Pear Chai

I get some candylike pear and some mild spices. Everything tastes nice together. I taste some ginger and other flavors. I was craving this tea the other day and was happy to find I had one last serving left in the bag. It’s pleasant cold and is one of those rare fruity spiced teas that really works.

Sipdown 46

(52teas (Anne) 2022: 20)

I love pear in tea, but wasn’t sure how it would pair (ha ha) with chai spices. It’s often a fairly subtle flavour and easily overwhelmed. Strangely, the aroma from the dry tea was very bubblegum to me, maybe with a hint of pear? The brewed tea did taste more like pear, however, and chai spices, heavy on the cardamom. End result was not bad, but not pear-y or unique enough for me to want more. One note – I did pick up on the green base here with some nice umami notes, which is always a plus for me with flavoured greens.

52 Teas 12 Days Of Teas Advent Day 2
The base tea for this one was very smooth and the pear flavor tasted quite natural. In terms of spices, I was able to pick out quite a few of them.
This one also had the same cream note that I seem to find in most if not all of the green teas from 52 Teas. It makes for a cozy warm cup of a winter spiced tea.

The 2nd Tea of Christmas – This was one of my favorites during the blending/curing process because my tea studio smelled AMAZING! While packaging it into the pouches, I craved a cup because it smelled so good. I love the sweetness of the pear combined with the spices. So nice.

Even though this is called a “chai” I went lighter on the spices intentionally because 1 – it’s a green tea & I didn’t want to overwhelm the softer qualities of the green tea base with a heavily spiced note and 2 – Pear is one of the more difficult flavors to work with and I didn’t want to overwhelm the pear. I wanted the pear to be the star in this show.

I am really happy with how this one turned out. I loved it when I first blended it back in 2018 & I think I love it even more now! The pear is deliciously sweet, the spices are gentle yet warming & it’s a very satisfying cup. It’s almost got me convinced that I should finish up the cup & then go get cozy under the covers & spend today as a me day. Unfortunately, I have subscriptions to send out – they’re going out TOMORROW! omg – I … am … almost … caught … up. I don’t want to jinx it but – I also am so incredibly excited to be caught up. I don’t remember what it’s like to be caught up. What will I do with myself if I’m not frantically stressed out about being so behind? I don’t know. I don’t know.

52Teas 12 Teas of Christmas: Day 2!

Another earlier-than-usual morning for me, but at least it came after a solid night’s sleep. The scent of the dry blend almost knocked me over, but in a good way! It’s a bright, fruity, almost bubblegum scent with, yes, notes of pear. It made me smile!

The taste made me smile, too. There’s definitely more pear than chai spices, just a hint of cloves and allspice to bring a little depth. It’s nice and light and fruity and somehow a bit sweet, but in a good way. I feel a bit like I’m drinking an adult version of fruit punch!

(Edited to add: The second steep has a different flavor profile, more floral and less fruity/sweet. Interesting!)

I was greatly entertained by this blend. It’s Juicyfruit. Y’know, the gum? It smells and tastes just like it. No pear or chai in this for me, but I’ve never drunk Juicyfruit, so that was fun.

The heat and humidity are aspiring to kill me. Over 40 C humidex in the past week or two. And no air-conditioning. Kill me now. Gah!

This tea very happily reminds me of two eggnoggy-type green teas Anne masterminded a while ago. Both brilliant!

The pear is here, present. The spice mix is subtle. Really lovely.

Stupid Canada Post is still behind on deliveries and so I’m still waiting for my 12 days of tea to get here :‘( But I understand there have been a lot of unforeseen circumstances both before, and after, shipping and I’m being patient. I didn’t want to mention it because I know LiberTEAs has been ill and I don’t want her to feel bad, especially when Canada Post was not going to ship the package during November/early December anyway because of the strike.

In the mean time, I figured I’d try to get through a few seasonal teas from previous years. I just opened this pouch today (now than most of my chais are out of my cupboard and I feel there is room for one more open tea). I like the idea of pear and spices together as it reminds me of cinnamon stuffed apples and pears we used to cook over a campfire when I was a kid. Pears are also sweet/fruity but a bit milk, so the lighter base was a good choice.

Typical of my brewing habits, I let this steep in hottish (probably about 70-80 deg. C) water for about 10+ minutes because I forgot to time the steep. Then, I found it very bitter in the after taste so I added some vanilla soy milk. My ideal teas can withstand being left in the mug while I re-brew the leaves, and unfortunately this green is nowhere close to passing the test. Even with milk it is bitter and a touch astringent. I will be sure to go with a short brew time for my next cup, however I like my teas to not be super finicky because I can’t be bothered to measure the water temperature exactly or time steeps.

The spices are very nice in this chai blend. I tasted clove and ginger most heavily, but some cinnamon and allspice was there too. I’ve always found clove and allspice taste the same to me.

It smells of pear!

I tried a bit on its own, and it’s very sweet and pear-like. I don’t taste a lot of spice, but there’s a hint, and it’s nice. I’m good with the pear flavor.

Since I usually add a little nondairy milk to chai, and I have some soy nog, I did so to most of the cup. I really like this combination too. Nog has a lot of the same spices as chai, and so there’s a bit more spice, but I still taste the pear a lot.

If they ever do a re-blend of this, I’ll buy more.