Cranberry Pear

Wow, I kinda like this one!! with my ‘buds existing in half-life zone(yeah they slipped back a little but I don’t mind because I know it isn’t perm!)… I didn’t expect much of anything from this or any other tea. Moreover, there wasn’t much leaf in the sample – I wonder, is that normal for this one? or did I just get a randomly overly fruit-filled bag?
Anyhow, the pear brings out some natural sweetness, and the cranberry is really nice, not too bitter or sour- kinda mellow (compared to what I expected).
I can taste the tea, which is nice. So many teas that go heavy on the fruit just drown out any camellia! I’m tempted to buy some- it seems to work with my condition :)
There is NO maltiness whatsoever(my curse I suppose), just that something extra that sings of “tea” but the fruityness rounds it out for me and thus for the first time ever since this whole mess started, I don’t mind!
I mean, I’ve enjoyed teas a whole lot more in the past… just not this much since I took my hiatus.
I’m cautiously excited here. Sorta toe-dancing happy. Still, I’m in a great mood!!! xx
P.S. I’ve tried catching up on everyone’s reviews. They really pile up when I don’t come around so often…

What a day yesterday, I’m still exhausted! Had such an amazing time though.

I wasn’t so sure about this one, but went ahead and dived right in. Very fruity, I can definitely taste the cranberry especially in the aftertaste. The acidity of the pear however hits you dead on, giving you a spark of tartness as soon as you sip. I’m not crazy about the whole sourish taste I’m getting out of all of this, but it’s not overbearing so I can tolerate it.

I probably won’t be repurchasing this one any time soon. But I’ll finish my sample happily whenever I feel like something a little less decadent and a little more sour and fruity.

A huge thanks to Ellyn for sharing this tea with me in the 12 Days of Steepster Christmas swap this year. Her packaging was beautiful – vacuum packed package of this tea, with a very professional-looking label detailing all of the ingredients, as well as the day it represented (Partridge in a Pear Tree).

This smells delicious, and has huge chunks of cranberry and what I assume are dried pears in the mix. It’s just as lovely steeped up in the smell department, and it does taste as described. I doubt I would have ever tried this on my own, or thought of it as a holiday tea. Yet, it really does fit the occasion, and is lovely to boot.

Thanks again Ellyn!

Thank you Ellyn,

For the 12 Days of Christmas ~
This is a ♡pearfect♡ First Day Tea…I love it.
The cranberry is fresh, not too tart, and the pear and apple
are freshly sweet and linger on the palette.
This tea is incredibly delightful.
Merry Christmas everyone.

This tea has a lot of potential, and I expect to up the rating at some point. I actually feel like I was just unlucky with it: I went and bought 50g of it, and when I made a big teapot of it this morning, I couldn’t help but notice that everything my spoon seemed to be able to find in the bag was dried fruits. I mean, that’s not a bad thing, but where’s the black tea?! What I have in my bag looks nothing like the picture, I actually counted 2 small tea leaves in 5 teaspoons total. I assume that this being a new tea, their big tin was full at the store and the tea had all slipped to the bottom, leaving me with lots of fruits and no black tea.

Anyway, even without much black tea, cranberry and pear sounds like a pretty good combination, and it is. Without any surprise, it tasted very fruity, with hints of tartness and a natural sweetness. Definitely yummy, but somewhat empty; the body seemed only half-filled with this great fruitiness, and half-filled with… well the taste of water. I assume that the black is what is supposed to complete the first half, and I’m sure the combination would actually be great. I’ll add some myself to go through the rest of this bag of dried fruits and see how it ends up. I might re-rate after I feel like I had a proper experience of what this tea is supposed to be.

I have to give this tea a huge ratings boost, since it is my go to tea every morning and every time I have it I smile. This is my favourite black blend, and I can’t believe that I haven’t gotten around to changing its rating yet or reviewing it again. Anyway, the smell is amazing- exactly like cream soda, and the taste is almost as good. You really taste the cranberry when brewed, and the base black is very mild and pleasant. This tea gives me the kick I need to start my day and has captured my heart. My tin is running dangerously empty, looks like a trip to DAVIDs is in order!!!!

When I read some reviews of this one I really wanted to try it because it seemed like my kind of tea. I love cranberries and pears, so why not together with black tea? Luckily DaisyChubb sent me a sample! Thanks!

The leaf is full of big chunks of fruit, cranberries, apples, and pears (which look pretty weird when rehydrated). I was totally not expecting the aroma after it steeped. Mmm, caramel! Where is that coming from? Underneath the caramel are notes of black tea and appley fruit. The flavor is primarily fruit… definitely apple and pear, with some tart cranberry in the second part of the sip. The caramel notes manifest very lightly in the aftertaste. The black tea just kind of sits down at the foundation, not too present, which is fine with me because when it does peek out I’m not sure I like it’s flavor too much. The fruit flavors, possibly mostly the cranberry, are fairly tart and have a slightly drying mouthfeel. Overall this tea is very tasty, and very autumnal!

Sipdown the 8th. At first glance I thought this was a herbal. There were several large chunks of pear and dried cranberries, but not a whole lot of black tea. After a four minute steep, the tea leaves opened up enough to convince me that there was indeed a decent amount of black tea that had been hiding away. However, the liquor was a very pale yellow which is not what I was expecting for 1 tbs. of tea in 12 oz. of water.

Nonetheless, the tea was rather pleasant. The pear added a juicy tartness, and I could taste a hint of cranberry. I sensed a very faint spiciness akin to cinnamon, but I don’t see it listed in the ingredients. The experience reminded me of drinking a nicely flavored herbal, but was not what I had in mind for a black tea.

On a strange note, I steeped a bag of particularly strong masala chai in my cup without first rinsing it out. Now I am enjoying a really great pear-flavored chai. I wish all of my tea accidents turned out this yummy. :)

Thanks for sharing, Sil!

Attempted to drink a cup of this today, but my 1 year old decided that she had other plans. Plans that involved licking my laptop screen, playing with the highlighters that dad left out, and ripping pages out of magazines. So, the tea got cold, still drinkable. But cold. And this tea cold, has a lingering aftertaste of cardboard. Sigh…