Tea Sandwiches & British Beers

One thing I love is snacks. If I’m not eating, I’m thinking about how far away I am from snacks. Thus, doing a beer pairing with classic high tea finger sandwiches seemed like a natural idea.

I began with the classic cucumber sandwiches, which I made with salted Banner Butter and chive cream cheese on thinly sliced white bread. I had a variety of English beers to try with each sandwich. The cucumber sandwich was delicious paired with Bass Ale, a classic strong bitter. The light fresh flavor of the cucumber paired well with the light fruitiness of the esters while the slightly sulfurly note brought out the chives in the cream cheese.

The next tea sandwich I made was a deviled egg salad sandwich on rye bread. The sandwich was delicious and the beers were delicious but I didn’t find a perfect match with the sandwich. Because English beers can display a characteristic whiff of sulfur (known as the “Burton snatch”), those notes cancelled out the sulfur notes in the egg salad, making the entire sandwich taste incredibly…eggy. The Guinness Draught was the best match because the roasted barley and malt notes accentuated the smoked paprika in the egg salad.

The last tea sandwich I made was one of my own creations - a seared watermelon steak with fresh fennel, goat cheese, and red onion marmalade on fresh sourdough. Although the point of tea sandwiches is to provide just enough sustenance until dinnertime, I wanted something with a little more heft than the previous two sandwiches. I’ve also read about the amazing things people are doing to prepare watermelon as a main component of dishes, so I wanted to give searing them a try. I’m still thinking about this sandwich. All the components worked incredibly well together. The sandwich paired perfectly with Samuel Smith’s India Ale. Everything was light and fruity and seemed to blend together but stand out at the same time.