The Effect of Soaking Time and Size of Fruit Pieces on Pineapple Infused Tea Characteristic

Fruit-infused tea become one of the exciting innovations in recent years. Fruit addition could improve the freshness and richness of tea drinks. Pineapple has good potency when used in the making of fruit-infused tea. The soaking time and size of fruit pieces were essential to determine because there is a solid-liquid extraction process in making pineapple-infused tea. This research aimed to assess the effect of soaking time and the size of fruit pieces on the characteristics of pineapple-infused tea. This research used Complete Block Design (CBD) with two factors: (A) soaking time and (B) size of fruit pieces. Factor A consisted of 3 levels: A1 = 3 hours; A2 = 6 hours; A3 = 9 hours. Factor B consisted of 3 levels: B1 = 0.5×0.5×0.5 cm; B2 = 1×1×1 cm; B3 = 1.5×1.5×1.5 cm. The treatment was replicated two times. The analysis was antioxidant activity, vitamin C, pH, total flavonoid, and tannin content. The result showed a significant difference in soaking time on tannin content, vitamin C, pH parameters, and the size of fruit pieces on pH parameters. The best result was obtained in 1×1×1 cm of fruit pieces and 3 hours soaking time with 13.20 ± 0.01% vitamin C, 17.28 ± 0.83% tannin content, 0.107 ± 0.018 % flavonoid content, 92.56 ± 1.99 % antioxidant activity and 4.95 ± 0.03 pH value. This research provides data about the difference between soaking time and the size of fruit pieces to the pineapple-infused tea characteristic.