Sensory evaluation of functional herbal black tea using fuzzy logic analysis

Abstract

The study was aimed at development of herbal based functional black tea to improve the health through addition of the functional bioactive components extracted from the selected indigenous herbs. The different herbs such as leaves of Coccinia indica, leaves of Gymnema sylvestre, flowers of Cassia auriculata, leaves and bark of Cinnamomum tamala and seeds of Trigonella foenum-graecum were used for the study. The herbal extract was prepared by supercritical fluid extraction with the optimized process parameters of 300 bar pressure, 45˚C temperature, 50 ml modifier and 4 kg/h CO2 flow rate. Formulation of ready to drink beverage is done by mixing of this herbal extracts in different ratios. The different formulations were evaluated for sensory attributes and the data was analyzed using fuzzy logic techniques. Based on the quality ranking, it was found that ready to drink herbal tea with the addition of 5 mg of extract was ranked first. Also, all the RTD herbal black tea were having high ranks which denotes the product is more preferred and acceptable. Comparing among the quality attributes of the ready to drink tea, it was rated that Character (Taste) > Flavor > Color > Body (Strength), which means character (taste) was the strongest attribute of the tea. Thus, the developed herbal black tea is having good quality characteristics and it will be a new boom for the functional tea market.