More World Tea Expo 2017!

One of the many observations from my workshop "Pairing with Tea: the Science of Flavors and How to Enjoy Them:"

We enjoyed an exquisite English Breakfast Tea from The Tea Source.

Here's a picture of English Breakfast Tea from The Tea Source.

But drink the English Breakfast tea after a bite of a Walkers shortbread, and the tea disappears!

Here's the delicious shortbread that we used  — great by itself, but with black tea you need to add something!

Add some raspberry jam to the shortbread and bite again and sip the tea, and the tea magically comes back!

What is happening?  

The black teas in the blend activate TRPV3 and TRPV1, the warm and hot receptors, to give you a full comforting black tea flavor — remember, these receptors and the trigeminal nerves to which these receptors are attached act like a volume dial, upping the flavor experience.

The butter in the shortbread?  Turns off TRPV1, so you can't taste the tea.

But when you add some raspberry jam, raspberry ketone — a major chemical in raspberries, and in black tea, too — turns TRPV1 back on, and TRPV3 as well, so now you get the warm delicious tea flavor back again!

Strawberry and blueberry jams don't do this...

What does this mean for all of you who serve tea? 

Whenever someone asks for a black tea with a buttery pastry, make sure that the pastry contains some raspberry!