While the traditional wine-poached pears will not be easily dethroned, pears poached in liquid infused with oolong tea leaves deserve the same level of attention. These smoky and subtly-perfumed pears are great by themselves; they’re also great with panna cotta or vanilla or coconut ice cream/gelato on the side. Not that these tea-poached pears came out of a need to avoid cooking/baking with alcohol, but the booze-shy among us may find this alcohol-free variation worthy of being added to their repertoire.
These tea-poached pears have been inspired by a similar recipe I’ve seen in O Magazine. It was made with oolong tea leaves like this Oriental Beauty offered by my fellow Chicagoan, Shui Tea.1
Tea-Poached Pears
Makes 6 servings
Printable Version
3 large Bosc pears (choose very firm ones), peeled, halved, and cored
4 cups water
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/3 cup loose oolong tea leaves (Jasmine tea works great too.)
1 This is neither a paid advertisement nor a sponsored post.
That looks delicious! I love tea in my desserts and this is something on my to-do list!
Mmm, tea-poached fruit is so lovely! I find that apricots are perfect poached in any tea but pears sound delicious too.
Beautiful! I can’t wait to try this.
I am not a big pear fan … it is a texture thing … but, I LOVE poached pears. The poaching makes the texture of fresh pear, which I find grainy and not nice, mellow, soft and oh so lovely! I have never had tea poached fruit before. Your pictures are lovely!!
This is something interesting to try out. I love poached pears.
That does look stylish sliced into a whorl. I’m a fan of red-wine pears, so a tea variation sounds lovely – especially with coconut icecream!