Tea and Food: what to drink with chocolate

Last week I made some rather fabulous dark chocolate brownies, which I ended up eating accompanied by several different kinds of tea over the course of the week. Some pairings were more successful than others, and this set me to thinking that a series of posts about tea and food might not be a bad idea. If you have a particular kind of food you'd like me to focus on, just place a request in the comments and I'll do my best to accommodate it (barring seafood, of which I am not a fan).

So here's this week's instalment: teas to pair with CHOCOLATE - cake, brownies, or just all on it's lonesome own. Aw.

 Just crying out for some tea to keep it company!

My first recommendation: jasmine tea. I find that jasmine goes beautifully with moderately dark chocolatey things; the sweet floral taste offsets the slightly bitter chocolate very well. Even though I often prefer to drink my really good teas on their own, without any disruption to their flavour caused by combining them with food, I think it is actually worthwhile cracking out the good jasmine tea to have with your chocolate, simply because the jasmine flavour will be stronger. Keep the lower-rent jasmine for having with your Chinese takeaway and have a really top-notch one (I have still got some of the 2009 Moli Jin Zhen Wang from Amazing Green Tea which is just divine).

Second recommendation: a strong Japanese green - sencha or matcha, or why not both (like the Macchairi Kabuse Ryokucha I blogged about here). The bitter-sweetness of the tea and chocolate play off each other and the greenness of the tea cuts through the richness of the chocolate as well. I thought jasmine and chocolate was my favourite until I tried this. It's really an incredible combination.

If you are looking for a black tea I would go for something robust and a bit astringent like an Assam, or fruity like a second or Autumn flush Darjeeling; the taste of a first flush Darjeeling gets overwhelmed by the chocolate. I also felt that my beloved Yunnan Golden Tips didn't shine as I would have liked when I drank it alongside the brownie (which you can see in the corner of the picture in that post!). Earl Grey is a good option though and one I often choose when I am out somewhere like Koko Black; the floral/citrus taste of the bergamot is refreshing and also cuts through the richness.
 

Tea for Two at The Snooty Fox

The other week I took a trip with Pippin, my brother (who has been having a well-deserved holiday from work) and Lucky Pinky Dots up the Mountain Highway to have morning tea at The Snooty Fox. It was a lovely cool and overcast day, my preferred weather for trips to the Dandenongs (perverse, I know).

Pippin was a bit cranky about the whole thing unfortunately, but Pinky Dots was right on the ball when it came to diving into the scones (which were really delicious) with cream and raspberry jam:

I was a bit disappointed to find that the tea was just Twinings tea bags (we shared a big pot of Earl Grey), especially when Tea Leaves is only about 10 minutes' drive away... but what the heck, it was a great chance to catch up with my brother and (if I didn't already mention it) the scones were exceptionally good...

Wishlist Wednesday - Beautiful Black

Craving some new black teas... here's some that are on my list at the moment!

Keemun Mao Feng from Larsen and Thompson. As you may recall I really enjoyed the Keemun that I got from SanTion and I'm keen to try some other Keemuns as well. I like the Larsen and Thompson brand, I've had some really lovely single-estate Darjeeling and Assam from them in the past.

Likewise I would like to try another Golden Yunnan... This one from Rishi Tea sounds delicious, and Rishi Tea is renowned for their high quality, so I'm sure it would taste as wonderful as it sounds!

 

Earl Grey Grand Classic from Lupicia... This has been recommended to me by a couple of friends, and I had a sniff of it last time I was in at Lupicia's shop at the QV. It smells amazing, both like and unlike 'traditional' Earl Grey. Can't wait to get my hands on some!

 

And, just because I've never tried it, I'd like to sample some Irish Breakfast, perhaps Taylor's of Harrogate's. Sometimes what you really need is a terrifically bracing cup with milk... I'm sure this would hit the spot!

Which black teas are you craving right now? Would love to hear your picks!

Tea Drinks: Not for Purists, II

A while ago on Twitter, Linsey from The Necessiteas sent me a recipe for a drink called a 'London Fog', which is a combination of Earl Grey tea with vanilla syrup and steamed milk. It sounded delicious and I really wanted to try it. Here's Linsey's original recipe, which I would think serves two people:

* 250ml strong brewed Earl Grey, hot

* 250ml steamed milk

* 3-4 tablespoons vanilla syrup (that's American tablespoons; if you're using metric, make it 2-3)

Combine the Earl Grey and the vanilla syrup in 2 tall glasses or mugs, then pour on the steamed milk. Stir and enjoy.

I decided to make my own vanilla syrup, combining equal parts sugar and water and scraping in the seeds from a fresh vanilla bean. Sounds great? Well, I wouldn't know because while I was waiting for it to cool, ants infested it... and it's very difficult to tell the difference between ants and vanilla bean seeds when they're both floating in clear syrupy liquid... so I had to discard the whole lot.

Slightly discouraged, I decided a few days later to have a go using some vanilla extract and a little vanilla sugar in place of the syrup. The result was extremely tasty, perhaps a little on the sweet side for my taste, but a very nice desserty type drink.

A couple of weeks after that I thought I would try using some T2 French Earl Grey (a sweeter, more flowery Earl Grey) instead of Twinings regular old Earl Grey (yes, I know it's a boring supermarket brand, but I happen to like this one, so long as it's not in teabags), no sugar, and soy milk instead of regular milk. The result was perfect. I made another one for myself this morning, and the recipe follows below...

It's a bit of a mixture, I guess - a 'London Fog' made with 'French Earl Grey', in Melbourne (!) and so in honour of the damp, grey morning that I woke up to today, I have renamed this version a 'Melbourne Mist'. This quantity serves 1 person (if that person is me).

Melbourne Mist:
* 250ml strong-brewed French Earl Grey from T2 (I used about 2.5 tsp to one cup water, brewed 3 minutes), hot

* approximately 125ml soy milk, heated and frothed

* 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine vanilla extract and tea in a tall glass or mug, pour in the frothy soy milk, stir and drink.

This would preferably be accompanied by wholemeal toast with tahini and homemade marmalade. The perfect breakfast? I think so!

A couple of random tea notes

Some of you may remember that a while back I wrote about making some Earl Grey tea-soaked prunes. I can safely report that they are delicious! The overall flavour is more subtle than the Nigella Lawson ones that I’ve also made, but that’s mainly because there just is less stuff in this version, plus there’s no added sugar or alcohol. They’re a really nice addition to breakfast but they would also be lovely served with a dessert of some kind, even just the liquid would be great poured over some ice cream or something like that. Once I’ve worked my way through this jar I think I’ll make another… perhaps with orange rind instead of lemon rind, and a few added spices. Lightbulb moment: this could be a good addition to our Christmas hampers this year!

My brother has very kindly pointed me in the direction of an essay written by George Orwell (originally published in 1946) entitled ‘A Nice Cup of Tea’ (and what more enticing heading could there be, I ask you?). In this article Orwell outlines his personal rules for making tea – noting that some of them are controversial. I particularly agree with his assertion that one should always drink tea out of a cylindrical cup rather than a wide flat one, because the latter makes the tea get cold too quickly – and, at the risk of entering a highly-charged debate, I also will come down on the side of putting the tea into the cup and adding milk, rather than the other way around; it’s just too hard to judge the right amount of milk if you put it in first!

I confess I am also intrigued by Orwell’s passing reference to ‘sweeping the carpet’ as a ‘subsidiary use for tealeaves’… what on earth does this mean? The rest of the items on this list make sense, but that one is a mystery to me. Anyone who can answer my question, please feel free to post in the comments…

Cooking with Lapsang Souchong and Earl Grey

A while ago I posted about some Lapsang Souchong that I’d bought and found a bit difficult to drink, but that I intended to use it in some cooking (see the original post here). Shortly after that my husband and I tried out the Black Bean Soft Tacos (one of the recipes I found which uses Lapsang) but I kept forgetting to mention it here. We did take some photos, but unfortunately they turned out a bit blurry and rubbish, so I won’t post them (I do wish I had more skills of a photographer).

Anyway, we made the tacos and I really quite enjoyed them. They were extremely easy and quick to make (almost always a bonus in my book) and the pineapple salsa that accompanied them was delightful – really fresh and zesty. The recipe called for canned black beans, but as I had some dried ones at home I soaked and cooked them the regular way, then followed the recipe, which involved making up a strong brew of Lapsang Souchong and cooking – well, heating/steeping really I suppose - the beans in that.

This resulted in a lovely subtle smoky flavour to the beans – it wasn’t overpowering at all. I wouldn’t have minded if it had been a bit stronger, either – if you happen to have some chipotles (dried smoked jalapenos) lying around, as my husband naturally does (!), you could chuck one of those in there as well to add a bit of extra smoke and spice.

The recipe was very low in fat because the beans were just cooked in water – I think it would also work quite well though if you cooked the onion (and chipotle) with some olive oil and maybe some garlic as well to make the flavours a little stronger before you add the beans and the tea. Overall I thought it was great and I intend to make it again and experiment with it a bit.

A while ago when we had a bunch of people over for dinner, we made Nigella Lawson’s recipe for tea-soaked prunes, which she recommends serving with either custard or crème brulee (urgh), but which we served with ice cream and amaretti biscuits. The recipe for these prunes comes from Nigella’s book How to Eat, and involves turning some strong Earl Grey tea into a syrup with orange peel, spices, brown sugar and marsala, then steeping the prunes in it for a couple of days (or more). It is very simple, and absolutely delicious, whether as a dessert or for breakfast (I had some for both, I confess).

Because of the strong flavours mixed with it, I found it a little hard to detect the presence of the Earl Grey per se (a Twinings’ loose leaf from the supermarket, though the recipe itself called for teabags – shame, Nigella!). Consequently I am interested to try a recipe which my husband found in a slow-food book (whose name I can’t recall), which involves sticking the prunes in a jar, adding a couple of Earl Grey tea bags and a couple of strips of lemon zest, and pouring boiling water over to cover. Then you seal it and let it sit for a couple of weeks. I think that this method would let the flavour of the tea shine through a bit more. All I need is a decent jar to try making it in…

Also speaking of Earl Grey, earlier in the week I had a pot in conjunction with a piece of a particularly nice chocolate cake that I made – now Earl Grey and chocolate is a really good combination, I highly recommend it, indeed.