Pairing tea with foods can be quite a culinary adventure. It provides a vast extent of tastes. In most cases, tea acts as a palate cleanser. In other cases, it functions as a mid-course transition to bridge a person from one food course to the other. Additionally, like wine, tea can be applied as a flavor enhancer. It helps complete the culinary journey of any tea. In this post, we discuss the best foods to pair with Ceylon tea.
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What is Ceylon tea?
Before we get into naming the best foods to pair with this tea, we first need to understand its basics. Ceylon, also known as Sri Lankan tea, is a popular type of black tea. It is typically produced in Sri Lanka, hence its name. The tea is often made using dried leaves of the Camellia Sinensis plant, like most herbal-infused beverages. As an orthodox drink, it is produced by hand, hence its brisk and bright nature.
Popularly served as warm or iced tea, it is pretty popular among most tea drinkers. This beverage is known for its bold flavor. Note that the taste can vary significantly depending on the type of drink and where it is grown. However, the classic flavor is full and brisk. It also has medium-to-full tannins and a few notes of citrus, chocolate, or spice.
Best foods to pair with this beverage
This beverage is perfect for family consumption because of its numerous benefits. For instance, it is packed with multiple beneficial antioxidants. The fact that it is easy to prepare also helps. Its nutty and malty delicious flavor has also contributed to it becoming a household favorite.
It is often paired with rich and savory dishes. Note that this beverage’s taste is not too empowering. Therefore, you can take it in several varying ways. You can take it as a lemon iced, milk, or hot milk drink.
Below are some foods that pair perfectly with this beverage.
Lasagna
Combining lasagna with Ceylon is culinary heaven. This combination of the creamy tomato sauce, cheese, and pasta with the tea’s flavor is a perfect match. The beverage works by cutting the richness of the lasagna flavors to give your palette a fresh cleanse. The cleanse will allow you to get the best taste out of every lasagna bite. Lasagna especially pairs well with iced Ceylon. Note that this beverage pairs well with both vegetarian and meat lovers’ lasagna.
Making the best Ceylon for pairing with lasagna
Making iced Ceylon beverage is relatively easy. All you have to do is use the conventional method of making iced beverages, then add a light touch of honey. If you want to go the adventurous route, you can create a homemade milk Ceylon drink. All you have to do is add any milk and sugar or fructose syrup to the drink. From there, you can add ice, and you have your perfect milk beverage to pair with your lasagna.
BBQ ribs
Most people love to pair their BBQ ribs with an iced beverage, especially during a hot summer day. The tea helps to compliment the flavors of the BBQ ribs while not overpowering your taste buds. You can also use it as a pallet cleanser to allow you to enjoy every bit of the BBQ flavor.
How to make the beverage
For this particular pairing, it would be best if you made your beverage with a touch of honey and lemon. It would also help if you chilled it to perfection. When brewing the drink, make sure not to take longer than ten minutes, especially if you are using tea bags.
Brewing it for longer than ten minutes will leave a bitter taste in the drink. It will also overbear the beverage. If you are using loose leaf tea, you also need to be careful not to over brew for the same reasons.
Grilled cheese sandwich
Ceylon also pairs well with savory grilled cheese sandwiches. The drink particularly complements the flavors in this food. The richness of this drink, combined with the toasted buttery bread texture, goes together perfectly. It works even better with the glass is hot. Note that there is no rule against experiment with various cheeses, bread, and seasonings. Multiple combinations of the ingredients mentioned above will work perfectly with your Ceylon beverage.
How to make the beverage
In this case, there is no wrong way to make the beverage. This means that you are free to choose whichever method of preparation, and it will still pair perfectly with this food.
Rich dark chocolate cake
Pairing a beverage with chocolate cake is something that most people find weird because of the sugar in the cake. However, it is a stroke of culinary genius. Any variant of rich, dark chocolate cake will pair perfectly with this beverage. In this case, Ceylon cuts through the richness of the chocolate. Doing so helps emphasize its flavor. It also makes every bite of the chocolate feel heavenly.
How to prepare the beverage
In this case, it would be best if you did not add too much sugar or honey to the drink. This is because chocolate cake contains a lot of sugar. Therefore, adding more sugar could make it too sweet and overbearing.
Take Note
Note that you can also pair Ceylon with a variety of other savory and rich dishes of your choice in addition to the foods mentioned above. You can also pair it with any sweet dishes or pastries that you like. In simple terms, there are endless combinations with Ceylon.
However, note that pairing drinks with food should enhance the food’s flavor and not overpower it or alter it. Therefore, if you realize that the taste is different or worse, it would be best to think of other combinations.
Conclusion
You can get Ceylon tea from a variety of online and offline stores like Kent and Sussex Tea and Coffee Company. This is one of the best and most reputable places to purchase tea bags and loose leaf tea.
