Gwynedd Stuart
Did you know that, across the globe, there are more than 3,000 varieties of pears? You certainly wouldn’t know it based on what’s available at your average U.S. grocery store. The internet tells me that only ten varieties of pears are cultivated in the U.S.—and I could only find six at the three grocery stores I visited (I went to three). So, while there isn’t a lot to choose from in the way of pears, we couldn’t help but wonder: Which pears are the best pears?
We already found the best apple cultivars (although, I really need to add Lucy Glo to the list), so our next produce project was to find the best tasting pears. Yep, pears. The apple’s mealier cousin. The subject of untold still lifes. The fruit that makes a galette really sing.
This was a slightly tougher project because pears are trickier than apples. While apples are ready to eat right off the tree, pears need time to ripen. But let them sit for too long and you’re left with a pile of mush. I did my pear shopping a day in advance of our taste test so they’d have a day to ripen at room temp, but wouldn’t have enough time to start to spoil. What I’m saying is that I did my best to make sure the pears would taste as good as possible—here’s how our ranking shook out. Sorry in advance to the d’anjou fans out there!
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- D’anjou Pear
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D’anjou pears are supposed to have a sweet, citrusy flavor, but the d’anjou we tried in our taste test (purchased at our local Gelson’s) was hard and flavorless. Basically an apple if an apple was devoid of flavor.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Asian Pear
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Asian pears are big and round and very apple adjacent in taste and texture. You can slice and eat them, sure, but they strike me as cooking pears. The Asian pear we tried in our taste test was sweet and one note and firm. I wouldn’t buy one of these big boys to eat as a snack, but my colleague Justine Sterling says they come in handy when she makes Korean food at home.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Bartlett Pear
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You know it, you love it—it’s the Bartlett. It’s the pear that is, like, the default pear in the world, at least from what I have observed while being alive. It has that classic pear mealiness—I can’t think of a less derogatory word, but I don’t mean it in a bad way. Bartlett pears have mealy flesh! They’re also very juicy and have that classic “pear” flavor, like the pear Jelly Belly jelly bean. The Bartlett we tried was totally serviceable, but we liked other pear varieties better. So Bartlett is #4.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Bosc Pear
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“This to me is what a pear tastes like,” Justine said when she took a bite of this bosc pear. They’re ugly as sin, but they really do taste good. There’s a touch of bitterness on the finish, but it makes the experience of eating them more nuanced because the flesh is very juicy. Don’t judge this book by its ugly, brownish cover!
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Red Pear
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My colleague Jordan Myrick took a bite of the red pear and was immediately like “too floral,” but I gotta say: I think that’s the beauty of this variety of pear! It’s like something you’d eat in an orchard in the spring. This would be REALLY good for a cheeseboard—the floral notes will really bring out the flavor in slabs of salty, earthy cheese. I’m thinking something bold, like Stilton or Humboldt Fog. Yum.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Comice Pear
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I’m not sure I’d ever had a comice pear before, but it’s my new favorite. This pear was so sweet and soft. It’s like if your everyday, average pear were a Harry & David Royal Riviera pear. It has that earthy aftertaste that fills your mouth when you eat. The skin is thin and pleasant and the flesh is tender, but it isn’t as mealy as a Bartlett. If you want to get into eating pears as hand fruit, this is a great place to start!
Credit: Merc / Instacart
Pears!
Pears!
Pears!
Pears!
Pears!
Tyler Bowers
Jordan Myrick
