Chocolate Pear Cake

Cup #2 for the day. Sipdown Theme: Tea from a woman-owned business. I had a few to pick from for this theme: Hella tea, Paru, the Necessiteas, Call Me Sweetea, 52teas, Smoremermaid, Friday Afternoon, the Tea Girl and probably some more that I don’t realize.

Preparation: Western
Tasting Note: This is a weird little tea, I like it, which is was I find even more weird about it. It is sweet, the candied ginger and sugar added to the blend make it more than enough sweet on it’s own. I think all the flavors are there: ginger, pear and chocolate. I think what this tea reminds me of is a chocolate covered crystalized ginger piece more than a cake. The ginger in this tea reminds me a lot of gingerbeer without the fizz. So then there’s the chocolate… I don’t think it over powers the ginger of this tea in any fashion but it is there and I don’t hate it but I think it limits the tea to a very specific mood. A part of me wishes this wasn’t a green tea so I could see how this faired as an evening tea.

Ultimately, I think I like this tea, it is interesting and reminds me of the holidays in a off-the-beaten path sort of way. I wouldn’t have it all the time but I have never had anything like it before and I think it still works. I can’t recommend it to anyone else though, I am pretty sure they would say I am insane and spit it out on my shoes.

sample from VariaTEA. Not sure how i feel about this one so i’m glad to have another cup to try. It’s mildly chocolate…there is pear taste there to be found but it reminds me of something i can’t quite place….yet. Enjoyed it though? i think?

Today’s battle pairs this against DAVIDsTEA’s Tie-Dye Butterfly and since I didn’t love this last time, I thought for sure it wouldn’t be much of a competitor. I decided to ice both since I once again forgot to cold brew them early enough and my first couple sips of this iced were surprisingly good. It highlights the sweet pear which is sort of tasting like the sour apple gummy rings – the green and white ones. The chocolate is weird here and it doesn’t scream cake but that was my issue with this last time as well. So it’s better than expected but still suffering from some flavour misses and that’s why Tie-Dye Butterfly is moving on. Check out the tasting not for that tea here: https://steepster.com/rachel12610/posts/416453

Yeeeaaahhh…

Unfortunately I think this tea is still a pretty big no for me. I don’t like the way the juicy floral pear notes and the more dutch chocolate/chocolate cake flavours come together and the weirdness of the pretty present grassy greener base doesn’t do anything to blend them more seamlessly. It was a drinkable cup, but it mostly just reinforced my first impression.

This really does taste like some kind of chocolate pear dessert. Not quite a cake, but perhaps a pear tart drizzled in chocolate and caramel. There’s quite a strong caramel note, and the chocolate is distinct but not overwhelming or synthetic tasting. The pear flavoring isn’t my favorite, and is bordering on artificial. There’s a slight banana note to it as well. It’s quite sweet, and would probably do better as a latte.