Eight great drink pairings for sushi

You might think sushi would be tricky to pair with wine but surprisingly that’s not the case. And there are other drinks that work too.

There are of course different toppings and fillings for sushi, some mild, some, like eel, quite strongly flavoured but I don’t think you can be chopping and changing with each bite you eat.

What you do have to bear in mind is that you’re not only dealing with raw fish: sushi has a touch of sweetness to take account of too. And it also depends how much soy and wasabi you add.

Here are eight drinks I think make good pairings:

Koshu and other crisp whites. If you haven’t come across koshu you will soon. It’s a crisp clean white wine that’s made in Japan from the koshu grape. Marks & Spencer even stocks one. Other crisp whites like Muscadet, Chablis, Gruner Veltliner, Gavi and even Pinot Grigio work well too.

Low dosage champagne and other dry sparkling wines such as drier styles of prosecco and Crémant d’Alsace. Delicious.

Sake Not traditional in Japan (you don’t drink sake with rice) but it’s a brilliant combo, as is fino sherry. Chilled rather than warm.

Dry riesling - very dry - so think Alsace, Austria and southern Germany rather than the Mosel or more fruity rieslings from Australia or New Zealand.

Oaked Portuguese white - can’t explain exactly why but it works especially with the more full-on flavours of modern sushi (especially if it involves sesame) See this post about a meal I had in Foz.

Young red burgundy - now this may come as a surprise. It was recommended to me by a Japanese sommelier. I still prefer a white or sparkling wine with sushi but if you prefer a red this is the type to go for. (And see this very successful pairing with red Sancerre.)

Japanese beer - not the most flavourful but it feels right. Or other light lagers. A big sweet hoppy craft beer would be too overpowering.

Genmaicha (roasted rice) tea - refreshingly nutty. Served warm rather than piping hot. Green tea (though not matcha) is nice too.

image by Natalia Lisovskaya at shutterstock.com

Some unusual food pairings for tea

Most people wouldn’t think in terms of combining tea and food beyond the classic pairings of Indian teas with a traditional afternoon scone or sponge, or jasmine tea with Chinese food but there are many other possibilities to explore, says Signe Johansen in this post from our archives.

There are certainly parallels between tea tasting and wine tasting. Alex Probyn, Master Tea Blender and owner of bespoke tea blending business Blends for Friends told me that similar guidelines for wine and food matching apply to tea and food matching: white wine and white/green teas match with fish and lighter meats and foods that require some astringency to cut through their richness. Red (and to some extent ros) wine and black/oolong tea have higher tannins, thus match well with protein-rich meats and cheeses, and clash with oily fish.

Savoury matches
At TeaSmith, an excellent match is a savoury, umami-rich walnut and miso biscuit (above) that accompanies acidic green teas particularly well.

Yauatcha’s Dim Sum can be paired with jasmine tea, but I’d encourage you to be more adventurous and try their fine range of oolongs, green and white teas with their authentic food. The staff is trained to deal with tea and food matching requests.

Genmaicha (a Japanese green tea with roasted rice) makes a wonderful match with sushi – the rice flavour complementing the delicate sushi rice and green tea’s astringency cutting through the fattier fish such as salmon or tuna.

Staying with the Japanese theme, at Roka I sampled a Himalayan tea with their robata-grilled sea bream. The distinctive fennel character of the tea worked really well with fish.

One intriguing match is Stilton, particularly the well-aged, pungent crumbly variety, with smoky Lapsang. A powerful combination that may not be to everyone’s taste, but well worth a try!

A classic roast beef and horseradish sandwich is well served by a cup of straight Kenyan or even Assam – the high tannins in these teas are softened by the rareness of the beef.

One of my personal favourites is a smoked salmon salad, with beetroot, onion and horseradish and a cup of astringent green tea.

Sweet matches
Notoriously difficult to match with wine, chocolate is generally paired with coffee – an effective match, but I’m a sceptic. The coffee, depending on its strength, often overwhelms the aromatic qualities of chocolate.

Try dark chocolate with green tea – the tea enhances the robust flavour of chocolate in a surprising way, and is a much more complementary match than coffee and chocolate. Contentious, I know, but it works for me! Chocolate cake also goes spectacularly well with Assam

At TeaSmith their jasmine truffles are perfect with a cup of floral Oolong

Afternoon tea, such as that offered at The English Tea Room at Brown’s Hotel, is the perfect occasion for matching traditional black teas such as Darjeeling, Assam, or Ceylon with expertly made scones, slathered in fruit jam. There’s no explanation for it, but I can’t bring myself to have green, white, oolong or herbal tea with scones - or Victoria sponge for that matter!

Matcha (a vivid, chlorophyll-rich Japanese green tea) is used in Japan for flavouring and colouring pastries, ice cream and making frothy green tea-based cappuccinos. Obviously matcha-flavoured pastries work well with green teas, but at TeaSmith their matcha sponge worked with Oolong, highlighting the texture of the tea and accentuating its floral character.

Will Cartwright-Hignett of First Class Teas (now Iford Manor Teas suggested his spicy Chai tea to complement my own Blueberry and Oat Muffins (to which I add a dash of cinnamon) and the spice of tea and muffin was a fine match. Chai is also a good foil for the pronounced cinnamon character of carrot cake.

Aside from complementing food, tea can also be used as a base for sweet puddings and cakes. I remember one of my classmates at Leiths made a Chai Tea Créme Brulee for one of our creative cooking classes (it beat my coconut-raspberry créme brulee hands down!). Indeed, Earl Grey Ice Cream is often on the menu in Japan, whereas that classic bergamot-flavoured tea is used here as an ingredient in fruit loaf.

Finally, on a more virtuous, healthy note may I suggest you try sipping a cup of green tea with porridge? I pile my bowl with almonds, cranberries, an orange and often some coconut shreddings and it makes a perfect start to the day!

Signe Johansen is a food and drink writer and author of Spirited: how to create easy, fun drinks at home. This article was first published in 2007

Photo ©martinhosmat083 at Adobe Stock

6 of the best drink pairings for avocado toast

Judging by my Instagram feed practically everyone is eating avocado toast at least once a day but what do you drink with it?

If you’re not on Instagram - or one of the 10 million people who has apparently searched for avocado toast on Google* - you may even wonder what it is.

Smashed up avocado on toast - or bread. That’s it.

Well, more or less. There are all sorts of fancy variations but purists like to keep it simple

Fans are as likely to have it for breakfast as they are for lunch or supper so my six pairings include 3 non-alcoholic drinks:

Green tea
Not just a colour thing, the slight herbiness of green tea is great with avocado. Better than coffee IMHO. By the way don’t make it with boiling water - that’s why it tastes bitter.

Homemade lemonade or - if you haven’t got time to make it - lemon and lime Juicy Water. Citrus and avocado is a no-brainer

A Virgin Mary (in other words a Bloody Mary without booze)
Tomatoes and avo are also great. This looks a good recipe

Witbier
A well-chilled Belgian-style wheat beer served with a slice of lemon. Much more interesting than lager.

Sauvignon Blanc
Definitely the wine that comes to mind. Great with guac - equally good with avocado toast.

A classic margarita
If you want to pay tribute to avocado’s Mexican origins there can be no better cocktail. Do make it with fresh lime though rather than a Margarita mix

*twice as many as fried chicken, would you believe?

If you liked this post you might enjoy What to drink with chicken wings

Image by FoodieFactor from Pixabay

What to drink with cake (updated)

A recent email from a reader asked me to suggest a wine to go with “a triple coconut cake with a tangy pineapple icing served with fresh fruit salsa that has kiwi, strawberry, mandarine oranges, blueberries and fresh pineapple in it”.

Quite a challenge (I suggested demi-sec Champagne or a peach-flavoured liqueur topped up with fizz) but it got me thinking that there are many possible pairings for cake beyond a cup of tea or coffee, particularly if you’re serving it as a dessert.

Drink Pairings for Popular Cakes

Here are my latest thoughts on what to drink with cake. Bear in mind the overall sweetness richness and density of the cake and whether there are any accompanying ingredients such as fruit or cream when you’re choosing between the options.

Plain madeira, pound cakes or almond cakes

A high quality tea like Darjeeling, a chilled 10 year old tawny port, a cream sherry or a spiced rum like Morgan’s or Sailor Jerry would be my top picks. Panettone is better with Prosecco or a Moscato d’Asti.

Orange flavoured cakes

Particularly delicious with sweet sherries. You could also try an orange-flavoured sherry liqueur (Harvey’s does one) or even a dark cream sherry served over ice with a slice of orange. A Spanish Moscatel de Valencia will work if the orange flavour in the cake isn’t too pronounced or if it has fresh oranges alongside.

Lemon cakes

Lemon can be tricky if the lemon flavour is particularly intense. A very sweet Riesling is often a good option or, if the cake is light and airy - more like a gâteau - try a Moscato d’Asti or other light, sweet sparkling wine or an elderflower spritzer. I also like green tea and Earl Grey tea with lemon flavours.

Recipe idea: Try Add Kimber’s Olive Oil Pistachio and Lemon Snack Cake with a glass of prosecco or a shot of limoncello.

Fruit cakes

A great opportunity to show off a sweet sherry or Madeira. A sweet oloroso sherry like Matusalem is delicious with crumbly, rich fruit cakes as is a sweet 5 or 10 year old Madeira. (Bual would be my favourite style here).

Photo by TalyaAL at shutterstock.com

A richly flavoured whisky aged in sherry casks - something like The Macallan - can also be great with a fruit cake. Or an Irish whiskey as you can see from this pairing of Dundee cake (above) with Midleton Very Rare. A barley wine (strong, sweet beer) works too.

Light, airy gateaux and airy pastries like mille-feuille

In general these go well with off-dry Champagne which doesn’t necessarily mean demi-sec. If the cake isn’t too sweet or is accompanied by unsweetened fruits such as raspberries or strawberries you can accompany it with a standard Champagne. (Almost all Champagnes have some sweet wine added to them at the end of the bottling process so very few are completely dry.) Rosé Champagne or sparkling wine work particularly well with berries.

If the gâteau is slightly richer and sweeter or contains ice cream you might be better off with a fruit liqueur or a liqueur topped up with sparkling wine as I suggested to the lady who contacted me. Or, if you’re feeling brave with a matching fruit beer! A peach gâteau, for example could be served with iced shots of a peach-flavoured liqueur like Archers or with a peach, passion fruit or mango-flavoured beer. (The best ones come from Belgium.)

Iced cakes such as cupcakes

The extra sweetness from the icing may strip out the sweetness of a dessert wine. I’m not sure this isn’t one for a milky coffee such as a cappucino or a latte (unless they’re chocolate in which case see below). Cupcakes are comfort food after all.

Gingerbread

One of those like-meets-like combinations but ginger wine (Stone’s is a good brand) or a ginger liqueur works well. Or even a Whisky Mac (a 50/50 mixture of whisky and ginger wine). For contrast try a liqueur Muscat or sweet sherry.

Chocolate cake

Usually needs something to cut through the richness though the sweet-toothed may go for the matching sweetness of a sweet sherry or a liqueur Muscat. Personally I like it with something bitter like a double espresso, a porter or a coffee beer .

An alternative route, particularly if the cake contains cherries is to go for deep red fruit flavours - a Late Bottled Vintage or Vintage Character port, a Banyuls or Maury from the south of France or even a chilled shot of cherry brandy (very good with intensely rich, dark chocolate cakes and puddings). 

A lighter chocolate cake like a roulade can be delicious with a cherry beer (Kriek) or raspberry beer (frambozen), particularly if it includes those fruits. Or try this fabulous pairing of a frozen milk chocolate and raspberry cake with light, sparkling Brachetto d’Acqui

Orange flavoured liqueurs such as Grand Marnier are also good with anything made from dark chocolate.

Recipe idea: Serve this chocolate and cherry roulade with a Recioto della Valpolicella 

Coffee, toffee and walnut cakes

Good with sweet sherry, Madeira and aged tawny port (a 20 year old is particularly good with coffee cake). Or an Australian liqueur Muscat which would work really well with the cake below

Recipe idea: Try Rosie Sykes delicious Queen Elizabeth Cake.

Photo by Patricia Niven

Coconut cake

Oddly coconut and Champagne have an affinity so that’s worth considering. More conventionally I’d go for a Sauternes or similar sweet Bordeaux. Or maybe try a pina colada!

Recipe idea: Try Rukmini Iyer’s Coconut and Mango Yoghurt Cake with a late harvest sauvignon

See also What wine - and other drinks - to pair with Cheesecake.

Top image ©Patrycja Jadach at unsplash.com