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FRENCH BLISS continued from page 45 The Dammann Frères flavor room holds both commonplace and exotic ingredients. appropriation has a long history at his company, and to illustrate that notion, he likes to tell a story involving his grandfather, Jean Jumeau-Lafond. In the 1950s, the elder Jumeau-Lafond was the first in Europe to commer- cially offer flavored teas other than Earl Grey. Story has it that although Emmanuel Jumeau-Lafond's Russian grandmother hated Earl Grey, she always added a bit of orange to her tea, as was the custom in her homeland. So Jean Jumeau-Lafond began blending black tea with lemon and orange flavors to create Dammann Frères' most popular tea to date, Goût Russe Tchaïka ("Russian Grandma's Tea"). Later, Jean Jumeau-Lafond began to incorporate other Jumeau-Lafond notes that black teas from Assam and Sri Lanka are common bases for many blends, and broken grades of Darjeeling are popular for fruit-flavored teas. However, he says Dammann Frères tested many base teas for its blends and found that the "best" base is a Chinese black tea (like a Keemun red tea) combined with an Orange Pekoe from Yunnan. He says this mixture "has notes of fruit, chocolate and smoke." He blends in 10 percent Sri Lankan Orange Pekoe for woody notes and uses this base for 90 percent of the company's flavored teas. While Jumeau-Lafond keeps his green, white and oolong teas unflavored, Sangmanee of Mariage Frères has started enthusi- astically bringing these other manufacture styles into his base mix. "I was one of the first to blend green teas and white teas," he says proudly. "Before, when people said 'tea,' they just meant black tea—usually a Ceylon or a smoky Chinese black." Sommelier Gautier also aromatizes and blends a wide variety of tea types. She says she prefers to use a single "color" of tea in each of her blends, but she says this rule doesn't span the industry. French companies are also known to source base teas that buyers in other parts of the world might pass up. Why? Sangmanee points to the tea-drinking customs in France. Unlike English teas, which must be able to handle milk and still have a nice color, French teas are usually drunk without additives or with sugar and/or lemon—condiments that do not strongly affect the hue of the brew. AROMA PROVIDERS So what specifically do French blenders use to create their dis- tinctively aromatic teas? Sangmanee says many tea pros in the country take a cue from French cuisine as a whole, which is known to integrate products from all over the world without necessarily taking the traditional means of preparation into account. "This is the French spirit," Sangmanee says. Jumeau-Lafond says the French custom of gastronomic 46 Tea Almanac 2013 non-French aroma ingredients (such as vanilla, mango and passionfruit) to create a distinctly French style of tea. Today, the younger Jumeau-Lafond says that beside Goût Russe Tchaïka, Dammann Frères' most popular teas are Earl Grey, Jardin Bleu (a black tea blended with rhubarb and strawberry flavors) and its vanilla blends. The company's most commonly used flavors are caramel, vanilla, rose, citrus and red fruits, a widely used category in France that includes apples, strawberries and red currants. Gautier says the most popular aromas for tea in France overall are citrus, vanilla, caramel, red fruits, peach and spices "in the spirit of masala chai." Sangmanee adds that the classic French style almost always includes two aromas: a touch of vanilla and a touch of citrus. He emphasizes the word "touch," describing this characteristic flavor note as "spicy in the sense of cardamom." However, to only consider the most popular aroma ingredients is to miss the point of French aromatization. At the Dammann Frères headquarters in Dreux, Jumeau-Lafond takes me on a tour of the blending facilities. When we reach the flavor room, the door is locked—and for good reason. Inside, shelves hold 100 or so flavors. Some (like citrus essential oils) are widely used across a variety of blends, while other more exotic flavors (like vodka, butter, quince and geranium) are less frequently employed but still highly valued. Dammann Frères puts tremendous effort into finding the per- fect ingredient for each aspect of a blend. For example, I see black currant oils in red, black and white varieties, as well as multiple types of strawberry and apricot. Then there is a small "cabinet of treasures" off to one side. Locked inside are the most exotic and valuable scents the company uses: violet, rhubarb, rose, cin- namon and a handful of others. Jumeau-Lafond points out that the company's 100-gram canister of Bulgarian rose essential oil was derived from an entire ton of rose petals and came at a price of 7,000 Euros (almost $9,000). Black cardamom and cinnamon cost even more. Gautier confirms that these exotic types of flavors are very much the French way. She describes a line of tea she recently cre- ated for high-end coffee and tea vendor Comptoirs Richard. The blends were designed "in the spirit of a French bistro," and the line includes white tea with rose and lychee, green tea with pear and jasmine, and oolong with violet and blackberry.