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What a lovely start to real autumn weather! This is October waiting to be sipped: caramel apple melting into creme brûlée with a touch of cinnamon, and a nice creamy mouth feel.
There are tannic notes, a touch of astringency. I gave it a touch of honey to bring the sweetness out. (I always eat the rehydrated apple pieces that float atop the brew – these really absorbed the creme brûlée flavor!) A very enjoyable cup of tea!

Boy, is this a great iced tea! The white tea’s nicely subtle, a presence, but in the background, and the peach balances that nicely. I get a hint of orange, and the whole thing is refreshing! A new favorite for summer!

52Teas has a real way with autumnal blends. Since that’s my favorite season, too, I really enjoy their ‘take’ on the season! This packet got lost in the back of my cabinet, so when the 2025 Sipdown Challenge was issued, I found it in the box of packeted teas unfortunately overlooked for some time.
While not as strong as it would have been when newer, I found this tea redolent of the best of autumn: yes, allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg of course, but the pumpkin was still discernible, welcome! Too many PSLs, both coffees and teas, have all the spices, but fail to include real pumpkin. That’s not the case here!
I hope this tea will be reissued, as it’s a lovely blend.

This is the sixth of eight organic teas from The Secret Garden, gifted to me by a beloved niece about a year ago. Two were black teas (already reviewed), and the other six were/are green tea. All eight featured being naturally flavored, tho none of them had any actual fruit pieces or peels included in the teabags. Sadly, this meant the flavors were muted, weak.

I am a lover of pineapple, and had really looked forward to trying this tea. I’m sorry to report this only worked if I used more teabags and less water. Last week we went out of town, so even though I made a decent small pot of this tea using FIVE teabags, I wasn’t able to review that batch at that time. I willl say this: it was much more flavorful over-using the number of bags relative to the volume of water. But the lovely gift box only contained 10 bags per tea type. I wanted to see how this would fare using a more normal volume of water per teabag. This was my one shot to do so.

I think the green tea is decent enough, though not outstanding. The pineapple flavor is hard to discern—unless, as I already said, one used more bags than normal. Even then, while there’s a nice “green” flavor, a little note of hay, the ‘hit’ of pineapple I was looking forward to was barely there using three bags in a small 18 oz teapot. I added a little sugar, but instead of bringing the pineapple forward, the only thing I could really taste was the sweetener. Disappointing, to say the least.

But using 5 bags in that small pot—THEN you can taste more pineapple, especially once some sweetener was added. The equation was very different then.
The other thing I did last week was to add the last two cups above (made stronger with the 5 teabags) to some Adagio Coconut Iced Tea. Fabulous!

In a nutshell (coconut shell?;-), by itself, one bag per cup, this tea is weak, not very flavorful, disappointing. BUT: If you use more teabags &/or mix it into other teas (especially a coconut tea), AND ice it—it’s improved very much!
It’s not a bad flavor, just not enough per teabag. I can’t recommend it, but I won’t go total ‘thumbs down’ on it, either.

This is a great tea for summer into fall. Iced or chilled, it makes a refreshing fruity tea, especially with a little sweetener. The tea flavor itself is more pronounced when drunk as a hot tea. Either way, it’s perfect for late July or early August heading into late September or early October. The feeling one gets looking at late summer gardens, with ripening fruits and vegetables, the dark foliage from months’ worth of sun…this tea feels all of a piece with that. Enjoy it while that season’s still here!

Thanks to Adagio Teas for the free sample of Coconut Iced Tea with my $29 order last month. The two large sachets made some very nice tea indeed, both hot and cold. It’s got a natural honey flavor in the first place, with a peach-like echo in the pouch (before brewing).
I’m sorry I didn’t review it hot when I made the first sachet, but I remember it being very rich in the mouth. For that brew I did add a little honey, to draw out the flavor which was already in the tea itself. Lovely!
This time I didn’t sweeten it, and chilled it so that I could review it as the iced tea it had been sent to be! This time I can taste a back flavor of apricot as well as a buttery quality to it.
This is a very nice tea that I will certainly buy next year in late spring, to have more of during the hot season!

This tea should be called “Red Fruits Punch”—to be served sweetened and chilled!
If one adds a bunch of sugar (or whatever one’s preferred sweetener is) and CHILLS this for a few hours, it is a delightful cold beverage. The flavor profile is completely different than when it’s merely cooled to room temp, UNsweetened.
It’s still hard to tell exactly what it IS—perhaps that’s why they kept it as Mango Melange—but it’s cold and tasty. I’ve revised my opinion to Recommended.

This is the third of four teas in Adagio Teas’ Summer Teas Sampler. A couple days ago I reviewed The Secret Garden Organic Mango Green Tea—the first tea I truly liked from the Secret Garden Organic gift box. I’d already opened this 3 oz packet of Mango Melange, and liked the fragrance. But boy, are they different teas!
Like the other four Secret Garden teas I’d tried, the Organic Mango Green was simply green tea and natural flavors. It smelled and tasted like mango (also a little apricot and peach)—but it actually tasted fruity, nicely so.
Adagio Teas’ Mango Melange should be instead be called “Hibiscus and Rose Hip Melange”. Tho the smell within the packet itself has a slight perfumy whiff of hair pomade—just in the packet!—it’s mostly pleasantly sour. I found myself wondering how it would taste to have the packet be cold-brewed (no pun intended!) in some lager beer. There are some Northern Europeans who enjoy the juxtaposition of fruit and beer, and I think the flavors in this ‘melange’ would work with that.
Why? Because it’s lightly sour! Between the hibiscus, rosehip skins and dried fruit pieces, which are edible, none particularly taste like the mango this is supposed to be based on.
Once I added some sugar, though, there was more mango-y essence.
This has the bright red color of hibiscus, which is always eye-catching. Maybe after straining out the fruit, one could make some kind of mocktail out of this. It’s got possibilities. But even cooled, I found this tea more like a project one could make something out of, rather than a drink I’d want by itself.
I will neither “yea” or “nay” this. [>>CHANGED BY MY SECOND REVIEW OF THIS.] Mango Melange is more likable than the Key Lime Herbal, also in Adagio’s Summer Teas Sampler, but it’s still not an immediate hit which should have been included in a Summer Sampler. Maybe Adagio should come up with a more accurately titled “Teas Not For The Faint of Heart”, or “Not Your Usual Summer Teas” sampler. Then they could let this and Key Lime Herbal find their proper audience, while those of us who think more of Mai Tais and Fuzzy Navels can enjoy more predictable flavors of summer.

Twinings was the first Earl Grey tea I ever had; I fell in love with it. Now that I’m older and have to worry about my caffeine consumption throughout the day, I go to Twinings Earl Grey Decaffeinated. As other tasters have already noted, one can let this steep, even forget about it—and it’s still smooth, not bitter. I don’t have a lot to add, save to say I prefer it to the Bigelow Earl Grey Decaf. That one tends to knock one out with over-flavoring. This, the Twinings, is more subtle, and blends better with wanting to rest!

This is the fifth (of eight) teas from a big fancy tin gifted to me of The Secret Garden Organic Tea Collection. Ten teabags apiece of each type are in this metal “tome” tin. The problem with the ones I’ve reviewed to date is too little tea in each teabag, and no actual dried fruit, just “natural flavor”. The previous flavors I’ve tried have disappointed, due to insufficient flavor.
I didn’t care for the scent of the bags before I brewed this tea. There was an off note of dill, strangely enough, which didn’t harmonize with the fruit aroma at all.
Since the previous flavors seemed watery even when I doubled up the teabags used, this time I used three bags in my 16 oz teapot, with a 7-1/2 minute steeping. Success!
I am glad to report that this Organic Mango Green Tea is not only pleasantly fruity, but has natural sweetness. There’s a little perfumy quality, a bit like apricot and peach, but the mango is there, and it’s nice. Whatever odd note of dill (or whatever that scent was) in the teabags before brewing, they were not there once the tea was made. It makes me happy to recommend this tea.