Casablanca Tea Guide: Mariage Frères' Mint, Bergamot, Green & Black Tea
Casablanca is one of the more interesting constructions in the Mariage Frères range because the blend does two jobs at once. It combines green tea and black tea and divides its two signature aromatics between them: mint with the green tea, bergamot with the black.
That makes it neither a plain mint green tea nor an Earl Grey with mint added. Mariage Frères calls it a fine marriage of green tea with Moroccan mint and bergamot-flavoured black tea. The ingredient statement is simpler: black tea and green tea, aroma and mint, with a note that it may contain traces of nuts.
What is Casablanca?
The house sums it up as sweet mint green tea and black tea with bergamot, and describes it as the taste of a sunny summer. Mint is on the ingredient list as a leaf; the bergamot comes through the aroma.
Why green tea and black tea together?
Mint is closely tied to green tea in North African tea culture, and bergamot is familiar in European tea through Earl Grey. Casablanca puts those two structures in one blend. It is a Parisian house's composition, crossing two traditions on purpose.
How Mariage Frères says to brew Casablanca
- 2.5 grams of tea
- 200 milliliters of water
- 95°C / 203°F
- 5 minutes
Ninety-five degrees can look hot for a blend that includes green tea. It is the temperature Mariage Frères specifies for the finished blend.
Casablanca iced
Mariage Frères also makes Casablanca as a French Summer Tea in a glass jar, meant for iced tea. The house's method: one capful, 10 grams, in an Enveloppe Filtre, in 1 to 1.5 liters of spring water, left in the refrigerator for at least an hour. The Casablanca glass jar (shop Casablanca glass jar) is the version made for this.
Casablanca or Moroccan mint tea?
Casablanca borrows the vocabulary of mint tea but is not a traditional Moroccan preparation. The bergamot-scented black tea is the difference: it turns a mint green tea into a French scented composition that crosses two traditions.
Casablanca or Earl Grey?
Bergamot is the family resemblance. A classic Earl Grey is tea scented with bergamot, most often black tea. Casablanca adds green tea and mint.
Casablanca or Rouge Casablanca?
Rouge Casablanca keeps the mint and changes the base completely: its label reads red rooibos tea, aroma and mint. Casablanca uses black and green tea.
Who Casablanca suits
Casablanca is especially useful for someone caught between categories. If plain mint green tea feels too narrow and a standard Earl Grey too familiar, the blend connects the two.
Where it sits in the range
Wedding Impérial (Wedding Impérial tea guide) gives black tea a malt, chocolate and caramel direction. Boléro (Boléro tea guide) moves toward peach, apricot and fig. Nil Rouge (Nil Rouge tea guide) puts citrus and spice over rooibos. Fuji Yama (Fuji Yama tea guide) is a Japanese green tea brewed cooler. Casablanca crosses categories on purpose: green tea, black tea, mint and bergamot.
Shop Mariage Frères Casablanca and the rest of the Mariage Frères collection.
