Goat Cheese and Oolong Pairing (Lactose-Friendly)

For my goat & oolong experiment I used a professional cupping set, but I would advise Gong Fu style or any brewing style you like when enjoying at home or with friends.

Why this pairing?

Goat milk is lactose friendly. Did you know that?! I’ll explain more in a bit…

If you’ve found your way to this article, you likely are a goat cheese fan, tolerate it, or curious about how to pair it with tea. You’ve come to the right place.

I know typically we hear of wine being paired with cheese, but I’m here to tell you tea and cheese can yield a satisfying and luxurious tasting experience as well. It will be sans-alcohol and much less calories! The naturally occurring tannins in tea will help to further cut down the fat in cheese when consumed together. The teas itself are calorie-free, yet abundant and complex in flavor. Oolong’s mood stimulating GABA-content and relaxing fragrance make it a comparable “cocktail” hour substitute to wine. It’s a win-win here really. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a fine glass of wine with my cheese, but I also love exploring new experiences and flavor pairings.

Featured Tea Shop: Three Gems Tea

Photo courtesy of threegemstea.com

I’m excited about this tea pairing because two of the three teas I pair come from an organic-certified and socially responsible tea company based in my very own city of Los Angeles: The Three Gems Tea, a hip online tea shop specializing at the moment in single-bush, or “dan cong,” oolongs and funky-modern gongfu style teaware. This set is too awesome to not show you a picture. See above.

Three Gems Tea is headed by two ladies who value sourcing teas from family farms they have relationships with and operate their company with eco-friendly business practices. I particularly enjoyed seeing that their tea packaging is compostable. Big win, always, when I see that. Their colorful modern theme gives the ancient art of Gong Fu Tea, a fun modern facelift fitting for an everyday fiesta atmosphere to light up your day. Their offerings consist of a curated collection of high quality oolong teas, many of which are Dan Congs, which are precious single-bush teas.

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Food and drink pairings are always about enhancing the flavor and experience of individual ingredients—two different foods becoming better together, like you would any harmonic pairing, to create a new experience and to have fun! Since I like goat cheese and tea, I decided oolong will be a fun one to do especially because of the range of flavors oolong is capable of and remains subtle enough as to not overpower the cheese.

If you follow my pairing below in order, the result is a floral, fruit and musk experience with an introduction of herbs and a finishing touch of nutty sweet and saltiness. Not shabby at all. Let’s dive in!

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The Cheeses:

Cheeses from Trader Joe’s. Left to Right: TJ’s Herbed Chèvre, Laura Chenel Brie, TJ’s Cheddar Style Goat Cheese.

1. Herbed Chèvre

2. Goat Brie

3. Cheddar Style Goat

I once visited a specialty goat milk ice cream shop in Manhattan, where the person who worked there explained to me that goat milk has a fraction of the fat in cow’s milk, which makes it much more easy to digest. I did a little research on my own and discovered that while goat cheese does still contain lactose, it contains much less than cow’s milk. It’s also lower in fat than cow milk, which also adds to it being more easily digested.

I know the flavor of goat milk can be quite divisive among people. Most people either love it or hate it. There also exists some people who say they “don’t mind it.” For me, I think the draw of goat cheese is, on one hand, it’s lactose-friendly quality, on the other hand, has a delicate peppery-musk flavor profile that I think makes it much more interesting than cow’s milk.

Because of this unique goat flavor, I thought it would pair well with the floral, fruity, and nutty aromas of oolong. I was not wrong! If you like goat cheese, oolong, or have a lactose intolerance and still want to enjoy the finer food experiences in life, then this cheese and tea pairing will rock your world!

If you can’t find these exact goat cheeses, try other goat cheeses that are similar in taste profile that are available near you or the cow milk equivalents. Please drop me a comment below and let me know how they go!

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The Teas:

Iron Goddess of Mercy or “Tie Guan Yin” - loosely gathered chunks

Orchid Fragrance - whole leaf is gently rolled and maintains its full form. Some twigs present.

Duck Shit Oolong - also well-twisted roast brown leaves similiar to Honey Orchid

While ordering tea from Three Gems Tea, I was intrigued by the Duck Shit Oolong name, so I naturally had to order that. Don’t worry the name doesn’t actually have anything literally associated with it. Legend points to a farmer who came up with a striking name to differentiate the incredible tea varietal he cultivated. Excellent marketing strategy for his audience which is safe to assume was mostly an agrarian clientele who would warmly take to this tea naming I imagine. Read about the story behind this funny name here.

*Side note: In Cantonese, “duck shit” is also a nickname for over-pronated flat feet, which sadly, I have, and which is why I know this. We all have struggles. Now you know!

The founders at Three Gems Tea, graciously included a gift of their Orchid Fragrance oolong to go along with my order. Both the Duck Shit and Orchid Fragrance teas are excellent in taste and quality. Both teas I use here from them are abundant in mood-boosting aromas and brisk minerality, and at the same time due to their medium roast levels, these flavors are fragrantly grounded to satisfy even a gentlemen’s palate, if one was concerned about it being too “feminine” in floral profile. You can see pictured above that the leaves are gently and expertly rolled maintaining most of the full leaf shape and thereby its flavor content. Having tried the teas, I knew I had to curate these oolongs into a tasting to find more fun ways to drink them.

For the third tea, I included a lovely classic Anxi Tie Guan Yin Oolong from my ITEI tea school stash, as a more delicate tea to contrast these two other medium roasted teas. It is also a classic go-to choice for a fresh green oolongs. From there, I decided to keep the pairing simple by sticking with a single category of cheeses and a single category of teas: goat & oolong. Wooo!

If you’re interested in getting a more in-depth tea education, hop over to ITEI.ca and browse their catalog of intimate live virtual classes. You can use my code MinimalistTea10 for a ten-percent discount on the classes you register for.

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Tea and Cheese, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!!!

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The Results:

A smooth marriage of lemony-herb, toasted nut, floral musk with a peck of tropical fruit balanced by brisk minerality.

Pairing No. 1:

Herbed Chèvre + Iron Goddess Green Oolong

• Cheese: soft and tangy. Herbaceous mix of parsley, basil, dill, tarragon, chives.  

• Tea: Lily of the valley, fennel, hint of not-yet-ripe pineapple.

• Flavor Union: To begin here, the tangy fresh and herbaceous character of the chèvre will gently awaken the palate into the rest of the tasting. The vegetal and delicate floral flavors of the Iron Goddess tea will create a complementary and refreshing pairing that will hint at the fruit and florals that are to come. A chrysanthemum essence comes out in the tea. The herbs in the cheese are enhanced with the base of the grassy notes in the tea.

• Imagine: We are sitting in a herb garden on a new morning having fresh cheese and smelling the dew on the grass and flowers.

Pairing No. 2:

Goat Brie + Honey Orchid Fragrance Oolong

• Cheese: mild and velvety, nutty with hints of lemon peel, clean finish.

• Oolong: nectar, eucalyptus, lychee, medium roast, pink florals

• Flavor Union: In this second course we have a mild nutty brie with hints of lemon paired with a medium roasted nectar-forward tea. The brie provides a canvas for this character-filled oolong to express it’s predominate lychee and honey floral character. We are enjoying a creamy mouthfeel that is punctuated by herbed eucalyptus in the tea. Buttery mushroom-like savory flavors in the brie are extended by the smoothness of this sweetly aromatic tea, and in return, brings out the sweetness of the brie. The tropical stone fruit flavors lingers on the tongue encouraging us to another helping.

• Imagine: We are brought to an image of a sunny afternoon in the park enjoying cheese, fruit jellies on toast, surrounded by the park’s nearby rose garden and rocks.

Pairing No. 3:

Cheddar Style Goat + Duck Shit Oolong

• Cheese: subtle nuttiness, sharp, salty bite

• Tea pairing: earth, fruity, sweet potato, hops and longan

• Flavor Union: In the final pairing we have a salty cheese of sharp musk and nuttiness, contrasted with a mildly smokey, earthy-sweet tea. This white cheddar is milder than a cow’s cheddar but has a complexity of the signature mild goat musk. It’s biting qualities are softened by the fruitiness and elevated by the hop and stone-fruit (longan here) character of this tea. The earthy roasting notes of the oolong balances out the tasting experience and satisfies the palate after the lighter herbs and florals of the previous pairings.

• Imagine: This pairing helps me imagine sitting at an American bar restaurant sipping a hopped pilsner, eating a cheeseburger with a side of sweet potato fries. It’s very fun in this way! The sweet potato roundness of this delicious tea provides just a subtle enough roasted quality to compete with the sharpness of this soft cheddar. I would suggest a stronger brew of this tea to compete with this sharper cheese.

I’ve laid out the three pairings in a suggested order. Typically in a food pairing you’ll want to start with the lighter flavors and increase from there throughout a tasting. With tea you can start with the lighter teas and move up. For the cheeses, I decided to leave the sharper and more aged cheese towards the end by starting with a soft fresh chèvre, then a slightly aged brie and ending with the cheddar.

Some Final Thoughts

I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading this pairing of mine and hope that it stoked your curiosity enough to experiment at home or with your friends with cheeses you like and with tea you like.

Good teas challenge our imagination and refreshes the mind. It’s a totally different experience from the tongue and mind-numbing experience, though also enjoyable but in a different way, that a slight wine buzz can give you. It’s less calories, easier on the stomach, and won’t give you a hangover. It’s just worth the try if at that!

Serving Suggestions:

1. Serve it cold brewed in three separate pitchers. If you are serving teas with ice then make sure to make the tea extra strong. Three Gems Teas all include clear cold brew instructions with all their orders which is nice. If you are leaning towards a sweet tea as a treat to serve to guests, you can add a sweetener to the cold tea. Though keep in mind you’ll want to add the sweetener before the liquid gets cold to ensure it melts and gets mixed in properly.

2. If you want to keep it simple for hosting and entertaining, you can pick any of the teas to brew (especially the roasted ones) and serve it alongside your cheese and hor d’oeurves table (or snacks table whatever you like to call it!) and they will work just fine as oolongs are versatile in flavor. Serve hot or cold.

3. Invite friends over for a gong fu brewing session and serve any or all of the cheeses as a snack. Brew all the above teas in succession or focus on one of the teas. You are the tea master and you get to choose!

4. Serve the cheeses with nice crackers. I would imagine a multi-grain nutty cracker, a peppery one, or a herbed one would go quite well. There are some tasty gluten-free crackers available on the market these days. Currently, I’m quite into the corn-based crackers for cheese spreading.

With the good oolong vibes, you should be enjoying the vibrant conversation in no time after your guests are entertained with the tea and nibblings.

I certainly had a lot of fun experimenting with tasting the delicate flavors of goat cheese and smokiness of the oolong together.

If you liked this tea pairing and are interested in more food pairings, drop me a line below and let me know what you foods and teas you’d like to see me pair. Let me know if you’d ever try a tea and cheese pairing at home.

Happy tastings!

MinTea xOO