Eats and leaves: matching tea and food for Chinese New Year

In the UK the most popular tea (after classic English Breakfast, of course) is green tea. But because of its subtle flavour, it’s generally best enjoyed on its own. ‘People love green tea but it doesn’t go so well with food,’ says Eder. ‘It’s a very delicate tea and can’t hold its own against the flavours in Chinese dishes. Even our light dim sum can overpower it, especially when people add things like soy sauce and chilli oil.’

The tea Eder orders while we talk is the one he found went best with the New Year’s menu at Yauatcha. It’s called Anxi Tie Kuan Yin, and is a roasted blue tea from Fujian. It’s strong, smoky, refreshing and quite dark in colour, with a thick, velvety mouthfeel; certainly not your average cuppa. ‘It has such a balanced flavour profile that we found it worked with lots of different dishes on our New Year menu, from the starter all the way to the macarons at the end,’ explains Eder. ‘It’s a special tea in China, where the norm is to drink dark, rich teas. The blue tea is allowed to ferment like a dark tea but then stopped, which makes it very expensive to produce. If someone wanted to treat themselves, they would buy a blue tea.’

While tea is drunk throughout the New Year festivities in China, there are no universal rituals or traditions around it; fruit is much more important, as every variety has a meaning attached to it. ‘China is such a massive country, and the various regions can be wildly different,’ says Eder. ‘In general, they don’t take part in any specific tea rituals for the New Year. Chinese culture means tea is drunk all the time, with or without food. However, the families that really appreciate tea will extract a brew from the very best leaves for special occasions, including New Year. If you love wine, you decant it and let it breathe; the same applies to tea. A family will create a whole ceremony around it, and take the second flush of the leaves, using the first flush to clean their cups and pot.’