Palatability perception of herbal teas: Impact of extraction time and saccharose

Abstract

The herbal teas have been used as remedies for centuries, but they are believed to be a prioriunpalatable. The palatability of 43 different herbal teas and the effect of the extraction time and a sweetener (saccharose) on the taste perception of 31 or 25 herbal teas respectively, were evaluated using the 5 point palatability scale. The palatability scores of the herbal teas varied to a great extent (from 1.03 to 4.64) but as a general trend the unpalatable teas were considered as distasteful by the majority of subjects and the scores given to the palatable teas were divergent. The prolongation of the extraction time from 10 to 45 min had only a very limited effect toward the unpalatableness that effect was even not found for all herbal teas. While the effect of the saccharose univocally improved the taste but magnitude of this phenomenon was also moderate. In conclusion, the present study demonstrates that the favorable palatability but not distastefulness of the herbal teas strongly depends on the taste perception of the subject, and the time of extraction or addition of saccharose have only a minor effect on the palatability score of herbal teas. Key words: Medicinal plants, herbal teas, palatability, extraction time, saccharose, organoleptic analyze.