It’s a hard job, you’ll agree, but Jordan, our tea enthusiast from our High tea Parlour in Buderim, has been busy working his way through some of our most delicious High Tea treats. His mission? To use his finely honed tastebuds and in-depth tea knowledge to come up with the perfect pairings of tea and high tea. That’s two of our favourite things, made even better.

“Tea is unique in the fact that it’s so complex and has many different ways that it can be grown & processed to create teas that are all unique in their own way,” explains Jordan. “It’s not one-dimensional; it can match up with and harmonise with other flavours.”

During the tasting, Jordan found that scented teas make the ideal complement for rich, high-cocoa chocolate. Those chocolate petits fours pair perfectly with our French Earl Grey: “The bittersweet, fruitiness/aroma of the tea helps to mellow out the bold rich flavours,” says Jordan.

• Scented teas such as Earl Grey and peppermint; as well as fruit tea’s such as the Mixed Berry or Berry Green tea pair well with chocolate & tiramisu because the fruitiness/aroma helps to mellow out the bold rich flavours.
• Black tea is also an excellent pairing with rich in sweet desserts such as chocolate or honey-soaked treats, Assam tea, in particular, is an incredible pairing due to its bold flavour.
• The Pearl Jasmine tea pairs beautifully with fruit and fruit-based desserts due to the presence of its own unique fruity facet due to the presence of acids and compounds residing in the tea.
• Chai masala is a must-have with any savouries, the intensity of the bold flavours of cinnamon and cardamom work well to enhance the flavour of any savoury dish. The flavours also work remarkably well with any milk chocolate.
• Hibiscus tea is a versatile and fun tea because it can be enhanced with flavours such a cinnamon and mint, sweetened with honey, or tarted up with citrus flavours such as the lemon tart.
• Darjeeling tea is similar to champagne in terms of its legitimacy, Darjeeling tea is all grown in the city of Darjeeling in western Bengal. The tea is unique due to the flavour that comes from Chinese tea genetics mixing with Indian tea.

It wasn’t as easy as he thought, as some combinations proved quite unexpected. Says Jordan: “Some of the Teas and treats matched very well, but others pulled out some very strange flavours from each other, which was interesting to find.”

In particular, the deliciously distinctive floral finish of our Hibiscus tea and our rose macaroons had Jordan scratching his head. Eventually, he came up with two options: matching similar flavours to our Dark chocolate tea, or, for a more robust experience, complementing the rose macaroon with an intensely aromatic French earl grey

Sterling work, Jordan: why not reward yourself with some tea and treats or two?