Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Products per se – or processes of preparing or treating... – Beverage or beverage concentrate
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-17
2004-01-27
Wong, Leslie (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Products per se, or processes of preparing or treating...
Beverage or beverage concentrate
C426S477000, C426S548000, C426S591000, C426S592000, C426S599000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06682766
ABSTRACT:
This is a National Stage filing of PCT/US98/25443 filed Dec. 1, 1998.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to substantially alcohol free beverages having a sweetener system which ensures the full perception of the flavour system within the beverage while at the same time comprising flavanols as a sweetness cutting material which reduces the sweetness impression of the sweetener system. In particular the present invention relates to beverages which are considered most appealing to an adult taste, having a full flavour impression while being considered less sweet than conventional beverages usually designed for children, who prefer a stronger sweetness impression.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
It is well-known in the art that in order to provide a beverage with a well rounded and full bodied flavour it is necessary to provide a sweetening system containing natural and/or artificial sweetening components such as sugar and high intensity sweetening compounds such as saccharin, acesulfam K, cyclamate, or aspartame (known under the trade name Nutra-Sweet). On the other hand it is known that in particular adult consumers of beverages have a desire for a less sweet beverage composition.
In order to provide in particular adult consumers with a less sweet tasting beverage several well-known alternatives are available. The addition of a bitter tasting ingredient such as chinin or grapefruit flavours have been tried in tonics and citrus beverages (also alcohol free beer could be considered in this context). However, many consumers do not find a bitter note appealing, in particular since it usually is not adequate to overcome the sweetness perception in such beverages as tonic water, bitter lemon or grapefruit juice comprising beverages. Even so these beverages comprise a bitter tasting compound they are still rated as too sweet mostly by adult consumers.
An alternative conventionally used is to increase the amount of acids in a beverage in order to change the sweetness impression of the sweetening composition comprised in the beverage. However, this has limitations in that too much added acids in beverages are not appealing to many consumers and some actually complain about heartburn caused by a too high acidity.
A third apparent alternative is the reduction of the sweetening composition amount in order to reduce the sweetness impression of a beverage. However, this (as indicated above) causes a reduction of the flavour impression of such a beverage composition and therefore causes a lack of appealing flavour to consumers of such beverages. At the same time a reduction of the sweetening compounds covers a consistency/mouth feel change which often is described as “watery” further enhancing the impression that such a beverage has less flavour.
One possibility widely used in beverage compositions, however for different reasons (such as a preservation effect or as an acidifier), is to provide the beverage with a sparkling CO
2
content. This does have a reducing effect on the sweetness impression of such compositions. At the same time the addition of CO
2
to beverage compositions reduces all taste impressions in line with the reduction of the sweetness impression. The reason for this is believed to be caused by the reduced amount of liquid actually contacting taste corpuscles on the sensoric sensitive areas of the mouth when drinking such compositions. Based on this CO
2
is added usually to beverages for it's refreshing effect and as part of the preservative system in beverages.
Therefore, the inventors of the present invention have investigated whether the addition of certain compounds would not provide a solution to the problems associated with conventional attempts to reduce the sweetness impression of alcohol free beverages. It now has been found that indeed the addition of certain well-known compounds causes a reduction in the sweetness impression of a beverage composition. The addition of such sweetness cutting compounds is, however, also associated with a detrimental flavour effect on the beverage compositions and hence has conventionally not been used in order to provide a sweetness cutting effect but for other reasons.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide beverage compositions without reducing the sweetening composition contained in such beverages compositions but with a sweetness impression which is lower than would usually be expected from the sweetener composition comprised in the beverage. It is another objective of the present invention to maintain the flavour impression of a beverage composition while reducing the sweetness impression without raising the acidity level and without introducing an objectionable bitter note, or astringency to the beverage composition.
It is a further objective of the present invention to define the amount of sweetness cutting compounds to be added to a beverage composition in dependence on the beverage composition as such, i.e. without the sweetness cutting compounds, so as to prevent the generation of a flavour impression substantially different from the original beverage composition.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to beverage compositions having a reduced sweetness impression and comprising optionally a CO
2
content of up to 10 times the volume of the liquid, a sweetening composition which may comprise natural or artificial sweetening compounds or combinations thereof including in particular high intensity sweeteners such as saccharin, acesulfam K, cyclamate, aspartame or fruit juice or fruit juice concentrate from fruit like those belonging to the Cucurbitaceae family, preferably Luo Han Guo fruit. The sweetening composition is included to provide a sweetening strength measured by the sweetness impression on an attribute grading test of a rating of at least 4 points in the attribute grading test (the test details and definitions are given below) when the sweetening composition is dissolved in water which has the same CO
2
content as desired for the final beverage. In the same test the bitterness impression is measured.
The beverage further comprises flavanols as a sweetness cutting composition in an amount of 60-150 ppm, preferably 70-120 ppm, more preferably 80-100 ppm by weight. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention the beverage composition further comprises one compound or a combination of compounds selected from triple sec flavour; vermouth flavour; mint flavour or combinations thereof.
The sweetening composition preferably contains compounds selected from the group of sugars such as saccharose, glucose, fructose, lactose, maltose, sorbit, dextrose, sorbose, xylit, lactit, maltit, isomaltit, or high intensity sweeteners such as saccharin, cyclamat, aspartam, acesulfam K, thaumatin, glycin or combinations thereof. The sweetness cutting composition according to the present invention can further contain compounds selected from the group of polyphenols of a molecular weight ranging from 500 to 3000, preferably ranging from 850 to 2800, such as tannins or tannic acids (e.g. obtainable from wood extractions, particularly from oak chips), gymnemic acid and its salts such as triterpene saponin, glycorides such as ziziphin or hodulcin, compounds such as 2 (4-methoxyphenoxy)-propanic-acids and -salts or -esters or combinations thereof.
Since the addition of CO
2
effectively reduces all flavour impressions of a composition it is not necessary or desirable to include CO
2
in the beverage compositions of the present invention for its sweetness impression reducing effect. However, CO
2
is considered by many consumers to provide or raise the refreshing and stimulating effect of a beverage. Hence the inclusion of CO
2
is desirable in the context of the present invention. The amount of CO
2
to be added in beverages preferably is in the range from 2 to 4 times the volume of the beverage, even more preferably in the range from 2.5 to 3.5 by volume.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Definitions
As used herein the term “beverage” refers to a beverage composition whi
Blumenstein-Stahl Gabriele Annemarie
Fischer Christa Maria
Olbert Ingeborg
Chuey S Robert
The Procter & Gamble & Company
Wong Leslie
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