| dc.description.abstract | Tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world after water. Processed tea is
manufactured from young tender leaves of tea plant (Camellia sinensis). Black tea has
mainly been processed from green coloured leaf tea cultivars. The Tea Research Foundation
of Kenya (TRFK) released a purple (anthocyanin pigmented) tea variety, TRFK 306/1,
in 2011. During the processing, the purple tea leaf is mixed with the ordinary green tea
leaf resulting in a new product. The study aimed at assessing the consumers’ preference
of the new tea product manufactured from a mixture of both green and purple tea leaves
as compared to tea manufactured from purple leaf and green leaf separately. The study
employed both descriptive survey and experimental research designs. Tea tasters were used
to rank i) tea from green leaf, ii) tea from purple tea and iii) tea from the mix of purple
and green leafs. Tea consumers were also asked to rank the three varieties of tea. The target
population comprised of 30 respondents drawn from Kangaita Tea Factory region within
Kirinyaga County. Tea tasters were drawn from factories in Kirinyaga County. Simple
random sampling was employed for both tea tasters and consumers. Data was collected
using questionnaires and analyzed using the Spearman Rank coefficient of correlation.
The study found out that consumers would prefer the tea mix of purple and green. The
study recommends extensive marketing and value addition strategies such as packaging,
branding and blending in order to create awareness to potential consumers and maximizem returns to the smallholder tea farmers. In addition, the study recommends that further research be done in order to outline health benefits of this tea product. | en_US |
