The other day I heard something on Canadian radio about a woman who considers Coke the perfect beverage match for food--she has some kind of major foodie credentials, though I can't remember what now to report it--and she supposedly has paired Coke with just about everything. She might have written a book or blog about it. Anyway, it was offered as evidence that she drinks four cans of Coke a day, and I just sat there at the traffic light, eyes rolling in disbelief, at what I was hearing.
I might be accused of something similar for all the tea I drink. I drink tea morning, noon and night. I drink it hot in cold weather and iced in warm. It's the only non-alcoholic beverage besides water (or carbonated water) I ever order in restaurants. I just love tea and I find it refreshing and a good palate cleanser, and where I wouldn't rationalize my preference like the Coke addict above does by presenting my personal tea love as proof, I tend to think most on this board anyway would agree that it's being unsweetened and containing some tannins gives it a natural advantage.
But right now I'm breakfasting on an amazingly good tea-food pairing, something I stumbled over quite by accident because I woke up a teeny bit hungry (unusual, as I rarely eat before 10 a.m.) and there was this hunk of old gouda in our room, and it was a long way to the refrigerator in the garage to get anything else. A slice, I thought, would temper this little appetite. And it did, but I've already gone back for two more slices because the sweet/nutty characteristics of this gouda (must be 3-4 years old, it's almost orange) is an astonishly good match for the Earl Gray I'm drinking. That is, the cheese tastes better after a sip of tea, and the tea tastes better after a bite of cheese. In fact, the tea tastes better long after the cheese is gone--lots of unami-type flavor lingers and is reawakened with every sip. I could make a meal out of it if only I had a slice of dry raisin toast, or some fruit-nut crisps.
Tea and cheese. Who knew?
BTW, I'm glad you did not mention the Yellow Label.