Mariage Frères Colombian Breakfast Chaï with black tea, cacao, coffee beans and spices

Colombian Breakfast Chaï Guide: Three Crops in One Cup

October 7, 2026

Breakfast asks for a choice. Tea or coffee, and cacao, if it turns up before noon at all, comes as chocolate on the side.

Mariage Frères' Colombian Breakfast Chaï declines the choice. Colombian black tea, cocoa bean and coffee bean all go into the same blend, joined by cardamom, cinnamon and clove. None of those is an inferred tasting note. They are the ingredients.

That sets Colombian Breakfast Chaï apart within the Mariage Frères breakfast collection. It also makes the word “Colombian” unusually literal, because the black tea itself comes from Colombia.

What is in Colombian Breakfast Chaï

Mariage Frères describes it as an assemblage of Colombian black tea grown in the Andes, enriched with cacao, coffee beans and spices. The current ingredient statement reads: tea, cocoa bean, coffee bean, cardamom, cinnamon and clove.

Black tea supplies the foundation. Two other beverage crops enter physically rather than metaphorically, and three named spices close the list.

Mariage Frères describes the cup through its chocolate nuances and powerful fragrances, which it says comfort with each sip. Its loose-tea page goes further, describing a praline aroma from the leaves and a finish on a chocolatey note of grilled hazelnut.

Praline and grilled hazelnut belong to that sensory description. Neither appears in the ingredient declaration, although Mariage Frères states that the product may contain traces of nuts.

The Colombian part is literal

The place names across the Mariage Frères breakfast collection do different jobs. Tokyo Breakfast (see the Tokyo Breakfast tea guide) lists yuzu and vanilla among its ingredients rather than naming a Japanese tea as its base. Shanghaï Breakfast (see the Shanghaï Breakfast tea guide) is built on oolongs of various origins rather than black tea.

In Colombian Breakfast Chaï, the place name describes the tea. Mariage Frères identifies its base as black tea from Colombia, cultivated in the heart of the Andes on lands irrigated by clear water from snowy mountaintops. The house files it under its Thés de Colombie collection.

Tea and coffee come from different plants, Camellia sinensis and species of Coffea. Mariage Frères' Colombian teas show that the tea plant is grown in Colombia too. Here, geography belongs to the ingredients as well as the story.

There is actual coffee in the tea

Coffee is not simply a note Mariage Frères finds in the finished cup. Coffee bean appears in the ingredient declaration, which makes Colombian Breakfast Chaï a different thing from a tea that happens to taste roasted.

The ingredient list cannot settle the caffeine question. The finished drink draws on both black tea and coffee bean, and nothing in the list supports a claim that it carries more caffeine than ordinary black tea, less than coffee, or any particular number of milligrams.

There is actual cacao too

Mariage Frères lists cocoa bean as an ingredient and describes the blend as embellished with cacao morsels. That accounts for the chocolate running through the producer's description, with no chocolate in the blend. Cocoa bean and a chocolate bar are different ingredients.

Why it is called a chaï

The word chai means tea in a number of languages, among them Hindi, Urdu, Persian, Turkish and Russian, and traces back ultimately to the Chinese cha. In English it has come to name a spiced black-tea drink. Merriam-Webster defines it as a beverage that is a blend of black tea, honey, spices and milk.

Mariage Frères uses the accented spelling Chaï for this Colombian composition. Cardamom, cinnamon and clove give the name its spiced-tea logic. The Colombian tea, cacao and coffee make it Mariage Frères' own construction rather than a traditional masala chai recipe.

How Mariage Frères says to brew Colombian Breakfast Chaï

For loose tea and the 100-gram Icon canister, Mariage Frères specifies:

2.5 grams of tea
200 milliliters of water
95°C / 203°F
5 minutes

The cotton-muslin format is different. Mariage Frères currently specifies one muslin per 200 milliliters at 95°C for 4 minutes.

That one-minute difference is easy to erase when instructions are copied from one format to another. It should not be.

Brewed in water

Mariage Frères' brewing instructions call for infusing the tea in water at 95°C. They make no mention of milk. Milk or sweetness added to the finished cup is a matter of taste.

Colombian Breakfast Chaï versus English Breakfast

Mariage Frères' English Breakfast (see the English Breakfast tea guide) uses broken black-tea leaves, emphasizes malt and strength, and brews for three minutes. It is a direct expression of the familiar breakfast-black-tea idea.

Colombian Breakfast Chaï keeps black tea but builds an entire pantry around it: cacao, coffee, cardamom, cinnamon and clove. If English Breakfast is about what black tea can do in the morning, Colombian Breakfast Chaï is about what can happen around it.

Colombian Breakfast Chaï versus American Breakfast

Both teas are described with chocolate notes, and they arrive at them in different ways. American Breakfast (see the American Breakfast tea guide) lists tea, vanilla and aroma. Mariage Frères describes caramelized-chocolate notes, but chocolate itself is not separately declared as an ingredient. Colombian Breakfast Chaï contains cocoa bean.

Colombian Breakfast Chaï versus Shanghaï Breakfast

Both of these cross category lines within the breakfast collection. Shanghaï Breakfast pairs oolongs of various origins with ginger, anise and chamomile. Colombian Breakfast Chaï retains black tea and crosses lines in another direction by physically combining tea with cacao and coffee.

One challenges the assumption that breakfast tea has to be black. The other challenges the assumption that tea, coffee and cacao need separate cups.

Who Colombian Breakfast Chaï suits

It suits a morning drinker who wants roasted, chocolate and spice flavors rather than malt, citrus or flowers, and a coffee drinker curious about tea.

What Colombian Breakfast Chaï says about breakfast tea

Read together, the Mariage Frères breakfast teas differ by base tea and construction as much as by name.

English Breakfast uses broken black tea. Breakfast Earl Grey (see the Breakfast Earl Grey tea guide) pairs full-bodied Ceylon tea with bergamot. Tokyo Breakfast uses full-leaf black tea with yuzu and vanilla. Shanghaï Breakfast is built on oolong. Paris Breakfast (see the Paris Breakfast tea guide) is described with a hint of green tea that unfurls at the end. And Colombian Breakfast Chaï brings tea, coffee and cacao together in one blend.

That leaves a more interesting definition of breakfast tea. It is not an oxidation level or even a fixed recipe. In the hands of Mariage Frères, breakfast is the occasion around which the tea is composed.

Shop the Mariage Frères collection.