Ah, the perfect fry-up – eggs, bacon … and a nice cup of Orange Pekoe

Published on Sunday 14 September 2008 22:07

IT IS a quintessentially British feast – a big, greasy fried breakfast, preferably consumed on Sunday lunchtime following a Saturday night on the town, washed down with a cup of tea.

And now connoisseurs have identified the perfect brew to accompany the traditional British fry-up: Orange Pekoe, from Sri Lanka, trumps the common English breakfast tea as the ideal complement to bacon, eggs and all the trimmings.

Whittard of Chelsea, the tea and coffee supplier, embarked on a survey of a wide range of teas in order to find the best fit for the fry-up. Giles Hilton, the "nose" of the tea and coffee supplier, led a team of experts in sampling the brews to mark the 100th birthday of the teabag.

He said: "English breakfasts should always be accompanied by a mug of steaming tea and, at its best, eaten in the greasy spoon round the corner.

"Most often the tea served will be a blend of Kenyan, Assam and Ceylon tea, but in my experience Orange Pekoe tea is the best.

"Orange Pekoe suits the English taste for a rich, strong-tasting black tea which takes milk well. It is the very best Ceylon tea. It has a heavy but classic base which holds its own against the bacon, egg and sausage of a fry-up but does not alter the classic taste."

He said the diverse ingredients of a traditional cooked breakfast required "a punchy tea" and added: "It is important to remember that it does not taste of oranges."

In fact, the "orange" name is a reference to the Royal House of Orange – a mark of quality assigned by Dutch traders as well as the distinctive colour. Pekoe comes from the Chinese for "white hair" due to the downy tips of the young leaves.

Orange Pekoe refers to a grading system of different black teas, but Mr Hilton's brew of choice is one grown at medium altitude in Sri Lanka and has long wiry twists of oak-tasting dark leaf.

Mr Hilton and his team found that if Orange Pekoe was not available, greasy spoon customers should instead request Russian Caravan or, as a last resort, Assam Large Leaf.

However, they warned there were "definitely some disastrous combinations to watch out for".

The main tea and fry-up faux pas was Jasmine Green Tea.

According to Mr Hilton: "Although it helps to cut through the fat content of the meal, the Jasmine perfume leaves the palate confused, ruins the simple flavours and renders the restorative ability of an English breakfast powerless."

Coffee fiends should go for Santos and Java, which Mr Hilton said "has a real kick to it and, with a fry-up, is the perfect hangover cure".

So what's it like? We put the tea to the test

A PROFESSIONAL tea sampling? I should have gone down fighting harder than I did. The tea selected was in teabag form, not loose leaf. I'm a stickler on this. Teabags are the pits, a swindle on the taste buds of the discerning tea tippler. The leaves are small, too finely ground, with the larger more fragrant leaves automatically de-selected by these abominable factory-packed dustbags. Loose leaf tea should always be chosen.

Worse followed. The tester teas were served in polystyrene containers. Would you drink claret out of a plastic bag? My case rests. And finally – horror of horrors – the tea had no chance to infuse in a fine china teapot. The teabag was just dunked into these ghastly beakers – probably made from recycled cardboard to boot. Civilisation? We slither daily further down the slope.

Despite these obstacles, I was able to distinguish the Orange Pekoe at once from a beaker of English Breakfast Tea. Both were brisk and forward in flavour, as you would expect for a first tea of the day. However, the Orange Pekoe was a lighter liquor, more subtle and rounded, with promising top notes and a whisper of oriental fragrance. This would play well on our features desk. The English Breakfast would be perfectly adequate for sports, or the motoring correspondent.

Best of all, however, was the bacon and egg roll. This won the prize in my book.

I have been a tea fanatic for years. And I don't mind making a fuss about it. Tea is a wonderful drink, calming and refreshing at the same time. We should serve it with far more care than we do.

I order my tea from specialist distributors online and it always creates quite a buzz when the packets arrive by post in the office. Everyone thinks it's cocaine.

I would recommend the high ground Ceylon Nuwara Eliya Mahagastotte, or the bright and brisk Ceylon Dimbula Inverness. They are excellent. My favourite is the Ceylon Uva, Kenilworth, grown on Sri Lanka's western hills. It has a unique creamy character with hints of tobacco, cocoa and spice. And it has a great bouquet.

And pay attention to the grades. For whole leaf orthodox black tea, they ascend from OP (Orange Pekoe, standard grade) to FOP1 (Flowery Orange Pekoe First Grade) to TGFOP (Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe). Crme de la crme is of course FTGFOP – Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe, or, as it is better known in Morningside, Far Too Good For Ordinary People.

Bill Jamieson