ABSTRACT
Spices have been used by consumers worldwide to improve flavours of food including tea. A study was done to determine the effect of selected spices on consumer acceptability of spiced purple tea, their antioxidant properties and economic impact. TRFK 306 (purple tea Variety) was used. Flavored teas were developed by blending the un-aerated purple tea with selected spices including ginger, lemon grass, nutmeg, cinnamon, tea masala (spice mix), and rosemary at different ratios and resulting products brewed and assessed by a sensory panel. Antioxidant activity, catechin analysis and sensory evaluation were done and results showed that all the spices had low antioxidant activities as compared to un-aerated tea from TRFK 306. Cinnamon had an antioxidant capacity of 89.89%, ginger 69.23%, rosemary 89.47%, tea masala 55.79%, nutmeg 46.99% and Purple tea (TRFK 306) 92.53%. Spices had a positive effect on consumer acceptability of purple tea at various threshold ranges. The three best rated spices included cinnamon at 10%, lemongrass at 10% and nutmeg at 25% with mean values of 6.88, 6.24 and 6.92 respectively on a hedonic scale. The results showed that some spices are preferred more with tea than others and some have lower threshold detection values than others. Overall, addition of suitable spices to the purple tea led to an increase acceptability of tea. Economic evaluation of purple tea blended with nutmeg showed a significant increase in cost, from Ksh 56.00, Ksh 58.07 and Ksh 61.17 for 0%, 10% and 25% spice to tea ratio respectively.