IMPROVING QUALITY AND FUNCTIONAL PROPERTIES OF TEA-BASED DRINKS

Abstract

The authors have investigated the possibility of making functional drinks by adding natural plant-based additives to black tea. They conducted an experiment on four different tea samples, by evaluating changes in their quality and properties, such as tannin, caffeine, vitamin C and P, and antioxidant activity. As a functional additive, they were used hibiscus and rosehip powders that derived from respective plants. The study shows that hibiscus powder increased antioxidant activity significantly, 1.68 times higher than rosehip. But rosehip increased vitamin C more than hibiscus, 275 mg% and 128 mg% respectively. Also, the total flavonoid content in hibiscus supplement is 410 mg of catechins per 100 g: which is 3.3 times higher than rosehip. Vigorous stirring method was used to mix the tea with herbal supplements. Two samples of "Azerçay" tea were mixed with rosehip additives, while two samples of "Berga" tea were mixed with hibiscus additives. When rosehip was added, the vitamin C content in the test sample was increased from 63% to 154 mg%, while the addition of hibiscus increased it from 86% to 104 mg. With the addition of the rosehip, the vitamin P content increased 2.25 times and 2.17 times with the addition of hibiscus.