I used to be a big coffee drinker. But I was converted by a Mariage Frères tea : thé de noël. It’s still my favorite, but I have since found other teas to please my palette and teas for all different times of day. There’s morning tea, I like a smooth black tea, then mid morning a black tea with a little more floral hints is nice or something with a sweetness to it. Afternoon tea can range from Korean tea to green tea, to even another cup of the mid-morning if I really need it. Then there is after-dinner tea, and then before bed tea. In all, I probably brink a minimum of five cups of tea a day. So, as you can see… I love tea. And so does chéri. He will often come home with a big happy smile and announce that he has found a lovely new tea to try, and this is THE event of the day…. (yes we lead thrilling lives). 😉

A friend of mine who is also a tea lover, showed me this wonderful store that sells just tea and tea accessories. La Compagnie Anglaise des Thés. So it’s an English company, but I am not surprised, the English have had a thing for tea since the end of dark ages I imagine.

There are just a few stores in France, and what is nice is it’s an affordable tea that you can buy loose. You can purchase a minimum of 100 grams, or a filled bag. You are not confined to their pre-packaging, and this allows you to do a scent test right from the bulk bin (that is an air tight tin) to see if you really do want a lot or a little of a particular flavor. Each flavor having a lovely name, 1001 Nuits, and Oriental, immediately caught my approval! There are black teas, green teas and others which include rooiboos teas, teas without théine (or caffeine as Americans say), and infusions.

The tea accessories are absolutely delightful as well, fun painted tea cups and pots in imagination inspiring shapes and colors, or beautiful iron puts for boiling the tea directly over the heat, and all sorts of trinkets and lovely things to make tea time even more fun, as if it needed help!

So my idea for our wedding, would be instead of the dragées that I see advertised all over (typically candies almonds), it would be fun to give everyone a lovely sachet of tea with ribbons and fluff to make it fun! What do you think???

Something perhaps like these :