We were already on our way to the donut palace, assuming we would drink coffee with our treats. By happenstance, we decided to try a tea/donut pairing. We’re very cosmopolitan, you know. 

I had some teas that were quite suitable, and after perusing our choices, we decided on a couple that just might work. Here was our criteria: the tea needed to be lighter rather than heavier, so no puer. Nor did we want  strong black tea or an oolong, like Golden Moon Coconut Pouchong,  purchased at the Tea Lady, in Olympia. What we wanted was a green tea or a white. Silk Road Teas sells Jasmine Silver Needle (purchased at Perennial Tea Room, Seattle), but I wasn’t sure that jasmine wouldn’t compete with the donuts. We considered Sugimoto’s Sen Cha (purchased at Uwajimaya in Seattle), but that might be a little more flavor than we wanted. 

That left three choices: Silk Road Teas White Peony, Phoenix Tea Huo Shan Huang Ya (purchased at Phoenix Tea, Burien), and Chado Tea White Champagne Raspberry (chadotea.com).  

The Silk Road Teas White Peony was quite nice. The flavor was subtle, with a slight floral flavor, indeed complementing the donuts: glazed and sugared. We quite enjoyed it. We then brewed a pot of Chado White Champagne Raspberry. Although the tea is wonderful by itself, it needs no competing food. It was too floral, too sweet. Donuts need contrast, not competition. Finally, we decided to try one more: Phoenix Tea’s  Huo Shan Huang Ya, a yellow tea. It was the right amount of astringency to offset the sugar of the donuts. We were quite pleased with our experiment, and learned new things about tea. 

Which is how it should be.

This whole of idea of pairing tea with food is an old idea. You are just objecting because you don’t think of donuts as food. Tea makes no distinctions. 

Buy different teas, try different teas. It’s how you learn.