Tea Pairing

Dear fellow readers,

Did you know how important tea pairing is? I thought it'd be a good idea to share some knowledge of tea pairing. It's not just about drinking tea by itself, it's about pairing the tea with the right desserts. Every cake is different and you'd want to pair with right tea.

For fruity desserts such as strawberry cakes, young loose leaf white teas have flowery and fruity notes. The flowery aroma perfectly complements the strawberry and lemon cakes. If the fruity cakes are somewhat savoury, then go for aged white tea. Aged white teas tastes more like ripe fruit, which will suit a savoury fruit cake more than flowery notes of young white tea.

Earl Grey tastes delicious with dark chocolate but really stands out with citrus desserts. The full-bodied Bergamont flavour of this tea makes it an ideal pair of lemon cookies or cakes. You can even use Earl Grey to prepare treats such as macarons and tarts. Just like Earl Grey, Japanese green teas are a jack of dessert trades. You can pair Kyoto, a premium Gyokuro green tea, roasted puffed rice, and ceremonial matcha, with crusty citrus desserts, like lemon meringue and key lime pie. The roasted, full flavours of the tea make the citrus bite and pie crust sweetness taste even better.

When pairing tea with chocolate cake, what you want to focus on is matching intensity. If you're serving a white or milk chocolate styled cake, then go for a more delicate black tea such as Jin Jun Mei. It's a famous black tea from Fujian that contains entirely out of golden buds. When you have a dark chocolate cake or mousse, you should match the intensity with a ripe Pu Erh tea. Such a tea tastes earthy, dark and smooth. Japanese green teas, like Gyokuro, are great with dark chocolate because of the salt and chocolate combination. Japanese green teas have a slight mineral saltiness that makes dark chocolate flavours pop. When it comes to pairing cheesecakes with tea, turn to black tea. The slight astringency of black tea will make that milk chocolate mousse or New York cheesecake really sing. Did I just tease those tastebuds? :P Craving for something sweet? ;)

Until next read... ciao!