Thé de feuille de figuier · Ontario, Canada

MAISON FIGUE

MAISON FIGUE THÉ DE FEUILLE DE FIGUIER PREMIÈRE RÉCOLTE · FIRST FLUSH N° 001 of 400 75 G · ONTARIO, CANADA MF SEALED BY HAND UPON THE ESTATE MF
I · The TinSealed by hand upon the estate. Yours to open.
II · The SealBreak the wax. It was set for you.
III · The LeafFig leaf, fired over embers of pruned figwood.
IV · The PourPoured for the few who know.
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We do not sell tea. We keep an orchard, and some seasons, the orchard is generous.

Maison Figue raises one hundred and forty fig trees behind a stone wall in Ontario. The fruit goes to the house. The leaf is picked young, wilted on cedar, rolled by hand, and fired over embers of the winter's prunings. It goes into four hundred tins a year. When they are spoken for, they are gone. There is no more to be had, and we would not make more if there were.

0Fig trees
0Tins a year
0Orchard, walled
The Collection

Three tins, and a fourth
we rarely speak of.

Tin the First

La Première

first flush, sun-wilted

Fresh coconut · cut hay
white flowers

$85 75 g

Tin the Second

La Fumée

fired over figwood embers

Cacao husk · cedar smoke
toasted coconut

$95 75 g

Tin the Third

La Dorée

leaf & orchard fig, slow-baked

Baked fig · vanilla pod
warm brioche

$110 75 g

By allocation only
The Vault

La Réserve 400

one winter in cedar, numbered by hand

Kept for the Society
four hundred tins, no more

$340 75 g

Provenance

Behind a stone wall,
north of everything.

Figs are not supposed to grow here. Ours do, because someone's grandfather was stubborn, and buried his trees each November, and dug them up each May, and never once explained himself. We keep the habit and the silence both.

Each leaf is picked before ten o'clock, while the orchard is still cool. It wilts on cedar racks in the loft, is rolled by hand in the afternoon, and is fired that same evening over embers of pruned figwood. Nothing waits overnight. Nothing is bought in. Nothing leaves unnumbered.

Visit by invitation
The walled orchard: one hundred and forty trees, buried each winter

Plate I. As recorded in the estate ledger.

The Ritual

Four minutes,
properly spent.

01

The Water

Draw it fresh and soft. Bring it just shy of the boil, eighty-five degrees; a hair past patience.

02

The Measure

One spoon, well met: two and a half grammes to the cup. The leaf will tell you if you are wrong.

03

The Steep

Four minutes beneath a closed lid. Do not stir. Do not look. It knows what it is doing.

04

The Pour

Slowly, and to the last drop. The last drop is where the orchard lives.

Taken without milk, without sugar, and ideally without hurry.

The Réserve Society

An allocation,
not a subscription.

  • A sealed tin, four times the year, before the collection is offered to anyone else
  • First refusal on La Réserve 400, which never reaches the public page
  • A standing place at the Orchard Supper, held each September behind the wall
  • The caddy, cedar and brass, engraved to your name, in your first year

$480 the yearMembership reviewed quarterly · numbers held deliberately small

Words from our patrons
“

I have stopped serving coffee after dinner. Guests notice; none complain.

E. V., Rosedale
“

It tastes the way an old library sounds.

M. de L., Montréal
“

My grandmother would have approved. She approved of nothing.

C. A. H., Halifax
Correspondence

We write rarely, and only when
there is something worth saying.

Very good. You are on the list: an orchard letter each season, and first word of the Vault.

One letter a season · never sold, never lent · Est. MMXXV