Wojciech Bońkowski
Master of Wine

Don’t drink puer tea…

…too young! Why ageing really makes sense.

Tea and food: the umami issue

Third installment of my tea and food matching sessions. Italian red mullet fish roe (bottarga) provides a challenge with its huge intensity of umami taste. Will any tea survive this?

1990 Fuhai Wild Tuo

Abundant snowfall on Warsaw on 26th March. How to survive? Fermented tea (shu puerh) gives a helping hand. And this 1990 vintage (yes that’s a 19-year-old tea) is excellent.

2007 Xizihao ‘8582’

A remembrance of the good old times when Xizihao tea cost only $30 (now more usually $100) per cake. A solid performer, ready to drink now.