Kitchen Wisdom: Pairing food with tea

Tea is not just a refreshing drink. It is certainly much more than that. Tea is a lifestyle. Starting your morning with a sip of tea is almost like a ritual. In fact, not only in the morning but we might often prefer consuming tea with the rest of the meals as well.

Over the years, we have tried to sort out the right beverage to pair up with our favourite food.

We often wonder about the appropriate soft drinks or hard drinks to complement our food. Well, have you ever thought about the food-tea pairing, as tea happens to be the most essential drink of the day? If not, find out the right food-tea combo for you.

As you begin considering coupling tea and food, usually the priority is your personal taste.

Along with taste, it is important to understand a general convention, that the greasier the breakfast the sharper the tea choice would be. Here are a few suggestions that might help you choose your ideal food-tea combo: Black tea has the strongest taste out of all the teas and it also contains the maximum amount of tannins (a class of compounds occurring in black tea and responsible for bitterness, astringency, dark colour, and antioxidant activity of these teas). 

Breakfast foods such as cheese omelettes, cheese grilled sandwiches pair very well with the Assam black tea. Fruity Black Teas are often considered best when served with a light chocolate dessert. The fruit flavour present in the tea prevents it from tasting bitter after a small bite of delicious sweet dessert, and the heavy presence of tannins in the tea will cleanse the palate of the existing flavour. Due to the strong flavour of this type of tea, it is also recommended to serve it with equally strong foods such as spicy meat or spicy butter chicken.

Green tea is quite subtle in taste as compared to all other variants. It is lighter in flavour.

Vegetative Green Teas taste best when combined with seafood or light vegetables. Smoky Green Teas including Chinese green tea options, due to the light smokiness, pair well with fried foods such as pan fried meat or a stir fry.

White tea is extremely light in flavour so it should only be coupled with the mildest of flavours, such as light grilled fish and basic salads. The sweetness of the White Tea really comes out when taken with the salty pistachios.

Rooibos Tea pairs well with blue cheese and chicken. It also goes quite well with lightly salted snack items.