It was a good line, infusing his tea talk in what, given the Illy marker, you would assume to be espresso territory with its first refreshing sip of reverse snobbism. Jumeau-Lafond may be one of the world’s great tea snobs, boasting, for example, that Dammann Frères has Chanel and Hermès as its immediate neighbours at Tokyo’s great Takashimaya department store. But the third-generation French tea merchant could not let 30 seconds pass without poking a mischievous thumb in the refined ribs of tea drinkers, notably Anglo-Saxon ones, who hold their noses – and pinkies – high. Far from being offended the Londoners drank it up.

“Green tea,” he told a half-astonished, half-amused group that included breakfast tea drinker Riccardo Illy, “is not good for the taste.” What made it trendy and popular, he suggested, were magazine and newspaper articles that reported its benefits to mind and body.

That view reflected Jumeau-Lafond’s preference for strong, spicy, full-bodied teas over smooth, subtle, lightly bitter ones. He loves black teas, none more so than the assam his father brought home to the family’s flat, a rare luxury in the deprived 1950s Paris of his youth.

He doesn’t much like the fashion for herbal teas and fruit teas – “they’re not teas, they’re infusions“, though he sells them, and winces at the thought of certain perfumed teas aromatized with fruits, flowers or tastes that don’t exist in nature. That stance seemed one of hypocrisy, if not of betrayal, coming from the president of a company famous for its Earl Grey, a black tea blend flavoured with the citrus fruit bergamot. Dammann Frères in fact claims to be the last tea company using pure bergamot oil (from Calabria) in its Earl Grey. Moreover, Dammann’s prestigious Goût Russe blend, created by Jumeau-Lafond’s grandmother, first brewed in his boyhood bedroom and copied, he says, by 5,000 tea companies, is perfumed with citrus oils.

You’re an anti-snob snob, aren’t you?!, I asked Jumeau-Lafond, with admiration, at the conclusion of his surprising Galleria Illy talk. He thought about it for a few seconds, then broke out in a wide smile.

“C’est vrai“, he responded. Guilty as charged.

Pots de Crème takes its name from the petits pots in which the lightly set custard is baked and served. In my recipe the traditional French dessert is composed as a trio of three chocolates – white, milk, dark – each accessorized with the identical dusting of matcha. The counterpoint of custards allows for a comparative tasting of these chocolates and how their relative sweetness and bitterness interact with nuanced flavor of the green tea powder.

Makes 9-12 small pots

At a glance, the cross-cultural dessert pairing of chocolate and matcha, the prized Japanese green tea powder, may not seem the sort of combination to elicit uncontrollable cravings. Among the many terms used to evoke matcha’s elusively complex character — grassy, spinachy, watercress-like, seaweedy, earthy, floral, herbaceous, aquatic, bitter — barely a single one screams dessert.

But still, it’s quite the rage in Paris and Tokyo, where the only really big question is: Which chocolate makes the best matcha match? Read full article