Cheese & Tea: Oolong with old Cantal cheese
Oolong-Cantal Cheese
The ideal cheese-tea food combination?
By KIRSTEN
Did you know that tea can also be wonderfully combined with savory foods?
I put it to the test with a delicious piece of Old Cantal cheese, brought from the beautiful Auvergne in France. This cheese has been matured for over 7 months and has a white/orange-stained rind. The old Cantal has a powerful taste. Spicy, slightly salty and with full tones in which a creamy, almost vanilla-like hint can be detected.
The tea I have selected here is my favorite Tanzania Oolong. As I described in a previous post, the Tanzania Oolong is very aromatic with a malty character. As a result, she does not let herself be knocked out by the powerful taste of the Cantal cheese. In addition, this Oolong has a creamy sweet hint that is reminiscent of honey and the taste becomes more fruity the longer you let the tea steep. This fits in seamlessly with the spicy and spicy pallet of the old Cantal. The Cantal cheese enhances the fruity and sweet aromas of the Oolong. The Tanzanian Oolong also gives some softness to the taste of the cheese.
All in all a very nice tea and food combination! Complete your cheese board with nuts and grapes and it's a real treat!
"The Cantal cheese enhances the fruity and sweet aromas of the Oolong. The Tanzanian Oolong also gives some softness to the taste of the cheese."
WHAT is Cantal kaas?
Niels, my children and I, like to come to the Cantal. The peace and space we have there contrasts sharply with the chaos and bustle of the crowded center of Amsterdam. The Cantal is the southernmost part of the Auvergne, in the middle of the Massif Central, and in our opinion one of the most beautiful parts of France.
One of the first things we always buy there is a nice big piece of the local cheese, the Cantal. In the region where we reside, only Cantal cheese is generally produced. The nice thing is when we have French people in the shop and tell them that we often stay in the Cantal, they always express their admiration for the environment and the Cantal cheese.
The Cantal cheese is a hard cheese made from raw milk from the famous Saler cows. A Cantal cheese must mature for at least 30 days and is one of the 44 French cheeses that may bear the AOC/AOP quality mark.
The cheese I discuss in the blog is Cantal Vieux, cheese that is at least 7 months old. The aged cheese has a salty and spicy taste. This cheese is rarely produced and is almost impossible to obtain in Amsterdam. The cheese can be enjoyed both on its own with a drink and in dishes, such as a salad. The cheese also has a fairly long shelf life (up to a year and a half). That is why there is always a stock that goes back to the Netherlands!
What is Oolong Thee?
Oolong teas are one of our favorite teas to drink. The best known from our store is the Milky Oolong. A tea with a caramel buttery aftertaste.
Oolong tea is originally from China. And like many other Chinese teas, this tea refers to a mythical figure. Oolong means 'Black Dragon' in Chinese and is a tea that is somewhere between green and black tea.
The tea is not completely oxidized. There are different variants, each with a different degree of oxidation. This can be between 8% and 85%. This makes one Oolong more similar in color to a green tea, such as the Tie Kuan Yin, and the other to black tea, such as the Butterfly of Taiwan.
The teas generally have a sweet fruity taste. And the Oolongs that come from the high plateaus of Tanzania and Taiwan also contain even less theine and tannin. A delicious tea that you can also drink later in the day.
If you want to know more about Oolongs, check out our page about this special tea here.
Interested in our Oolong teas? Try them out in our tea rooms. If you want to know which tea goes best with which dish, let us know in the comment box below!
- Kirsten -
TEA SHOP Het Kleinste Huis
In addition to our Tanzania Oolong, we also sell many other Oolong varieties. All available in store and online!
Don't have the time or inclination to make your own Oolong? Come and visit one of our special tea rooms. We are happy to prepare one for you!
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For a large part of her life Kirsten has had a passion for entrepreneurship and tea. Since 2014, she has been combining this with her husband, Niels, in the tea specialty store Het Kleinste Huis (The Smallest House in Amsterdam). Kirsten likes to write about things that keep her busy (this doesn't have to be just tea!).
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