'Tea Cola' to replace mineral water?

A group of Indian scientists have developed an exotic health drink and pill from tea extract, which they claim will help quench thirst and can replace traditional bottles of water canes.

They have named the new drink 'Tea Cola.'

A four-member team of scientists from the Tocklai Experimental Station based in Jorhat, Assam developed the unique product in 2005; but has been waiting for the patent rights before making it commercially available.

"It would be a milestone in the history of tea when these products would be made available in the market for commercial use," Mridul Hazarika, director of the Tocklai Experimental Station told Commodity Online.

The scientist team, headed by Hazarika, developed the two products in 2005. And since then they have been waiting for the patent rights before making it commercially available.

"We are expecting to get the final patent rights very soon. We are here in New Delhi to take up the patents issue with the Commerce Ministry officials," Hazarika said.

The scientist said they can commercially launch the products even with the provisional patents order.

The new drink named 'Tea Cola' would have two varieties.

"We have developed two varieties - one from extracts of black tea and the other from green tea to cater to different palates," Hazarika said.

He said the drink is made from pure natural

tea extracts having a lot of medicinal properties in them.

Apart from tea extracts, Tea Cola contains certain permissible additives and some sweeteners. "The idea to develop Tea Cola is nothing but value addition to tea. The effort has been to cut into the bottled mineral water market - a litre of Tea Cola would definitely be cheaper than a bottle of water," Hazarika asserted.

The production cost for a litre of Tea Cola is estimated at about Rs.10.

He said the Tea Cola pill, separately developed, is absolutely safe and can be chewed, or placed under the tongue, besides drinking in the conventional manner by dipping the tablet in a cup of hot water.

"We are sure the tea tablets will refresh and cheer a person up with nearly the same feeling as having a hot cup of brewed tea," he said.

The production cost of a tea pill is 50 paise -- the cost could be even cheaper when manufactured in bulk.

Several big companies from Britain, Australia and Iran have already approached the Tocklai Station for providing them with the technology for commercial sale.

Tea is acknowledged as a potent antioxidant that fights disease and helps people live longer.

According to researchers, drinking a cup of tea daily could cut the risk of heart attack. India is the world's largest tea producer with Assam accounting for about 55 percent of the total 955 million kg produced in 2006.