| Abstract |
Luicha, or ground tea, is a southern Chinese traditional tea beverage. Luicha
consists of a mixture of tea and herbs, combining all herbal goodness to
maintain health. In Malaysia, Luicha is served together with rice a variety of
vegetables and nuts. Luicha is usually prepared from scratch before
consumption. It can be a tedious task to find all fresh herbs for luicha,
depending on their availability. Moreover, Luicha preparation is time
consuming; hence, it is less popular among food operators. Instant Luicha is
formulated using high quality herbs, which are air dried, ground and mixed
proportionally. A typical Sarawak Luicha is prepared from combination of
seven herbs. Instant Luicha significantly reduces the preparation time for
Luicha, from hours into minutes, without affecting the taste compared to
conventional preparation. It can be consumed as a beverage/tea or served as
a broth with rice dish. Due to hectic lifestyle and rising health awareness,
there is a growing potential and market for Instant Luicha, especially for
domestic consumption. From our initial market survey, pre-packed Instant
Luicha is unavailable locally. Our short-term goals focus on
promoting/marketing Instant Luicha via social network to increase sales. We
will distribute Instant Luicha at local supermarket/hypermarkets as well as
introducing it to food operators to establish a customer base. For long-term
goals, we aim to (a) obtain food safety, MS1500 Halal food certification-
production, preparation, handling and storage; (b) achieve brand-awareness,
locally and internationally; (c) launch health food products based on Luicha,
e.g cookies and breads. |