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Flavour: Autumn

Ingredients: Rooibos (28%), cocoa husk, ginger root (15%), apple pomace (12%), cinnamon pieces (10%), citric acid, flavouring (macadamia, brittle, roasted almond, cheesecake, hazelnut), sunflower petals, safflower petals

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: £11 for 125g

Review: Unsurprisingly, this smells and tastes really fake. It goes through two phases. First you get the natural ingredients, and they’re quite pleasant. Then you get the flavouring, and it just lingers. It’s this indistinguishable sweet flavour that hangs around for a party and dehydrates you. Why why why throw in all that flavouring? Especially for that price tag! Cut all that out and this could have been really nice. Someone will probably like it, but for us, it’s a no.

Best time of year to drink this: Autumn, they say

Best time of day to drink this: After a meal – it’s definitely a dessert drink

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Flavour: Spring

Ingredients: Green tea (75%), ginger root (5%), cardamom pods (5%), lemon myrtle, lemon verbena, flavouring (cardamom, ginger, lemon), marigold flowers

Caffeine Factor: Caffeinated

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: £11 for 125g

Review: In the tin, this just smells horrible – cleaning products in the extreme. Once brewed, it’s much less offensive and simply smells of lemongrass. On tasting, however, all we got was green tea. Do not overbrew. Ginger literally flailed her arms on the first sip. The lemon and spices were non-existent. We can’t see the point of buying this when there are other, cheaper versions of the same thing – blends that actually succeed.

Best time of year to drink this: Spring

Best time of day to drink this: Morning

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Flavour: Green Rooibos, Ginger & Peppermint

Ingredients: Green rooibos (58%), ginger root (20%), peppermint leaves (20%), natural flavours (ginger and mint – 2%)

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: £3.99

Number of Bags: 20

Review: You know when you come across a tea and you can’t even remember buying it? Just us? Okay, then! So, we know what you’re thinking: ‘What a catchy tea name! I can’t imagine what it might taste like!’ To start, it smells exactly like Indian guaranga potatoes – in other words, savoury. Even before you pour the water, if you jiggle the bag you get peppermint…and then guaranga potatoes. There is no other way to describe it. Tulsi loves guaranga potatoes, so you’d think this blend would be a winner. Alas, it’s a bit uninspiring. It’s very planty, with a savoury edge. Minty…and then, you know…potatoes. There’s a mild hit of heat from the ginger, but not much else. It’s definitely not bad, but we weren’t blown away. Tulsi did crave potatoes, though.

Best time of year to drink this: Anytime

Best time of day to drink this: Anytime – maybe after a meal, as a digestive

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Flavour: Mint & Fennel

Ingredients: Peppermint (41%), spearmint, ginger root, sweet cinnamon, fennel (9%), aniseed, liquorice root, cardamom (3%)

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: 100%

Price Range: £2

Bags Per Box: 20

Review: Despite the name, it smells overwhelmingly of liquorice, threatening to be intensely sweet. Thankfully, it doesn’t taste as strong. In fact, it hardly tastes of anything. It’s water, with a mild gingery kick…and that’s about it. We left the bag in for ages, but we never got any mint, and the fennel was swallowed up by other ingredients. It’s not bad, but we didn’t see the point. It certainly didn’t deliver what the name promises.

Best time of year to drink this: Summer?

Best time of day to drink this: After meals, for digestion

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Flavour: Turmeric Active

Ingredients: Turmeric root (30%), ginger root (26%), galangal root (14%), liquorice root, nettle leaf, celery seed, burdock root, orange essential oil flavour, triphala fruits (amla, bibhitaki, haritaki)

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: 100%

Price Range: £2-3

Bags Per Box: 20

Our Review: Not contented with just one turmeric blend, Pukka added this one to the market. And did we need another one? Turns out: yes! This is a totally different animal.

The aroma is lightly orangey with only a hint of the turmeric this blend is named for. You can definitely taste the turmeric when you drink it, but there’s a definite fruity undertone, and a bit of gingery warmth. The other ingredients don’t stand out but blend together to give an overall soothing experience. While their Turmeric Glow blend is 20% green tea, this one is caffeine-free; and despite its name, it feels more relaxing than wakeful. It’s lovely and gentle, and a great one to have in the autumn when the leaves are falling and it’s starting to get cold. It’s also chock full of herbs traditionally used to tackle symptoms of seasonal illness.

Best time of year to drink this: Any time, but especially when it’s cold out

Best time of day to drink this: Evening

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Flavour: Throat Comfort

Ingredients: Liquorice root (32%), fennel seed (23%), cinnamon bark, orange peel, thyme, cardamom, ginger root, mullein leaf, cloves, black pepper, turmeric, citrus extract, orange extract

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: 100%

Price Range: £2-3

Bags Per Box: 17

Review: This is a great one if you have a cold. It’s chock full of herbs traditionally used to sooth a sore throat, and if you drink this alongside their Breathe Deep blend, you’re sorted.

That said, we wouldn’t touch it if we weren’t ill. It smells medicinal and antiseptic, and the flavour is so sweet. We also don’t find it as effective or as pleasant as Tisane dal Mondo’s Respiro infusion. That one temporarily relieves a cough after just one cup, while Throat Comfort soothes but leaves you hacking away. So if you’re happy to order imported tea online, we recommend that blend over this. If you’re looking for something you’ll find in mainstream UK shops, Throat Comfort is a good one to keep in the cupboard for when you need it.

Best time of year to drink this: Anytime – more likely winter

Best time of day to drink this: Most times of day, but especially later, after meals, because it’s just so sweet

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Flavour: Freshly Picked Taste of Root Ginger

Ingredients: Ginger root (50%), apple pieces, natural ginger flavouring with other natural flavourings (1.5%)

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: Around £5

Bags Per Box: 20

Review: This is essentially the same blend as their Orchard Lemon & Ginger variety, but without the lemon and lime flavouring. It smells very gingery and it tastes very gingery, but it’s tempered by the apple. We would personally rather have the ginger on its own.

This one isn’t horrible, but it’s a pretty pointless, overpriced blend. You get far more flavour from other ginger teas. This isn’t even very fiery, the way you’d expect from a tea that boasts ‘root ginger’ on the box, nor is it fruity like you’d hope for from an apple tea. We can see why this left the market so quickly.

Best time of year to drink this: Never – too expensive for what it is!

Best time of day to drink this: Never – too expensive for what it is!

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Flavour: Freshly Picked Taste of Orchard Lemon & Ginger

Ingredients: Ginger root (40%), apple pieces, natural lemon and ginger flavouring with other natural flavourings (17%), natural lime flavour (5%)

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: Around £5

Bags Per Box: 20

Review: Twinings decided they needed yet another lemon and ginger blend. Tea drinkers decided the market was too saturated, and this blend didn’t really work, so it’s now no longer available. But for the record – it was pretty disgusting!

The smell was watery nothingness, with a hint of lemon drizzle cake. The taste was gross at first, although it got a bit better as it went down. The issue was all the ‘flavouring’. Where do they get off calling it ‘freshly picked’? They can call it ‘natural’ all they want, but it was horrible, leaving a fake sweet coating in your mouth. Worse still, it just got sweeter as you got further through the cup, and lingered with you long after.

Long story short: if the ingredients list is nearly all ‘flavouring’, steer clear – especially with that ridiculously unmerited price tag!

Best time of year to drink this: Never

Best time of day to drink this: Never

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Flavour: Lemon & Ginger

Ingredients: Ginger root (37%), natural lemon flavouring with other natural flavours (25%), lemongrass, blackberry leaves, lemon peel, sweet fennel, natural ginger flavouring with other natural flavours (3.5%)

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: £1.69

Bags Per Box: 20

Review: Twinings have a few variations on this same blend. This isn’t our favourite of them, but it’s okay. It smells lemon-scented cleaner (that’ll be the lemongrass), and the ginger makes your nose sting – but at least that means it’s lived up to its name!

Drinking it, you get quite a gingery kick…but otherwise, not a lot of flavour. Despite the aroma, it’s weirdly lacking in lemon flavour (apart from a bit of a ‘soapy’ taste). We brewed it a long time and it never seemed to develop. You feel it more than taste it.

So, it’s not bad. It’s good for digestion, too (although steer clear of it if you’re pregnant, because of the fennel). It’s just that as a drink, we think Twinings have done better versions of this, like their Spiced Ginger or Ginger & Lime. Unfortunately, those seem to be harder to find in the shops – Ginger & Lime has even been taken off the market, and we can’t understand why. After you’ve had that, these lemon blends can only disappoint.

Best time of year to drink this: Summer

Best time of day to drink this: Morning / Afternoon, after meals (to aid digestion)

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Flavour: Spiced Ginger

Ingredients: Ginger root (70%), liquorice root (15%), cinnamon (10%), cloves (5%)

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: £1.69

Bags Per Box: 20

Review: This is an easy one to overlook. The first time we tried it, we didn’t think much of it – probably because of how much fire the back of the box promises. You don’t get that fire and you don’t taste the other spices. Instead, you get pure ginger with a sweet edge to it.

After you’ve adjusted to the fact that this isn’t the tea you thought it would be…it’s quite nice. Tulsi has this one as an evening soother. It’s quite gentle on the stomach and not too strong (even the liquorice is, thankfully, mild). But if you’re specifically looking for spice and fire, this isn’t the one, no matter what Twinings say.

NOTE: This used to be known as ‘Settling Ginger’, which we originally reviewed back in 2016.

Best time of year to drink this: Any time, but particularly in the colder months

Best time of day to drink this: Any time, but it’s especially nice at the end of a long day when you’re not sure what you crave and you don’t want strong flavours

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