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Ditch the wine and drink tea with your cheese, says expert

Tea and cheese: the new power pairing: Shutterstock / Studio Dagdagaz
Tea and cheese: the new power pairing: Shutterstock / Studio Dagdagaz

There are few greater things in life than sipping on a glass of red wine while you tuck into a mammoth slice of cheese.

But according to one food and drink expert, there is another drink that can bring out the qualities of a stinky Stilton better than a bottle of pinot noir.

Next time you put the kettle on, apparently you should consider drinking your cup of tea with a slice of cheese on the side.

“Most people, in my experience, think of tea as a drink for rainy days, grandmas, or as a little sister to coffee,” tea expert Rachel Safko told Forbes. “All of the above can be true, but there’s much more versatility to tea – it’s the chameleon of beverages.”

Safko, who works for luxury experience firm IfOnly, where she offers private tea consultations, goes on to explain that tea is a very good match for cheese because its complex flavours vary from brew to brew.

“Like wine, teas have varying degrees of tannin along with a natural astringency: a dryness and feeling that isn’t quite bitter or sour, but more like the pleasant tartness and pucker you might get from tasting a lemon or pomegranate,” she explains. “Cheese – in its infinite glory – offers a nice balance to that astringency.”

She even claims that tea is a better companion than wine because the heat from the drink enhances the cheese’s underlying flavours in a way that luke-warm or cold drinks simply can’t.

So which teas should you be pairing with your wines?

Go-to wine and cheese favourites are easy to swap out with a matching tea, says Safko.

She recommends you try light green and white teas instead of Champagnes and Sauvignon Blancs.

“Green teas, in general, tend to go really well with fresh goat cheeses or triple-crème cheeses,” she says. “The crisp, bright, vegetal, elegant quality of a Japanese sencha, for example, complements a classic goat cheese, which has a spring-like, grassy quality as well as depth and body when nibbled alongside green tea.”

Safko also recommends trying the “crisp” and “lemony first flush” of darjeeling with brie and cucumber sandwiches, hailing it as “the Champagne of tea.”

The flavours combine so well, she says, because “the fatty, creamy umami that most of us go bonkers for in cheese helps round out the bite of more astringent teas.”

Fans of stronger cheeses should opt for a darker brew.

“The smoky lapsang souchong or velvety keemun are both dynamite with blue cheeses, partly because the salt and creaminess in the cheese play off the sweetness and darker depths of the tea,” Safko recommends.

Tea and cheese? It might just catch on. Well, it’s cheaper than stockpiling red wine for cosy evenings to come.