ABSTRACT
Aonla (Emblica officinalis), despite being a highly nutritious and therapeutically important fruit, is highly acidic. Beverages prepared from aonla have low acceptability owing to their high acidity. Blending appears to be one of the tools for the preparation of acceptable beverage from aonla. Litchi possesses pleasant aroma, while grape contains good flavor in addition to attractive color in purple variety. In the current study, blended squash from aonla was prepared with litchi and grape (purple variety) 80separately in 3:1 and 1:1 ratio each. The ascorbic acid and total phenolic content was highest in aonla–litchi squash with 3:1 ratio (152 mg/100 g and 652 mg/100 g, respectively). In general, the ascorbic acid content decreased while phenolics increased after 6 months of storage at 12 ± 2°C. The anthocyanin content of aonla–grape squash was 3.7 and 7.7 mg/100g in 3:1 and 1:1 blends, respectively, which declined to 1.2 and 2.9 mg/100 g, respectively, after 6 months of storage. Initial sensory evaluation of the product revealed that aonla–litchi (1:1) blend was liked most, scoring 8.4 out of 9, followed by aonla–grape (1:1) with 8.1 score. Sensory scoring of squashes after 3 and 6 months of storage also indicated higher preferences for 1:1 blend than for 3:1 blend in both aonla–litchi and aonla–grape squashes. It may be inferred that 50% litchi or grape juice could be mixed with aonla juice to obtain acceptable quality of squash.
