i confess: tea and chocolate

[halloweencat]

a very simple combination for me, but a very powerful one, taste- and enjoyment-wise....tea (earl grey mainly) and dark chocolate (like a small wedge of sharffenberger or vrona). that's it. no cake. no scones. just the tea and the chocolate. heightens my appreciation of both.

sound strange to anyone?

yours?

cheers :)

hc

[fou de Bassan]

With black tea hobnobs or digestive biscuits.

With green tea melon or some other fruit.

Chocolate with herbal teas.

[chuchelo]

Then what about chocolate tea?? Has anyone tried this??

[kitwilliams]

Black teas with anything ginger. Any teas would probably go great with ginger. But a strong cuppa with milk and a hint of sweetness and, in particular, Grasmere Gingerbread. But my Chewy Ginger Cookies (recipe can be found in the Christmas Cookie thread), my cousin's Ginger Crunch Cookies, or Ginger Shortbread are all great. I never do coffee when I know there will be ginger around. Oh! Just remembered: Nancy Silverton's (La Brea Bakery's) Ginger Scones. They are awesome.

[jpr54_]

Then what about chocolate tea?? Has anyone tried this??

←

the tea is not bad if you want a chocolate flavored tea-

[SBonner]

Earl Grey is stunning with dark chocolate ( 70%+ cocoa0. Try some strong long steeped oolong as well.

Cheers,

Stephen

Vancouver

[NulloModo]

Well, this might be obvious, but mint goes very well with Green Tea. I like to add some sugar-free Creme De Menthe syrup to my morning cup of green tea to give it a little bit of sweetness.

[Radio7]

Tea with oranges.

As in, tea with a couple clementines.

Tea with a couple of clementines, in my slippers, reading the paper on a quiet gray saturday morning.

[ghostrider]

I think I've always been something of a purist when it comes to flavors. I always have my tea after a meal, by itself. I find the flavor of tea alone to be so complex & satisfying that adding other flavors to the mix becomes a distraction.

[Chufi]

Buddha amacha tea with very dark, bitter chocolate.

[petite tête de chou]

Lapsang Souchong with spicy, salty walnuts or almonds.

[Rehovot]

If I'm feeling particularly ambitious, I make these cookies to go with tea; I think the recipe was in the Figaro magazine a few months ago:

4 ladyfingers or 8 “petit beurre” cookies

80 grams powdered sugar

50 grams salted butter

4 small squares of dark chocolate

1 dl milk

powdered cocoa or coffee

Caramel: place the sugar in a pan, add 1 dl of water, bring to a boil, and cook just until the caramel turns golden. Then add the butter, remove from heat, and stir gently. Preheat the oven to 4 / 120 degrees C. Cut the ladyfingers in two, or prepare two petit beurre cookies. Spread half of the caramel on both sides, placing one square of chocolate on top. Transfer to a baking sheet and bake for 2 minutes.

These, plus a big mug of Earl Grey, a blanket, and a good novel =

[gingerpeach]

I have dark chocolate to thank for liking Earl Grey tea. Seems that I never really "got" what Earl Grey was about until I had an artisan chocolate with a creamy Earl Grey filling. Perhaps it was something about the contrast of the rich chocolate and the floral quality of the bergamot? The creaminess that brought everything together? Now I love Earl Grey tea.

[halloweencat]

gingerpeach :) i think you've hit on it. :)

i love chocolate with tea, but perhaps there's something in particular with the bergamot.

btw, on the tea primer thread, i mention that for years i didn't know how to brew a cup of tea --- lipton tea bags, steeping 20 minutes, 40 minutes, 2 hours, whatever. i certainly didn't get what the big deal was re earl grey, with this method.

when i first brewed a (fairly reasonably) properly prepared cup of tea -- boy, i sure got what the deal was with the earl after that. :)

cheers :)

hc

[Pan]

When I eat in Chinese restaurants, I'm quite content to have tea plain, especially when a good chrysanthemum or jasmine tea is served. I had a quite flavorful and pleasantly complex jasmine tea in a Malaysian restaurant in Flushing last (Thursday) night.

In non-Asian restaurants, I usually have tea with lemon.

In Indian restaurants, I like to have masala chai, and I also enjoy Chinese bubble tea in various flavors.

I have sugar in tea when eating in restaurants representing countries where adding sugar to tea is the thing to do, e.g. Middle Eastern places (Yemeni, etc.),

I like herbal teas, but that's really something different as they don't contain tea leaves.

[ruthcooks]

Desserts, even chocolate, with tea don't appeal to me because I like it sweetened except with Chinese food. Occasionally with milk, if it's too strong, but never lemon.

As a beverage with food, I like tea best with grilled cheese or buttered toast, or a cold sandwich. The best tea I ever tasted was raisin tea. Now I drink mostly green tea.

[gingerpeach]

Ooh, Pan's comment about masala chai reminds me... chai and samosas were meant for each other. The fierier the samosa, the sweeter the chai, the better. Just don't run out of tea before you finish the samosa!

[jgm]

Okay, I started a new thread, having done a search on "pairings" and not finding one that related to tea... Perhaps the moderator will take pity on me and merge the two, or just get rid of the new one.

Anyway, a friend introduced me to the pleasures of Earl Grey on ice, which I would never have thought of myself, and how good it is with meat dishes--for me, usually sandwiches.

I can't wait to try Earl Grey and chocolate! And I may just go home and put a lot of other teas on ice, just to see how the flavor changes. In the case of Earl Grey, icing it brings on a fairly substantial flavor change.

[jgm]

I did try Earl Grey tea with some bittersweet chocolate last night, and it was lovely! I was also impressed with how a complimentary beverage can take a small piece of chocolate, and make it seem like a full-blown dessert.

I encourage other tea lovers to submit other pairings as they encounter them. If wine can enhance a meal, why not tea?

Several weeks ago I attended a coffee tasting at my local Starbuck's. Although I buy lattes regularly, I usually don't purchase their coffee, because it's just too strong and acidic for me. However, they did show how certain coffees paired with certain of their desserts, are just a match made in heaven. I really think that coffee or tea pairings can enhance a meal or a dish immeasurably, and am eager to learn more.

[CompassRose]

Ah! so that's what this is about. I admit I didn't really "get it", but I don't like fruit and chocolate as a rule, and bergamot is pushing that boundary.

I like tea with everything. But most particularly, I like traditional black teas with plain baking -- simple sugar or shortbread cookies, biscuits. These sorts of sweets aren't usually my first choice -- but with tea, perfect.

[jokhm]

Got directed here from another thread and thought I should add some amount of strange experiences to backup the idea of pushing two unique fine items together that usually stand on their own. I'm kinda partial to drinking good and strong green tea with good milk chocolate. Only problem is that such quality of milk chocolate is hard to come by here.. or at least rather expensive. My tea preference for this is biluochun (pilochun etc). I don't know why this one in particular, but it just works. Haven't had much dark chocolate to test others with. On a different note, I have a Tie Luo Han Oolong from Wuyi mountain here that shares a lot of flavour characteristics with chocolate. Maybe it is just me though.

Also, regarding the Chai... Never tried it with chocolate. My drinking preference for Chai is unsweetened IF I am drinking while eating indian desserts. I suppose I would try the same with chocolate.

[tryska]

first - milk in my tea please.

second - cake rusks.

[John DePaula]

Last week I made a dark chocolate bonbon with Butterfly of Taiwan top superior Formosa Oolong tea.

Wow! Very smooth and delicate tea. Perfect for French style chocolates. Also have had very good success with Earl Grey. It really seems to compliment the flavors of the chocolate. Pure bliss!