Forget cheese and wine parties – try cheese and tea parties instead

‘Wine Sir? Wouldn’t sir prefer tea with your cheese?’

Yes, as unbelievable as it sounds there is some credibility to this question. Researchers are beginning to think that our age long love affair with mixing cheese and wine at parties maybe completely and utterly wrong. They’ve even gone as far to suggest that we should replace the wine with tea.

So have we been doing it wrong all these years? Have we been mixing wine and cheese needlessly? Well according to tea expert Rachel Safko yes we have. She even goes as far as to suggest we start having tea and cheese soiree’s instead of cheese and wine parties. She told Forbes magazine recently that there was so much more to the humble cup of tea than meets the eye describing tea as ‘the chameleon of beverages; there’s much more versatility to tea.’

There is some scientific research to support her ascertains too. Tea’s, as with wine, vary enormously in strength, taste, texture and flavours as well varying degrees of tannin. So perhaps it’s not as crazy as it first sounds.

Safko also has some suggested pairings of teas and cheeses for your next cheese and tea party. Try matching a Darjeeling with Brie and cucumber finger sandwiches! She says  “the fatty, creamy umami that most of us go bonkers for in cheese helps round out the bite of more astringent teas.”

You might also try to replace your traditional champagnes and sauvignon blancs with light green or white teas. Black teas apparently are a perfect complement to blue cheeses and goats’ cheese is perfect with green teas.

So if you’re trying to cut back on your alcohol consumption but aren’t quite ready to give up cheese, perhaps it’s time for tea.