Don Mei : Last cheese!
Which is probably a GOOD thing, because we're getting a bit CHEESED OUT here.
Liselle : Ugh.
Don : This is a VINTAGE cheddar.
So this is CLASSIC, BRITISH cheese; a PROPER cheddar.
Make sure you get a PROPER cheddar, and not one of those bad IMITATIONS.
This is a VINTAGE, going to have that kind of CRYSTALLINE structure.
Let's give it a taste actually.
It's got that real crumble...
Liselle : It's CRUMBLY.
Don : Mmm. Sharp, salty, slightly ACIDIC.
It's got that butyric acid the slightly ACIDIC taste to it.
Liselle : That's really SHARP, but it's also very CREAMY, isn't it?
Don : It's got really good UMAMI, good SAVORINESS to it.
It's delicious, delicious cheese.
Amazing.
Liselle : And it's got some CRYSTALS.
Don : Mmm.
It's got some little CRUNCH which comes from proper vintage.
Okay.
Let's move that across.
Now we've got THREE different teas, and I've specially chosen three different OOLONG teas.
All the rest of the other ones that we've liked, we've NEVER chosen an Oolong.
So let's see if we can find an Oolong that works with the cheese.
FIRST of all, we're going to go with Superior Iron Goddess, which is a bit of a STRANGE
one, because this is a tea which has quite FLORAL notes to it, which doesn't SOUND like
it should work with cheddar.
But I'm just SEEING if the CONTRAST theory is going to work.
This has a kind of BRIGHT, CREAMY, but a little bit more FLORAL than the previous one, the
Ali Shan Cream.
Liselle : That's VERY floral.
Don : Mmm.
Yeah.
The classic is honeysuckle.
People talk about honeysuckle, and orchid, and things like that.
So quite sweet flowers.
Liselle : Yeah.
I can smell orchid.
Don : Okay.
Let's see.
This is a bit of an oddball, a bit of a curveball.
Let's see how they work together.
It's INTERESTING, because it ADDS a certain FLOWERINESS, and a certain SWEETNESS, and
it makes the cheese more GENTLE, if you know what I mean.
Liselle : Mmm.
Don : It's less of that kind of "Whoa!"
strong vintage cheddar.
Liselle : It's also quite CLEANSING.
I feel quite cleansed, so I can have another bit.
But the cheese remains the STAR.
This kind of is a SUPPORTING thing around the cheese.
Don : Yeah.
I would say it's COMPATIBLE, but not really ENHANCING anything.
Liselle : The tea is not necessarily ENHANCED in any way.
It just allows the cheese to be eaten in a more PLEASURABLE way.
Don : Mmm.
Agreed.
All right.
Let's now try a DIFFERENT Oolong.
This is what we call Midnight Sun, a DARK, ROASTED Jin Xuan Oolong.
Again, similar kind of FAMILY, but now we're adding a bit of ROAST to it.
Liselle : Mmm.
That's SO DIFFERENT.
That's really NUTTY AND MALTY
Don : So I figured that MAYBE we should TRY a roasted with cheese.
It might work.
That I REALLY like.
Liselle : That's quite DELICIOUS.
Don : Yeah.
It's that INTERPLAY again.
It's the SOUR with the ROAST.
It just kind of PLAYS with each other.
Liselle : It makes them both taste quite NUTTY.
Do you get a lot of NUTTINESS that comes out, as a third flavour?
Don : Yeah.
Exactly.
You weren't TALKING about this as a nutty thing.
We were talking about it as being quite SALTY, ACIDIC, CRYSTALLINE.
Liselle : Creamy.
Don : This has WARMED it up, and kind of MODULATED it into a bit more of a NUTTY flavour.
That REALLY works, actually.
I'm surprised at how the roast works with the cheddar.
You wouldn't really have THOUGHT of that.
Liselle : Why?
Don : I don't know.
I always think of cheddar as this very kind of VINTAGE, SALTY, ACIDIC taste, and the roast
is quite mellow, isn't it?
Roast that mellow, nuttiness.
So it's the CONTRAST.
Would they mix?
Would they find a balance?
And they HAVE.
They've JOINED, in a really nice way.
NOW, we are actually going to TASTE a more FRUITY Oolong.
The reason why I have picked this Eastern Beauty - or Oriental Beauty - which as any
tea-head would know, it's a CLASSIC Taiwanese Oolong; summer-picked Taiwanese Oolong.
Has kind of HONEY and MUSCATEL notes, and it has the kind of SWEET GRAPES...
Liselle : Raisins.
Don : Raisins, flowers, much more of the FRUITINESS, right?
So let's see how the FRUITINESS and the HONEY notes of this tea REACT with the cheese.
It does something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT to the last tea.
For me, it brings out the ACIDITY of the cheese more.
The LAST tea kind of made it feel NUTTIER and ROUNDED.
This one brings out more of the acidity.
Liselle : THIS one feels like it's SUPPORTING the cheese more, but it's NOT that JOURNEY
we we're talking about.
Don : It's NOT the "third flavour".
Liselle : It's NOT that third flavour.
Don : Yeah.
Liselle : The MIDDLE one gave the third flavour.
Don : Mmm.
I agree.
Liselle : Because you want that REACTION - once you've had the cheese in your mouth and you
sip that tea - for something NEW to happen; NOT the same old tea you had at the beginning.
It's got to be a DIFFERENT flavour in your mouth, and that MIDDLE one gave us that.
Don : So I think what we can CONCLUDE from this is that ALL of these teas and cheeses
kind of WORKED, for me.
There was NOTHING that was OFFENSIVE, or…
Liselle : Are you talking about...?
Don : Just IN GENERAL, across everything.
ALL of the teas that we've tasted with the cheese, the WORST that happened was that they
kind of CANCELLED each other out, and there was nothing really particularly SPECIAL going
on.
But when you find the RIGHT combination there IS some little bit of MAGIC that happens.
Liselle : Yeah.
Don : And trying to work out the THEORY, or the SCIENCE, behind how you can PREDICT that
is really in its INFANCY.
I think obviously, with wine sommeliers, they've done SO MUCH MORE in terms of researching
this.
We're talking JUST about CHEESE.
Can you imagine if it was a COMPLEX DISH, with like some other ingredients.
Then it would be EVEN MORE complicated.
Liselle : Yeah.
I think that, also, the temperature of the tea had some MAJOR impact.
When it was TOO HOT it just CANCELLED out.
You didn't get the same flavours then if it is at the RIGHT temperature.
That's going to be a HARD thing to control in a restaurant environment.
Don : Mmm.
Yeah.
It's DEFINITELY CONTROLLABLE.
It just needs to be really THOUGHT OUT, and instead of using your kind of HEAD, as to
thinking what would work well with each other, you just have to TASTE, TASTE, TASTE, and
try and get to a point where you start to have a more kind of INNATE understanding of
it.
So, recap; Anji Bai Cha with the goat's cheese?
Liselle : I'm thinking that GREEN teas and goat's cheese is something we need to try
NEXT time.
Don : Then you had the COMTE, and we liked it with the Bulang black tea.
THAT'S interesting to me; so the warming Bulang black tea.
Then you had the gorgonzola with the young puerh tea.
Liselle : That was DELICIOUS.
Don : That was probably the STAR.
Although I think this...
Liselle : I think these two.
Should we just finish?
Don : Finish what's in there.
There's only a little bit of tea left, so you can have this.
Taste the last one with the cheese.
Liselle : You can too.
Don : Oh, wow.
That works SO WELL.
I would say that THIS ONE, and the gorgonzola with the Puerh the, because they DEFINITELY
create a third flavour.
There's SOMETHING DIFFERENT that happens in your tongue.
The receptors respond in a really INTERESTING, COMPLEX way to give you that journey.
Liselle : Yeah.
THAT'S the winner for me.
Don : Good.
Well, it's the FIRST stage of tasting.
We're going to keep doing this in the background, and we'll CERTAINLY be coming back with some
more videos with some MORE COMPLEX tastings, and a little bit more of the THEORETICAL SCIENCE
behind the tastings.
But THAT'S IT, teaheads.
If you made it to the end of this video then please give the video the thumbs-up.
Check out our YouTube playlist and let us know if there are any videos you'd like us
to make.
If you're ever in London come visit us in Camden to say "Hi!" and taste our wares.
If you have any questions or comments then fire them over.
Other than that, I'm Don Mei with my sis.
Thank you for being a part of the revelation of true tea.
Stay away from the tea bags, keep drinking the good stuff, and spread the word, because
nobody deserves bad tea.
Bye.