Cleansing your palate

[cha cha cha]

Do you like to nibble on something between sips of tea? I'm looking for a good tea snack that will let the taste of the tea shine through. Not necessarily something that will complement the tea, but something that will give my tongue a blank slate. Any ideas?

[Vulture]

It really depends on the tea you drink. There are two kinds of ways I know of.

1. Sweet to Bitter
You offset your tea with the opposite flavor. If you have a sweet tea, eat something slightly bitter. And opposite of that, but you have to make sure not to go overboard or it will tweak the flavor of the tea when you drink it.

2. Absorbion, Absorbsion, Absorbsion...
One of the old classics of tea was bread/biscuit/cracker style snacks. These helped refresh the taste of the tea by 'scrubbing' your mouth and absorbing any flavor of tea from your mouth. Salted Crackers are redundant in the fact the cracker absorbs flavor/water and the salt absorbs as well.

Someone with more tea experience might know better though

[Wesli]

Unfortunately, most foods do the opposite of cleaning the palate.

Fear not, there is a cure. It's tea. Certain teas clean palates like no food ever could. I like to use bancha for this. It's cheap, you don't need to enjoy it, very easy to brew up (boiling, 30s), and very effective.

I know that doesn't really answer your question, but it answers your title. Your best bet with foods is to find one that matches the tea you're drinking, and it will help pronounce the good flavors of the tea the more you eat.

Teriyake turkey jerkey - Young sheng or Yancha
Barbecue sauce as dip for chicken/fake chicken - Yancha

[Trioxin]

I keep it simple. Just as when I'm tasting wine, I use water to cleanse my palate. If you need to cleanse your sense of smell, coffee beans do the trick.

[Beidao]

I just use to sip some water. But I do tastings sometimes for companies and the little bisquits they have works very well. They taste nothing and when you've eaten them, not taste in the mouth!