Why You Need to Order the New Tea Pairing at Emeril’s | Eater New Orleans

"On a Saturday night, wrapping up dinner, my request for hot tea set off a small theater: two glass teapots on warmers lit with tea lights arrived with beautiful bone china cups and saucers painted in florals and gold trim; the first pour was a vintage Emperor’s private reserve pu-erh infused with truffle and gold, followed by a Gyokoro green tea, and captain Jason Burse urged me to smell the cup scented with deep notes of cedar, nuts, and truffle. The lauded New Orleans restaurant has introduced a meticulous new tea service, paired to the tasting menu or ordered a la carte at the bar, with treasures Burse and wine director Aaron Benjamin source from Rare Tea Cellar. Chef and co-owner E.J. Lagasse is having fun matching courses to heavy-hitter teas—hojicha with trout for its nori, seaweed-like note; the Fulsome for oyster stew with fennel pollen in the tea; a beef course with warm beef tallow in the tea like a consomme—while fish and caviar get chilled teas, a genmaicha is cold-steeped for 48 hours and served at room temperature, and a lobster mushroom tea is served hot (“The mouthfeel of it is incredible”). Cold teas come in wine glasses to capture aromas and hot ones in fine china; the pairing is a $100 add-on to the $225 tasting menu or can be ordered by the cup for $8 to $20, and they even make their own iced tea. True to the kitchen’s linear focus on local ingredients—the boudin, seafood, and takes on po’ boys and sno-balls—the team blends like bartenders, playing with steep times and even fat-washing with tallow, and they’re working on a tea that tastes like a Sazerac in search of a deeper New Orleans sense of place (“Will we find the chicory of the tea world?”). I’d tuck into a warm cup to finish here; banana cream pie is served with an aged 2010 pu-erh called Caramel Dream—a dainty thing with depth and honey, a gentle lullaby to pie." - Henna Bakshi