HOW TO PAIR TEA AND CHOCOLATE

There are two things in the world that I could happily surround myself with every single day, without fail – tea and chocolate.

For this tea and chocolate pairing, I used loose leaf tea from my favourite tea brand in the whole world ever, Trident, and chocolate from my favourite vegan chocolate brand ever, Doisy and Dam.

Trident: A book, tea, and coffee shop in Boulder, Colorado that has been in the tea business for an incredible nearly four decades. It actually happens to be the oldest standing cafe in Boulder! What I love about them is that they have the most unique, beautiful teas from small importers and farmers, where they are able to directly support farmers by paying them a sustainable and fair price for their teas. I also happen to have their stickers plastered all over my rollerskating helmet.

Doisy and Dam: They are especially unique as not only do they have delicious chocolate that is free from additives, E-Numbers, and palm oil, but they also have a massive focus on ethics. They strongly believe in fair pay, direct sourcing, and a transparent supply chain, something that is oftentimes under-appreciated. Their packaging is so colourful and preppy and cute, and the chocolate so delicious, that I couldn’t imagine a better chocolate brand to help spice up a classic tea tasting.

It’s easy to run your own tea and chocolate pairing! You are first going to want to choose teas and chocolates that balance each other in the following ways:

Enhance: The flavours of the tea and chocolate will complement each other, and will have similar characteristics. For example, a fruity chocolate and a rooibos tea.

Complement: The tea and the chocolate may not have the same characteristics, but they still go well together. For example, a nutty chocolate and a masala chai.

Contrast: The tea and chocolate will have completely different characteristics, such as a spicy turmeric tea and a bitter black chocolate. You want them to be able to accentuate the different flavours in both, so that both are distinguishable.

The purpose is to bring out the best flavours in both, and see how they interact together.

You will also be using two of your senses for this: the sense of smell and taste. Smell can be SUCH an underestimated sense during tasting sessions, but it’s going to be super important for this.

To begin with, heat a cup with water, swill it around, and then pour the water out. Add in dry tea leaves, swill them around again, and take a big sniff of the tea. You will be able to get a much clearer idea of the tea’s characteristics this way rather than if you were to just smell the dry leaves. Following that, grab your chocolate and give that a big sniff too – see how the scents interact.

Then, you’ll want to take a sip of the tea to warm the tongue and pick out the beverage’s characteristics. Then, take a small bite of the chocolate, rolling it around the mouth and comparing it. You will then want to take a sip of the tea and a bite of the chocolate and hold both in your mouth, seeing how they work together.

Fu Shon Shan

Type: Oolong

Harvest: Spring and Fall ’20

Origin: Taichung, Taiwan

Appearance: Dark green, almost blue leaves that are tightly curled. Opens up into large leaves, with the liquid being a pale green colour.

Smell: Sweet, malty, pea.

Taste: Nutty, sweet, fresh, very similar to genmaicha. Buttery.

Aftertaste: Soft, subtle, malty.

Nuttercups Chocolate

After trying the nutty and fresh Fu Shon Shan, I decided that the perfect complementary pairing would be Doisy and Dam’s Nuttercups. These are delicious little chocolate cups with a creamy hazelnut filling that perfectly balanced the nuttiness of the tea. The chocolate was sweet and slightly salty – absolutely delicious – and complemented the nutty and malty undertones of the tea. They are both quite buttery in taste, creating a full, rich flavour.

Autumn Yiwu Anicent Tree

Harvest: Fall ’19

Origin: Yiwu, Yunnan, China

Type: Sheng Pu’erh

Appearance: Flat dry blackish green leaves, green and light brown full leaves as it brews out. Golden yellow liquid. Also had half a cake unbroken in the bag which was awesome!

Taste: Mellow, almost floral mixed with classic earthiness of pu’erh. Surprisingly sharp aftertaste, pleasant. Brewed too long is astringent and almost sour.

Smell: Rich, earthy, almost floral.

Additional notes: This is hands down the finest pu’erh I have ever had, it was absolutely delicious. It’s not as robust or heavy as normal pu’erhs which I loved – it could easily be drunk all through the day. The quality of the tea is evident as you can see all of the individual, full leaves – I don’t know if I’d only been drinking bad pu’erh before this, but they have all been small, cut up leaves, that create an almost overwhelming flavour. This, by contrast, was incredible.

Goji and Orange Dark Chocolate

The zestiness of this made my cheeks tingle! It was such a delicious chocolate and the perfect pairing for a rich and earthy tea, contrasting one another brilliantly.

The sweetness of the chocolate worked so well with the mellowness of the tea, with both flavours enhanced during the process. The rich and earthy taste of the pu’erh balanced the tanginess of the chocolate perfectly.

Golden Eyebrows

Type: Black

Harvest: 04/01/20

Origin: Huang Gan Mt, Fujian

Appearance: Such cool tea! The leaves look exactly like small, thin, golden eyebrows, it’s so intriguing. The liquid becomes a copper colour.

Smell: Like a sweet, nutty, almost popcorn smell, like floral and malt have intertwined into a warm sweetness.

Taste: Malty sweetness, aftertaste is exactly like a Malteser.

D&D’s Drops

These little buggers had me snacking on them without even noticing – each time we took a break in the tasting, I would accidentally eat a handful or two, so that by the time this pairing came along, there were hardly any left. They’re fiendishly good, and worked perfectly to complement the tea.

Whilst Golden Eyebrows and the Doisy and Dam Drops have two very different flavour profiles, they came together really nicely. The nutty, popcorn taste of the tea blended with the sweetness of the chocolate drops to create something that tasted pretty much like caramelised popcorn – a win-win, in my opinion!

Buddha’s Hand

Type: Oolong

Harvest: 04/28/19

Origin: Wuyishan, Fujian China

Appearance: Dry dark leaves, curled and straight. Surprisingly pale gold liquid.

Smell: So delicious! Toasted, coffee, chocolate, rich.

Taste: Mushroom, dark, deep, richer with longer brewing. Toasted. Unami, so much unami!

Additional notes: It might sound strange, but my favourite thing about this tea – or at least one of them – is that you really need to pay attention to each brewing of this tea, otherwise it over-steeps or under-steeps and ruins the whole thing. It’s ideal for ceremonies and tea meditation due to the mindfulness involved, and as it happens, it’s also perfect for tea and chocolate pairings!

Chocolate Maca, Vanilla, and Cacao Chocolate

Wow. Just… wow. Who knew chocolate could taste like this? An absolutely gorgeous bar made up from the finest ingredients blended to perfection, I knew that I had to find a tea that would be worthy of it. And it so happens, Buddha’s Hand was exactly that.

I decided to pair a tea and chocolate that would contrast each other in a way that perfectly balanced one another, and this pairing is possibly the best example of that. The rich and earthy taste of the tea balanced the lightness of the vanilla in the chocolate, enhancing the cocoa flavours to perfection. The tea was full of unami, and as such, it had to be paired carefully as to not override the taste – and the soft sweetness of the chocolate worked perfectly with it, two distinct flavours blending seamlessly as one.

As the tea gets stronger, it becomes nuttier, which worked really well with the maca in the chocolate!

Fujian Green

Type: Green

Harvest: Spring ’20

Origin: Fujian China

Appearance: So beautiful! Very thin green leaves, some with fuzz, curled into circles. Becomes a pale yellow liquid when brewed.

Smell: Sweet, spinach, biscuit base

Taste: Tastes completely different to smell, with a deep nuttiness almost like oolong. On the second brewing, the leaves were a more delicate nutty taste.

Maple, Toasted Rice, and Pink Salt

The tea and chocolate pairing ended on a high with this maple, toasted rice, and sea salt bar from Doisy and Dam, which was so delicious that instead of initially trying small pieces, I demolished the whole bar in one go. The sweetness of the maple and the saltiness of the, well, salt, along with the toasted rice created the most beautiful chocolate bar ever.

And of course, every great chocolate bar deserves a great tea! I decided to pair it with this Fujian Green due to the fact that they both have sweetness, they both have a nutty taste, and they both have genmaicha qualities. They both have quite delicate undertones, meaning that when paired together, neither are competing to overpower the other. It works together beautifully to create a flavour profile that showcases the best of both worlds.

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And so, have you guys ever tried pairing tea and chocolate? If not, will you be starting off with these two beauties of a brand? Let me know in the comments below!

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