Pomegranate Pear Black Tea

This came out astringent the first time I had it, so definitely steep for a shorter time than recommended. The flavor is fruity and nice cold, but I had to add extra sugar and milk to try to smooth out the astringency, which was a shame. The second time, I steeped for only 2.5 minutes, and I drank it cold without any milk. It was still fruity and refreshing! Different from other fruit teas, though I’m not sure I would have been able to identify the pomegranate. I feel like I do taste the pear! I think I’d prefer this on a green base.

Sipdown 18 – 2024

I don’t love pomegranate teas, but the addition of pear really helps this for me. Such a bright, juicy pear flavor.

Day 5 of the 52teas advent calendar. I oversteeped this by about 5 minutes so definitely not getting the intended experience! The good news is that it survived the oversteep pretty well. The pomegranate flavor is surprisingly clear – usually pomegranate ends up reading as generic tartness to me. The base is astringent, of course, but honestly not as bad as you’d expect from an 8 minute steep. The pear is a bit vague though. It just translates as non-specific mushy sweetness. I’ll have this again at some point; it’ll be interesting to see how different the flavor is when brewed properly!

52teas 12 Teas of Christmas 2023 – Day 5

This tea smells good. I picked up on the pear but got mulled red wine from this more than anything else; I was pretty sick and out of it yesterday though, so wasn’t paying too much attention. To be revisited soon to see if I can detect the pomegranate.

52teas 12 Teas of Christmas 2023 – Day 5

“It (dry leaf) smells kinda like banana candy! sniffs steam Very hot.” puts mug down

Yeah, we’ll let it sit for 5, 10 minutes.

I talked to Kiki about last night’s tea – Candy Cane Marshmallow Treat Genmaicha – and natural and artificial flavors. She said she feels bad for leaving “bad reviews”. She’s concerned about 52teas taking them too deeply to heart. She said she expects to taste the tea leaf more. I said most of the time with flavored teas, it’s about creating a concept of taste and not so much about the leaf itself, that the leaf plays a role in rounding out the flavor. She said she’ll try to approach this evening’s tea with that in mind, despite me not telling her the name of the tea until later.

“Okay! sniffs and cocks her head Banana pudding! Banana cream pie! sips Banana cream pie – that’s what it is, isn’t it?”

Haha, no.

chuckles “Don’t tell me no!”

“Creme brulee, it’s creme brulee! Pudding! No? It’s smooth, creamy, like one of those banana peanuts. Boy look at my cup already (she’s adding gel dye to cookies and now it’s all over her mug). It’s kinda like a hot toddy and it’s kinda got a little spice to it, may- maybe… cinnamon. Oh man, look at my fingers… (they’re covered in green dye). Kinda like a brandy. So what would that make it? Butterscotchy… no. Kinda like vanilla. Maybe it’s – wait. Maybe it’s coconut. It could be coconut cream pie? It’s hard to say now. But it’s not too bad, I kinda like it!

sniffs mug Oh, jasmine, maybe jasmine or plumeria. sips A tropical island flavor. It’s nice, it’s very nice. I like it, i like it not as well as the first one but better than the last two, and I would give this a rating of… 7! big burps Wooof. burps Lay it on me. Did I hit anything? Like vanilla? Did I say vanilla?"

It’s called, um —

" — Tahitian Night. Is that what it’s called? Warm Breeze!" chuckles It’s called Put Your Suit On, We’re Going to the Islands. Oh boy. Okay, tell me what a big dope I am, go ahead."

It’s called Pomegranate Pear Black Tea.

“Hahaha, not even close, my interpretation. But it’s fruity and that’s why I kept going to the banana or coconut cream pie and coconuts and warm breeze and island sound and steel drums.”

It has real pomegranate arils in it and real pear.

“How about that. I didn’t get one of them. But it has kinda that astringent taste that pomegranates do now that you say that.”

- - - -

Another one that’s nice and smooth. It has strong yet soft aroma. The cinnamon is complementary to the juiciness and is warming, never biting or sweet. The sweetness of this tea is probably in the flavoring, which here, smells like bubblegum and banana candy. In taste, that flavoring is like a baked pear but maybe also a juicy green pear. The pomegranate probably helps pull the juicy quality out of the pear. Tastes a lot like Christmas punch. Good base black tea for this blend. Unfortunately this tea’s only really good for one steep, because I want more!

- - - -

“So did this lady make all of these teas?” Yeah. “That’s cool. She gets to do a lot of fun experimentation!”

52teas 12 Teas of Christmas 2023 – Day 5

I love how this one turned out. The pear is really lovely, the pomegranate adds a pleasant bit of tartness to the cup for some contrast & the cinnamon is a soft warmth in the background. Mostly, I taste pear, but this wouldn’t be the same without that little pop of pomegranate.

Really, really happy with this one!

12 Teas of Christmas: Day 5

Oh, this is fantastic. I’m a total sucker for this kind of juicy, almost bubblegum-like pear flavor, and the slightly tart pomegranate notes are really lovely. I’m sipping it alongside a mid-morning snack of pecan pie bars I baked last night (gotta try ‘em before the holiday party!), and it’s doing a great job of cutting through the sweetness.

Smooth and crisp and bright and just delightful.

Adventageddon Day 17 – Tea 1/4

This was my favourite of the day. I was so excited when I saw it this morning because I have such a sweet spot for pear flavoured teas and the combination of pear and pomegranate sounded super similar to one of my all time favourite blends: Cranberry Pear from DAVIDsTEA.

Sure enough once steeped up there’s a lot of similarities between the two blends. Both are very fruity with an underlying creaminess. The pear in this blend leans a bit on the “bubblegum” kind of side in both smell and taste, but that’s not exactly uncommon for pear flavouring. Especially when really fresh. I imagine with time it’ll ease up on that quality. Still, there’s a real juicy ripeness to the taste that works with the deeper, jammy red fruit notes. It’s a fun balance and just so fresh and delicious. Maybe one of my favourite 52Teas blends in recent memory – and by quite a lot!

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C0-G7urOC8D/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3enxeV7c2jw

52teas 12 Teas of Christmas 2023 – Day 5

Ooh, interesting combo! When I was scratching it off, at first I thought it was Pomegranate Peach and was like “well, that doesn’t seem very festive” ha ha.

It smells a bit like some kind of fruity bubblegum or candy. And there is a touch of that candy/gum sweetness in the flavor as well, but mostly it tastes like pears. I can’t make up my mind whether it’s fresh or cooked pears, because I feel like it has elements of both. There’s a crispness to it that reminds me of pear skin, but there’s also a more sweet and concentrated flavor that makes me lean toward peeled cooked pears. I don’t really notice the pomegranate, but there is depth to it and a chalkiness that I usually get from berry flavoring, so I’m assuming that’s coming from the pomegranate flavor.

It’s nice! I feel like pear and cranberry would go really well together too…