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Pairing

Tea + Hops

Not a natural pairing: they share little aroma and few recipes use both, which puts them in the top 41% of all ingredient pairs.

Smell alikelow
Cooked together1 recipe
Ranktop 41% of pairs
Try them in the pairing tool Tea Hops
539tea only 39shared 76hops only Tea · 578 Hops · 115
Circle size = number of flavor molecules on record. Overlap = molecules they share.

Do tea and hops go together?

Not really. One recipe in our collection uses both, and they share 39 flavor molecules. That places them in the top 41% of every ingredient pair we score.

What they have in common

They overlap on 39 flavor molecules: 34% of hops's 115. Among the shared key aromas are guaiacol (smoky, sweet) and myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous). Most of what they share is background chemistry many foods carry, so the overlap does little for the smell.

What each one brings

tea

The roast. Roasted notes make up 11% of its labelled aroma molecules, against 0% for hops. It carries 539 molecules hops doesn't have.

hops

The fruit. Fruity notes make up 35% of its labelled aroma molecules, against 17% for tea. It carries 76 molecules tea doesn't have.

Add a third ingredient

  • Ginger: the best fit for both, top 7% of pairs with tea, top 24% with hops.
  • Rice: top 6% of pairs with tea, top 33% with hops.
  • Cinnamon: top 7% of pairs with tea, top 33% with hops.
  • Peach: top 8% of pairs with tea, top 32% with hops.

Ranked by the average of its two pairing scores. Only foods used in at least 100 recipes are suggested.

Recipes with tea and hops

We have no browsable recipe that lists both tea and hops.

Can you swap one for the other?

Not really. Each has a lot the other lacks: tea has 539 molecules hops doesn't, and hops has 76 that tea doesn't. Treat them as partners, not stand-ins. This compares flavor only; texture, moisture and the job each does in a dish matter too.

All 39 shared molecules

See every shared molecule grouped by chemical class, with key aromas marked, plus the 539 only in tea and the 76 only in hops.

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Tea and hops questions

Do tea and hops go together?

Not a natural pairing: they share little aroma and few recipes use both, which puts them in the top 41% of all ingredient pairs.

What do tea and hops have in common?

They overlap on 39 flavor molecules: 34% of hops's 115. Among the shared key aromas are guaiacol (smoky, sweet) and myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous). Most of what they share is background chemistry many foods carry, so the overlap does little for the smell.

What goes with tea and hops?

Ginger is the best third ingredient: top 7% of pairs with tea and top 24% with hops. Rice and cinnamon also fit both.

Can I use hops instead of tea?

Not really. Each has a lot the other lacks: tea has 539 molecules hops doesn't, and hops has 76 that tea doesn't. Treat them as partners, not stand-ins. This compares flavor only; texture, moisture and the job each does in a dish matter too.

Compare other ingredients

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2

Two ingredients gives the full side-by-side breakdown; add a third to see a similarity matrix across all of them (up to 6).

Ranks compare this pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. Molecule counts are what the studies and databases we aggregate have reported for each ingredient: a measure of coverage, not a full census. How we score pairs

Cite this analysis
Plain text
Compound Kitchen (2026). Compound similarity analysis: Tea vs Hops. https://compkitchen.com/compare/tea-vs-hops. Accessed 2026-11-04.
BibTeX
@misc{compkitchen_compare_compound_similarity_analysis_tea_vs_hops_2026,
  title  = {Compound similarity analysis: Tea vs Hops},
  author = {{Compound Kitchen}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://compkitchen.com/compare/tea-vs-hops},
  note   = {Accessed: 2026-11-04}
}

Methodology DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19719459 · CC BY 4.0 · Citations are a request, not a requirement.