Such fun at World Tea Expo 2018! - Post #2—Workshop Part 2: teas and scones and chocolate

==>> If you were at World Tea Expo 2018, TAKE THE SURVEY!!! PLEASE!!! You will find the link in an email.

In the first post in this series I described our discussion of the trigeminal system and how teas and foods fit into the temperature response scheme of this system.

After we sampled the four teas,* we tasted them with food. Centerplate, the catering company at the Convention Center, provided three different kinds of scones: blueberry, raisin, and chocolate; with three different preserves from Bonne Maman: blueberry, strawberry, and raspberry.

This is not a picture of an actual scone from the workshop, though they looked like this one, but with some sugar crystals on the  outside...I meant to photograph an actual scone, but got distracted by eating them...despite sitting around, they were really quite good! And the preserves we used were in little pots, like this one. Photo by Sam Edwards on Unsplash.com.

To everyone's delight, the blueberry scones with blueberry jam brought out the refreshingly grassy qualities of the green tea. By contrast the flavors of the other teas were destroyed by this combination. 

Instead, the first flush Darjeeling sang harmoniously with the raisin scones and the strawberry jam, while the two black teas (Halmari Assam and Black Magnolia) were even more delicious when paired with the chocolate scones with raspberry jam.

A photo taken before we tasted the scones, but you can get an idea of the set-up.
Photo by Jo from Tea Blending Sisters (http://www.teablendingsisters.com)  

Perhaps the most dreadful pairing was chip-like dark chocolate wafers with green tea. We all laughed as the chorus of ughs and eeuws and yucks spread through the room as each person tasted the combination. Not to mention the faces everyone made!

Whereupon I suggested cleaning out the bad flavors with good ones, by pairing the black teas with the chocolate wafers. 

So good indeed! especially when scooping up some raspberry jam with the wafer, taking a bite, and then sipping the tea. This process brought out the maltiness and coffee-like qualities of the Assam (confession time: a coffee malted milkshake/frappe with chocolate syrup is one of my all time favorites), while the Black Magnolia accentuated the deliciously tart qualities of the chocolate and raspberries.

The reasons for these reactions: blueberries activate the same cool/cold receptors on the trigeminal nerve in mouth and nose as does the green tea; Darjeelings, like oolongs, activate the warm receptors, as do strawberries and raisins; while the "hot" receptors are activated by dark chocolate, raspberries, and black teas. When you try to activate the hot and the cold receptors simultaneously by pairing green tea with chocolate, the clash is inevitable.

The take-home lesson of this phase of the workshop was: not all scones go with all teas. The pretty three-tiered curates, replete with scones and jams and bonbons, does a disservice to both tea and food. You will inevitably encounter a tea/food combination that makes one or the other taste dreadful. 

Better to have some way to serve teas and foods so that they pair successfully. 

After some discussion we came to the conclusion that a tapas tea bar with suggestions for pairing would be the answer.

Oh, and we didn't stop there—more about pairing and menu building in my next post!

* Here are the teas again:

From Yatra Tea (https://www.yatrateacompany.com):

FATIKCHERRA ESTATE, TRIPURA, AUTUMN FLUSH 2017
HARVEST MONTH: NOVEMBER 2017
GRADE: GSFTGFOP1
Clean liquor, with a savory aroma of cooked greens, and robust notes of vegetable broth.

Fatikcherra was the first estate in Tripura to produce organic tea in 1998. The estate itself is surrounded by dense forests of tropical trees, including teak, sal, and bamboo. The area experiences heavy rainfall, especially between June and September (the Monsoon season).
The tea industry in this eastern state of India was started by the people of East Bengal. Tripura is the 5th largest tea producing state in India, after Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu & Kerala.


GOOMTEE ESTATE, DARJEELING, FIRST FLUSH 2017
HARVEST MONTH: APRIL 2017
GRADE: FTGFOP1
Golden liquor, flowery fragrance, and crisp, well-rounded taste.

Goomtee is as iconic a Darjeeling estate as they come, its tryst with tea dating back to 1899. Hilly slopes at altitudes ranging from 3,000 to 6,000 ft. are abundant with teas of the China variety. Blessed with moderately cool temperature and adequate rainfall, Goomtee consistently produces Darjeeling tea of the highest quality.


HALMARI ESTATE, ASSAM, SECOND FLUSH 2017
HARVEST MONTH: JULY 2017
GRADE: GTGFOP1 
Bright ruby liquor, notes of caramel, delicious malty flavor. 

Located in the Moran Belt on the rich, fertile plains of Upper Assam, above the Brahmaputra river, Halmari's consistent commitment to producing quality Assam teas has rendered it one of the best tea estates in the world. By their own admission, production of top quality tea didn't commence until the 1980s. Since then, Halmari has rightly earned the title of top producer in Assam.
The limited production GTGFOP1 grade tea is an award winning, pure, Orthodox tea with an abundance of chunky, golden tips. An iconic tea with global appeal! 

*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*

and the tea from The Great Mississippi Tea Company:

BLACK MAGNOLIA, THE GREAT MISSISSIPPI TEA COMPANY

Jason says: " “Black Magnolia” is a unique black tea produced using a heated oxidation process that adds a Maillard Browning step similar to pan firing an Oolong."    

Such fun at World Tea Expo 2018! - Post #1—Workshop Part 1

Such fun at World Tea Expo 2018!

In this post I'll tell you about the beginning of the workshop I hosted, "Learn to Pair Teas with Food & Build Menus from Scratch."

Thanks so much to Jo from Tea Blending Sisters (http://www.teablendingsisters.com) for the photos of the workshop!

Here's Jeni Dodd introducing me—so pleased that I got to see Jeni!  As you may remember, dear readers, Jeni specializes in Nepali tea, and hosted the elegant tasting with Cynthia Gold at L'Espalier in Boston a couple of months ago—see my write-up "Nepali Tea at the Sunday Tea Tasting" dated 2/7/18 on this blog.

First we tried the cinnamon-mint experiment. It consistently amazes! You put a cinnamon candy in your mouth, and get the cinnamon flavor going. Then you take it out and replace it with a mint. The cinnamon flavor is immediately replaced with mint. Then take the mint out and wait...the cinnamon comes back!

Mint and cinnamon candies. Photo by Marzi Pecen.

It's an illustration of the competition among trigeminal receptors, that comes to the fore later in the workshop when we tasted green tea with chocolate. More about that in a coming post.

Why this experiment works has to do with the functions of the trigeminal nerve. This nerve not only registers texture and temperature, it also responds to chemicals. In the case of the candies, it registers the cinnamon as "hot"—and it takes a beat or two for this effect to register. Then when you replace the cinnamon with mint, the mint's "coolness" quickly takes over, and the cinnamon disappears, but only temporarily. The "hot" chemicals in cinnamon are still attached to their receptors on the trigeminal nerve, so once the mint leaves its receptors (which are quick on-quick off) you can sense the cinnamon again, and then it too finally fades away.

Here I am explaining the temperature scale and the different trigeminal nerve receptors that correspond to the different temperatures. We discussed both the different words that you could apply to the different sensations in the mouth, such as "refreshing" at the cool end and "sizzling" at the hot, and the different kinds of food that elicit these sensations.

Then it came time to taste the teas. Here we are with the tasting sheets, where we could record the sensations we experienced with the different teas.

We had three teas from the Yatra Tea Company, offered by our friend Vikram Mathur and Black Magnolia, a tea from  friend Jason McDonald's Great Mississippi Tea Company.

We started with Vikram's green tea, a Fatikcherry from Tripura, India. On purpose, I had it brewed at highly too high a temperature and for slightly too long, in order to bring the catechins out of the leaf. As a result, the tea was slightly bitter and astringent, but still delicious. How delicious it really was we brought out by putting a tiny bit of salt on the tip of the tongue and then tasting the tea: audible "wows" came from the group—the astringency disappeared and refreshing herbal qualities of the tea came to the fore! It was clear to everyone that this tea activated the cool/cold receptors.

Next came Vikram's Goomtee Estate First Flush Darjeeling, which was deliciously delicate. I asked which of the following words best applied to this tea—refreshing, soothing, or hearty—and everyone picked soothing, which it definitely was. This observation reflected the fact that Darjeelings, like oolongs, activate the medium warm temperature receptors—a range that is slightly warmer than body temperature, a range that we find soothing.

The third of Vikram's teas was a Halmari Estate Second Flush Assam, a rich Assam that everyone declared was "hearty." This observation reflects the fact that Assams like this one activate the hotter end of the trigeminal temperature spectrum, and give an energizing sensation.

Finally we enjoyed Jason's Black Magnolia tea. It too was declared hearty, but in a way quite different from the Assam. I think it's because (at least to me) the Assam was sweeter, and the Black Magnolia more toasty.

Jason carries out a heated oxidation step when he makes "Black Magnolia." This step results in Maillard browning, a process whereby sugars in the leaf attach to amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) in the leaf. As a result there are lower amounts of free sugars and sweet amino acids in the brew, so it tastes less sweet. When you toast bread the same reactions occur, hence the perception that "Black Magnolia" is toasty.

Bottom line, you should taste these teas for yourself to appreciate the differences—they are all really special!

In the next post, the pairings!

*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*

Here are description of the teas from Yatra Tea (https://www.yatrateacompany.com):

FATIKCHERRA ESTATE, TRIPURA, AUTUMN FLUSH 2017
HARVEST MONTH: NOVEMBER 2017
GRADE: GSFTGFOP1
Clean liquor, with a savory aroma of cooked greens, and robust notes of vegetable broth.
Fatikcherra was the first estate in Tripura to produce organic tea in 1998. The estate itself is surrounded by dense forests of tropical trees, including teak, sal, and bamboo. The area experiences heavy rainfall, especially between June and September (the Monsoon season).
The tea industry in this eastern state of India was started by the people of East Bengal. Tripura is the 5th largest tea producing state in India, after Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu & Kerala.

GOOMTEE ESTATE, DARJEELING, FIRST FLUSH 2017
HARVEST MONTH: APRIL 2017
GRADE: FTGFOP1
Golden liquor, flowery fragrance, and crisp, well-rounded taste.
Goomtee is as iconic a Darjeeling estate as they come, its tryst with tea dating back to 1899. Hilly slopes at altitudes ranging from 3,000 to 6,000 ft. are abundant with teas of the China variety. Blessed with moderately cool temperature and adequate rainfall, Goomtee consistently produces Darjeeling tea of the highest quality.

HALMARI ESTATE, ASSAM, SECOND FLUSH 2017
HARVEST MONTH: JULY 2017
GRADE: GTGFOP1
Bright ruby liquor, notes of caramel, delicious malty flavor.
Located in the Moran Belt on the rich, fertile plains of Upper Assam, above the Brahmaputra river, Halmari's consistent commitment to producing quality Assam teas has rendered it one of the best tea estates in the world. By their own admission, production of top quality tea didn't commence until the 1980s. Since then, Halmari has rightly earned the title of top producer in Assam.
The limited production GTGFOP1 grade tea is an award winning, pure, Orthodox tea with an abundance of chunky, golden tips. An iconic tea with global appeal! 

*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*

and the tea from The Great Mississippi Tea Company (http://www.greatmsteacompany.com)

BLACK MAGNOLIA, THE GREAT MISSISSIPPI TEA COMPANY
Jason says: " “Black Magnolia” is a unique black tea produced using a heated oxidation process that adds a Maillard Browning step similar to pan firing an Oolong."    

A delicious tea pairing: Lapsang Souchong and cheddar cheese

Sara got together with her friends Georgia and Gee again, the time to try out pairings of black teas with tea sandwiches, and as before the results are fascinating! 

Here are their blog websites:
Sara: http://www.tea-happiness.com/2018/05/tea-pairing-101-black-tea-and-tea-sandwiches.html#more
Georgia: https://www.notesontea.com/2018/05/tea-pairing-101-black-tea.html
Jee: https://www.ohhowcivilized.com/tea-pairing-101-black-tea/ 

...and here are the teas and the sandwiches, from Sara's blog http://www.tea-happiness.com/2018/05/tea-pairing-101-black-tea-and-tea-sandwiches.html#more

The three black teas chosen were about as different as possible! In this post, I'll talk about the first tea, an atypical Lapsang Souchong. 

What makes Lapsang Souchong different from other WuYi teas is that it is smoked over a pinewood fire. When carried to completion, the tea leaf's chemicals are replaced with ones from the burning pine wood. However I gather that the particular Lapsang Souchong that Sara, Georgia and Jee chose was less smoked, so retains some of the original black tea flavors that the Joseph Wesley Tea company (source of the tea) characterizes as "malty plum and chocolate."

Sara waxed enthusiastic about pairing this tea with a cheddar cheese sandwich with Branston pickle on whole wheat bread, and Georgia and Jee concurred. 

Before I go into why this combo works so well, a word about Branston pickle for those of us on this side of "The Pond." Branston pickle is a form of sweet/sour chutney made with dried chopped up vegetables (especially cauliflower and rutabaga), vinegar, tomato, lemon, apple, and spices, including mustard.* It is the classic accompaniment for cheddar cheese—when I had my first ploughman's lunch in England I went gaga over this combination!

So why then does the trio of Lapsang Souchong, cheddar, and Branston pickle work so well?

I like to think that it's because these three play with your hot and cold receptors in a fascinating, not to say dazzling, way.

First to the cool/cold receptors: 

As we will see below, most of the characteristic compounds of aged cheddar cheese activate the warm and hot receptors. However, Sara mentions that the cheese was "tangy," an effect that comes from activation of TRPA1, the cold receptor. Which chemical in the cheddar does this I don't know, but amazingly, this cheese has a large amount of linalool, a characteristic compound of tea that activates the cool/cold receptors. 

Next, the major compounds in pine smoke (and therefore in this tea), such as alpha-pinene and alpha-terpineol, also activate the cool/cold receptors—when you walk through a pine woods you can feel the coolness from these chemicals activating the same receptors in your skin as you have in your mouth. 

Finally, cauliflower, rutabaga (aka swede), and mustard—and in fact all the Brassicas—are characterized by chemicals that activate the cold receptor TRPA1. And the apple and lemon juice in the Branston pickle are both on the cool/cold side, too.

Summing up the cool/cold side of the equation: all the elements of this pairing activate the cool/cold receptors, so amp up the volume of all these flavors together. 

So what about the hot receptors? How do they come into play?

Both tea and cheddar have several chemicals in common that activate the warm and especially the hot receptors, including (believe it or not!) the characteristic volatile from damask roses that I talked about in my previous blogpost: beta-damascenone.** 

As Sara, Jee, and Georgia all noted, the cheddar also had a nutty flavor. This flavor comes from chemicals called pyrazines, that are present in the tea as well as the cheddar. As you might guess from their name ("pyr-" means "fire" in Greek—think of a "pyre") these chemicals are formed via Maillard reactions at temperatures at and above 100ºC (=boiling water temperature). And of course the Branston pickle was boiled as well—it's brown color comes from Maillard reactions. And by the way, good quality whole wheat bread is especially rich in Maillard browning products, too—that's why it tastes nutty.

So all in all there are a number of compounds in this pairing that will activate the warm/hot end of the temperature spectrum.

Which now brings me to the question of balance: there are three compounds in this combination that (I believe) serve to harmonize the combination of tea and sandwich successfully. These are vinegar, sugar, and fat. You'll notice that all these are responsible for tastes, and it's the interactions of these tastes with the temperature sensations via the trigeminal nerve (responsible for hot and cold) that may bring together this pairing.

Vinegar is sour, which is to say that it will activate receptors for sour in taste buds. At sufficient concentrations it will also activate the hot receptor TRPV1—you may have felt the burning sensation when you taste a vinaigrette. However, the same amount of vinegar when combined with oil will not cause a burning sensation because the fat turns off TRPV1. You will simply get the sourness. Then add some sugar to the mix, and even the sourness is tamped. 

In the case of this pairing, the fat to dampen the hot receptors comes from the cheese—cheddar has a high fat content—and the sugars to decrease the sourness come from the pickle and the bread. The net effect is to shift the overall flavor profile to the cool/cold side when you first bite into the sandwich and sip the tea. Then if you wait a short while, the cool/cold effect dissipates and there is a warm afterglow because the hot receptor, with its slow-on slow-off response, remains activated after you have swallowed food and drink. Re-sip the tea and take a bite of sandwich, and the whole process starts over again. 

As Sara said:

"It's a lovely pairing, so easy to eat that I could have it every week and not get tired of it."

An aside: my first taste of Lapsang Souchong when I was a young girl, was accompanied by cheddar and a slice of apple...so delicious, and now I know why!

* Data from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branston_(brand). For more about the pickle, see https://bringoutthebranston.co.uk/range/pickle/.

** T.K. Singh, M.A. Drake, and K.R. Cadwallader. Flavor of Cheddar Cheese: a Chemical and Sensory Perspective. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety. Vol. 2, pages 166-189, 2003.