The “Fragrant Pear” signs you’re seeing at all the Asian markets in the area aren’t a bit of marketing speak, or even a newly branded cultivar (i.e., SweeTango, Single Pink Lady, JazzerCize). They’re actually a unique variety of pear native to northwest China.As this blog post from food-science guru Harold McGee reports, fragrant (kuerle) pears belong to the Asian pear species; compared to the dominant Japanese varieties, fragrant pears are more oval than round and one-third smaller. They’ve been legal to import since 2003, but I’ve never seen them distributed so widely before this year — in the past few weeks they’ve been on sale for $1.99 a pound at H Mart, Viet Wah, and Uwajimaya, and the Chinese markets are probably stocking them as well.Fragrant pears have that same porous crunch as most Asian pears, but their aroma, which only blossoms when you bring them to your mouth, is nothing like a hosui. McGee thinks they smell like bubblegum. I get Bosc pear, quince, and tangerine from the skin, and then a second after I take a bite the fruit’s candy quality emerges. Right now, I’m lovestruck by the flavor of new-crop Bartletts, gorging on one or two a day, but I’ve kept one of the fragrant pears on my kitchen counter for the past week. I find myself picking it up, inhaling deeply, then saving the fragrance for one day.