It’s high time to tap into versatility of tea

Dishes on offer at "The Art of Tea: A Dilmah and Press Club High Tea Experience". PHOTOS: GERARD O'BRIEN

A revolution is going on in the world of tea.

No longer is it just your morning brew to be enjoyed in your slippers and dressing gown - now it is the feature of cocktails to be sipped in your best duds and consumed alongside dainty bites, Rebecca Fox finds.

Tea and condensed milk fly through the air between two jugs as sommelier Senuka Sudusinghe shows off his tea-pulling skills.

This is the aspect of tea that got him hooked on the beverage as a child in Sri Lanka.

‘‘It’s the one tea that really changed how I viewed tea and made it more fun.’’

Dilmah t-Lounge sommelier Senuka Sudusinghe demonstrates pulled tea.

However, it was not until he moved to New Zealand and got a job as a sommelier at Wellington’s Dilmah t-Lounge that he learnt how to do it himself.

‘‘I was always fascinated by it. I sent my grandma a video saying, ‘Look I can finally do it’, but I had to move a long way away from home to do it.’’

Showcasing his skills at ‘‘The Art of Tea: A Dilmah and Press Club High Tea Experience’’ last weekend, Sudusinghe explained the popular Sri Lankan beverage involved mixing black tea, brewed for seven to eight minutes, with condensed milk. The fats in the milk cut through the astringency of the tea.

Passing the liquid from one jug to another, often from a height, created a nice foam on top without destroying the benefits of the tea.

‘‘We like to use condensed milk. We are big suckers for sweet tea.’’

On a quiet day in the tea lounge, the sommeliers are known to practise making pulled tea, even standing on the bar to pour it from a height.

The other thing they liked to have fun with was making cocktails and mocktails using tea and their herbal infusions.

‘‘Tea is very versatile and you can have it as a cold beverage as well.’’

Different varieties of tea can be used to showcase and draw out the flavours of different liquors and syrups in cocktails to make a ‘‘lovely drink’’, he said.

He recommended adding 100ml of tea to an ice-filled cocktail shaker along with a touch of sugar syrup, some lemon juice and the alcohol of choice before shaking, pouring into a glass and garnishing.

‘‘You can make this at home with any tea you might find in the back of the pantry. It enhances the flavours.’’

Tasty treats on offer at the high tea.

Staff at the tea lounge also liked to experiment with pairing teas and food. At the high tea in Dunedin, their first ever ‘‘high tea buffet’’, Sudusinghe explained the best way to pair teas with food was to take a sip of tea, hold it on your palate for a short time before swallowing. Then have a bite of food before having another sip of tea.

He recommended trying black tea, such as the Ceylon breakfast tea, with a pastrami and caramelised onion sandwich, as the astringency of the tea would cut through the sweetness of the onion and its touch of spice would balance out with the fats of pastrami.

Earl Grey tea went well with chocolate as the citrus notes of the bergamot peel enhanced the flavours of the chocolate. The herbaceous freshness of green tea worked nicely with fresh savoury dishes such as fresh vegetables, for example, zucchini with hummus.

Herbal infusions also paired well with food, especially a peppermint tea which was a great palate cleanser between the savoury and sweet portions of high tea.

Fruit infusions paired well with sweet dishes, giving freshness and tartness to creamy sweet tarts, cakes and shortcakes.

‘‘It balances out with a nice refreshing taste, cutting through cream and enhancing the blueberry flavours.’’