Company History

Founded in 1854, Mariage Frères is the oldest French tea company. In English, Mariage Frères translates to mean "the brothers Mariage." The Mariage family played a key role in bringing the tea and spice trade to France. Since the mid 1600's the Mariage family has traded in tea and spices. Representing the French East India Company and King Louis XIV, Nicolas and Pierre Mariage traded throughout the Far East and Asia, signing trade agreements.

A century later, Jean-Francois Mariage, born in 1766, was still trading in tea and spices. Around 1820, his four sons took over the business from their father and in 1845 two of the

sons, Aimé and Auguste, founded Auguste Mariage & Compagnie. The business that we know today as Mariage Frères was founded by two of Aimé's sons, Henry and Edouard Mariage in 1854. They continued to do business with the most distant trading posts in China and Ceylon. As the oldest French importer of tea, Mariage Frères continues to supply the most exclusive retailers, delicatessens, tea rooms, and hotels in the world. The excellence of its products and its great respect for the French art of tea have always been recognized and appreciated.

The Company Today
Today Mariage Frères sells more than 450 high quality teas. In addition to supplying tea grown in 32 different countries, Mariage Frères perpetuates the fine art of serving tea through the design and reproduction of exclusive teapots, tea services and other utensils.

The Mariage Frères company is still located in the historic Marais district of Paris on Rue Bourg-Tibourg. In 1990, Mariage Frères opened a second boutique on the Left Bank. Housed in an authentic 17th Century building, the shop evokes the spirit of the French East India Company by displaying antiquities and archive documents from the firm's private collection. Two tea rooms provide a calm and intimate setting in wood and stone.
Origins of Tea Consumption in France
Tea arrived in France in the mid 1600's, about 20 years before it arrived in England. One of the first French tea connoisseurs was Louis XIV. It is reported that in 1665 his doctors prescribed tea "to aid digestion." The king was also aware that because the Japanese and the Chinese regularly drank teas, neither suffered from gout or cardiac disorders.

The royal beverage soon became the preferred drink of gentlemen who frequented court circles and aristocratic salons. According to Madame de Sévigne's correspondence, the habit of adding milk to tea originated in France.