English Dub Review: Sweet Reincarnation “Sweet or Bitter? The Tea Tasting Ceremony”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

As Pas gets to know Licorice better, Count Retes invites him to a tea-tasting ceremony in order to work her way into his good graces. Pas agrees to come, but sees it as a chance for advertising.

Our Take:

Pastry has another bunch of stuff on his plate, and I’m not talking about the cookies and sweets. In addition to Licorice moving in at his household, Pastry is invited by Brioche to attend her tea-tasting ceremony. Of course, as we all know, it’s part of Brioche’s plan to gain a political advantage. Lucky for him, the young boy has a secret weapon to ensure he makes it out of this situation alive: honey-flavored hard candies. Is it enough? Based on this episode, it’s evident that it is, but the celebration didn’t last long.

Pastry’s love for sweets is tested in this episode, as everyone thinks he’s focusing more on making them than his future wife. Yes, that includes Agnes and Josephine, who spied on them making hard candies and candy-coated bunkas for the ceremony. They’re not technically wrong, as his new candy is a success among young nobles at the party. As a result, Pastry is led into trade negotiations with the other nobles. This gave Brioche the advantage of drawing Pastry away for a private conversation. Their tiny meeting led to Pastry planning to produce sugar from Casserole’s farm to make more candy for the next few years, with Brioche allowing him to use her coastal ports to ship his sweets.

This leaves us with Licorice, who was left alone with Caera and Nico. As expected, her low self-esteem got the better of her once again, as she feared that Pastry might abandon her for someone more confident and noble. Unfortunately, her self-deprecation worsens when she sees Brioche hugging Pastry from behind. Can somebody say “Bad touch”? What Licorice doesn’t know is that it’s Brioche’s attempt to separate the two lovebirds for her selfish gain. I already got that stuff from My Happy Marriage, and now I have to see more from the arrogant countess. It’s no wonder noble people like Brioche are tirelessly unforgiving. 

“Sweet or Bitter? The Tea Tasting Ceremony” can be justified as an episode that’s both sweet and bitter. Obviously, the sweetness comes from the episode’s first half, which has Pastry showing Licorice his kitchen and his sweet masterpieces. It continues to showcase the adorable chemistry between Pastry and Licorice, with the latter falling for him even more due to his confident and kind personality. Fortunately, it’s still endearing enough to make me root for their relationship to work and provide venerability in the show’s basic premise. As for its bitterness, that belongs to the egocentric hag, Brioche, who’s willing to get what she wants, even if it means touching a minor inappropriately. Hopefully, she’ll get her just desserts sooner or later.