BASIC PAIRING PRINCIPLE #3

Here’s an example of basic pairing principle #3, which is:

3. Because you eat and drink over time, you may experience a succession of pairings: this succession should be considered when composing a dish and a pairing.

In reply to my Facebook and blog posts on Bai Hao oolong aka Oriental Beauty tea, Don Mei of Chinalifeweb.com said:

“I tasted a Competition Grade Oriental Beauty which was ridiculously fragrant (and paired well with apple fritters and a whisky maple glaze).”

To which I replied:

“That's what is so interesting to me about this tea, Don. It has aspects that go from the cool (as in apple/maple) to warm/hot (as in fritter/whisky with its vanilla overtones). So depending on what you just had in your mouth, the flavor of the tea will reveal itself differently. I had it with delicious ginger molasses cookies—first I would taste the ginger and the cooler aspects of the tea, and then the warmer aspects would kick in along with the molasses. Did you experience something like this with your fritters?

Don Mei then said: 

“Yes the reason why the pairing worked so well was that the evolution of the tea on the palate was very similar to the apple fritters. Bright and fruity at first from the apples and the slight sourness in the glaze and then moving to the warmth of dried raisins, vanilla and caramel notes of the whisky and fritter combination. The tea accentuated all of this moving from fresh citrus start through to sweet flowers and over ripe grapes and finishing with the slight malt and woody notes that come from the oxidation of such fine leaves. YUM!”

As you can see, a perfect example of basic principle #3!

An apple fritter, surely not as delicious as the one Don enjoyed. Image from Wikipedia.

The reason that this principle works is that the residence times of foods on their receptors differs by temperature. Cool/cold are quick-on, but they are also quick-off, so the flavor fades quickly, to be replaced by the warm and hot flavors—warm and hot receptors are slow-on and slow-off.

The secret to the pairing above is that both tea and fritter have cold and warm elements. So when you take a bite or you taste the tea, the flavors will evolve just as Don explained.

If you don’t have either tea or fritters with which to experiment, just think of a time when you ate some chili pepper, which hits the hot receptors. The burn builds up slowly, so at first you think it isn’t so bad, then wow! Ow! So you down a glass of ice water—relief! But no sooner have you had a chance to appreciate the coolness, than the heat comes right back! 

PS: In case you can't find them, here are the other two basic principles of pairing:

1. The overarching principle is that a beverage pairs well with a dish when they both activate the same temperature receptors. When they do, the flavors of both stand out together. If they don't, one will dominate, and you will lose the flavor of the other, or the flavors may clash.  

2. If a dish has ingredients that activate multiple temperature receptors, your choice of beverage will dictate which flavors in dish and beverage will stand out.