15 tea pairings on day 15

Today, I had the honor of being part of the jury for the latest class of Tea Sommelier, a tea pairing class taught by TeaParker, my tea master, The final exam was held at the Landis hotel, next to the TianXiang Lo restaurant featuring mostly Jiangzi cuisine. Each participant would have to introduce a tea, brew it in front of us, explain why it should pair well with the selected course and then we would taste if it's indeed the case.

There were 16 students, but I'm skipping one, because he used the same meal and a very similar tea. So, I was able to taste 15 different pairings. So, here we go, 15 tea pairings on day 15 of the November challenge!

The first students brews Oriental Beauty and pairs it with green vegetables stir-fried with rice. The first brew of OB, brewed lightly, is always delicious, and this one was no exception. Unfortunately, the fruity scents of OB don't pair well with the green vegetables.

2.

The second student prepared a menu of her Chaxi. It details the tea, and the equipment used to brew it.

The roasted high mountain Oolong is paired with a Shaoxing cold chicken. The roast has some interaction with the wine, but I think a fresh Lishan would have had better interactions with the chicken. 

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3.

This lady was probably under some stress and talked little to introduce her Chaxi, tea or the pairing. However, her fresh gushu puerh did an amazing job with this finely cooked fish on a sweet mushroom sauce. I gave this pairing the highest mark of all!

4.

This participant also used a menu her Chaxi. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the tea and the meal. Maybe I was under the charm of the white tea she brewed, made from gushu puerh. The aromas were incredible. The dish was mainly composed of fresh green peas, very similar to what I had brewed when I passed this test. The pairing was OK, but this was one of the rare cases where the tea was too flavorful compared to the dish!

5. 

A Lishan organic high mountain Oolong brewed in a kyusu teapot with lightly stir-fried shrimps. The first brew was good and paired the tea nicely. Unfortunately, the second brew was too long and the tea lost its finesse. This reminds us to pay attention to the brewing!

6.

Taiwanese wild red tea from Liu Gui paired with fried tofu skin: the red tea had some scents that went well with the smoky scents of the fried tofu, but it lacked aftertaste.

7.

A Da Yu Ling 98K paired with a sesame pastry filled with a thin layer of sweet red been paste. Here, the Oolong felts astringent and clashed with the sweetness of the dish. It couldn't be used as a pairing, but more as a finish to rinse the palate. This shows that outstanding teas don't necessarily pair well with any dish.

8.

A Japanese sencha from Banu paired with a pink lotus seed pastry (su bing). This was quite daring to pair a Japanese tea with a Chinese dish. The tea ware is also Japanese. Unfortunately, the astringent green sencha aromas were at odds with the dish. 

9.

This guy did the best presentation. He had a clear, loud voice and spoke with confidence. His jassid bitten Oolong did a better job pairing with the Shaoxing chicken, thanks to a lighter oxidation and lighter roast than #2. I also like the way he used the gaiwan.

9. 

Another student is using a gaiwan! This time, the tea brewed is ZhuShan Jade (Tsui Yu) Oolong. It pairs this cold cut of pork in gelée very nicely. The tea and the pork seem to complement each other.

11

OB didn't pair well with the vegetable-rice, and it also doesn't pair well with this steamed fish!

12.

This student is a coffee professional who wants to expand his taste. That's why he registered for this class. He was the only one to show us the dry leaves he used: a fresh Jinxuan Oolong. This tea had some success with the shrimp and pork shaomai: it emphasized the white pepper scents in the dish!

13. 

This student didn't just provide one pairing, but 2! But he should have only done 1, because he went overtime and the fish soup arrived a little bit cooled down. Here, the main pairing was an aged OB from Shiding (Wenshan region). Thanks to the age that toned down the fruity scents and gave way to more roasted and aged aromas, the pairing with the soup was OK.

14.

Here I forgot to take the picture of the student brewing the tea below, but it may be better so, because the tea he brewed was artificially flavored. Super extra fruity, but no aftertaste. And this kind of strong scent was too strong for the asparagus. 

15

We finish the exam with a green bean paste delicacy paired with San Hsia BiLuoChun. In theory, this could be a good pairing. However, the tea was from this spring and has lost its freshness (probably due to poor storage conditions or because it was a late harvest). So, the sweet dish didn't go well with the astringent green.

Conclusion: The actual pairing of the dish and the tea remains the key challenge. While some students talked convincingly about how good their tea is and how it would enhance the food, only a few were really successful. But the interest has been awakened, tea knowledge and tea brewing practice are quite good already. What they lack is experience. So, in my parting advice to them, I told them to make it a habit to have tea at home when they eat/cook. This will help expand their knowledge of which teas work with what kind of food, and which don't. Sometimes, you can be misled by your tea preferences.