Pair tea with cheese and chocolate

Last month I reached out to Dona Aideau who hosts tea and chocolate pairings, not something one hears about often.

- Aravinda Anantharaman

It turned out that we were practically neighbours in Puducherry and so, I walked over one Saturday afternoon for tea. Her architect husband, Dorian, had made chocolate mousse and Aideau brewed an Assam that her tea planter father had made, a tippy high-grade black tea that made a golden red cup, as only an Assam can. The hot tea effortlessly accentuated the richness and smoothness of the chocolate.

Aideau's roots are in Assam and tea, a way of life. A few years ago she started looking at tea pairings systematically. Spending time in France allowed her to explore the world of cheese, seeking parallels from its more traditional pairing with wine.