Urgh, I hate searching through old tasting notes. I can’t imagine how some of you who have reviewed several hundred (dare I say thousand?) teas manage to do it. I guess you’ve all just got killer memories.
I wanted to see what I’d written about this when I first logged it because all I could remember was that I’d been conflicted and hadn’t made up my mind about whether or not this is something that I’d be restocking. As I recalled, the dry leaf smelled AMAZING so I was trying really hard to remember what about the taste had made me so jumbled inside.
It looks like the last time (and my first time) drinking this I had really poor brewing conditions and probably over steeped – and I also drank it at a weird temperature. This time, I’m actually really liking this tea! Maybe part of that is because I brewed it with more leaf (one and a half tsp. as opposed to just 1 tsp.) or because I was very careful not to over steep (steeped for 4 min.) or maybe because I’m drinking it super hot and not a funny temperature. Maybe it’s all of those things; who knows.
What I’m getting is a strongly pear flavoured tea (albeit definitely not as strong smelling as the dry leaf, which is just a BLAST of juicy pear and nostalgia – as I apparently noted in my first tasting note for this) with some nice floral notes and a present taste of the black tea base nicely sitting on the tail end of the flavour. It’s pretty to look at too, what with all the shimmery sparkles. I’m actually finding that to be true with most of the Della Terra teas I’ve tried; they’re all really nice looking. And, as I drink more of this my mouth is actually left slightly watering. I’m also happy that I’m not getting any bitterness or astringency at all.
Still, I’m not sure if I’ll restock. I’d really like to have a pear tea in my cupboard permanently, but the only two I’ve tried are this one and DAVIDsTEA’s Cranberry Pear which is also a black tea base and which I find very good as well. They’re both quite different though; I’m finding this one plays well off the floral notes and juiciness of the pear, while Cranberry Pear has much more creaminess to it and the added complexity of the tartness from the cranberries which I think provides a bit more of a flavour profile. I really don’t want two strongly pear flavoured teas though, especially if they share the same kind of base (and Cranberry Pear is much easier to get ahold of).
I guess I’ll try Cranberry Pear tomorrow morning or early afternoon and see if I can maybe make my mind up a bit more now that I’ve had a good cup of this one.
