Tea Tasting at Silk Road

This afternoon I attended my first tea tasting at Silk Road, a local tea manufacturer and one of the prettiest stores I have ever been in. Silk Road run tea tasting and workshops most weekends and I have long been meaning to give them a try.  The other day I found one of their brochures in our recycling pile and when I saw that today was Tea and Chocolate pairing I made a note to try and make it back this afternoon. 

Following our sushi lunch I booked it up across town and over to Chinatown in time for the tasting. I just made it and was the last person to slide onto a stool in time for our pairing.  All in all we tried three of Silk Road's collaborations with Roger's Chocolate and six of Silk Road's teas. We started with the matcha chocolate and matched this with two green teas. All were tasty, but none of the teas were ones that I would consider buying, and the chocolate was good, but the matcha flavour against the 70% dark chocolate was very subtle.

Second up we tried two white teas with an Earl Grey chocolate. The Earl White brought out an interesting blend of bergamot and lemongrass in the chocolate, but I preferred the Canton Orange: Silk Road's version of a classic Earl Grey.  The last chocolate we tried was the Chai and this was by far my favourite.  We tried it with the Velvet Passion - a chocolate and vanilla concoction that was just heavenly. This is definitely on my Christmas List!  The last of the afternoon was a herbal chai that took all the spices from chai, but no actual tea so it was light and refreshing. 

Our host for the afternoon was very knowledgeable and friendly and it was a great experience - I will definitely be back for more tastings in the future, and the chocolate will definitely be something I keep my eye out for!