Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
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These kinds of combinations are the norm at France's most well-regarded tea establishments. "Depending on the season, you can drink 600 to 700 different teas at a Mariage Frères tea salon," says Sangmanee. Dammann Frères, meanwhile, typically has more than 400 teas on offer. VISUALS AND MÉLANGE INGREDIENTS Although the primary ingredients of aromatized teas are base teas and aromas, other products are often added to the mix—and many times their primary pur- pose is to appeal to the drinker's eye more than the nose or tongue. According to Jumeau-Lafond, "visuals" like fruit and flowers "don't add flavor at all," but they are important to customers. Gautier adds, "If you try [most visuals] independently, they don't have a lot of taste, so when you blend them with tea, the flavor gets annihilated. It's more for the eye." Typical ingredients in this category include flowers as well French tea blends at Mariage Frères as some fruits and spices. Recently, Sangmanee says, there has been a trend toward blending tea leaves with "a lot of herbs"—an approach that adds both flavor and visual appeal to blends. And speaking of non-taste components that help define these blends, packaging and naming are both used to add a distinct sense of "French-ness." Sangmanee points out that the French are a highly visual group and that high culture in France relates closely to appearances. (If you have any doubts about this, simply envision French fashion, art or cinema.) Jumeau-Lafond adds that in 2005, when the Dammann Frères brand relaunched on the retail level after years of wholesale-only operations, the brand's packaging was a primary focus. And naming? Sangmanee says the monikers of blends tend to convey an overall sense of the tasting experience as opposed to highlighting specific ingredients. When customers focus on indi- vidual aroma notes, he posits, they tend to reject teas based on preconceived notions. "Some customers say, 'Oh, jasmine? I don't like jasmine,'" Sangmanee says. "But jasmine is just one part [of the overall blend]." Jumeau-Lafond concurs, adding that although the names of French teas are hard to translate, they are evocative in French, and that expressive naming is "very important" for French consumers. The idea that blend names should have creative flair is in line with the country's culinary (and cultural) identity. Comparing French teas with teas from neighboring Germany, for example, Jumeau-Lafond says, "German blends are more a melting pot of fruits, teas and herbs. Germans use more flavor with less base. ... French tea is more balanced and delicate, like [French] cuisine compared with German cuisine." This is a nation that prides itself on being unique, expressive and beautiful. When done right, a French aromatic blend will evoke those exact attributes. Fresh Cup Magazine 47