## 2 Results and Discussion  
### Sensory Evaluation  
Sensory analysis is frequently used in food science and technology to evaluate the product's quality in terms of intrinsic quality indicators [39]. Fruit juice can be balanced in terms of its color, acidity, flavor, and palatability by blending it with herbal extract to produce consumer-pleasing products [40]. In addition, the enrichment of fruit juice with herbal extracts provides an opportunity to develop new attractive products, which is of particular interest to those consumers who follow new trends in the functional beverage industry [41]. According to previous findings, apple, pineapple, and orange juices were enriched with different herbal extracts [42; 43; 44; 20; 45]. [PERSON] et al. [46] reported that the enrichment of apple juice with sage and wild thyme extract offered better sensory properties than 100% apple juice. However, to the authors' knowledge, there has been no study comparing formulations with apple, pineapple, or orange juice enriched with sage, wild thyme, and/or wild thyme with sage extract. Therefore, this study provides new insights into the potential use of these Mediterranean plant species in the production of functional beverages. The combination of fruit juices and herbal extracts is important in terms of their biological properties, but sensory features are one of the critical attributes that determine whether the final product will be accepted by consumers. In the sensory evaluation of food products, color is the most important criterion for assessing juice quality and a key indicator of potential consumer preference [47]. In addition, color, odor, flavor, and aroma of fruit juice are among the most important sensory quality parameters and are of great importance for the consumer's acceptance of the juice [42]. Many factors influence the sensory characteristics of fruit juice, including individual biological factors (e.g., saliva characteristics and genetics), climate and agricultural practices for fruit growing, technological factors for juice preparation (e.g., juice processing methods, storage), and the content of various compounds, especially carbohydrates [48; 49]. In this study, sensory analysis was performed on functional beverages prepared from apple juice (_AJ_), pineapple juice (_PJ_), and orange juice (_OJ_), to which sage (_S_), wild thyme (_WT_), and wild thyme:sage (3:1, \(v/v\)) (_WTS_) extracts were added at 5%, 10%, and 15%, respectively. The influence of juice type, extract, and extract concentration on color intensity, odor, flavor, and aroma was evaluated, and the results are shown in Table 1.  
_PJ_ was found to have the most intense color (7.72), and color intensity increased with increasing extract concentration. In addition, _PJ_ had the most intense odor among the juices (6.21), and formulations containing _PJ_ had the most harmonious flavor (8.70). The most intense odor, flavor, and aroma of \(S\) as well as the odor of _WT_ were found in beverages with _AJ_ (2.08, 2.38, 2.51, and 2.57), which were also the sweetest (6.56). The beverages prepared with _OJ_ were more sour (3.29), bitter (1.98), and the _WT_ aroma was more profound (2.83). With the exception of the flavor of _WT_, which was stronger in beverages containing _WTS_ mixture (4.10), the odor, flavor, and aroma of \(S\) or _WT_ were generally higher in the corresponding beverages (2.97, 4.19, 4.44 for \(S\), and 3.47 and 4.08 for _WT_). Juice aroma and flavor were highest in the beverages with the highest _WT_ (6.48 and 6.71, respectively). The beverage formulations containing _WT_ and \(S\) were rated as more sour and more bitter, respectively (2.43 and 1.44). As expected, when the extract concentration was higher, the odor, aroma, and flavor were more intense. In general, the extract odor, flavor, and aroma received lower average scores (were less profound) when compared with the attributes deriving from juice because they were used only at concentrations of 5%, 10%, or 15%.