teapot. The case had lots of really nice glass teaware, but I did not get a chance to take any more pictures

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I bought a 1995 puer, a 2005 and a unknown (current) year. They are all loose leaf, very small, gong ting type leaves. From $433 a kilo to $65 for the youngest. Not the cheapest, but they are reasonably good teas, tho no provenance provided. They sell by 100g increaments, except the more expensive, where you can buy 50g. Their catalog lists 12 puerhs.

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Feb 19th, '12, 21:04
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Re: Mariage Frères

by BioHorn » Feb 19th, '12, 21:04

Reasonably good teas and a huge tea list. You do however pay for the snark!

I visited the 17 Place de la Madeleine store. They really got fed up with me looking/smelling pu containers. Strange also that they did not understand the difference between cooked or green puerh (shu/sheng.) If I remember correctly all their pu was cooked.

Years back a friend got me some Thai Beauty that was decent.

Feb 20th, '12, 11:35
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Re: Mariage Frères

by outline » Feb 20th, '12, 11:35

stunning silver teapot. beautiful store. thank you for sharing those pictures with us!

Feb 20th, '12, 15:29
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Re: Mariage Frères

by beecrofter » Feb 20th, '12, 15:29

Kind of reminds me of a French version of Ten Ren.

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Feb 21st, '12, 18:38
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Re: Mariage Frères

by BioHorn » Feb 21st, '12, 18:38

beecrofter wrote:Kind of reminds me of a French version of Ten Ren.
+1 agree.

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Feb 21st, '12, 19:29
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Re: Mariage Frères

by TomVerlain » Feb 21st, '12, 19:29

The first puerh I tried was from ten ren in taipei, and it was very similar to the 1995 Mariage Frères I just bought, both in price, type of leaf and quality. In retrospect, I wish I had bought more of their high end tea when I was there in the mid 2000's, and it was more affordable. It was just the start of the bubble.

I imagine Mariage Frères as the kind of place deposed Romanian Princesses who are 92 shop. Ten Ren is a bit more utilitarian.

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