Breakfast with Malawi Satemwa Smallholders OP1

Most common Dutch tea&food pairing: English blend and a stroopwafel (biscuit with a thick syrup). Biscuit on top of your hot cup of tea so the syrup gets warm and runny. Mmmm

Couldn’t resist picking up some beautiful chocolates at my local Simon Lèvelt store. The shop owner suggested their Yunnan Gold to drink with these beauties. She was right! Brewed it real strong in order to taste both tea and chocolates. 9 grams of tea on 500 ml of 90 degrees Celsius water and a steeping time of 3 minutes. Normally I would use 80 degrees Celsius water and a 1-2 minute steep but the tea really needs more extraction in order not to taste like hot water. The slight astringency balances the sweetness of the chocolates and brings out the chocolaty flavour much more.

And why not. An other chocolate with the same tea 😁.

Blueberry muffin and a China Fujian Golden Monkey black tea. You’ll need a lot of tea to join this huge muffin.

Nothing wrong with a peanut butter and chocolate sprinkles sandwich with a beautiful India Assam Ananda Second Flush

Chana matar (chickpeas and green peas) and a spectacular black tea of Tinjure. Member of CTCF. No idea how they made the dish or the tea but the sweetness of te tea brings it all together.

A great Nepalli meal needs a great tea. A Nepal Jun Chiyabari Himalaya Imperial Black of @junchiyabari did a great job! 19 grams of tea on one litre 80 centigrade soft water and a steeping time of 2 minutes

Cornish pasty and Cornish Tea. You can’t go wrong.

Vondel speculaas (spiced biscuit) I picked up at Simon Lèvelt and their Assam Goudblad zomerpluk (very tippy Assam second flush) is one of the first tea and food pairings I discovered. The spices and sweetness of the biscuit are balanced so beautiful by the Assam tea. It’s almost as if it becomes a masala chai! 7 grams of tea on 500 ml 95 degrees Celsius water and a infusion time of three minutes. It really needs hot water and a relatively long steep in order to do it’s job 😁.