I’ve been eyeing this one up for a while, mostly because I want to find a really good pear flavoured tea for my cupboard. The first time I smelled it was in store in my old city – and it smelled alright, but not great so I passed on it. Today, in my new city, I took the opportunity to smell it again and see if my thought had changed, and they certainly had.
For whatever reason, it just smelled totally irresistible to me today. I wasn’t sure what it was that had sold me today until the salesman pointed it out; not only does it smell like pears and cranberry, but it smells CREAMY. It’s a very rich creamy smell too, but I can’t really figure out WHY it smells so creamy; none of the listed ingredients are things that really make me think of creamy teas.
Dry and steeping, this one smells like pears, but the cranberry factors into there a great deal too. The tartness of the cranberry really plays of the sweet juiciness of the pears. There are apples listed in the ingredients, and even though I can SEE them I can’t smell them at all. I’m ok with this – I’m not really interested in this tea because of the apple.
Steeped, the liquor is a very pale reddy brown sort of colour. I don’t know – it’s a weird colour, but it’s light. First few sips and it sort of tastes weak, and pretty watery. I don’t think it’s a matter of understeeping since I steeped this one of the high end of the recommended steep times. What it might be is a case of too much fruit in comparison to the actual tea leaf? The sample I got was almost ENTIRELY large chunks of fruit (Holy Cranberry! The cranberry chunks in this are MASSIVE!) with black tea leaves pretty sparse among the fruit.
The more I drink it, however, the better it tastes. The pear is very predominant with a subtle cranberry flavour. The description on the little baggy describes this tea and juicy and tart, but I don’t taste any tartness. Instead this tea is really smooth and creamy with a lovely light cranberry and pear taste. Like I said, the black tea base is very light and almost not present at all. I read the reviews commenting on how this tastes like bubblegum, and I understand the comparison.
Once I get my Della Terra order in I’m going to have to do a comparison between this tea and the other pear flavoured one I got (The Perfect Pear) to see which I prefer. Both use a black tea base. Hmmm…
My cup is all gone now, and I find myself seriously craving another cup. Both this tea AND Blueberry Jam (the other black tea I bought today) are teas I’m going to have to buy a tin of. I’m sure I’ll eat through my sample of this one quite quickly.
If it was only a little less weak, this tea would be perfect! And as soon as it was done steeping I went and ate all of the fruit bits! They looked too good to resist. Next time I’ll have to try over leafing it for a stronger flavour.
