diff --git a/clutter/pango/cogl-pango-display-list.c b/clutter/pango/cogl-pango-display-list.c
index 6790411bf..b353aa6fd 100644
--- a/clutter/pango/cogl-pango-display-list.c
+++ b/clutter/pango/cogl-pango-display-list.c
@@ -244,6 +244,39 @@ _cogl_pango_display_list_render_texture (CoglHandle material,
   cogl_material_set_color (material, &premult_color);
   cogl_set_source (material);
 
+  /* For small runs of text like icon labels, we can get better performance
+   * going through the Cogl journal since text may then be batched together
+   * with other geometry. */
+  /* FIXME: 100 is a number I plucked out of thin air; it would be good
+   * to determine this empirically! */
+  if (node->d.texture.verts->len < 100)
+    {
+      int i;
+
+      for (i = 0; i < node->d.texture.verts->len; i += 4)
+        {
+          CoglPangoDisplayListVertex *v0 =
+            &g_array_index (node->d.texture.verts,
+                            CoglPangoDisplayListVertex, i);
+          CoglPangoDisplayListVertex *v1 =
+            &g_array_index (node->d.texture.verts,
+                            CoglPangoDisplayListVertex, i + 2);
+          cogl_rectangle_with_texture_coords (v0->x, v0->y, v1->x, v1->y,
+                                              v0->t_x, v0->t_y,
+                                              v1->t_x, v1->t_y);
+        }
+
+      return;
+    }
+
+  /* It's expensive to go through the Cogl journal for large runs
+   * of text in part because the journal transforms the quads in software
+   * to avoid changing the modelview matrix. So for larger runs of text
+   * we load the vertices into a VBO, and this has the added advantage
+   * that if the text doesn't change from frame to frame the VBO can
+   * be re-used avoiding the repeated cost of validating the data and
+   * mapping it into the GPU... */
+
   if (node->d.texture.vertex_buffer == COGL_INVALID_HANDLE)
     {
       CoglHandle vb = cogl_vertex_buffer_new (node->d.texture.verts->len);