Tea 107: Week Five Pairings!
Normally, for class, I write out a giant post of my thoughts on whatever we were doing but to be perfectly honest I took a MOUNTAIN of notes for this week’s chocolate and tea pairings so I’m essentially just going to copy and paste them because I really don’t feel like expanding on that many notes…
Earl Grey and Milk Chocolate with Acai and Blueberry fruit chunks
- Definitely a very sweet pairing: full bodied and jammy from the citrus and berry
- The milk chocolate is creamy and compliments the black base
- Not a lot of “contrasting” flavour with this one but it’s still lovely!
Pu’erh and Dark Chocolate
Pu’erh and Dark Chocolate is the flip of things: it’s all about contrast
- The Pu is very brothy with gamey/meatey notes and mushroom notes
- In addition to the normal earthiness
- The equally rich/full bodied dark chocolate matches the flavour level
- But the sweetness of it contrasts very nicely!
- Finish has a berry like quality from the chocolate which works with the earthy Pu!
Matcha and White Chocolate
- Surprisingly I quite enjoyed the matcha and white chocolate!
- Which is weird ‘cause I HATE DAVIDsTEA’s Matcha White Chocolate Bar
- But the Umami of the matcha was the perfect contrast to the creamy, sweet chocolate
Genmaicha and White Chocolate
- Genmaicha and white chocolate was a comparable pairing to the matcha
- Same umami/savory and sweet chocolate contrast
- But with the added roasty element which was kind of nice! Really enjoyed this one!
Assam and Milk Chocolate
- Assam and Milk Chocolate seemed obvious and straight forward to me
- You’re pairing two similar things and matching the confectionary elements
Jasmine Green Tea with a citrus (orange) chocolate
- I really dislike the jasmine tea provided but the pairing made it better
- The orange elevate the floral notes and matches well with the green base
- While at the same time kind of hiding some of the potency too
Also worth noting, with the exception of the chocolate used in the Earl Grey pairing, all of the chocolate was Lindt brand. My favourite pairings overall were probably Genmaicha and White or Pu’erh and Dark Chocolate. I genuinely didn’t expect the Pu’erh to work as well as it did!
Those pairings sound so damn good.
That sounds like it was a really fun exploration of flavor pairings.