Kittenna

297 Followers / 288 Following

Kittenna drank Pear Tree by Autumn Hearth

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.

2013-01-30 01:45:19 -0500

180 °F / 82 °C

3 min 0 sec

I Like This

16 likes

3 comments

People who liked this

Comments

Alphakitty 2013-01-30 02:38:28 -0500

This blend is SO good, I wish I could buy it en masse haha

Sil 2013-01-30 07:05:26 -0500

I’m really glad you enjoyed it. I really hoped you would since it was a great creative blend for the 12 days of Christmas just not up my alley ;)

Kittenna 2013-01-30 10:40:15 -0500

Yes, I am so glad I got to try it! I really quite like it. The yabao took a while to grow on me.

Profile

Bio

I have always been a tea fan (primarily herbals and Japanese greens/oolongs) but in the last year or so, tea has become increasingly more appealing as not only a delicious, calming drink, but as a relatively cheap, healthy reward or treat to give myself when I deserve something. I should clarify that, however; the reward is expanding my tea cupboard, not drinking tea – I place no restrictions on myself in terms of drinking anything from my cupboard as that would defeat my many goals!

My DavidsTea addiction was born in late 2011, despite having spent nearly a year intentionally avoiding their local mall location (but apparently it was just avoiding the inevitable!). I seem to have some desire to try every tea they’ve ever had, so much of my stash is from there, although I’ve recently branched out and ordered from numerous other companies.

I like to try and drink all my teas unaltered, as one of the main reasons I’m drinking tea other than for the flavour is to be healthy and increase my water intake without adding too many calories! I’ve found that the trick in this regard is to be very careful about steeping time, as most teas are quite pleasant to drink straight as long as they haven’t been oversteeped. However, I tend to be forgetful (particularly at work) when I don’t set a timer, resulting in a few horrors (The Earl’s Garden is not so pleasant after, say, 7+ minutes of steeping).

I’m currently trying to figure out which types of teas are my favourites. Herbals are no longer at the top; oolongs have thoroughly taken over that spot, with greens a reasonably close second. My preference is for straight versions of both, but I do love a good flavoured oolong (flavoured greens are really hit or miss for me). Herbals I do love iced/cold-brewed, but I drink few routinely (Mulberry Magic from DavidsTea being a notable exception). I’m learning to like straight black teas thanks to the chocolatey, malty, delicious Laoshan Black from Verdant Tea, and malty, caramelly flavoured blacks work for me, but I’m pretty picky about anything with astringency. Lately I’ve found red rooibos to be rather medicinal, which I dislike, but green rooibos and honeybush blends are tolerable. I haven’t explored pu’erh, mate, or guayasa a great deal (although I have a few options in my cupboard).

I’ve decided to institute a rating system so my ratings will be more consistent. Following the smiley/frowny faces Steepster gives us:

100: This tea is amazing and I will go out of my way to keep it in stock.

85-99: My core collection (or a tea that would be, if I was allowing myself to restock everything!) Teas I get cravings for, and drink often.

75-84: Good but not amazing; I might keep these in stock sparingly depending on current preferences.

67-74: Not bad, I’ll happily finish what I have but probably won’t ever buy it again as there’s likely something rated more highly that I prefer.

51-66: Drinkable and maybe has some aspect that I like, but not really worth picking up again.

34-50: Not for me, but I can see why others might like it. I’ll make it through the cup and maybe experiment with the rest to get rid of it.

0-33: It’s a struggle to get through the cup, if I do at all. I will not willingly consume this one again, and will attempt to get rid of the rest of the tea if I have any left.