Imagine a meal and wine pairing but swap it for five courses of tea and cake
A tea and dessert pairing? Colour me intrigued!
Personally, I believe I have the world’s biggest, sweet tooth, so the prospect of a tea and dessert pairing had me rather interested. Leaf Pudding Club is a monthly event over at Leaf café, and will set you back £18pp for five different courses of cakes and sweet treats with unique leaf tea pairings.
I was more than happy to accept an invite to attend the March Pudding Club event at Leaf’s Bold Street café, and upon arrival was greeted by a long table with around 30 seats for guests to sit face to face whilst they enjoyed a sweet treat and a brew. With it being such an odd set up, it definitely got guests talking, and made me feel a lot more comfortable having a chat with my table neighbours after attending the event solo.
The club kicked off to a delicious start, with the first course of the evening being a raspberry macaron with white chocolate frosting and dark chocolate, blood orange tea crumb, with a blood orange tea pairing. The tea was aromatic and reminded me of some of my favourite gin flavourings, whilst the macaron was crunchy and sweet, so much so that I almost licked the plate clean.
Following on from the first sweet treat came an apple tart with a pear drop tea glaze and ice vanilla ice cream, paired with (you guessed it) a pear drop tea.
Much like the hard-boiled sweets themselves, the tea was packed full of flavour and made me reminisce of the times I’d spend hours trying to keep the sweets in my mouth until they completely dissolved. The apple tart was crunchy and quite the compliment to the vanilla ice cream, although I would have much preferred the tart to have been served warm.
With the puddings being such small bites, my stomach rumbled in excitement for the third course of a lemon compote with a cherry pavlova and compote, served alongside a cherry tea. This was by far the best presented dish of the evening, served up in a shot glass with the yellows and red contrasting against each other, with the delicious smell of lemon. I loved this dish so much, that I snagged the spare dessert that had been left at the table and demolished it with as much gusto as I did the first.
As the dessert was so saccharine, the tea was rather weak in comparison, and perhaps would have been better if it had been brewed for longer.
Course four described as an exotic fruit salad with a coconut biscuit, lacked the desired presentation with many guests claiming it to look anything but a fruit salad, but rather some sort of accident in a glass. However, upon tasting, I was pleasantly surprised, and enjoyed the mango and kiwi mixture, a much healthier alternative to the other desserts I had previously munched on. Unfortunately, the coconut biscuit had perhaps been cooked for too long, and was as solid as a rock, so that got left on the plate as I downed my mango my days tea pairing.
To end the night, guests were served a warm mini fudge cake stuffed with salted butter truffle toffee, with a butter truffle tea pairing. I’m afraid to say, I wasn’t a fan of the last dish, as despite having a huge, sweet tooth, I am not the biggest fan of chocolate cake. An attempt was made however, and I found the filling to be rather delicious, and the tea was also rather pleasant.
Whilst I wasn’t a fan of all the desserts of the evening, I had a rather enjoyable night, and would be interested to see what desserts the pudding club can think up of next.
The next clubs will be as follows:
Leaf on Smithdown Road: 25th April
Leaf in West Kirby: 26th April
Check Leaf's website for more information.
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