10 Bartlett pears
5 cups water
2 cups sugar
3 Tazo Vanilla Rooibos tea bags
Directions:
Prep 3 quart jars. Peel, core and halve the pears. If you’d like, float them in water mixed with Fruit Fresh or lemon juice, to help retain their color. Pack them into the jars. Meanwhile, bring the sugar, tea bags and water to a rolling boil. Do not let it reduce. Pour the hot syrup into the jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Run a knife or a jar scraper to dislodge any bubbles while turning the jar slightly. Seal. Process in a hot water bath for 25 minutes.
Note: This recipe yields a bit more syrup than you will probably need. I scaled it this way because while my 10 pears fit into 3 quart jars, you might have some leftover. There should be enough syrup leftover to can a pint of extra pears if need be.
Note: A great source for canning information is the Blue Book guide to preserving. I highly recommend it for learning how to can. Here is a bunch of other canning books and equipment I find useful.
My thoughts:
This week’s Tazo secret ingredient was pears. I was trying to think of something that wasn’t too autumnal to make. Pears are just coming into season but I am more into peach-berry-tomato mode than pears and apples right now. So I was turning that around in my head for a while and decided I would pair them with the quintessential summer drink, sweet tea. I thought about making some sort of granita or some other frozen dessert but the sort of grainy texture of Bartlett pears made me think it might not be as smooth as I’d like. So I decided to can them in a light sweet tea syrup. Most recipes I found for canning pears use the hot pack method where you heat the pears through in the syrup but I think that makes the pears a little mushy. Instead I decided to process the pears more like peaches so they would hopefully retain the shape and texture better after the long processing time.
I shall be happy to post a comment! 🙂
This recipe looks absolutely divine! We discovered a couple months ago that we have a pear tree in our backyard, so this would be perfect for that. Helps that we're also huge fans of sweet tea!
Question: do you think regular black tea (as used in traditional sweet tea) would work for this?
This looks super good. I love pears, I love vanilla… I might source a vanilla tea, real or herbal, from a local place if I can't find the Tazo at stores around here.
Kari
I think a black tea would work just fine. I think you might want to experiment with only 2 tea bags though, 3 might be a little strong.
This looks great! It's the first time I've heard about this challenge, I'd love to get more info on it!
These sound delish, can't wait to see what you end up doing with them!
Ooooh, I may make this with mentioned peaches and black tea. Those two flavors just seem made for each other.
Mmm… that looks mighty inviting. Thanks for the idea! Hope my comment helps your cause.
Mmm, these look yummy! I might try them if I can find pears. We are heavy in peaches right now and coming into apples.
I really like the idea of using tea. As I was explaining to my baby the other day it is all about not turning into your mother by doing the same things she did (eg canning) but with a twist.
This looks really tasty. I don't know how you come up with some of your ideas but amazingly brilliant springs to mind.
These pears look lush! I might just have to try out your recipe… I'm in a preserving mood at the moment 😉
Looks yummy. I love pears and tea.
I just got 25 pounds of pears yesterday – your timing is perfect!!!
If I weren't so scared of canning I would do this.
Though this does seem like a really good introduction.
This looks really yummy! I wanted to try to can pears this year. My kids can't get enough of them.
This sounds yummy. Makes me want to go buy some pears right now and try this recipe. I love Rooibos vanilla tea and with pears I am sure this is going to be pure delight for the taste buds…
Oh, I'd love to taste these. Great idea, incorporating tea.
Wonderful, thank you!
These pears look delicious! Pears are my favorite fruit to can or make preserves with. I'm making these!
looks great! I'm going to pass this on to my friend!
What an innovative idea, I will be trying that myself this fall!!
Very nice! I am always looking for new ways to can.
I love this idea and there are so many different fruit and tea combinations you could do this with. Right now I'm thinking it might be worth trying the pears with a mint tea.
Those pears look delicious. I'm not sure that's the tea I'd want for mine, but I love the idea.
Also, they are radiant and warm with the sun shining through like that.
Your pears look beautiful and I'm sure they will taste delicious. I love the idea to try to get them to retain some of their firmness. Mushy = blech.
Just finished canning this very recipe and the tea smelled delicious ! I know the pears will be fantastic months from now and they look super impressive in the jars! Thanks so much for a new canning recipe,ths one's a keeper for sure.
I love Tazo Tea but couldn't find that flavor in my local store. I used another brand close to the flavor and oh the tea smelled good! It is going to be hard not to crack these jars open.
I had some left over tea and was moving onto jarring my peaches so I experimented with one jar of the sweet tea in the peaches.
Yummy idea!
I just made these. They look so great. Can not wait to try them. I had no problem finding the tea it is one that Starbucks carry's.
Just coming back to follow up, I cracked open my pears a month ago and they were so delicious! This will be going on my "to-can" list each summer. I also finally found the Tazo and will be using that this time 🙂