Possibility of Some Indigenous Spices as Flavor Agent of Green Tea

Indonesia is one of countries that has mega-biodiversity and has some potency on spices and herbs. Some of them have natural volatile oils or other components that influence on flavor and taste of some drinks and foods. This research was aimed to explore the possibility of some indigenous spices (ginger, lemongrass, kaffir lime and jasmine), which were extracted then added as flavoring agents on green and black tea. The extraction was conducted with two kinds of maceration methods, namely with ethanol 96% and hexane. The extracts were then evaporated with vacuum rotavapor. The kaffir lime was not extracted, but it was dried then grinded until Ø 0.5 mm. Black tea and green teas were determined by GC-MS and Spectrophotometry for EGCG and tannin content. Both important compounds of tea were found in the samples. The flavoring agents were added into black and green teas and evaluated by panellists. Results were dried black tea added with kaffir lime had highest rank and for brewed tea depicted,the black tea with flavoring agents of lemongrass and ginger, and green tea with ginger gained almost highest consumer acceptance.