Delicious Pastries That Pair With Coffee VS Tea
Black tea with creamy pastries or Brazilian Coffee with scones? Why do these sound delicious, and how will we learn what pairing works? Well, calm down. This is not that difficult, and we will slowly introduce you to this world of pairing. But first, imagine yourself serving a special guest, family member, friend, or yourself a cup of tea or Coffee with pastries to quench thirst or hunger. What if you can serve them tea or Coffee with a well-matched pastry and make their evening tea time more meaningful? Let's find out how to have a beautiful tea or coffee time by knowing what pastries pair with Coffee VS Tea.
Coffee VS Tea: Overall Benefits
Both coffee and tea are magical gifts from nature to humans for their well-being. Both tea and coffee contain many health benefits. Some of them include lowering the effect of cancer, decreasing the threat of heart diseases, lowering high blood pressure, and so on. Beverages with high caffeine content e can also lower anxiety and reduce drowsiness.
Learning Coffee VS Tea: What Is Tea Exactly?
When learning Coffee VS Tea, first we must learn what tea is. Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by steeping young leaves and leaf buds of the tea plant (Camelia sinensis). In general, tea is a hot brew made from the leaves of the tea plant. The hot brew you make from other herbal materials comes under the category of herbal tea. Tea contains a considerable amount of health benefits as a hot beverage and is higher in caffeine content than herbal beverages. There are several types of teas manufactured worldwide. Black tea, green tea, oolong tea, and white tea play a major role among them you can easily order tea online.
Learning Coffee VS Tea: What Is Coffee Exactly?
Coffee is a hot beverage made from roasted and ground seeds of a tropical plant named “coffee genus,” or coffee for short. A typical cup of coffee is usually made from steeping fine particles of roasted and ground coffee beans in boiled water. When comparing coffee vs tea, coffee contains a higher amount of caffeine and is a rapid energy booster.
Pairing Pastries with Coffee VS Tea
Both tea and coffee are delicious without any accompaniment; However, it always tastes better when you enjoy these with matching pastries. Especially when you plan to welcome guests to your home or when you are planning to throw a tea or coffee party, things don't feel right if you don't have the perfect pastry to elevate the occasion. So below are some well-accepted pairing suggestions for your tea and coffee soiree that everyone will surely enjoy.
Learning Coffee VS Tea: Pairing Ideas for Tea
Some food items are always paired with tea, giving a better experience rather than consuming them separately. It depends on different aspects such as the type of tea consumed, the consumer's culture, the condition of the day, the mentality of the consumer, the flavor notes of each item and so on. We've listed some examples for this below; however, you can experiment and come up with your own suggestions.
Black Tea with Creamy Pastries
Black tea is a slightly astringent & bitter beverage so it pairs with creamy pastries and some citrus style pastries. There are several black teas with different levels of astringency and flavor. Usually, creamy pastries like carrot cake, tiramisu, milk chocolate cake, scones, cheesecake, lemon cookies, and chocolate-based pastries go well with these teas.
White Tea with Light Cookies
White tea is a drink that has a very light and pleasant flavor profile with high health aspects. Therefore, very sweet or heavy pastries would suppress the subtle taste of white tea. A pastry or a snack with a mild flavor and sweetness would go well with white tea. For example, honey cookies with less prominent flavors would give a mind-blowing aftertaste to the white tea.
Green Tea with Lightly Flavored Pastries
Green tea is a hot beverage that gives a delicate mild taste. Some Chinese and Japanese green tea do not have a bitter aftertaste. However, many green teas from India and Ceylon possess a slightly bitter after taste. Therefore, the region of tea that has been grown is important when selecting a pastry to pair with green tea. Since green tea delivers a light flavor compared with black tea and coffee, light and delicate pastries would be ideal. The flavor-rich pastries would suppress the taste of green tea, and pastries like chocolate mousse, shortbread, and pastries with dark chocolate go well with green tea. However, a flavorless croissant would be ideal for flavored fruity green teas.
Strawberry Ginger Herbal Drink with Sweet Macaroons
When you are having a cup of strawberry-ginger, a creamy sweet taste will enhance the fruitful flavor of strawberry. Therefore, a food like macarons goes well with this type of herbal tea. Though there is a layer of buttercream and ganache in the middle, the sweetness of the pastry would not suppress the actual flavor of strawberry ginger herbal tea.
Oolong with Honey Flavored Pastries
Oolong is a tea that gives a delicate taste of semi-oxidized tea. The tea contains caffeine and demonstrates characteristics between black tea and green tea. Oolong tea pairs perfectly with naturally sweet or fruity flavors and has a mild, delicately astringent taste. Therefore, lightly flavored pastries like macarons, peach galette, peach cobblers, and kiwi tarts for instance would help lessen the astringency and bring out the flavor of the pastry or tea.
Chai Tea
Chai tea could be a pure blend of spices like ginger, cinnamon, cloves, anise, pepper, cardamom. It could also be a mix of chai blend with black tea. Due to its spicy nature, the tea has a fascinating flavorful and aromatic taste. This tea goes well with fruit-flavored or spiced pastries. The taste of the spice in chai and sweetness in the pastry combines well in your mouth and will delight you. Fruit-flavored scones, fruit infused cookies, and biscuits go perfectly with chai tea.
Pu-erh Tea
Pu-erh tea originates from the same tea plant used to process black tea, green tea, and oolong tea. In Pu-erh tea, the tea leaves are aged for a considerable period, allowing the tea flavors to mature. Pu-erh tea has a unique flavor with digestive characteristics resulting in many people serving the tea after a feast. Generally, pastries with spices and herbs pair with Pu-erh tea very well because of its strong flavor. Items like lavender lemon cookies and cakes would taste great with Pu-erh tea.
Rooibos Tea
caffeine native to South Africa with a delicate natural sweet taste. Different flavors go well with rooibos tea because of its mild taste. Pastries like citrus, nutty, and other tropical flavors match well with Rooibos tea. You can try pastries like macaroons, pistachio cake pops, lemon bars, or peanut butter blondies with a cup of rooibos tea to see how nicely they pair together.
Learning Coffee VS Tea: Pairing Ideas for Coffee
Different types of coffee in the market offer different characters and experiences. Many prefer to have a cup of coffee just to relax and to reduce drowsiness. Coffee can do that because of the caffeine content present in it. However, having a cup of coffee paired with a suitable food item would completely change your experience. It would be a nice experience to have a cup of coffee along with a matching pastry rather than consuming those two separately. Let's see which pastries and food items pair well with different types of coffee.
Espresso with flourless Chocolate Cake
An espresso is a concentrated shot of coffee. Here, a small amount of hot water is sent through the finely ground coffee at high pressure, resulting in giving a shot of coffee. Espresso is a thick brew with a roast, bitter, full-bodied taste and high content of caffeine. Therefore, Espresso goes well with chocolate desserts like flourless chocolate cake.
Latte with Fruit Tart
Lattes are espresso shots with added milk & generally, a latte is a milk coffee in simple terms. Latte has a smooth, mellow bitter taste as milk suppresses the strength of concentrated coffee. Therefore, it pairs well with lighter desserts like small cookies, fruit tarts, croissants, bagels, plain shortbread cookies, and so on.
Americano with Vanilla Buttercream Cupcakes
Americano is an Espresso but with hot water added. Generally, a cup of Americano contains 1:2 ratio of coffee to water. With added water, the caffeine content in Americano (50mg in 30ml) is less bitter. The brew gives a full-bodied taste, it pairs perfectly with heavier and richer desserts like vanilla buttercream cupcakes.
Cappuccino with Thin and Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Cappuccino is an espresso-based coffee prepared with steamed milk foam or thick cream. A well-made cappuccino contains caffeine and gives a bold coffee taste and a light sweetness. Coffee is usually stronger than a latte. This is best paired with light chocolate desserts like crispy chocolate chip cookies, chocolate cheesecakes, chocolate cupcakes, chocolate snack cakes.
Macchiato with Caramel Nut Tart
Macchiato is an Espresso coffee drink with a small amount of foamed milk. It is closely related to latte and cappuccino, and similar to the other coffee drinks it contains caffeine. Macchiato has a strong roasted bitter taste that is diluted with milk foam and a slightly sweet flavor. It is a full-bodied drink and pairs well with caramel and nut-based desserts. These desserts include items like caramel nut tart, caramel pecan with nuts, caramel nut crumb, and so on.
Café Au Lait with Tiramisu
Café Au Lait is a coffee with hot milk added. This drink contains a very high caffeine level but has a light flavor profile. Café Au Lait pairs well with light coffee-based desserts to bring out more of the coffee taste. Tiramisu, opera cake, coffee flan, and chocolate coffee cake are some examples that go well with Café Au Lait.
Ristretto with Hot Fudge Chocolate Pudding Cake
Ristretto is a stronger version of Espresso. This uses the same amount of ground coffee with half of the boiled water used in espresso coffee shots. Therefore, it has a full-bodied, strong taste. It pairs well with strong and rich chocolate-based desserts like a chocolate pudding cake, chocolate mousse, chocolate peanut butter cookie cake, chocolate tart, and so on.
Pastries that Pair with Coffee & Tea: Final Thoughts
Both coffee and tea are renowned hot beverages used to quench people's thirst. Apart from quenching thirst, both beverages have unique characteristics that would physically and mentally delight you. When comparing coffee vs tea, coffee contains a higher amount of caffeine, increasing your alertness and reducing drowsiness. However, coffee and tea have health benefits that minimize the causes of many diseases.
Tea and coffee culture has become a tradition in some countries and has a more significant cultural value. Serving tea or coffee is not only a symbol of hospitality but also a way of relaxing. So, pairing a food item while you are having a cup of tea or coffee would make your experience better. Some types of pastries and desserts can enhance the taste of coffee or tea and give you a magical aftertaste. Though not all pastries and desserts exhibit this magical touch; therefore, it is important to carefully and creatively select what to serve with your coffee and tea. What would you choose to pair with your coffee and tea the next time you serve it?