by Peter Walsh
With so many tea drinkers around the world, I often wonder just what might be the favourite accompaniment that people enjoy along with their favourite brew? Like wine drinkers, there are those who believe that the only pairings for food and tea are limited and traditional. However if it wasn’t for the adventurous bon vivant all wines would be white for poultry or fish and red for meat and game and so many exciting combinations of food and wine would be lost.
Thankfully the same bon vivant approach lends itself to pairing teas with food and delicacies, tea is now also open to exploration. It has been a standard in the West, that traditionally only black tea can be paired with foods? However, the time has come to reconsider tea’s partners. In parts of Asia for instance, tea is a revered brew and is often taken with all meals in one form or another, and in Eastern countries a green tea is the preferred choice of drink with a meal.
My personal favourites are dependent on the time of day. For my morning brew I enjoy a couple of thick slices of toasted bread, with so much butter on that when I raise the slice for a bite, the butter runs off the bread and between my fingers, giving me second chance to taste the butter as I lick it from my fingers!
For my afternoon cuppa, my preference is for a nice slice of cake, usually a nice Victoria sponge or fruity manor cake. I find myself a quiet corner somewhere and let the world go by whilst enjoying a decadent extravagance of a fine earl Grey tea to add floral notes to wonderful creation of a traditional cake.
For my evening cuppa, well its simple, a nice fresh brewed full bodied black tea, something like a fine hand picked Ceylon blend with its sharp astringency that I can offset with a choice of biscuit from a selection of bourbon, digestive or a nice custard cream.
What about you? What is your choice with a cuppa?
