Grands Jardins

Grands Jardins was co-founded by Vincent Mesnage and Edouard Malbois to serve tea in the manner of wine. The idea began in 2021. The company launched in January 2023 after two years of research. It was launched in association with the tea brand Nunshen.^[1],[2]

In an archived recording, the presenter credits Edouard Malbois, a wine enthusiast, with the idea for Grands Jardins as an alternative to wine, including in fine dining.

Grands Jardins SAS has its registered office in Paris, France.^[3]

A Figaro article published on 22 November 2024 dates the company's creation by Édouard Malbois and Vincent Mesnage to two years earlier, around 2022.

Edouard Malbois -- Co-founder. Edouard Malbois graduated from EDHEC Lille in 1988 and studied systems thinking at MIT in Boston in 1999. He held executive management positions at P&G Europe, LVMH Asia, Coca-Cola Africa and Havas Paris. In 2001 he founded Enivrance in Paris and later expanded it to São Paulo and Singapore. Grands Jardins describes Enivrance as the world's first food design studio.^[4]

According to Grands Jardins, Malbois founded Food Studio Europe through Enivrance in 2003, the first European innovation lab for McDonald's Europe. In 2011 he moved to Brazil to establish the country's first global food competitiveness team. He also founded the first laboratory dedicated to the informal food sector and, as part of a team, has published 25 books on global food trends.^[4]

In 2012 Malbois was named ambassador of Design Thinking to the government of Singapore. A September 2023 article credits him with approximately 150 product and service innovation missions in the food sector. In 2019 he created Utopia Hackers, an agency dedicated to utopian transformation. He co-wrote 'Les Rituels en Entreprise', published by Editions Eyrolles in 2022.

Vincent Mesnage -- Co-founder. Vincent Mesnage began his career in music at Warner. A September 2023 article describes him as the chief architect of McDonald's worldwide repositioning towards more health, local sourcing and quality. As part of the Food Studio for McDonald's, he worked with a team developing new concepts across categories including quality and healthier eating, plant-based offerings, beverages and coffee.^[5]

Mesnage is a wine lover who discovered fine teas in 2015. He created his first tea brand, Vasanta, dedicated to India. He has traveled to India several times to explore the great tea gardens, and also in connection with a nonprofit organization that helps underprivileged children in Kolkata.

Marie Thévenot -- Associate Director. Grands Jardins names Marie Thévenot as its Associate Director. She trained in hospitality and wine service, graduated from the École du Commerce de Bordeaux, and traveled the world working for Bordeaux wine merchants. She spent six years at the Pernod Ricard Group on international business strategy for Perrier-Jouët, leading development projects to expand the brand's presence in the global gastronomic market. She moved into tea after a trip to Sri Lanka, drawn by a curiosity for products with history. At Grands Jardins she applies her wine expertise in terroir, altitude and production to tea.^[6]

Grands Jardins approaches tea in the manner of wine ('le thé à la manière du vin') and positions its products as a gastronomic offer born from French expertise. Its teas are meant to be drunk during meals and aperitifs. They are served cold, to give tea a new life beyond hot preparations.^[7]

Edouard Malbois co-founded the company to offer every table in the world a new ritual of tea served like wine. Vincent Mesnage co-founded it to establish a new French way of life by embracing global tea cultures through the symbol of the wine bottle.

The Good Life reports that Edouard Malbois framed tea and wine as complementary rather than as replacements.

In an October 2025 Grands Jardins video, a speaker contrasts the offering with "juste un thé froid lambda," calling it "un grand cru de thé."^[8]

Grands Jardins makes cold-brewed teas that it positions as a fine-wine alternative, served by the bottle in gastronomic restaurants. A July 2026 interview describes Grands Jardins as an alcohol- and sugar-free alternative to fine wines and champagnes. In an archived recording, Grands Jardins is described as neither alcoholic wine nor non-alcoholic wine, but unsweetened cold tea.^{[1],[7],[9],[10]}

In November 2023 the range comprised five artisanally cold-brewed teas, made without additives and very lightly caffeinated. The first collection consists of teas from regions including China, Nepal, Laos, India and Japan. Documented Grands Jardins bottles are Da Hong Pao, Jasbire, Sakhejung, Kagoshima, Meung and Satemwa.^[7]

• Jasbire: Nepalese white tea, from a first spring harvest at 1,800 m
• Sakhejung: Nepali green tea from Ilam, spring harvest 2023
• Kagoshima: Japanese kuki hojicha green tea from Kyushu
• Meung: Laotian black tea from Bokeo, 2022 seasonal blend
• Satemwa: smoked Malawian black tea from the Shire Highlands
• Da Hong Pao: grand cru oolong rock tea from the Wuyi Mountains, Fujian, first spring harvest 2022, documented as a limited edition of 750 bottles

Formats. Grands Jardins developed a 4-litre bag-in-box format whose carbon footprint is six times lower than that of glass bottles.

Jasbire, Kagoshima, Meung, Sakhejung and Satemwa each declare two ingredients: tea (100%) and water. Grands Jardins describes a delicate cold-brewing process that produces and preserves grand cru tea inside Burgundy wine bottles for long-term storage. The teas are infused in advance and bottled ready to drink.^{[7],[11],[12],[13],[14],[15],[16]}

Cold infusion protocols. Each Grands Jardins tea has its own cold infusion protocol, designed to deploy the aromatic bouquet, imprint a distinctive color and limit caffeine extraction. The company seeks tea varieties that respond well to cold infusion and best release their aromatic potential, including white tea, oxidized black tea, oolong and non-oxidized green tea. In a July 2026 Singulars interview, Grands Jardins says its teas are cold-infused in vats using what it calls a unique process of remontage (pumping-over). A May 2025 Parnasse feature describes the teas as infused and macerated using what it calls a unique process.^[9]

Dedicated water. Grands Jardins designed a specific water profile for brewing its teas, with low mineral content, subtle acidity, little salt and no chlorine. A July 2026 interview says the teas are cold-brewed using osmosis-treated water from Auvergne, whose refined mineral content it says releases an intense and consistent bouquet. Sobrissim describes the process as harvesting tea leaves, extracting the tea, and mixing it with water from the Auvergne volcanic region. Jasbire, Kagoshima, Meung, Sakhejung and Satemwa are each described as made with a dedicated water.^{[7],[9],[10],[17]}

Additive-free long-term preservation. Grands Jardins states that it was the first to succeed in preserving tea and water in a wine bottle without acid, sugar, preservatives or alcohol. In a July 2026 interview, it describes natural long-term preservation of tea and water without preservatives, sugar, acidulants or alcohol, 100% made in France. Grands Jardins describes its long-life premium tea as a world first: sugar-free, acid-free, preservative-free, very low in caffeine and alcohol-free. A May 2025 Parnasse feature describes the beverages as water and tea without sugar, acidity, carbonation or other additives, with storage of up to 24 months. The same feature describes the March 2024 long conservation of cold-infused tea without additions as a world first. Jasbire, Kagoshima, Meung, Sakhejung and Satemwa are each described as made without sugar or preservatives, very low in theine and alcohol-free.^{[2],[7],[9],[10]}

Production geography. Grands Jardins teas are infused and steeped in Auvergne before being bottled in the Loire Valley.^[2]

Leaf processing. Several bottles start from tea leaf with a distinctive processing history.

• Satemwa: black tea smoked with guava leaves
• Kagoshima: kuki hojicha listed by Grands Jardins as roasted at 180°; a 4 October 2023 article described the Kagoshima hojicha selected for restaurant AM as roasted at 200°C
• Jasbire: leaf gently cradled in a white cloth for its first withering, and given more than two years of on-leaf aging

Direct, plot-by-plot sourcing. Grands Jardins sources its tea directly from individual plots (parcelles) and from local producers, rather than through purchasing and trading intermediaries. In a July 2026 Singulars interview, it says its teas are made exclusively from premium nunshen teas sourced directly with its tea master, plot by plot. In January 2026, Carine Baudry served as sourcing director at Nunshen, from which Grands Jardins sources its finest teas. Growing regions named in May 2025 include the Himalayas, the equator, China, Japan, Laos, Nepal and Malawi. In April 2026, Grands Jardins cultivated six tea gardens in Laos, Nepal, Thailand, China, India and Ecuador. In the Himalayas, its harvesting uses 36 distinct harvesting windows with different cultivars and several types of harvests. L'Opinion reports Nepalese white and green tea, Japanese hojicha green tea and Malawian smoked black tea among its plot-sourced teas.^{[2],[7],[9],[10],[18]}

Himalayan teas. Two bottles come from Ilam in the Himalayas.

• Jasbire: tea garden at 1,800 m in the Ilam region, next to a village that hosts its cooperative tea factory
• Sakhejung: grown at high altitude within a farmers' cooperative in Ilam where kiwifruit is the dominant fruit crop

Japanese and Chinese teas. Two bottles draw on East Asian gardens.

• Kagoshima: organically grown tea, harvested and prepared in a garden overlooking the town of Kagoshima, on the southwestern tip of Kyushu, growing in the shadow of volcanoes
• Da Hong Pao: oolong rock tea from the Wuyi Mountains in Fujian province, China

Forest and highland black teas. Two black teas come from small-farm and plantation sources.

• Meung: grown by small-scale farmers in a permaculture garden in the forest mountains of Bokeo, northern Laos, at 800 m, and harvested as part of a sustainable biodiversity initiative
• Satemwa: from a small family-owned plantation founded in 1923 in the Shire Highlands of southern Malawi, producing 'orthodox' teas with large, twisted, carefully rolled leaves with golden highlights

Nutrition. For Jasbire, Kagoshima, Meung, Sakhejung and Satemwa, Grands Jardins gives the same values per 100 ml: 1 kcal (4 kJ), 0.1 g protein and 0.1 g carbohydrates, of which 0.1 g sugars, with negligible salt, fat and saturated fatty acids.

House style. Grands Jardins characterizes its first collection by balance, a universally appealing roundness, controlled astringency and all-natural sweetness. A September 2023 article says the teas reveal floral spring notes, stewed and spiced notes, citrus zest or a roasted signature, depending on the tea. A May 2025 Parnasse article compares the teas' aromatic intensity to complex wines and describes them in terms of length, tannins, fruitiness, vegetal notes and intensity.^[2],[19]

By bottle. Sensory descriptions recorded for individual bottles:

• Jasbire: pale yellow with a dazzling shine; strawberry, honeysuckle, lemon, bergamot and an understated herbal essence, with a lively, subtly astringent character; smooth as silk on the palate
• Sakhejung: bright light amber; fresh green tea with a hint of star anise and a touch of green apple
• Kagoshima: amber-ochre with golden highlights; a delicate roast with marine notes in the tradition of Japanese hojicha; iodine, cacao and grilled notes
• Meung: mahogany with dark highlights; honey, tamarind, prune, cocoa, waxed wood and leather; plum and chocolate on the palate with mellow tannins
• Satemwa: deep, slightly dark topaz with brilliant highlights; woody, smoky and peaty; leather, whiskey and cigar
• Da Hong Pao: rose, caramel and red berries; woody cedar, blackberries, mirabelle plum, muscat grape, geranium and subtle mineral undertones

Grands Jardins social posts describe unnamed teas: in October 2025, a roasted Japanese twig tea with amber colour and almond, buttery, roasted and marine notes; in June 2025, a tea with a golden glow, red berries and sweet flavors; and in August 2025, a tea emerging amid bursts of fava beans, spirals of ink and candied fruit.^[20]

Service. Grands Jardins serves tea like wine: in a Burgundy-style bottle with a screw cap, in a stemmed glass, at wine temperature, and described with wine terminology such as floral bouquet, tannins, finish, nose and structure. A November 2023 article describes the teas bottled in flasks with wine-style labels, to be savored in a wine glass and paired with specific dishes or moments.^[9]

"Because we love Burgundy." — Edouard Malbois, co-founder, on presenting the teas in Burgundy bottles^[2]

Pairing. A May 2025 Grands Jardins post proposes ripe fruit, golden crust and aged cheese as tea pairings. Suggested pairings for individual bottles include:^[21]

• Jasbire: asparagus and exotic fruits
• Sakhejung: "Ceviche impérial aux agrumes", "Légumes de soleil rôtis" and "Morceau de Bresse aux accents épicés"
• Kagoshima: beluga caviar ball, grilled heirloom fall vegetables, a trio of aged Bellota and tiramisu with Tonka bean shavings; also eel with greens, a signature dish by chef Mallory Gabsi
• Meung: rack of lamb with morel mushrooms, risotto with truffles and porcini, Bigorre pork with baby potatoes; slow-cooked meat dishes
• Satemwa: thinly sliced pata negra, roasted rack of venison and an assortment of Levantine appetizers

Nunshen and Carine Baudry. Grands Jardins has a sourcing partnership with the brand nunshen® that, according to Grands Jardins, enables co-creation for every bottle. It partnered with Carine Baudry, an expert tea taster, for the nunshen® collection. A December 2023 article describes Baudry as an aromatician, the creator of Nunshen, and president of the jury for the AVPA world teas and infusions competition.^[17],[19]

Mallory Gabsi. Grands Jardins' 2023 gastronomic ambassador was Mallory Gabsi, a Michelin-starred chef from Belgium and Top Chef season 11 semi-finalist. INfluencia reported that Grands Jardins chose Gabsi, named best young Michelin chef in 2023, as its exclusive gastronomic ambassador.^[17]

Chefs. In a December 2023 BFMTV report, Grands Jardins describes partnerships with chefs Mallory Gabsi, Thierry Marx and Alexandre Mazzia at gastronomic restaurants. An INfluencia article says its partnerships included Philippe Faure-Brac and Alan Geaam. A May 2025 Parnasse feature reported that Thierry Marx, Yannick Alléno, Pierre Gagnaire and Alexandre Mazzia had incorporated Grands Jardins teas into their food-and-beverage pairings. The Grands Jardins Gastronomie & Sommellerie page presents a roster of chefs under its claim of a "ralliement […] de la communauté des grands chefs."^[2],[22]

Sommellerie. On its Sommellerie page, Grands Jardins says it aims to develop a new generation of food-and-tea pairings and displays a roster of sommeliers and affiliations. According to a June 2026 Grands Jardins social media post, its teas complemented the wine selection curated by master sommelier Marin Fourvel during a gastronomic evening. A May 2026 co-authored post says Marie Thévenot was received for an original Grands Jardins tea tasting "à la manière du vin."^{[22],[23],[24]}

Grands Jardins is recognized by the Collège Culinaire de France. A January 2026 article, 'Les 6 bonnes bouteilles du Dry January', says it has been acclaimed by leading sommeliers and featured on the menus of chefs including Alain Ducasse, Yannick Alléno, Gérald Passédat, Pierre Gagnaire and Arnaud Lallemand.

Adoption. A July 2024 L'Opinion article states that the teas could be tasted in 50 establishments. A May 2025 Parnasse feature reported that more than 60 establishments in France had adopted them. A July 2026 Singulars interview reports adoption by more than 170 starred restaurateurs, including 13 three-star restaurateurs, with Alain Passard given as an example.^[9]