Albert Einstein is very practical, he is useful for everything. Even to justify the unthinkable. Hold : “The important thing is to never stop questioning yourself. Never lose holy curiosity. » And presto, here is an unstoppable argument of authority to validate my desire to experience tea at the table like a wine.
In truth, I was only moved by a simple curiosity, certainly not holy and hardly healthy: is a gourmet meal as memorable when it is accompanied by tea instead of wine? The answer is yes, provided that the tea is also memorable. That, through its taste, through its history, through its service, it participates as much as the wine in a process of discovery and tasting.
Let’s get one piece of information out of the way right away: wellness magazines advise against consuming tea with meals. It inhibits the absorption of iron contained in certain foods, which our body needs. That said, it’s not a question of making tea our only drink at the table, so it doesn’t matter.
In any case, tea is not consumed during the meal. Culturally, he never ventured to this side of the fence. Whether it is the tea ceremony in Japan, the tea time English, Moroccan mint tea or the Russian samovar, tea is only served at the end of or outside of meals. At best it is accompanied by cakes. But we never choose it based on a dish, as we would choose a wine.
A recent invention
Food and tea pairings are therefore a recent invention, a shift in Western gastronomy. Their story is still to be built. And some are trying to build it. Because the idea is not absurd. Depending on its origin and its preparation, the scent varies and can combine with those of a dish. Green tea, black tea, white tea, oolong, fermented, roasted, grilled… The palette is wide. And even if these pairings are disconcerting, they offer, when done well, the opportunity for a delightful and memorable meal.
For the Grands Jardins brand, nothing is possible without a “grand cru” tea, resulting from a rigorous selection and a precise infusion. An exceptional tea, in short, as a great wine can be. And wine is mentioned everywhere: in the service, the temperature or the glassware. I meet the team at Nhome, a restaurant on 1er Parisian district, a Michelin macaron. The guide greets the “great finesse” of its cuisine with multiple influences (particularly Japanese). Before each course, the sommelier brings the appropriate tea. He pours it into wine glasses, from a 75 centiliter dark glass bottle, adorned with a label (a bottle of wine, to put it bluntly). The liquid, depending on the tea, ranges from pearl gray to amber, including gold. All the wine codes are met, to be sure, right down to the serving temperature, around 12°C, as for a white wine. We will eat hot, but we will drink cold.
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