Perfect Pear

I like pears. This doesn’t smell like pears…It smells like bubblegum with some sharp fake pear on the end. The “pearness” is reminiscent of a jelly belly rather than a real pear (bosc or otherwise!) The bubblegum smell is starting to really make me mad, I have experienced it in so many of the DT blends from the last year.

Steeped five minutes or so, warm yellow colour, reminiscent of a pale ale. The taste doesn’t match the aroma, but like some of the others, I get more tart apple than sweet pear. If I even got tart pear I’d be okay with it, but I don’t get pear at all. There is a creamy sweetness at the back of the sip that I think is the vanilla – it’s not a bad blend and I’m not getting bubblegum anymore, I just think it’s misleading to call this Perfect Pear.

Actually, as an apple tea it’s quite nice. I almost wish that vanilla weren’t there though. It’s not quite working for me.

Free sample from the last time I ordered. I waited to try it until I could get my camera/computer working together again… the card reader isn’t working anymore, which is annoying, but I suppose I’ll muddle through. Anyone want to chip into the Shell Buys A New Computer fund?

(crickets)

Onto the tea then. It’s a fairly light colored tisane, sort of like the inside of a pear! There’s a tartness to the flavor that I wouldn’t necessarily consider a pear. Looking at the ingredients, I see apple – that’s exactly it. It’s a decently authentic apple tea with pear at the finish of the sip.

I might like this more if it was marketed as apple-pear… when I expect pear, I expect pear. Especially compared with the Caramalized Pear from Art of Tea that recently came in Steepster Select, this just doesn’t cut it for me.

It is a good tea, though.

UPDATE: Oh, this shines on ice. Just noticed that David’s actually recommends it. The apple takes a backseat, and it’s all pear and vanilla. I’m considering buying some now.

Oof sour! Wow this tea was a bit too tart for me.
Even all sugared up :)

I’m not going to rate the tea because I really don’t like pear! But I loved it in the Cranberry Pear blend! Ah well. All i got was a sharp, super tart taste. I added lots of sweetener and it was iced, but no go! Oh well

This doesn’t really remind me of pear so much as it reminds me of apple pear cheesecake. Or cream cheese frosting. It’s unpleasantly tart hot so I let it chill in the fridge for a few hours. Cold, this tastes both refreshing and decadent. It’s like fresh apple/pear juice but there also a creaminess that’s more tangy than just cream. So all combined it’s apple pear cheesecake. I enjoyed it. :)

Perfect tart is more like it. I steeped it hot then poured it over ice, using the whole sample for a cup of water. I think I meant to use half a cup so it’d be really strong but my brain is mush with production possibilities frontiers. I’m actually glad I didn’t do that.

Smells like pear, that’s for sure. I had to add sugar though, because it was just all around tart before that. Now it tastes like pear up front, but it has this weird, tart aftertaste. And actually, tart is too nice. Sour is more like it.

If it wasn’t for that, this would be pretty good. But on the plus side, that’s one less tea I really want. Now I really want a real pear. Poor pears, I wish they could be well replicated in tea.

I will finish drinking it though because it is above what I am studying in less painful things to subject myself to right now.

Dry Leaf Nose: Sweet pear aroma with vanilla notes.

Liquor: Golden colour.

Flavour: Very sweet and delicious pear flavour – this is not a subtle blend and makes an excellent iced tea. Variety of pear is the Bosc (AKA “winter pear”).

Mmmm… I’m pretty happy with this one. Very, very pear with some nice vanilla flavoring to it. More of a bosch pear than an anjou, which I think may be why it’s hitting the tart button for a bunch of folks. Though, to be fair, I’m drinking this sample and Teavivre’s Water Lily, which is far more tart. The apple surprisingly didn’t seem to overpower the pear, which may defy all rational consensus.

So yeah, if you like a good fruity pear flavor, this is one for you! Sweetened and iced, I’m betting it’s remarkably refreshing.

This is another sample that came in an order.

I think this is pretty much pear and vanilla, with the pear being the strongest flavor. It’s pretty juicy as far as flavoring goes. I do get a tart aftertaste.

I actually thought this was pretty good. It kinda tastes like this dessert I had once with grilled pears and vanilla syrup, but not as sweet.
I like the pairing of pears, apples, and vanilla. And the fact that there isn’t artificial flavourings to get this flavour.

I need to try this cold-brewed and then I will determine how much I really like it because to me, pears would be best enjoyed cold.

I’m not a huge fan of pears, so we’ll see how this goes…

And, I take it all back! This tea is surprising in every way. I was expecting something akin to Cranberry Pear—which tastes alright, but lately I’m not really feeling the fruity + black/green teas—which it isn’t at all! Upon brewing my husband remarked that it smelled like, and I quote, “South African cream soda, you know, the green kind!” and I suppose he’s right. The taste though is beyond delicious!

I thought that I would never find anything remotely on par with Luscious Watermelon in terms of pure, unadulterated fruitiness, but I was wrong. So wrong, in fact, that I brewed all 20g of this tea then promptly returned to my local store to acquire more! Lately I’ve been brewing it double-strength + mixing in a dash of raw sugar + putting it in the fridge to cool. Once it’s lukewarm I pour it over ice, then take my tastebuds on a journey to paradise.

I don’t hate this one! A pear tea I don’t hate! Sadly though, I don’t love it either. There is something . . . chemical in this one that I could only remove with liberal amounts of sugar. Sweetened, it was definitely a lovely pear flavour, but I am on the lookout for teas that I don’t need to sweeten to enjoy and sadly this one doesn’t quality. So no, Perfect Pear, you aren’t perfect, but you were much more pleasant than I expected.

Still on the quest for a great pear tea. This one has possibility, although hard to know if it qualifies since it’s a tisane…

Anyways!

Steeped, the smell is quite sweet and candy-like. Familiar, maybe like a sweet ripe pear. A bit different from what I was expecting.

Oh wow. This is tart. Definitely wasn’t prepared for that. Is there hibiscus?? Hmm. It doesn’t taste (or look) like hibiscus. There’s also a perfumey sweet pear flavour alongside the tartness, which altogether fade into a very pear-like lingering aftertaste (it’s really too bad the tea itself didn’t have this flavour, as it’s actually pretty good).

Not bad, but this won’t be my perfect pear tea. I’m glad I only bought 10g, so I can get on with enjoying other teas. I will probably cold brew the rest of my sample and see how it fares that way!

This tea smelled like a ripe, juicy pear as it was brewing and I was eagerly anticipating that first sip. Too bad the intial impression was that the tea tasted very tart and nothing like the scent at all. It tasted like it had a ton of hibiscus in it, but when I looked at the ingredient list there’s nothing on it that should be causing such the tartness. 0_o

After that first burst of sourness faded I could taste some actual pear flavour, but it was subtle and left behind more tartness in my mouth after I swallowed it. I’ll try icing the rest of this cup to see if that improves the taste at all. Stay tunned until tomorrow.

I love pears but this tasted nothing like pear to me. It tasted almost like some sort of weak syrup maybe? Bleh.

I put some in the fridge to cold brew so perhaps that will be the saving grace for this tea.

Thanks to jessiwrites for such a generous sample :)

Update: I let this one chill for at least 7 hours in the fridge. It’s definitely an upgrade from before but still not all that amazing. With a name like Perfect Pear I was expecting it to taste just like a pear! Perhaps pear is a hard taste to master. But this is only my first pear tea and often when they don’t work out it just spurs me on to find the perfect one :)

Yet another sample I received from DT.

This is so unique. It’s definitely pear, with a hint of crisp apple in the background, but it also tastes a little creamy too. Probably from the vanilla. The aftertaste is pear, but it sits on the fence between being artificial and real. It’s odd, because I normally love tart and sour fruits. Here, it’s tart, but it’s a little off. The way the pear lingers on the tongue after each sip isn’t so pleasing for me.

But it’s not bad. I wouldn’t buy it, but to me, it misses the mark. It was a good try, but there are much better teas out there.

After seeing Faith’s review, I was looking forward to drinking this. I was very disappointed.

First, I tried it hot…way too tart and it didn’t seem like sugar or honey was the right choice to improve this.

So, I poured it over ice. This didn’t help either.

I love pears. I love the Honey Pear by Golden Moon more than most teas. This tea didn’t taste like pear at all to me.

So, one banana, 5 Tums and an hour later, my stomach still hurts from drinking this.

Another bad experience for me from DAVIDsTEA. Truly unfortunate.

Received this tea as a sample from fellow steepsterite Aimee Popovacki via the Facebook tea traders group (http://www.facebook.com/groups/416983045023545/)

This tea tasted very mellow and fruity when it was hot. I could taste the apple and vanilla. HOWEVER, as the tea cooled I got the MAJOR TART note that other tasters found. ALSO, when it was cooled and in the cup after a an hour or son it was almost vinegar-yy tasting. It was a strange smell sensation.

I really liked this tea when it was warm and will enjoy it again — but be careful not to let it get too cool.

I bought enough of this to cold steep a pot and, well…it was less than perfect. I didn’t like it at all. Ah well, that’s one less tea I’ll need to add to my spreadsheet! It was just…tart and had an aftertaste of gross. Not for me.

I made this one the other night to stick in the fridge. Based on reviews I read, I sweetened it a bit before cooling it… and I think I ended up with a too-sweet tea. I think the next time I make this, I’m going to go ahead and leave it plain. It’s quite good, but definitely far from perfect.

This was a sample from my DT order in July. Had it iced with dinner a while ago. It was sweet and tasty as an iced tea, but didn’t really blow me away. Wasn’t really pear-y enough for me, but perhaps that’s a pear variety difference issue between Tasmania and Canada. I wouldn’t order again, but if I happened to be in a store and the iced tea $1 special was on, or it was TOTD, I wouldn’t knock back a cup.