Plum and Cottage Pear

I went to this tea room with my family in Christmas 2016 and loved this tea so much that I had to buy some. I still love it. It is so tasty. I love the flavours and the fruitiness and just love. I am full of love.

Anlina was awesome enough to let me try this one from secret garden. I was intrigued by this one as i always seem to gravitate towards pear teas…sadly this one was a miss for me as i didn’t get much pear out of it and it seemed a little bitter. I was trying to be careful about steeping it, as anlina suggested that they are a bit finicky but maybe i mistimed this one. It was just sort of bitter and neither plumlike nor pear like for me. I may try this one again in future though as it seems like the potential is there so i may just have messed it up.

I think of all the Secret Garden teas, I was most pumped to try this one. I’ve been craving pear flavoured things lately (possibly because I had a really amazing stewed pear tart with a fancy dinner the other day), and it seems like pear is just not a very common flavour to find in stuff. I’m also just sad about the end of summer and with it, the end of fresh, summer fruit.

I used 1tsp in 8oz of water, at 96C for 3 minutes. I figured I’d go for a shorter steep than my usual four minutes for blacks, and I’m really glad I did, because I think even at 3 minutes, this got a bit over steeped.

The dry leaf has an intense, almost sharp smell of plums and pears, with tart fruit skin notes. I catch a hint of the black tea base, but the fruit fragrances are really strong.

Steeped, the liquor is a deep reddish brown, and has the same tart, plum, pear notes as the dry leaf, but mellower.

The body is quite heavy, and this cup started to develop a bit of astringency that I wish wasn’t there, but otherwise, I’m super impressed. The black tea base is a bit generic but supports the strong pear and plum flavours very well. There’s some tartness at the beginning of the sip, which fades out to sweet, juicy pear on the finish. This is very evocative of a real, fresh pear, with the complexity of both the skin and flesh flavours. I’m even reminded of that soft and slightly gritty texture that pears have.

I love this, even oversteeped. It’s unique in my cupboard and exactly the flavours I was craving and promised by the name. Next time I’ll try for a 2 minute steep.

Thanks to Tiffany from Secret Garden for this sample.

Edit: I tried resteeping these leaves, and the results were okay but not great. 5 minutes yielded a cup that was drinkable, but the complexity and intensity of the fruit just didn’t survive.