Characterization and Evaluation of Aratiles (Muntingia calabura) fruit Alcoholic Beverage

Abstract

Aratiles fruit (Muntingia calabura) is one of the promising commodities which could be used in alcoholic beverage production due to its high sugar content. The aratiles juice was fermented for 9 days using three different yeast strains at different concentration of Diammonium Hydrogen Phosphate (DAHP) (0.1% and 0.2%) and citric acid (0.3% and 0.4%). It was observed that DAHP and citric acid tends to influence the potential hydrogen (pH), the soluble solid content (SSC) and the alcohol percentage (%) of the aratiles fruit alcoholic beverage. Samples with 0.1% DAHP and 0.4% citric acid as additives showed a great performance among treatments. The sample produced from Premier Curvee with 0.1% DAHP and 0.4% citric acid gained the highest rating which has 4.2 rating using the 5-point hedonic scale during the sensory evaluation. Sensory evaluation revealed that aratiles alcoholic beverage was moderately acceptable.