Last Updated on June 26, 2024
Direct from Paris, a luxurious tea experience in the heart of London.
Time was when afternoon tea was synonymous with the English. But a trip down to Kings Street in Covent Garden, to Mariage Frères, could potentially take your tea experience to a whole new level.
Originally established in Paris in 1854, this luxury tea emporium offers a unique, gourmet approach to tea: “cuisine au thé” and operates specialist tea salons across the world. Mariage Frères teas are served in some of London’s finest restaurants, including Claridge’s, and stocked in our premier department stores.
Step into the beautiful five-storey townhouse in Kings Street and enter a world of presentation perfection. On offer is the largest collection of tea in the world, stored apothecary-style in a wall of antique black cannisters. Garnered from 36 tea-producing countries are white, yellow, green, blue, black and red teas along with fruit teas, vintage varieties and unique harvests. Choose from 1,000 aromatic varieties, subtle and sophisticated blends – all are available and sold by weight.
It’s a completely magical place. Tea specialists, neatly dressed in white linen, are on hand to offer customers expert advice before they purchase their chosen blend from the vintage cashier booth. Expertly lit cabinets and cases display exquisite products: distinctive teapots and teacups, strainers and other tea paraphernalia; tea-flavoured and tea-scented items such as signature fragrances, incense, candles and confectionary gift sets and of course seasonal tea collections, all beautifully packaged in jewel-like colours. It’s an Aladdin’s cave for tea-lovers.
Upstairs in the light-filled Salon de thé, the magic continues. Like the Hogwarts’ Sorting Hat, your waiter can divine your perfect tea match. For me a spicy, black chai-chandernago and for my companion, the evocatively named, thé au Sahara – green tea, sweet mint and rose petals. The brand’s signature blend is appropriately named Marco Polo, but for the opening of their first London store, they’ve created Covent Garden Morning – a black morning tea with aromatic notes of hazelnut.
Open for breakfast, brunch, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner, Mariage Frères’ unique Cuisine au Thé concept runs throughout the menus, using tea as a delicate ingredient, spice or flavouring in every dish. Whether a quinoa salad, a boeuf bourguignon or even a bao burger, tea is infused throughout to wonderful effect.
The afternoon teas (Parisian £35pp or Covent Garden £39pp), offering a selection of sweet and savoury canapés, provide an opportunity to experience the full joy of the cuisine au thé. We were fortunate to experience the Halloween Tea, where the savoury canapes not only looked delightful but tasted out of this world and the sweet canapés encapsulated everything you’d hope for from good French patisserie. The perfect scones came served with divine tea-infused gelees.
And even the cocktail hour is enhanced by a little fairy tea dust. The Spirits of Tea cocktail list takes established favourites and gives them a twist. Blue Gin Tonic of blue tea with cactus morsels, cucumber, thyme, tonic and gin comes served in a teapot and the Frosted Tokyo Mojito substitutes green tea with natural flavours of yuzu and mint for the lime juice – inspired!
Located, in London’s theatre district, Mariage Frères Thé Français, with its colour, drama and sense of the exotic fits in perfectly. It’s a great addition to King Street’s growing crop of venues offering a dining-with-a-difference experience and I anticipate a long residency.
You can find the store at
38 King Street,
Covent Garden,
London
WC2E 8JS
You can view and order products online at www.mariagefreres.com
Bookings are taken on: booking.london@mariagefreres.com
Walk-ins are welcome.
Disclosure: Jenny was a guest of Mariage Frères
For an alternative recommended afternoon tea try The Dalloway Terrace or Gatsby’s at the Beaumont Hotel
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