Pear Tree

This is wonderful!

Thank you Autumn Hearth for taking part in the 12 Days of Christmas tea swap and for this tea. It’s absolutely lovely! I love that this is truly not just a pear tea, but also a tree tea, which makes it a stunning tea to celebrate this “first day of Christmas.” (yeah, yeah, I know it’s not really supposed to be today, but we’re celebrating it today, so deal with it)

The first flavor that I notice really distinctly is the jasmine, which kind of surprised me a bit because I didn’t expect it to be so pronounced in a blend with so many other things going on… but I think the sandalwood-ish notes sort of bring out the jasmine a bit, these are two very heady, fragrant types of flavors and I think that bringing these two notes together added emphasis on the jasmine.

I love that there are so many elements to this tea, and yet they all seem to work well together. I don’t know that I taste all of the different fruits here, but I definitely taste pear. I taste faint hints of citrus, and a slight tropical note from the pineapple and papaya. But, really, rather than singing out on their own, these notes seem to harmonize with the primary pear notes to emphasize the delicate sweetness of this fruit.

I love the juniper in this too, and the very subtle hint of vanilla adds a smooth, roundness to the cup that makes this such a really wonderful tea.

Autumn Hearth … it’s going to be difficult for the rest of us to top this! You opened up our 12 Days of Christmas swap with a real BANG! I love this!

The 12 days of Christmas swap starts out with a bang! This is a rich, intoxicating blend courtesy of Autumn Hearth who did such a fantastic job. It’s got fruity elements from the apple and pear, a bit of cinnamon spice, sparkle from the juniper, floral elements, richness from the pu’erh and a wonderful lightness from the yabao. This tea’s got it all! It’s also nicely seasonal without screaming ‘holiday tea’ in your face. Definitely a soft-spoken but assertive blend.

I didn’t think it would be possible to improve one of Verdant’s blends but here I am, sipping a cup of this and in heaven. It’s pear tree perfection! I think it has a ton of resteep potential too, so I’ll definitely be experimenting with gongfu style as well. Though seriously, if this was a blend I could buy I’d do it in a heartbeat.

SO delicious!

What an amazing way to start off the countdown! Thank you SO much Autumn – it’s delicious. The smell pretty much drove me crazy when I opened it this morning… then went to work and didn’t come home to drink it until almost midnight!

Delicious! The packaging, the gorgeous note, the tender care and love – perfection. Gave me tingles!

Blog time!

http://www.daisychubb.com/on-the-first-day/

Wow, this is pretty good! I wasn’t a huge fan of Eight Treasures Yabao (although found the yabao in itself quite interesting!), and I haven’t tried the pu’erh in here, but this is waaaay better than I even had thought from the description! I think this is mostly because of the amazing, fruity pear flavour that is perfectly blended in with the juniper and jasmine notes that are far more prominent. The aroma is mostly yabao and a bit of jasmine, but there’s so much more pear in the flavour than I expected. In fact… this has leapt to perhaps the top of the list of my favourite teas ever! It figures that it’s

Ahhhhh, thanks so much Sil for hanging onto some of this for me! Next year I really would like to be involved in a 12 days of Christmas swap that involves such creativity – I think it could be a great deal of fun to attempt to blend a tea corresponding to a particular theme!

Also, Autumn – at least with the cup I’m having now, I completely disagree that this is too much like a fruity Teavana blend. There is so much delicious tea flavour and complexity here, and although the fruit is from their blends, the artificialness just isn’t here. And of course, the hibiscus! I can’t believe how quickly I just drank down this cup…. it was cool, and I’ve gotta say that this would make one heck of an iced tea!

ETA: I re-steeped this one twice today, and the first infusion was definitely the best, although the next two weren’t bad either, they just lost the pear flavour which was perhaps what I enjoyed the most, and how it blended with the yabao and pu’erh. Still worth it though.

Finally sitting down with this, though I did try it when blending. First a big thanks to LiberTEAS for starting this swap! I’m very happy to be part of it. And thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far. I was not expecting anyone to rate this or rave about it, but it warms my heart on this otherwise very sad day.

This tea was a thought experiment and I’m mostly pleased with it. I knew I wanted yabao, a woodsy sheng, juniper, pear, apple, cinnamon and maybe clove (I did not get to add that last one). When David release his Eight Treasures Yabao it made things easier, though I wasn’t sure how the jasmine and goji berries would play out, but I figure blossoms are just one part of the tree. I looked at lots of pear melanges but intended up purchasing two pear teas from Teavana (White Asian Pear and Anjou Pearadise) and sorting all the fruit, removing the tea, hibiscus and rose petals.

This is where this blend sort of fails for me personally, it smells too fruity and reminds me too much of other Teavana blends. Just pears and apples probably would have been best, but the peach and pineapple added sweetness and the orange slices looked festive, though I think they taste a bit too strong especially in the second and third steep. I’m going to try steeping this out further but I don’t think the fruit lends this well to extended gongfu brewing.

However it was fun to create (I also loved designing the labels!) and I do like the taste of the first cup. I would love to see what David could do with something like this, sourcing some pear, adding clove maybe even some tulsi. For those that haven’t tried the Eight Treasures Yabao Winter Blend from Verdant and liked this, I highly recommend you order at least a sample. I love it and its non-winter counterpart. Looking forward to tomorrow, thanks ladies!

Will do a full review another time but THANK YOU to Autumn Hearth this is SO delicious!
I would buy this!

I can’t get enough of this one! It’s so unique, unlike any tea I’ve ever had. I’m on my second cuppa.

This tea is amazing – it’s spicy and earthy at the same time, a rare feat. After brewed, it tastes very similar to how it smells – which I love. (That’s why I can’t stand most coffees. They never taste as nice as they smell!)

Autumn Hearth explains she wanted not a “pear tea” but a “pear tree tea” and kudos to her for thinking outside the box and not saddling us with a pear tea – not that that would be bad or anything. I just applaud her creativity.

This blend includes tropical touches – papaya and pineapple pieces, along with citrus slices – and an amazing assortment of herbal ingredients including holy basil, organic juniper, organic burdock root and elderberry, plus a touch of vanilla. The base tea is a blend of yabao and jasmine green teas. Additional flavors include passion fruit, lemon balm and natural flavoring.

This is such a fragrant cuppa! I’ve really taken my time with this one, as every sip seems like discovering a new flavor wrapped in this tea.

This is a great way to kick off our tea exchange. Thanks Autumn Hearth for a fab blend! :)

Full Review – http://keenteathyme.blogspot.com/2012/12/1-partridge-in-pear-tree-tea.html

YAY for the 12 days of christmas Tea swap! I really need to thank everyone for participating in this as i think it’s going to be highly enjoyable. :)

Hats off to Autumn Hearth for this lovely package to kick things off. Custom tin with label to celebrate Day 1. When i read that this was a custom blend that included 8 treasures yabao i was a little concerned. It’s NOT my favourite Verdant blend. However! Since i’m not even sure I’ll enjoy my own tea (day 11) I spent the day looking forward to trying this out.

So I’ll be honest, I like this better than Verdant’s blend lol Though I have to admit the smell is a little hard to get over since it smells so much like 8 treasures. :) I will set aside a wee bit of this for Kittenna to enjoy as well as I think it might be a blend that she’d enjoy. The rest is mine though! MINE!

Thank you so much for sharing this with us Autumn Hearth!

YAY Twelve Days of Christmas tea style.

Day 1-Pear Tree Tea.
I found in scent it reminded me of Teavana’s Chateau Blanc, but not as strong smelling (funny enough the smell of both kinda bug my tummy). I really liked Chateau Blanc so I had high hopes for this one.

It’s very similar in taste to Chateau Blanc, it’s hard to pinpoint, exactly what it tastes like. I find this one pulls off the wine/champagne flavour more. It’s also kind of earthy, tangy even maybe.

I don’t really know how to explain this one, except it’s yummy!

EDIT: oops forgot to add the link to my pic http://instagr.am/p/TObH2hsGT6/

This was the perfect way to begin the much anticipated Twelve Days exchange. I was nervous because I have recently discovered my disdain for Jasmine. BUT, Pear tree has changed my mind. It was a perfect morning cup and set the direction for such a fantastic day and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.