What the Mango Actually Tastes Like

There's a difference between a tea that tastes like mango and a tea that's just been misted with something that smells like one. I didn't pay much attention to which was which until I started looking closer at the loose leaf blends we carry, and now I can't really unsee it.

Velvet Orchard, our mango tea, has actual pieces of dried fruit and petals folded into the leaf. You can see them before you ever put water near it, flecks of color threaded through, not a flat brown dust that smells the same no matter what the label promises. That's usually the tell. If a fruit tea looks like it has fruit in it, it probably does.

Steep it at 195°F for five to ten minutes, about 2.5 grams for every 12 ounces of water, and the mango doesn't announce itself right away. It builds underneath the tea. By the second or third sip the whole cup tastes rounder than either part would on its own, which is harder to pull off than it sounds. Have you ever had a flavored tea where the flavor just sits on top, loud and a little fake? This isn't that.

I think about this more than I probably should, how much of running GiaNina is just paying attention to what's actually in a thing before I hand it to someone. Not the label. The actual leaf, the actual fruit, whether it was made with any care at all. Most days that's the whole job.

It's good hot on a cooler morning, and it's genuinely better over ice once it warms back up here. No season it really belongs to. I like that about it.

Nobody has to dress themselves up to be worth paying attention to, and neither does a good cup of tea. The real ones don't need the extra spray. Choose to be kind. Choose to be grateful. Choose to be happy.

— Nina of GiaNina Collective