Pop your ‘cauldron’ on and be spellbound by the limited-edition Wicked Teas collection from Adagio Teas. With Halloween approaching, online luxury loose tea company Adagio Teas has unveiled its 2026 Wicked Tea collection, which comes in specially designed keepsake Halloween-themed tins. Bat Brew anyone? What about a cup of Pumpkin Potion or Monster Mash? Or maybe a goblet of Cat Scratch, or Candy Apple or a mug of Ghoul Gulp is to your taste. The Wicked Teas sampler set features six teas (14g each) and is priced at £24.

The tisane category has quietly moved upmarket. What used to mean a faded chamomile bag now means whole rose petals, freeze-dried mango chunks, toasted cardamom pods and a base of single-origin Ceylon or Yunnan tea sitting underneath. The category has been re-engineered around the cup, not the box. Premium speciality houses such as Adagio Teas have been pushing this shift — visible ingredients, named tea bases, scored cups — and the rest of the market is now catching up. This guide explains the chemistry, the economics and what to actually look for on the label.

Celebrate International Tea Day with Adagio Teas and add something a little bit different to the pot this week. This Thursday (May 21) sees the world’s favourite brew take centre stage – perfect for a nation of tea lovers with more than 100,000,000 cups of tea consumed every day in the UK! The United Nations set up International Tea Day to mark the significance and value of the drink globally, not just economically but culturally too. While traditional black tea still dominates the market – there has been a huge growth for alternative tea options!

Adagio Teas experienced a surge in iced tea sales in May and June, which was driven by the UK heatwaves. The premium tea brand’s sales of iced tea increased by 80 per cent in April, while June’s sales went up by 83 per cent compared to the previous month. May’s iced tea performance was ahead of the average for the business, which normally sees a steep rise in June as a result of the improved summer weather. With the previous consistent high temperatures, the business saw its iced tea sales reach sell-out points, particularly for its wild strawberry, berry blast and peach oolong variants.

“Sparkling tea has shifted from a niche curiosity to a real growth category over the past two-to-three years,” he says. “The format of the final beverage varies greatly, and reflects tea’s diversity in terms of its flavors and drinking occasions. Sometimes it’s a natural formulation that’s simply carbonated to showcase the taste of a specific tea, and act as a natural pick-me-up. Other times, the tea is used as a base to be layered upon with other flavors to create a more intricate brew. So a sparkling tea may replace a coffee in the morning, a soft drink at lunch, or a wine at dinner.”

You’ll never get great results from the itty-bitty ball-shaped strainers that clutter up many a cutlery drawer — tea leaves need space to unfurl and infuse. Instead, opt for a teapot with a built-in strainer – Bodum’s MOMA assam version comes in cheering colourways (▲ £40, selfridges.com), while the sturdy ceramic ForLife Stump teapot (£28.95, teapeople.co.uk) is widely used in cafés like e5 Bakehouse in northeast London. Otherwise a large infuser basket — avoid plastic, which can hold flavours — works well (£10, birdandblendtea.com), or fill good-quality paper tea bags with leaves (£5 for 100, adagiotea.co.uk).