Sweet Helen

Sipdown (204/207)!

Not much left to say on this one that I haven’t already covered. I finished it quite quickly, which I didn’t expect to – but I do love my pear teas.

There’s a little bit going to VariaTEA, so I’m hoping she enjoys it.

Rivertea had sent me a sample of this, it sounds good based on the description. But it tastes weeeeeirrrrd.

Really sour. Leaves a horrid taste in my mouth. I don’t get chocolate at all when it’s hot.

I did just sip it as it had cooled and the chocolate comes out more, and the flavours aren’t quite as in your face sour and clashy…but it’s still not something I’d ever buy.

I will be passing the rest on to my friend to try.

It’s really bitter and icky to me.

And there’s something in it that reminds me of the flavour note in Boatsman that I dislike. I thought it might be chamomile but there’s none in this according to the ingredients. Who knows. They smell kind of similar.

Oof, this was a super thoughtful surprise gift from Dexter3657! Tried it late last night as it’s a tisane (or was it the night before? G’ah). I love a good pear “tea”—Joy’s Teaspoon’s is perhaps still my go-to—but they’re hard to get right, often either too wispy or they turn into something dangerously close to the kind of tart apple tea I for some reason can’t stand. I loved the way this one smelled brewing and the chocolate intrigued me because I adore fresh pear slices with squares of super dark chocolate (the absence of apple or beetroot in the listed ingredients also gave me hope!), but alas, it proved the latter sort of apple-y pear and I struggled to finish it because of that specific apple juice-like tartness I just can’t handle in a hot drink. Aw. What makes this whole experience great though is that there’s a MESS of “Sweet Helen” pear teas, many of them from Frenchy can’t-try-before-I-buy, a-bear-to-obtain brands, and this keeps me from finding out the hard way, buying 100g with pricey shipping. So I’m super grateful to Dexter3657, whew. I have a feeling I’ll agree with Cavocorax, that this might be quite good cold (last fall I found the Berkshire Apple and Fig tea that floats around under various brand names is undrinkably apple juice-tart to me hot, but delicious cold). I’ll coldsteep the rest of the generous sample Dex gave me when it heats up here (any moment now!) and see.

Sipdown! (252)

So I think this is not as great as some of the other RiverTeas I’ve had, but I’m ok with that seeing as I’ve enjoyed so many of their teas.

Thanks Sil for sharing this with me!

ETA: It does taste better as it cools. Maybe this would be better if I just had it iced?

I am back to behaving dietwise which means I am back to two milk servings a day so my heart sunk just a little when I heard the mailman delivering my package from Roswell Strange just after I finished prepping my two matcha milks for the day. That means I don’t get to try some of the matcha until tomorrow…oh well. What I do get to try though is this tea which I have been hearing such positive things about so thank you Roswell Strange for such a generous package!!

The whole sample got tossed into my cup and as I sip on it now, I am just not sure how I feel. It is like a slightly sour pear jelly belly combined with a hint of chocolate. Good or weird? I just don’t know. I can see this being a tasty cold brew though. I think I will let some of this cup cool down so I can see how this tastes cold because as I drink it hot I am just totally at a loss. More to come…

ETA: This cup has now cooled and drinking it now, I am enjoying it more. The pear and chocolate flavors mesh together better cold versus competing for my attention in the hot cup. With that said, I don’t think this is going to be an addition to my order (except as maybe a sample) since both hot and cold, something is simply off for my tastes. I had such high hopes for this one but I think I will stick to the Prickly Pear that I have so much of in my cupboard.

go exchange rate go! it’s up a little tonight so that makes me a happy camper, esp since they’re forecasting it’ll be down around 85 cents by the end of the year. BOOO!

This is the last of this tea – the remainder is off to cavocorax to try since we’ve both mostly picked up different teas from RiverTea. I really like this one, though i wish it wasn’t such a heavy tea. I suspect that i could likely use a little less tea and brew for longer, but i’ll try that next time since i’ll likely be picking this up again as it’s a herbal option for when i’m in the mood for a not black tea :)