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Haze or tea cream in instant tea significantly affects tea-based product manufacturing due to its impact in preparing unclouded tea infusions. The effect of pre-processing temperature of spray drying and cultivar elevation with haze development of instant tea production from Broken Mixed Fannings (BMF) was studied first time by analyzing Total polyphenol (TPC), caffeine content, yield and haze value in instant tea. Significant differences in haze and TPC percentages were observed across elevation categories of upcountry (86.1 NTU &16.33%), mid country (49.6 NTU &13.25%), and low country (29.7 NTU &11.94%) respectively. A strong positive correlation (0.992) was observed between TPC and haze level while a negative correlation showed between Caffeine and haze level (-0.967). However, there were no significant differences for haze, TPC and caffeine contents among tea estates in the same elevation category. The highest yield (27.17%) and lowest haze value (48.75 NTU) of instant tea were reported at the pre-process spray drying temperature of 70°C when compared with 40, 50, 60, 80 and 90°C. The method was validated in large-scale production and could be recommended as a proven methodology to reduce haze development and acquire a high yield of instant tea.

Production of instant tea, which is used as a colorant and a beverage ingredient, is a growing industry in the world. Refuse tea is industrially identified as Broken Mixed Fannings (BMF) and is a primary raw material for instant tea production due to its cost-effectiveness. This study was carried out to assess the quality variation of BMF obtained from tea estates of different elevation categories and instant black tea powder produced from these BMF types to explore opportunities to produce instant tea types that customers prefer. BMF samples were collected from ten different estates, representing the elevation categories of up (LC), mid (MC) and low (LC) country of Sri Lanka. Total antioxidant activity (TAA), total polyphenol (TPC), caffeine and moisture contents, colour, haze and pH of both BMF and instant tea powder were analysed using standard methods. Though significant differences were not observed among elevation categories for the parameters of colour, pH, contents of moisture, caffeine, TPC and TAA for both BMF and instant tea, there were significant variations in these parameters among estates. TPP content was highest in Halgolla of LC (18.5%) and lowest in Deniyaya of MC (10.1%). There was a significant difference in haze value of up country BMF (38.5 NTU) and the instant tea produced from them (138 NTU), compared to mid and low elevation categories. The highest caffeine contents for both BMF and instant tea were observed from low country estates. In average, TAA content was increased by three-folds and TPC content by two-folds when instant tea powder was produced from BMF. Therefore, the quality variations of instant tea types produced from BMF of different estates of elevation categories revealed the possibility of formulating required quality and healthy products based on customer preference by selecting proper combinations and proportions from known sources of raw materials.