First tea of the morning.
I really like this tea/food/cooking thing I’ve had going on for a while – I don’t know, something about curating food and tea pairings or incorporating it into my cooking makes me feel really… at peace. It’s therapeutic, in a way.
So today’s breakfast was steel cut oatmeal with almond shavings and a side of cooked peach slices and pineapple cubes and then a big, hot mug of this tea. I know LP recommend cold brewing it, but I’m a rebel – and really I was craving hot tea this morning because when I woke up I was just freezing. I liked the pairing a lot though; something about a hearty breakfast and then such a mild, smooth tea worked for me even though in theory it shouldn’t because I didn’t match the “intensity” of the meal and drink like we’re trained to as sommeliers. I think that’s because the focus of the pairing was less so on the oatmeal itself, and more so on the cooked fruit side dish. The sweetness and tropical notes of the peach/pineapple combo was a nice tie in to the supple, natural blueberry notes. I think on their own the cooked fruit would have been too intense for just the oatmeal, but the natural, stripped down tasting blueberry grounded the robustness a little bit while also itself benefiting from the sweetness of the cooked fruit since it was a little milder/less impactful on its own.
The tea also had some nice floral notes which, although they didn’t tie in seamlessly with the meal, were pleasant on their own too.
It was a very nice way to kick start my day.
Copious amounts of tea. :)