Indigenous Tea Production From Calyces Of <i>Hibiscus Sabdariffa</i> L.

Abstract

Studies were carried out on the possibility of producing an acceptable indigenous tea from a commonly available indigenous raw material, Hibiscus sabdariffa L. The said tea was blended with ground dried leaves of Cymbopogon citratus and ground dried peels of Citrus limon. The commonly consumed commercial green tea, Camellia sinensis was employed as control and also for the purposes of comparison. Both the experimental H. sabdariffa tea and the control were served to a panel of tasters. The tasters rated the H. sabdariffa experimental tea higher than the commercially sold control tea, C. sinensis. The microbial loads of the experimental tea and control were also assessed. No harmful or toxic species of microorganisms were isolated from both teas. The pH of the experimental tea was found to be 4.8 while that of the control was 5.8. The experimental tea components and the final blended tea were found to contain glucose, protein, oil and minerals such as sodium, potassium, calcium and phosphate. The implications of the various results obtained have been discussed.

Key Words: Tea production, Hibiscus sabdariffa, Cymbopogon citratus, Citrus limon