Tea and Food, You Can Match Them

/ / Published in Lessons on Tea, Tea

Tea is an essential part of fine living and dining…an integral part of the overall gastronomic experience. Just as wines are selected to enhance certain foods, teas can also be selected and brewed to match sweet, savoury or spicy foods and the various hours and moods of the day.

TYPES OF FOOD SUITABLE TEA
English-style breakfast (fried foods, eggs, smoked fish, ham, bacon, etc.) Ceylon Pekoe, English Breakfast, Dimbula, Irish Breakfast, Flowery Pekoe, Assam, Darjeeling, Jasmine
Continental-style breakfast
(breads, cheese, jams etc)		 Ceylon Pekoe, English Breakfast, Flowery Pekoe, Dimbula, Assam, Darjeeling, Jasmine
Light savoury meals & brunch Ceylon Pekoe, Dimbula, Assam, Darjeeling,  Green, Oolongs, Sencha, Fruit and Herbal infusions
Meat & game Earl Grey, Jasmine, Assam, Lapsang Souchong.Russian Caravan
Poultry Darjeeling, Oolong, Jasmine, Lapsang Souchong
Fish Darjeeling, Oolongs, Earl Grey, Green, Sencha
Spicy foods Ceylon Pekoe, Dimbula, Darjeeling, Oolong, Green, Jasmine
Tea time All Teas
Strong cheeses Earl Grey, Green, Lapsang Souchong, Russian Caravan
After a meal Darjeeling, Green Tea, Oolong, most Herbal infusions particularly Peppermint
All day Most teas as well as herbal, fruit infusions and specialty teas can be enjoyed throughout the day.
Almost 40 years ago I realised that the quality of teas being imported into Australia were of poor quality. The proliferation of teabags and a pricing regime enforced by the major supermarket chains had led to a noticeable drop in quality. Elmstock Tea Company was born out of this background in 1979. I had started my working life at 17 in the Tea Plantation/Accounts Department of a large company in Colombo. My family had connections to the tea trade and prior to that coffee and sugar plantations in Ceylon since the 1840s – an unbroken and direct link of over six generations. Many of the plantations started by or managed by my great grandparents still produce some of the teas we buy today! After migrating to Australia in 1972 I graduated from Curtin University and qualified as an accountant (CPA). I worked and managed large public companies involved in the wool trade for many years and was also involved with the listing of public companies on the ASX. Elmstock have been wholesaling premium quality teas and herbal infusions sourced from the best plantations for almost 40 years. We decided over twenty five years ago not to deal with the major supermarket chains as we did not want to compromise tea quality and revert to the ‘mediocrity of the pack’ which is entirely price driven.

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