Don : Comte!
One of my favorites.
I know you like comte too.
Liselle : Yeah.
I LOVE comte.
Don : So [we] LOVE compte.
[It's] really delicious.
Liselle: Who doesn't love comte?
Don : Let's taste it.
Usually it's very kind of NUTTY and slightly CARAMELLY, but it's got that Gruyère SHARPNESS
- not quite as much as Gruyère is, but Mmm.
Liselle: Mmm.
Don : Such a good cheese.
How would you describe [it]?
Liselle: : Nutty, smooth, creamy, grassy.
Don : Mmm.
It's the BALANCE of comte that works so well.
You get a LITTLE BIT of the sharpness of a Swiss Alp MOUNTAIN cheese, but you get that
lovely, grassy, slightly nutty, caramelly, multi-taste.
Okay.
So [we have] THREE teas again.
Again, three very DIFFERENT teas, [which] I figured we might as well try.
We've got an Oolong, we've got a BLACK TEA - which is a bit weird - and we've got a GREEN
tea.
This is a DIFFERENT green tea.
This is Long Jing, [or] "Imperial Green" Let's talk about this tea a little bit.
Liselle sister : Nutty.
Really nutty.I think that will probably go QUITE WELL together.
Don : That was the thinking - grassy and nutty - so chestnutty, and that grassy taste - SHOULD
MATCH with the comte, hopefully.
Should we give it a go?
Liselle: Let's give it a go.
Liselle: That's quite nice.
Don : Mmm.
I think it DOES bring out the nuttiness in it.
I think it ALSO brings out a little bit of the creaminess of the tea.
Liselle: [There's] something very FRESH about this.
Don : Yeah.
Liselle: It kind of turns this into quite a fresh cheese, because comte is quite HEAVY,
but it's got a RICH kind of creamy DEPTH to it.
Actually, this tea makes it feel a little bit LIGHTER.
It makes it feel less DECADENT.
This would be more of a SUMMER'S DAY, outside, having some cheese, having a bit of light,
fresh green tea, whereas I WOULDN'T have this tea after a meal.
You know how you have cheese after a meal?
You don't want to drink this kind of FRESH tea.
Don : Yeah.
This is more APERITIF style.
Liselle: APERITIF to get everything going, to get your flavorus, but not really an end-of-the-evening
kind of thing.
Don : Yeah.
I agree.
Liselle: So it depends how you have your cheese.
Don : So it works.
I think it works.
It's a good combination.
Whether or not we find anything BETTER let's find out.
This is Alishan Cream.
So this is Jin Xuan Oolong, and those [who] know would know that this is very MILKY.
This is the MILKY Oolong.
Okay?
But the NATURAL milky - none of that FAKE stuff.
This is the ORIGINAL Jin Xuan.
Liselle: Let me smell that one again.
Oh, that's just nice.
Don : It's INCREDIBLE, isn't it?
This tea has natural LACTONES in it.
Liselle: So it's milky, but it's ALSO got sweet, honey, peachy - is it PEACH, or?
There's something else in there.
What is it?
HONEY.
Do you smell honey?
Nectar.
Don : MmmHmm.
Liselle: Kind of [a] milky nectar.
Don : For MY nose, it's milky and slightly FLOWERY.
[It has] just a LITTLE bit of kind of...
Liselle: Floral.
Don : But not like REFRESHING floral.
The SWEET floral - the kind of honeysuckle florals, [and] not the GERANIUM florals.
Do you know what I mean?
Liselle: Yeah.
Don : And there's something in it called LACTONES.
This tea is rich in lactones, which is ALSO paired very well with JASMINES.
So sometimes you pick up a slight Jasmine, because it's a Jasmine lactone.
So let's see.
Liselle: Why did you think about pairing it with this cheese?
Don : Well, I thought about the CREAMINESS of this cheese, and I was wondering if this
tea would actually ACCENTUATE creaminess, or not.
Liselle: It does NOTHING for the cheese, for me.
The tea is SO delicious, and the CHEESE is so delicious, but together they CANCEL each
other out.
That's what I have a feeling [of], like I'm not getting any excitable JOURNEY in my mouth.
It's just sort of a creamy -- it FINE.
It doesn't taste BAD together.
Don : No.
Liselle: But it doesn't taste GREAT together either.
It's just FINE.
Don : Yeah.
The Long Jing green tea had more of a kind of INTERPLAY.
[With] this one it's more like: that's the taste of the cheese, and this is the taste
of the tea.
They're COMPATIBLE, but they don't really do anything special.
Liselle: Yeah.
Don : Okay.
Let's move onto something that's a LITTLE bit STRANGE.
This is a tribal black tea called Bulang Black.
This is a BLACK tea from Yunnan province made from the tribes.
Have a smell of that.
Liselle: Oh!
That's very - let me smell that.
That's very RICH, and very DEEP.
I'm not very good at describing teas, but that smells to me...
Don : It's got a little bit of a kind of fruitiness to it...
Liselle: Is there BLACKBERRY in there?
Don : Right.
For me, there's a kind of roasted fruit [like] black currants [and other] roasted fruits.
There's also a woodiness to it.
There's also a slight SPICE to it, like almost spices of some sort [like] black pepper and
those kind of spices.
Liselle: Mmm.
[laughter]
Don : That's REALLY -- THAT'S the "third flavor".
That's ADDING something ELSE to the cheese.
Liselle: Mmm.
That really WORKS.
Don : That REALLY works, DOESN'T it?
Liselle: I like it.
Pour another.
Yeah.
That just, sort of, BROUGHT OUT [by] contrasting the cheese enough [and] gave another flavor
- that FRUITINESS to it ALSO adding something- and yet the cheese still had it's OWN PLACE.
It didn't get diluted by the flavor...
Don : No, it didn't CANCEL, it ENHANCED, didn't it?
And there was SOME extra FLAVOR that somehow came out.
Or it brought out more of the nuttiness or something.
Mmm.
That is a WINNER - and TOTALLY DIFFERENT, isn't it?
LIke when we were having the Long Jing with the cheese that worked AS WELL, but it was
more fresh and aperitif [as] you were saying.
Liselle: THIS ONE you'd END a meal with, quite happily.
Don : Yeah.
All right.
We're on to our NEXT cheese.