What better way to show someone that you care on Valentine’s Day than to celebrate with tea and chocolate in honor of National Heart Health month. Both tea and chocolate contain antioxidants that have shown to aid in keeping your heart healty and your cardiovascular system strong and are therefore a great combination for your romantic Valentine’s dessert.
Tea and chocolate make a great pair and you can enhance the taste experience by following a few guidelines when matching the two.
One way to look at tea and chocolate is as “friends” where similarity in characteristics enhance the flavor. The other way is to view them as ”lovers”
, where contrasting characteristics will complement each other through their differences.
Since tea and chocolate share the same flavor profiles, floral qualities and bite from astringency and tannin, they practically invite you to create fun and tasty combinations. While you should always trust your taste buds to find the right combinations, there are some general guidelines that might help you get started.
- White teas have a very delicate flavor and pair well with mild chocolates and fruit. Try a Silver Needle or Bai Mu Tan with chocolate covered strawberries or a white chocolate cheese cake.
- Green teas have vegetal flavors and aromas and pair well with creamier tastes such as berry flavors and milk chocolate. A Japanese Sencha with its savory profile, for example, is a good match for white or milk chocolate.
- Oolongs, which are partially oxidized teas, are very complex in flavor. The lightly oxidized, greener oolongs go well with rich sweet desserts like caramel filled pralines, milk- or dark chocolate, while the more oxidized oolongs complement the stronger flavors of dark chocolate.
- Black Teas tend to have a stronger flavor, more body and their tannin content matches up well with rich and full flavored dark chocolate, maybe with a hint of berries, citrus or nuts.
I, personally, like rich and creamy desserts and therefore my choice for a perfect Valentine’s dessert would be a Ti Kuan Yin Oolong from China with its slightly toasted notes and a slice of creamy chocolate, caramel cake. Just writing this makes my mouth water…..
If you are interested in learning more about this topic and would like to sample some creations, sign up for our “Tea and Dessert Pairing” class on Sunday, March 7th from 2 until 4 PM.
