Abstract:
Herbal beverages are one of the beverage diversification products that have been well
recognized in the market. Addition of herbs or spices in coffee, not only offer an
enhanced flavor characteristic, but more importantly also offer the consumer to gain
a health benefit. Lemongrass is commonly recognized as an herb. This research aims to
develop a lemongrass value-added herbal coffee with the aim of increasing
consumption of coffee and to study the characteristics of herbal coffee obtained
physico-chemically and by sensory analysis. Ground coffee shall be blended with
ground lemongrass at different proportions of 0% which is the control, 2.5%, 5%
and 7.5% of the weight of coffee to obtain ready to drink lemongrass herbal
coffee. The infused drinks, the control with the lemongrass coffee at different
proportions, shall be then subjected for consumer preference and acceptance by testing
it to panelists based on preference test using the ranking test. The blends shall also be
analyzed for its physico-chemical characteristics such as its powder and brewing
appearance, Ph., TTA, total phenolic compounds, antioxidant activity and caffeine
concentration. The results shall be expressed as the means of standard deviation. The
significance of difference will be tested by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA),
using Excel (Microsoft Office, 2007; Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA, USA) and
SPSS version 18.0.
