Malongane, FlorenceMcGaw, Lyndy JoyDebusho, Legesse KassaMudau, Fhatuwani Nixwell2020-10-022020-10-022020-04-14Malongane, F., McGaw, L.J., Debusho, L.K. et al. 2020, 'Sensory characteristics and volatile compounds of herbal teas and mixtures of bush tea with other selected herbal teas of South Africa', Foods, vol. 9, art. 496, pp. 1-17.2304-8158 (online)10.3390/foods9040496http://hdl.handle.net/2263/76323Table S1: Raw data from descriptive sensory evaluation, Table S2: Raw data from the data sourced from gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS).South Africa has a traditional heritage of using indigenous herbal teas, and the demand for herbal teas motivated by the functional health benefits has far exceeded global supply. This has led to worldwide interest in the sensory characteristics and volatile compound characterisation of herbal drink formulations. The objective of this study was to investigate the descriptive sensory analysis and volatile compounds of bush, special, honeybush and rooibos tea and the blend of bush tea with special, honeybush and rooibos, respectively. The trained sensory panel scored each tea sample for aroma, taste, aftertaste and mouthfeel attributes using sensory evaluation practices. Compound identification was performed by gas chromatography connected to a mass spectrometer (GC-MS). The results of the study demonstrated that rooibos and honeybush tea had an overall sweet-caramel, honey-sweet, perfume floral and woody aroma while bush tea and special tea depicted green-cut grass, dry green herbal and astringent/dry mouth feel. The GC-MS analyses depicted the following compounds 2-furanmethanol, 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, D-limonene, dihydroactinidolide, linalool, (E,E)-2,4-heptadienal, and phytol. The blending of bush tea with rooibos and honeybush tea toned down its astringent mouth feel. Compounds identified in this study may be useful markers for potential herbal tea sensory characteristics.en© 2020 by the authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.Herbal teaFlavourVolatile compoundsDescriptive sensory evaluationGas chromatogram-mass spectrometer (GC-MS)Article