Effect of Different Citric Acid Concentration on Physicochemical and Organoleptic Properties of Apple Flavoured Moringa Tea

Abstract

The Enrichment Program was done at PT. Sinar Sosro which is a company engaged in the packaged beverage industry. The main activity as a part of the Research and Development Division was done by involvement in the quality control of products and product development by the research of apple flavored moringa tea. This study aims to analyze the effects of citric acid concentration towards the physicochemical and organoleptic properties of apple flavored moringa tea. The citric acid concentration utilized four formulations –0%, 0.25%,0.3%, and 0.35%–to assess the effect between each formulation to the properties of the tea. To analyze the effects of citric acid, 3 physicochemical analysis and 2 organoleptic analysis was performed. The physicochemical properties include pH, acidity, and color. The organoleptic analysis utilized Just about right and 9-point hedonic analysis to assess the sensorial properties of the tea. The highest acidity value and lowest pH value for the tea was achieved by the highest citric acid concentration (0.35%).The addition of citric acid significantly increased the brightness of the tea (p = 0.012) and acidity (p = 0.011) whilst lowering the pH (p = 0.013). The sensorial analysis shows that the addition of citric acid did not significantly increase the sensorial properties of the tea as it only had subtle improvement. Alongside, the addition of citric acid significantly improved the intensity of sweetness (p = 0.011; p = 0.031) and color of the tea (p = 0.006) .