Cold brew tea

Details Cold brew tea Cold brew tea

2000-02-04

2002-12-10

Weier, Anthony J. (Department: 1761)

Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products

Products per se, or processes of preparing or treating...

Beverage or beverage concentrate

C426S049000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06491961

ABSTRACT:

The present invention generally relates to a cold water infusible tea leaf, to processes for obtaining such leaf and to the improved cold water infusion products thereby obtained.
BACKGROUND
Black tea is traditionally produced from fresh green tea leaves (
Camellia sinensis
) by a process comprising four major steps: withering, rolling, fermentation and firing. Withering is a process whereby the freshly plucked green tea leaves are stored until the moisture content is reduced to about 55-72% of the leaf weight. The withered leaves are crushed by rolling or maceration in order to break down the leaf cell structure and bring enzymes and the substrate polyphenols into contact. During fermentation the simple flavonoids in green tea leaf are oxidized by endogenous tea enzymes to produce the polyphenols that impart a bright red color and the astringent flavor to black tea. Tea fermentation is truly an enzymatic process and is not the typical fermentation used in brewing of alcoholic beverages. Two enzymes, polyphenol oxidase and peroxidase catalyze the oxidation of simple catechins to the more complex polyphenols; namely theaflavins (TF) and thearubigens (TR).
Fermented teas are fired (dried) with hot, dry air reducing the moisture content of the leaves to less than 5%. Firing of teas arrests fermentation by inactivating enzymes and results in development of color and flavor from chemical oxidation and creates the final balance of tea aroma. Following drying, the leaves are then sorted and graded to yield a commercial black tea product. The process of tea manufacture is described in great detail by Robertson 1992 (Tea:
Cultivation to Consumption
. Wilson, K. C. and Clifford, M. N., Eds., Chapman Hall, London)
Tea beverage is prepared from the black tea leaf manufactured by the above process by infusing the tea leaves loose or in a tea bag in hot freshly boiled water for a few minutes. After removing the tea leaf, the beverage is then consumed hot or cold as iced tea.
It is well known that the majority of the tea consumed in the U.S. is iced tea prepared by cooling down tea beverage brewed using hot freshly boiled water, by dissolving instant tea powders in water or in the form of ready-to drink teas in cans, bottles or cartons. Iced tea prepared from tea leaf with boiling water has the fresh brewed tea flavor/astringency enjoyed around the world. However, the steps of boiling water and cooling down can be time consuming, generally taking more than 30 minutes before the ice tea beverage is ready for consumption.
Convenient as cold water soluble tea powders can be, for many consumers the quality of the final beverage is not equal to that prepared from hot infused leaves. Many consumers prefer not to use instant tea powders as they perceive them to be lacking the fresh brewed tea taste and of inferior quality.
Accordingly, a leaf tea that can rapidly infuse in cold water to produce an iced tea beverage with the color and flavor of the traditionally hot brewed iced tea would offer the consumer a convenient option to both traditional leaf tea and powdered tea products. The benefit of a cold brew tea product is two folds, the convenience of not having to boil water and wait for it to cool down, and the fresh brewed tea taste.
There are numerous methods for making cold water soluble tea powders including U.S. Pat. No. 4,051,264 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,812,266. European patent specification EP 760,213 A1 (Unilever) discloses a method of enhancing color in a tea-based foodstuff. The method involves using a tannase pre-treatment (on leaf or extract) followed by treatment with exogenous peroxidase and hydrogen peroxide to generate cold-soluble color.
International patent publication WO 97/40699 (Unilever) concerns tea processing with zeolites to generate color. There are examples of adding zeolite following tannase treatment to generate cold-water soluble tea.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,639,375 discloses treating black tea with tannase, together with other cell-wall digesting enzymes, to generate cold-water soluble instant tea powders.
When conventional teas are extracted with cold water for short periods of time (less than 15 minutes), the tea beverage produced has a low concentration of extractable tea solids, a Very light color and almost no tea-like taste. Water at temperatures of about 100° C. is usually employed to obtain a satisfactory beverage with prior art tea leaves.
It has now been discovered that by appropriate selection of tea leaves, which are, in turn, subjected to appropriate processing, a cold brew tea beverage can be obtained. It is now possible to obtain a leaf tea that rapidly infuses and remains soluble in cold water to give a beverage with good color and flavor that is as acceptable to consumers as iced tea made from a hot infused black leaf tea. Furthermore, this product can be made from infusions of tea obtained by modifying the traditional black tea manufacturing process.
The inventive product is used to prepare a beverage with good color and taste by infusion in cold water. The product is comprised of 100% tea leaves and excludes the addition of instant tea powder or the coating of tea extracts onto the tea leaves. In other embodiments, the product may employ powders, extracts or colorants. The product infuses in cold water and can be used to produce an iced tea beverage with the color and flavor comparable to iced teas prepared by hot brewing methods.
In summary, this invention encompasses a tea leaf product that rapidly brews in cold water to produce a beverage with color and flavor characteristics substantially identical to hot brewed iced tea beverages and a process of manufacturing cold infusing black tea leaf. This product and processes for its preparation will be described in detail in the “Detailed Description of the Invention”.
“Tea” for the purposes of the present invention means leaf material from
Camellia sinensis
var.
sinensis
or
Camellia sinensis
var.
assamica
. It also includes herbal teas such as rooibos tea obtained from Aspalathus linearis, however, most herbal teas are a poor source of endogenous fermenting enzymes. “Tea” is also intended to include the product of blending two or more of any of these teas.
“Leaf tea” for the purposes of this invention means a tea product that contains leaves of one or more tea origins in an uninfused form.
“Cold water infusible” for the purposes of this invention means giving good color, flavor and mouthfeel in a short infusion time, i.e., less that 10 minutes, but preferably within 5 minutes at a temperature at or below about 15° C.
As used herein, the word “comprising” is intended to mean including but not necessarily “consisting essentially of”, “consisting of” or “composed of”. In other words, “comprising” the listed steps or options need not be exhaustive.
Except in the examples, or where otherwise explicitly indicated, all numbers in this description indicating amounts of material or conditions of reaction, physical properties of materials and/or use are to be understood as modified by the word “about.” All amounts are by weight of the composition, unless otherwise specified.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Evaluation of Cold Brew Product by Qualitative Descriptive Analysis (Q.D.A.)
The color and flavor, including mouthfeel, of iced tea beverages govern their acceptability. A Qualitative Descriptive Analysis (Q.D.A.) test method was selected to systematically characterize and quantify tea beverages based on color, flavor, and mouthfeel. The Q.D.A. method employs a trained panel of expert tasters to quantify the color, flavor and mouthfeel attributes of iced tea beverages relative to defined reference standards.
Expert tasters were chosen by screening prospective panel members for ability to taste standard solutions of acid (citric acid), salt (sodium chloride), sweet (sucrose), and bitter (caffeine) that represent high to low levels (grams per liter) of each flavor attribute as defined in the following table.
Acid
Bitter
Salt
Sweet
0.6
0.5
2.0
12.0
0.4
0.3
1.0
4.3
0.2
0.2
0.5
1.6
0.1
0.1
0.2
0.5
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