Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(
Marrakech International.
pour can vary, depending on your location
and the inclination of your waiter or host.
Expect the tea to come presweetened
unless you order it
la sukka
(pronounced
la
soo
-ka).
L
$$$
La Sultana,
403 rue de la Kas-
bah (
&
212/24/388008;
www.lasultana
marrakech.com). $$
Dar Vedra,
3 Derb
Sidi Ahmed ou Moussa (
&
212/24/389370;
www.darvedra.com).
Tea
449
Mariage Frères
Les Gentilhommes des Thé
Paris, France
For generations, the Mariage brothers
were always the go-to guys when it came
to tea. Though Henri and Edouard didn't
officially found their tea importing com-
pany on the rue de Bourg-Tibourg until
1854, their forbears had been trading tea
and spices to the Orient since 1660, when
Nicolas and Pierre Mariage worked for
Louis XIV to open trading routes on behalf
of the French East India Company. Now
that's
a family business.
When granddaughter Marthe finally
started selling directly to the public in the
1980s, the firm catered strictly to the
upscale end of the market. Though they've
got a dizzying selection of some 500 teas,
sourced from 35 different countries, each
one is top-class. The place is fitted out like
an old-fashioned apothecary. Standing in
the shop, gazing along the long wall where
each tea is stored in its own wooden cub-
byhole can be overwhelming. Mariage
Frères's buyers obsessively taste every
year's crop and announce the year's new
Darjeelings with all the same fanfare with
which wine merchants offer up a season's
nouveaux Beaujolais. They create expres-
sive blends you'll find nowhere else, giving
them evocative names like Marco Polo,
Genghis Khan, Elixir of Love, or the Solitary
Poet's Tea. White tea, green tea, black tea;
flavored with flowers, with spices, with
fruits—you never knew there could be so
many variations. It's not just leaf-tea,
either—they sell tea in compressed bricks,
in powders, and even in tea bags made
only from the finest muslin.
Tea sets and teapots sold in this shop
were designed exclusively for Mariage
The tea room at Mariage Frères.
