For other teas though, Oolongs, Darjeelings and so forth I have found I am lightening up my stoic stance on never eating while in a tea session. I am finding there is sometimes a middle ground.
God forbid I give up the meditative, intense focus of Gongfu ritual and turn into an English tea drinker with trays of finger-foods, but there are occasions, (like EVERY MORNING) when I feel a high quality goodie would only increase my enjoyment. And is there anything more important than my pleasure? Pul-leese.
So the search began about four months ago, starting with a series of blog posts, and biscotti bites from companies very boutique and small to a company that sells their biscotti from Costco in enormous plastic tubs (too much fennel!). On a recent visit to a Home Goods shop I espied a small little bag of Lemon Biscotti Bites from The Bites Company and tossed them in my cart with the same high hopes I give to anything with the word 'biscotti' in the name, although three months ago I had never had biscotti, and thought it was a 'coffee thing' and since I don't drink coffee, had never troubled myself. But as I learned from that mom-and pop biscotti company out of southern California, biscotti, the right biscotti is a great pairing for tea.
So with that I grabbed this little bag of 'round' biscotti lemon cookies and headed for the long check-out line. I was hungry on the way home, and began to think I wasn't sure lemon biscotti would be a good match for my afternoons planned session of a Taiwanese high-mountain bug-bitten, organic, honey-roasted oolong, a tea which would broach no test cookie at its side and so.... well, I ate the whole bag in the car on the way home instead!
When I got home, and after my tea session I searched out the online presence of The Bites Company to see what else they might have to offer that I could pair with teas as my experiments continued and I found their cocoa bites and their almond bites. I now have a package of all three and will begin shortly. As you know, if it doesn't work for me, I won't be suggesting it, but after eating that entire bag of lemon bites in the car, I am indeed hopeful that in the cocoa or especially the almond I may find a good nosh of choice when serving certain teas. Let the experiments begin!
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| (Which one would you choose to try with this lovely spring 2015 Dong Ding Fragrant from Floating Leaves Tea out of Seattle?) |