If you love cheese as much as you claim and are ready to move beyond the parmasan toasts, a fantastic Cheese & Chai pairing event awaits you at Karma Kettle this evening. The tea room is collaborating with Meraki - Artisan Cheese, owned by Arpita Nag who is garnering quite the renown all over town for her clean and homemade fresh cheese.
“We actually tasted quite a bit of everything to explore the flavour profiles and it took some time to figure out which cheese goes with what tea. I think we sampled more than 10 pairings before zeroing in on six,” Arpita tells us.
Interestingly, much like wine, teas also have varying components of tannin and feature a naturally-occuring tartness which manipulates their flavour profile. Cheese, especially the ones which aren’t too aged, usually have a generous palate and a subtle, earthy saltiness which counteracts the piquancy of the tea.
The tasting which will be held at the Alipore outlet of Karma Kettle, features several well-paired offerings which are designed to unlock some unusual contrasts; a fried variety of halloumi, for instance, has been paired with the minty Marrakech, as both share Mediterranean origins. Another mediterranean number is the Buffalo mozzarella cheese, a dense, broad-flavoured number which has been cheekily paired with a Nolen Gur Chai.
“Both cheese and tea are very versatile and in fact this is the first time anyone’s pairing cheese with chai in the city, especially with a menu that’s specifically curated to unlock your taste buds,” Dhiraj Arora of Karma Kettle tells us.
Another exceptional pairing is the aged gouda, which Arpita tells us, has been aged for seven months and has been paired with Passionately, which is a Karma Kettle specialty, made with black tea and passionfruit. “Cheese is something which tastes best when paired right, be it accompaniments or a drink or a relish. I think this menu is really interesting, not something you come across easily. Moreover, people can learn so much when they come down. So many people call me up to ask me about some of my numbers and how to eat them or what to team them up with,” Arpita reveals.
The menu also features a fantastic, seasoned variety of pickled feta which you can pair with a first flush Darjeeling tea and could bring out its organic muskiness. One of our favourite duos are the American jack cheese which has been infused with cacao and coffee to give it a delicious potent after-taste and has been teamed up with a Seville, which is an oolong tea prepared with cloves, cardamom and orange peel; if you’re looking for something layered and densely flavoured, this could be your pick.
There’s also a rose-flavoured cheddar which you can binge on with a Canton black tea, a classic smoked variety of Lapsang Souchang tea. Price of entry: Rs 500