Development of green tea beverage with organic tea leaves

In this study, organic tea leaves were characterized with the aim of developing an organic beverage process. The green tea leaves grown using organic farming techniques were collected in Haenam, Korea. Catechins in green tea leaves were extracted by chloroform and ethyl acetate and these were then analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively by HPLC (high pressure liquid chromatography). The color and pH values of the green tea extracts were also measured. The catechin levels of April-harvested, May-harvested and June-harvested, semi-fermented leaves at 0.5% were 66.24, 29.19, 57.11, and 5.27 μg/mL, respectively. Among the detected catechins, the level of (-)-epigallocatechin gallate was the highest while that of (-)- epigallocatechin was not detected. The June-harvested leaves were selected as raw material for development of the green tea beverage, based on the levels of catechins, economic viability and yield of tea extract. As the level of extract increased, the levels of catechins of 0.1, 0.2, 0.5% also increased by 1.5, 11.78 and 41.01 times. From the results of the sensory evaluation of June-harvested leaf-extract, the sensory score of color was the highest in 0.1%, while the flavor and overall quality were the highest in 0.2%.