New Probiotic Tea Packed with Gut-friendly Live Probiotics
Tea is the most popular beverage in the world after water. But tea industry was always behind its biggest rivalry, Coffee when it comes to innovations. During 5000 years of long history, tea industry had only very few products or technical innovations. Continuous innovation is vital for the betterment of any industry. By the way, as NUS News had reported, their researchers have developed new probiotic tea and coffee drinks which are packed with gut-friendly live probiotics.
Image Credit: NUS News
Associate Professor Liu Shao Quan from NUS Food Science and Technology supervised the two PhD students namely Ms Alcine Chan and Ms Wang Rui who worked on these new beverages assert that their drinks have a great taste, and can be stored chilled or at room temperature for more than 14 weeks without compromising on their probiotic viability.
The rise in veganism, along with common health issues like lactose intolerance, high cholesterol, and allergies to dairy proteins, have stimulated the trend in non-dairy probiotic food and beverages.
“Coffee and tea are two of the most popular drinks around the world, and are both plant-based infusions. As such, they act as a perfect vehicle for carrying and delivering probiotics to consumers. Most commercially available probiotic coffee and tea drinks are unfermented. Our team has created a new range of these beverages using the fermentation process as it produces healthy compounds that improve nutrient digestibility while retaining the health benefits associated with coffee and tea,” explained Assoc Prof Liu.
About New Probiotic Tea
Image Credit: NUS News
To develop the new probiotic tea, Ms Wang Rui added nutrients into a tea infusion, followed by a careful selection of specific probiotics. The tea mixture is left to ferment for two days, after which it is ready to drink. Any kind of brewed tea can be used in this process, and throughout the fermentation process, the original flavour of the tea is largely retained, with fruity and floral notes introduced.
“The probiotic tea tastes like fruit tea with a little bit acidity, and a similar mouthfeel to the original tea. Drinkers can add sweeteners and milk, or cream, based on their preferences,” said Ms Wang.
Each serving of probiotic tea contains at least 1 billion units of live probiotics. This the daily amount recommended by the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics.
Both doctoral students are refining their recipes to enhance the taste and flavour of the two beverages.
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