Chemical, physicochemical analysis and sensory evaluation of the novel formulation of tea based (Camellia sinensis L.) natural carbohydrate-electrolyte replenishing drink (sports drink)

Sports drinks are consumed as a nutritive supplement by the sportsmen. Artificiality of those formulations, increases the unreliability over the consumers regarding health effects. The created objectives were formulated, tea based sports drinks by using Ceylon tea which matches the plasma osmolality. Sensory evaluations were done to investigate the market position and the performance of tea based sports drinks and results demonstrated a higher consumer preference on tea based sports drinks than that of commercially available drinks. To reveal the health benefits, total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), total antioxidant capacity (TAC ) and content of catechins were checked by using modified Folin-Ciocalteu method, colorimetric method, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) respectively. Significantly, highest TPC (1.852 ± 0.021 mg GAE/mL) was observed in Ceylon black tea sports drink while the highest TFC (1.252 ± 0.006 mg RE/mL), TAC (27.916 ± 0.121 mg TE/mL), epicatechin (1.07 mg/300 mL) and epigallocatechin gallate (8.29 mg/300 mL) contents were present in Ceylon green tea sports drink. According to the pH, titratable acidity (TA) and total soluble solid (TSS), higher acidity ranges and higher TSS contents were recorded by commercially available samples. Accordingly, the addition of tea demonstrated the enhancement of health benefits and thereby, the novel formulations can be concluded as healthy natural sports drinks.