Abstract: This study compared the difference in color parameters measured by different methods for tea infusion in order to explore a quantitative method that can reflect the color of tea infusion more objectively and truly. In total 36 Liupao tea samples were selected for preparation of tea infusions, and three different methods were used to extract color parameters from the tea infusions. The color parameters were simulated and verified for comparative analysis. The quantitative results of method 1 based on Adobe Color CC and method 2 based on Matlab for color parameters were generally consistent with each other, but significantly different from those of method 3 (direct measurement with a bench-top colorimeter). Correlation analysis of color parameters revealed that the difference was mainly attributed to the yellowness value. The results of artificial neural network (ANN) modeling showed that the prediction accuracies of the three methods for color parameters were 86.1%, 83.7% and 63.8%, respectively. The color parameter extraction method of image acquisition based on computer vision combined with Adobe Color CC could more truly reflect the actual color of Liupao tea, suggesting that this method provides a relatively objective and accurate detection method for the quantitative analysis of tea infusion color.

Key words: Liupao tea; tea infusion; color; quantification; methods