Effect of Long Fermentation to Titrated Acid Total (TAT) in Lemongrass Kombucha Tea (Cymbopogon citratus (DC.) Stapf.)

Abstract

The lemongrass plant is one of the plants that is usually used as an additional kitchen spice to strengthen the taste. However, as time passes, lemongrass is widely used as an ingredient in drinks and medicines that benefit the body. To further increase the benefits of kitchen lemongrass, lemongrass kombucha tea is made. Currently, people need to learn more about lemongrass tea. Therefore, innovations have been made to make fermented drinks that utilize kombucha culture using a SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast) starter. The lemongrass kombucha product is an innovation as a fermented beverage product which is expected to be able to compete in the processed beverage product industry in Indonesia. This research aims to determine the effect of fermentation time on titrated acid total (TAT) in lemongrass kombucha tea. This research used different fermentation time treatments, namely 4 days, 8 days, 12 days and 16 days of fermentation with 4 repetitions each. Titrated acid total (TAT) testing is carried out when harvesting kombucha per fermentation treatment. TAT and pH testing were carried out using a linear regression test, which has a solid relationship; the longer the fermentation time for lemongrass kombucha tea causes a decrease in the pH value and an increase in the total amount of titrated acid (TAT), the most significant total amount of titrated acid is the product with a fermentation time of 16 days, namely 2.16%. Key words: Kombucha, Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus), Titrated acid total (TAT), pH