Exotic Pear

Sipdown for me today!
I am not the biggest fan of white teas in general but this is a really good blend, has a great juicy pear flavor and the touch of anise makes it really interesting. See previous notes if interested.

I served this tea to one of my students this morning, drinking a small cup for myself as well. Measuring it out, the yellow flowers are unruly, doing everything they can to fill the teaspoon, so I have to take them out of the bag first, then measure out the tea, then break off a clump of flowers & add it to the steeping basket. This tea has suck a clean & fresh aroma, & although it isn’t a favorite, my student loved it! She is a love of light teas such as this, so I gave her the rest of the bag. She was delighted! I claim a sipdown! Now I only have 282 teas in my cupboard! :)

A lovely pear tea … I was surprised to see that it has been retired. It’s really nice. A really unique approach to the flavor of pear … it is sweet and the pear tastes authentic, and I love the touch of anise. The floral notes are nice too. But the anise really is what makes this tea just … amazing for me. I am glad I got to order some before it was retired.

Thank you Stacy for sending this sample! I believe this blend was retired right after I ordered. I woke up with a bit of a sore throat this morning which has mostly gone away but I think it’s still affecting my taste buds. I spent most of morning and afternoon with a honey oolong and while I could tell it was delicious and fresh and good quality and there were things I liked about it, there was one off note that was being intensified and I’m finding the same here. I like anise but didn’t really get it on the first infusion, it just sort of read as “gum”. I added a pinch or brown sugar which brought out the juiciness of the pear. I just glanced at Bonnie’s note before logging this and I agree with the slightly rough bitter pear skin analogy, but she says it much more poetically than I.

First Review. What a pretty tea! I must comment that of all the tea that comes into my kitchen tea cupboard, so far Butiki has probably the loveliest looking tea! This tea has very large golden flowers! If you have a glass pot or gaiwan, it is worth it to watch this brew and give the leaves some steeping room.

I steeped 3.5 min. and noticed there wasn’t a huge burst of fragrance. No big Pear smell announcing a gaudy artificial shout to drink a cup of tea. This is one of those tea’s you have to settle down and think about.
My first sip proved a bit flat. Like a Pear that had not fully ripened. A Bosc Pear with a hint of cinnamon from the skin.
Not fooling around with tasting a whole cup of flat tea, I added sweetening which immediately elevated the taste to ripeness and more delicious Bosc Pear.
I think that the addition of star anise is so subtle in this tea that instead of a licorice taste (which some may find here) the anise is exactly that spicy, dry and just short of bitter skin taste that you get from a Bosc Pear! (One reason I love to eat these pears is the spiciness and they are exceptional with smoked blue cheese! )
The floral note in the tea is faintly reminiscent of wildflower honey.
This is a smooth white tea, nice fruit and spice without being too bold. I would think that this is a good tea for afternoon sipping on a sunny day.

Thanks to Stacy of Butiki Teas for sending a sample pack of this tea (and a few others!) along with my recent order. Great to try some teas that I’ve been eyeing but have been wary of due to ingredients (e.g. this one has star anise, but I’m looking for a great pear tea!)

Steeped, the tea smells… perfumey. Not really all that pear-y. It tastes similar, in my opinion. There’s some flavour, but it’s not terribly strong, nor does it taste how I expected. Certainly not objectionable, but just a flavour I’m completely indifferent to. I can maybe taste a hint of the star anise, and it’s not bothersome, but to me personally, there’s nothing terribly special about it. (On the positive side, at least I don’t feel like I lost out by not ordering a pouch of this one!)

ETA: 180F/far too long – Eep, I’m smelling the licorice/anise now. Oh yuck… that is pretty much all I taste. Down the drain you go. Definitely not regretting only getting a sample of this one. And I’m very thankful the sample was just one cup’s worth, so I don’t have a bunch left to feel guilty about!

While this is a nice gentle tea, it doesn’t so much taste like pear to me. I’m thinking that it might have been contaminated by the grapefruit tea that came with it, but I’m not 100% sure. It’s still a lovely calm quiet tea but isn’t quite the pear I was looking for. I’ll have to get Stacy to send me another sample sometime with an order that doesn’t have grapefruit lol

Sipping down the last sample swapped by @Amy Oh

Wow, my first thoughts after sipping this were “kool-aid!”. I don’t know, something about the flavoured white tea made me think that.
As I kept drinking, more the the light, refreshing, floral aspects came out. I can see why this is named exotic pear, it kinda reminds me of pear flavour. It also seems like a flavour that might do well iced.

Thanks for the weird experience Amy. ;)

First off, I’d like to thank Stacy for sending me this sample :) I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to try it!

This tea is visually very beautiful & the dry leaves fragrant and enticing. As it steeped the aroma was very juicy and sweet. I couldn’t wait to try it! I have had pear teas before that I wasn’t too fond of & I had a good feeling about this one :)

Upon tasting it, the juicy quality of the aroma was translated into the flavor. It was sweet, delicate, and juicy. It wasn’t my favorite cup of tea, but I think it might just be that I am not partial to pear teas because this tea was not bad by any means! The flavors were lovely and my husband actually thought it was very tasty. It may not be MY favorite, but it’s definitely a great tea for someone who is more fond of pear teas :)

This is my first pear tea, but I’ve always wanted to try one so it was a perfect candidate to request for a sample from Butiki. The tea is apparently a new blend, and it has tons of whole flower buds in the dry tea. The aroma dry is definitely pear and general juicy-fruity, with some definite florals underlying it. Steeped, the tea liquor is a pale yellow (but not as pale as the Rose Violet Calendula Oolong!), and it smells like primarily like pears, but now a little more vegetal with floral overtones I can’t quite place.

The flavor is really juicy pear! It surprised me a bit, actually. Again in the taste I get the vegetal notes from the aroma (the green tea perhaps), and definitely an array of florals. I’m interested to know what flowers are actually in this one, but I really like it! I hope this one gets added for online ordering, because I would order more.