PRE-DESIGN OF YELLOW TEA INDUSTRIAL (CAMELLIA SINENSIS VAR. ASSAMICA): QUALITY IMPROVEMENT OF YELLOW TEA (CAMELLIA SINENSIS VAR. ASSAMICA) THROUGH ROTARY DRYER

• Main Author: Pramafi Aisyah, Tiara
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/77034
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Tea is a functional beverage containing polyphenolic compounds that can act as antioxidants to counteract free radicals. Tea can be classified into various types based on the level of fermentation. One type of tea is yellow tea, which undergoes a "sealed yellowing" process during its processing, resulting in a distinctive flavour due to the degradation of chlorophyll, oxidation of polyphenols, starch hydrolysis, and protein decomposition. Post-harvest processing can determine the quality of tea leaves, and one of the crucial steps is drying. The drying stage in tea processing can affect the biochemical and sensory compounds in yellow tea. In this study, yellow tea drying was conducted using a rotary dryer at various drying temperatures: 60, 80, 100, and 120°C. Drying kinetics analysis was performed using the Newton model. The correlation between temperature and drying constant was determined using the Arrhenius equation, resulting in an activation energy (Ea) of 25.07 kJ mol-1 and a pre-exponential factor of 337.92 min-1. Quality testing included final moisture content, total polyphenolic compound content, antioxidant activity, and sensory evaluation of yellow tea. The research findings indicate that drying at 120°C resulted in the lowest moisture content of 3.4% (w/w) and a total sensory score of 67.46%. Drying at 80°C exhibited the highest polyphenolic compound content and antioxidant activity, which were 23.28% and 17.01 ppm, respectively.