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What’s the most flavoursome and healthiest tea? - Coggle Diagram
What’s the most flavoursome and healthiest tea?
Most Flavoursome Tea
Flavours are derived from the different chemical components of the teas.
Caffeine levels contribute to the flavour of teas
Tannin levels are also one of the main contributors to flavour in numerous teas
Flavours can also be derived from another factors, including steeping time and tea fermentation
Caffeine
Caffeine concentration can be tested through a couple of ways, with one including liquid chromatography.
Caffeine concentration can also be tested through the use of chloroform by dissolving the caffeine in chloroform
Liquid chromatography extraction of caffeine would not be possible, given the lack of machinery in the school laboratory which is a clear limitation of this method.
Do the negative effects of caffeine outweigh any positives from a health perspective?
Fermentation
Fermenting the tea, depending on the amount of time the tea has been fermented for, varies the flavour of the tea, affecting the smell, astringency and bitterness
A possible test would be to alter the amount of time each tea is fermented for, to see the effect of that on the flavour of the tea.
The downsides to this sort of testing would be that it requires taste testing, which isn't advisable in a laboratory. Also, fermentation takes quite a while, and there isn't enough time to prove this method
What is the optimal time for teas to be fermented for to extract the best/ most flavour?
What effects does fermentation have on the healthiness of a tea?
Oxidation
Altering the amount of time the tea leaves are oxidized for (exposed to oxygen for) could definitely be an option to see how flavoursome all of the different teas are
Does the amount of oxidation affect the healthiness of the teas?
Tannins
Titrate the different teas to see the different concentrations of tannins present
Tannins are a type of chemical that contribute to the flavour of teas, and unlike fermentation, can be tested through the use of chemical methods as these are tangible items.
Does the amount of tannins positively affect both the flavour of the teas and the healthiness of them?
Healthiest Tea
The healthiest tea would have correlations with the concentration levels of some of the chemicals, for example, having more tannins (with moderation) would generally be healthier than having less
Amino Acids
Amino acids can be tested for through the utilisation of a method called liquid chromatography mass spectrometry
Different Amino acids include theanine, glycine, serine, proline, alanine and valine
Limitations are similar to those of caffeine as both use extraction methods which need specialised equipment.