THE BEST COOKIES TO ENJOY WITH TEA
What would teatime be without delicious biscuits?
Rooted in tradition among the English, tasting biscuits with tea now knows no boundaries. All over the world, tea lovers cherish the moment of calm and comfort that surrounds its tasting and do not deprive themselves of embellishing it with a gourmet touch. But to act in accordance with the rules of the art and let the tea reveal all the complexity of its aromas, there is no question of marrying it with just any cake.
Wondering what are the best biscuits to enjoy with your tea? Here are our answers.
The scone, for an English tea
Scones are small breads, or small cakes when sweet, that are very popular in the United Kingdom . Originally from Scotland, scones have gradually spread throughout the English-speaking countries. Across the Channel, scones are inseparable from the famous national “tea time”.
The English enjoy them as an accompaniment to an Earl Grey or English Breakfast tea , with a little jam or clotted cream , a type of thick crème fraîche. Practiced at Buckingham Palace as well as among the working classes, this tradition is omnipresent in British culture, so much so that you can find kits in local supermarkets including tea, scones and cream! Although not a biscuit in the strict sense, the scone seems to have proven itself as an ideal partner for tea .
The cookie, for a gourmet snack
Both crunchy and soft, the cookie has to be on this list of the best biscuits to enjoy with tea. The most daring can even venture to briefly dip their cookie in their cup of tea, making sure of course to remove it before it disintegrates...
In terms of flavors, we recommend serving the chocolate chip cookies with a black tea , whose smoky flavor will stand up to the intensity of the cocoa. The almond, red fruit and citrus cookies can be measured against the subtlety of a light, lightly brewed green tea or a white tea .
Petit beurres, to take you back to your childhood
It would be indecent to talk about biscuits to enjoy with tea without mentioning the petit-beurre . In the French collective unconscious, the petit-beurre is the biscuit par excellence, the symbol of carefreeness and school snacks. With its four ear-shaped corners and its little teeth that we try to bite one by one, the petit-beurre is part of a real consumption ritual that takes us back to childhood. For breakfast or as a snack, enjoying an artisanal petit-beurre with a cup of tea is the promise of a sweet, simple and regressive moment.
Lace crepes, all in lightness
Tea often responds to a desire for lightness and delicacy . To add a touch of indulgence to your afternoon tea without giving up the desired finesse, opt for lace crepes .
This Breton specialty is said to have been born from the careless mistake of a woman from Quimper who, to avoid wasting a crepe forgotten on the stove, decided to roll it up on herself. Since then, gourmets from Brittany and elsewhere have never stopped thanking Madame Katell for her carelessness. Plain lace crepes will pair wonderfully with green tea and white tea, while chocolate-coated lace crepes will delight the taste buds of black tea drinkers.
The best cookie to enjoy with your tea according to science
Yes, the range of possibilities when it comes to tea-biscuit pairings is vast. But as you will have understood, it is not infinite. Not all biscuits have the qualities required to be dunked in a cup of steaming tea.
But is there a type of biscuit that is, above all others, the ideal candidate to be eaten with tea? A British magazine decided to look into the question in a very serious way. To do this, the teams asked a physicist from the Institute of Physics (IOP) in London to supervise an experiment in which a robot dipped several types of biscuits in a cup of tea until they disintegrated.
The big winner of this competition turned out to be, unsurprisingly, a famous English biscuit. The takeaway from this experiment is that to claim the title of best biscuit to enjoy with tea , a biscuit must be absorbent enough to become melty after being dipped in the liquid, but sturdy enough not to end up at the bottom of the cup, reduced to crumbs, after a few seconds of immersion!
