Anna and Sarah Dried Fancy Pears in Resealable Bag, 2 Lbs

Edit:

The manufacturer reached out, on their own, after this review was posted and offered a refund or a resend. I opted for the latter. The second batch of dried (really, semi-dried) pears are really quite marvelous in flavor and texture. It still helped to air the bag and then each set of pears prior to service, but this was easy enough to do to make these deliver excellent value for what they are.

While, like anyone, I would rather have avoided the resend, I gave a second chance as I have ordered “dried figs,” from this company time after time in 5 # lots and have yet to be disappointed. I hope after this initial hiccough with the pears, I can say the same.

I ordered these, not really knowing what a “dried pear” would taste like. I was hoping for richer pear flavor than the native fruit.

What I got was a strong, acrid odor when I opened the bag. This odor was associated with each pear piece, as well. I ate three of them, randomly sampled….and frankly they taste like slightly mushy generic fruit stuff…with little pear flavor to them.

These can’t be returned, and there appears to be no way to request a refund without going through a great deal of agony, otherwise I would.

All this said – our family loves the figs that this company offers (just ordered 5 # for the third time)…so perhaps these “dried pears,” are exactly as they should be OR perhaps those 5 star reviewers here got much better product.

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I put walnuts in them and roll them up for a treat! They are soft and chewy with the right amount of sweetness.

These pears are fantastic. Very tasty and soft. There is nothing I did not like about these dried pears.

Rubbing and rinsing the pears out in warm to hot water about 4-6 times seemed to get rid of the strong smell and taste, as sulfur dioxide is water-soluble. I’m willing to do that for now rather than throw out this purchase, tho admittedly I might tire of doing that after a while. Anyways, after this experience, I have to say I won’t be buying dried fruit from this company again, even if it means I’m out of dried pears for a while. I have no problem with a normal amount of sulfur dioxide being applied, but this was really, really too much.

I don’t recommend waving the bag around to try to air it out, which I tried- your room will start to smell badly, and you won’t notice any improvement. I haven’t tried swapping the bag for a regular ziplock bag yet, but I will also see if that helps too.

The outside of the bag was a bit unusual in that the only indication that this was a bag of dried pears was the sticker on the back (and even then, in not very large letters). Not a big deal, but others might be taken aback by that. So the product picture where it shows all sorts of fruit and doesn’t say anything about pears- that’s basically what you see on both sides of the bag.

My rating here largely reflects the excessive sulfur dioxide application. It’s 2 stars rather than 1 since I was able to figure out a way to still make use of these pears. But if I get tired of washing them (as I’ve only eaten a small amount of the bag so far)… I might drop it to 1 star. I should note that like others, I found myself coughing after the last time I ate them (when I tried airing out the bag- so I’m not sure if it’s from sulfur dioxide not having been washed off sufficiently, or from having inhaled the sulfur dioxide).

I have been buying these dried pears for a couple of years now. It seems that my early purchases were, well, dried. The texture was to be as expected, chewy, and granular as pears are. Somewhere along the line the product changed. These pears are now barely dried. Rather, they are soft and moist. When I opened them i was worried about mold. I feel like they need to be refrigerated. I still used them in my usual way but I am kind of disappointed in the change. If I want fresh pears, I’ll buy them. I need ‘dried’ pears in the usual quality, not something imitating fresh fruit. It stands to reason that it will go off with all the moisture and possibly require a preservative to keep it from doing so. Traditional dried pears are delicious. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I will be looking for a new product elsewhere in the future.