by britt » Sep 21st, '10, 18:49
Depends on my mood, the particular tea, and what I have on hand for snacks. I regularly shop at the Asian market so I usually have plenty of choices.
I always eat some type of Japanese sweets before I drink my matcha in the morning. I don't know what they're called, but judging by the package they're intended to be consumed with matcha or some other type of green tea. There are many different types including pastries filled with red beans, green tea jam, custard, creme, etc.
I usually eat something in between infusions of tea if I'm hungry, but not often while I'm drinking it. When I do, I've found that Japanese dark and white chocolate with macedamia nuts (made by Meiji) actually go quite well with sencha. There are many Taiwanese snacks that go well with different oolongs; coconut egg rolls (like a cookie but with eggs added to the flour), sesame rolls, Taiwanese mochi with peanut, coffee and brown sugar wafers, etc.
I rarely keep American made snack food at home. I think it would contradict the health benefits of tea. The Japanese tend to make far healthier snacks than we have but they do use a lot of sugar and they must have a surpluss of red beans because they put them in just about everything. Some of the food products from Taiwan are also very good. They are about as close to pure and unadulterated as you will find, and the Taiwanese seem to use much less sugar giving a less sweet but pure taste. Using only four or five ingredients in a cookie is not unusual, but the lack of preservatives gives a shorter shelf life. I find the snack foods from Japan and Taiwan to be very fitting to consume with good quality, healthy tea.
