Journal of Tea Science Research. 2015, Vol. 5, No. 3, 1-12
1
Research Article Open Access
Diversification of the Tea Products ---- Global Scenario
N. Ghosh Hajra
1
, C. Won-Mo Yang
2
1. Organic Tea and Agri-Horticultural Consulting, Santiban, Parashmoni A/401, 7 - Umakanta Sen Lane, Kolkata – 700030, India
2. Faculty of Horticulture, Sunchon National University, Sunchon City, Jeonnam 540742, Korea
Corresponding author email
Journal of Tea Science Research, 2015, Vol.5, No.3 doi: 10.5376/jtsr.2015.05.0003
Received: 19 Jan., 2015
Accepted: 06 Mar., 2015
Published: 31 Mar., 2015
© 2015 Ghosh Hajra and Yang, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Ghosh Hajra and Yang, 2015, Diversification of the Tea Products ---- Global Scenario,
Journal of Tea Science Research, Vol.5, No.3, 1-10 (doi:
10.5376/jtsr.2015.05.0003)
Abstract
Tea is most consumed drink in the world after water. Tea industry makes a vital contribution to the economy of the
producing countries. Tea is a rich source of polyphenols and now-a-days interest in the possible health benefits of polyphenols,
particularly flavonoids, has increased owing to their antioxidant and free-radical scavenging abilities. Presently, the world market
price of tea has stagnated with supplies being stable and this situation emphasizes the need for exploring alternative means of
increasing profits from tea cultivation. Product diversification of tea through value addition seems to be an important approach to
mitigate the impacts of low market price and high production costs. In the present article diversified tea products developed in
different tea producing countries have been described.
Keywords
Antioxidant; Catechin; Polyphenol; Product Diversification; Tea
Introduction
Tea is one of the most popular, cheapest and second
most consumed beverages in the world. Global tea
production has exceeded 4 million tonnes and the
trend is continuously increasing with an annual
growth rate of 1.9% for black tea and 3.8% for green
tea and is projected to reach a production of 3.14
million tonnes of black tea and 1.57 million tonnes of
green tea by 2017 (Refer: Report of the eighteen
session of the inter intergovernmental group on tea,
Hangzhou, China, 14–16 May 2008). Tea is considered
to have wide beverage market and the tea industry
makes a vital contribution to the economy of the
producing countries. But the future of worldwide tea
production is in a very unpleasant situation due to low
world prices while cost of production are increasing
due to high prices of farm inputs, surge in the labour
wages and overhead expenditure. Further, tea prices
are also declining due to excess supply of poor quality
of teas into the world market thereby reducing profit
margins further. Further, the brew is also losing out in
the competition with other beverages. The situation
emphasizes the need for exploring alternative means
of increasing profits from tea cultivation.
Tea contains a range of soluble substances such as
catechins, caffeine, theanine, chlorophyll, organic
acids, and vitamins (Graham, 1992; Balentine et al.,
1998). Catechin account for a large amount (30% of
its dry weight) compared to other soluble substances.
Tea polyphenols, particularly catechins which are
antioxidants and their antioxidative properties were
found to be stronger than those of vitamins C, vitamin
E, and β-carotene (Graham, 1992). The major green
tea polyphenols are: (-)-epigallocatechin
-
3
-
gallate
(EGCG), (-)-epigallocatechin, (-)-epicatechin
-
3
-
gallate,
and (-)-epicatechin. EGCG is the major catechin in tea
accounting for more than 10% on a dry weight basis
of tea. Black tea additionally contains complex
oligomeric and polymeric polyphenols, theaflavins
(TF) and thearubigins (TR), which are formed during
processing as products of polyphenol oxidase-mediated
catechin oxidation. Of all the catechins in tea, EGCG is
the main subject of scientific study with regard to its
potential health effects (Ghosh Hajra, 2006). However,
the chemical composition of tea varies with climate,
