A slightly different article this week as we’re going to talk about tea. You may have noticed through the blog photos that I’m a big tea drinker. I really drink it all day long (Chinese-style, re-steeping already infused leaves). That’s why when I saw the publication of the book “Tea Sommelier” by François-Xavier Delmas and Mathias Minet, founders of Le Palais des Thés, I was really curious to discover their work. I actually had the chance to work with them during my last year of work-study. If this article looks like a sponsored post, it’s simply because I had big discounts on Palais des Thés products and bought quite a few accessories at the time!
Back to the book then — Tea Sommelier, which aims to train beginners and enthusiasts in tea tasting, as well as in food and tea pairing.
The book is designed as a practical guide and covers the following topics:
- Choosing and preparing your tea
- Tasting your tea
- What is tea?
- Tea plantations around the world
- Tea families
- Tea and food pairings
- Tea in cooking
- Becoming a tea sommelier
But each lesson is independent and you can browse topics as you please. I found the book a bit uneven: when the authors try to be original and go off the beaten path to recommend teas based on personality, the result is rather average (gifting “Lovers’ Tea,” spicy, to your sweetheart — yeah, not convinced…). However, when François-Xavier and Mathias refocus on their area of expertise, namely tea preparation, they hit the nail on the head! It’s detailed, well-supported, educational and fascinating!
Did you know, for example, that you should never boil water for tea? Because as the saying goes: “boiled water, ruined water!” Indeed, when you heat water too much and all the dissolved oxygen disappears, the aromas can no longer turn into gas and are therefore unable to reach the olfactory bulb (the part of the brain that interprets taste).
What’s also interesting is that François-Xavier and Mathias don’t just explore what’s directly related to tea. They also explain how a tasting works (on the tongue, the retronasal pathway…) as well as external factors that affect tea quality: which accessories to use, how to wash them, how to create the right conditions for tasting your tea… So you learn a tremendous amount about tasting in general, not just about tea. The last section even features recipes you can make with tea to elevate them: making a tea concentrate, a jelly, or a cocktail…
In short, if you’re looking for a comprehensive, educational reference book on tea, Tea Sommelier is the one you need. One small criticism — I personally didn’t like the illustrations by Lauriane Tiberghien at all. I feel the subject doesn’t lend itself well to the modern graphic style, but that’s a personal opinion.
And to get a feel for the quality of the book, I wanted to test a tea-food pairing recommended by François-Xavier. So I pulled out my best tea: a Jukro given to me during my work-study year. It’s a Korean tea that’s quite expensive because it’s produced in very small quantities. I love it because it has cocoa notes and you’d almost think you were drinking hot chocolate.
The book recommends pairing it with red berries, which I find spot-on since the red berries-chocolate combination works beautifully.
So I got out my pretty glass cup (also from Le Palais des Thés) and made myself a super simple dessert: a bed of red berries, fromage blanc and honey, to accompany my Jukro.
To be honest, I was just coming off a week of being ill and still had a stuffy nose, so I’m not sure I fully grasped the power of the food-tea pairing, but it was a really lovely afternoon snack and that alone is already great!
In any case, I encourage you to gift Tea Sommelier to a tea lover for Christmas — it’s really wonderful!
And don’t forget to enter the competition to win a Choco-brick kit!
