Abstract:
The lea plant is an evergreen of the Camellia family. There are two main varieties of tea:
Camellia sinensis, and Camellia assamica. Tea is one of the most developed beverages in the world that drink as tea consumption is only second to water but tea industry is facing so many problems at present. One of the problems is the low prices of low grade and tea waste (refuse lea). Therefore value addition is needed to couple with other strong consumer requirements and expectations such as beneficial health to consumers,convenience and sensory satisfaction, etc.According to the result of market survey bottled ready to drink, tea product should be available at the market which can be served in cold condition. Also ginger flavored drink was most preferred. This development was based on low grade tea such as dust, broken mixed, refuse and tea under Sri Lanka Standard and Food and Drug Administration regulations. Optimum extraction and taste was achieved by using the sensory evaluation with 7 point hedonic scale. Statistical analysis was done by using MINITAB software of Kruskal-Wallis Test. From the findings of this study the best formula for 1L of tea drink include, 100ml of tea mixture extract,ginger25g/l, aspartame25g/l and Carboxyl Methyl Cellulose 1.725g/l. This drink was developed to compatible diabetic people as a calories free drinkr
0.06g/100ml of Caffeine content was quantified using ISO 10727 method per serving
(180m!) ready to drink tea. 24.8g/L o f ginger content (on fresh weight basis) was
quantified using High Performance Liquid Chromatography method per serving (180ml)
ready to drink tea. Ready to drink tea can be formulated which compatible with
consumer requirement is using the low- grade tea and refuse tea with a shelf life of one
month. Thus this is one of the best value added quality low grade tea ready to drink from
dust, broken mixed, refuse tea which can be achieved by using the above specification.
