While traditionally tea drinkers tend to buy cheap tea bags from the local grocery shop, there’s a growing demand for loose leaf tea from specialty stores. Due to an increase in appetite for fine teas, it’s only natural for people to wonder what food they should pair with tea.
While it’s popular to pair a bottle of wine with food, it’s actually quite unusual in China to pair tea with food. Teas are enjoyed for their delicate flavours, and these flavours are easily covered by strong food. This is why, most tea lovers only go for neutral tasting food such as crackers or nuts. Nevertheless, since we're running an online tea business, our customer support staff regularly receives emails with questions related to tea pairing advice.
Just recently, I received a question from a Michelin star restaurant chef regarding what tea to pair with Danish blue cheese. To me, this seems like the weirdest food to pair due to its overwhelmingly strong flavour. So I went to an international supermarket here in China and bought myself a Danish Blue from a brand called ‘Castello’, which looked pretty authentic to me.
Testing with Black Tea
I started to test this cheese with black tea as it’s the most consumed type of tea. I prepared different ones from black teas with fruity to more caramel like aromas. The process I followed is as follows. I eat a small chunk of Danish Blue and let it melt slowly so that my mouth is fully covered with its flavour. Then waited for 15 seconds, and then drank a small cup of tea.
Do note that I’m testing this cheese with pure teas only, meaning that they are consisting only 100% of tea, without flavouring and colouring, and not not blended with other ingredients.
I can’t really explain why, but the super cheesy flavour combined with a strong flavour, make me feel like I was eating a bad piece of meat...
It didn’t work. I enjoyed the cheese, but whether I went for a fruity Jinjunmei from Fujian or a Dianhong black tea from Yunnan with a more caramel like scent, it didn’t work. It couldn’t taste the natural sweetness of the tea at all. So I thought, maybe I need to brew a stronger black tea. Perhaps a Lapsang Souchong tea with a slight smokey aroma. The fact it, it got only worse. I can’t really explain why, but the super cheesy flavour combined with a strong flavour, make me feel like I was eating a bad piece of meat...
Pairing with Green Tea
As my cheese & black tea adventure failed, I started to try the cheese with green tea. This at first, didn’t make much sense, because green teas are even more delicate in flavour. Nevertheless, I gave it a try.
The after taste of green tea comes right after the cheese flavour is flushed away, releasing the sweetness and floral aroma right at the moment you can enjoy it at the fullest.
To my surprise, most green teas worked great with Danish Blue cheese. The thing with green tea is that the vegetal flavour perfectly flushes the cheese taste in my mouth. In fact, I enjoyed it a lot. But what’s more surprising is that I could taste the natural taste and aroma of the green tea perfectly. The reason is because green tea taste at first vegetal and slightly bitter, working well with the cheese flavour. The after taste of green tea comes right after the cheese flavour is flushed away, releasing the sweetness and floral aroma right at the moment you can enjoy it at the fullest.
So which green tea is the best? Generally, I can’t really say which green tea from a particular region works the best. There’s the famous West Lake Dragon Well green tea from Hangzhou or the Mao Feng tea from Huangshan, but the origin doesn’t matter as much. My recommendation would be to go for a tea that is slightly stronger roasted during the production process. This West Lake Dragon Well tea from Teasenz definitely worked the best so far, but feel free to try different ones yourself. Generally, any non-flavoured and not blended green tea is a pretty safe bet.