Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Products per se – or processes of preparing or treating... – Beverage or beverage concentrate
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-09
2002-07-02
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
C426S330300
Reexamination Certificate
active
06413570
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention generally relates to concentrated solutions or dispersions of tea extracts which may be used, if desired, in preparing iced tea beverages. Hot tea beverages may also be prepared using the invention.
Iced tea cannot be conveniently prepared by infusing traditionally manufactured tea leaves in cold water. Instead, the leaves are usually infused in hot water, removed, if necessary unless they are in a tea bag, and the beverage is then refrigerated until it is ready to consume. Alternately tea leaves, both loose and in bags, have been placed in water in sunlight to infuse slowly over a period of hours. A more convenient option is to prepare the iced tea beverage from a concentrated storage solution.
Shelf stable tea concentrates with high tea solids are highly desirable and have several applications. These include: the ability to supply a brewed tea concentrate for use in Ready-to-Drink tea and Fountain tea products; as a tea concentrate product for retail sale; and as a preferred method of transporting tea solids. One advantage of the tea concentrate of the invention over a powder or a dilute tea extract is that better tea character is obtained. In addition, less energy is employed in manufacturing than for a powder and less weight and volume are needed for shipping a concentrate, than for a dilute extract.
In the prior art, tea concentrates were considered to be physically unstable, which prevented their use in many tea products. However, it is believed that under certain conditions tea products made from tea concentrates have better quality (e.g., flavor, freshness, etc.) than powders and are more economical than tea powder or dilute tea extract. Therefore, it is highly desirable to have a shelf stable tea concentrate.
The addition of a selected level of high methoxy citrus pectin stabilizes tea products having about 0.1% tea solids and prevents haze and precipitation. This is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,796. However, the same approach to stabilize tea concentrates up to about 50% solids was not successful.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,748,033 disclosed the use of edible gums (xanthan gum, cellulose gums, locust bean gum, sugar gum and mixtures) to prevent floc formation during cyclic freezing and thawing, and to enhance cold water solubility. The solids level for the tea concentrate specified in the patent was 0.4 to 8% (w/w) and the use level of xanthan gum was 5-12% weight of gum to weight of tea solids.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,051,267 to Jongeling disclosed the use of carrageenans for suspending and stabilizing tannins in a tea extract which is transported in a frozen or chilled condition for use in vending machines. However, Jongeling found that the viscosity of the tea extract using xanthan gum was so high that the accuracy of dosing in the dispensing machine was impaired.
The use of individual gums or mixtures of gum with selected tea extracts has been disclosed. However, the current invention is very different from the teachings of the prior art. The prior art dealt with much lower levels of tea solids, 0.4-8%. Further, the prior art did not stabilize tea concentrates containing 15-25% of tea solids. Additionally, the prior art required low temperatures (refrigerated or frozen) to maintain the flavor, clarity, stability and shelf life of the products. Tea concentrates prepared by the current invention in contrast to the art are stable at ambient temperatures.
Concentrates or “Storage Solutions” labeled as tea have been prepared such as Ready Bru™ marketed by Beverage House however the product employs colorants and contains little, if any, actual tea solids. Rather it uses tea aroma and the like to give a final beverage on dilution that in some ways may vaguely resemble tea.
Real tea concentrates have also been prepared containing relatively low amounts of tea solids. These “fountain style” brands of concentrated syrup are shipped in bags and used in dispensers in restaurants and other types of distributors. These concentrates as compared to the concentrate or Storage Solutions of the instant invention are vastly different. Table 1 below gives typical formulations for current products and the inventive product.
TABLE 1
Comparison of Typical Fountain Tea Concentrates with the Invention
Typical
Stabilized Brewed Tea
Fountain Tea
Concentrate
Ingredient
Concentrate
Of The Invention
Tea Powder
0.5%
Tea Concentrate (50% solids)
32.40%
Tea Aroma/Tea Flavor
0.7%
11.41%
Preservative
0.2%
0.22%
Acidulant/Color
0.8%
3.04%
Water
97.5%
5.34%
Antifoam
0.2%
Citrus Pectin
0.1%
HFCS (71% solids)
47.60%
Both tea concentrates are at a pH of approximately 4.2.
These prior art “tea concentrates” with solids concentrations at a level of 0% to 1.0% are more accurately described as dilute tea extracts. They have a relatively low concentration of tea and a relatively high concentration of preservative. On the one hand the low concentration of tea promotes stability in this dilute extract but the high concentration of preservative may be high enough to detract from taste when the extract is diluted to beverage strength.
In addition, at a relatively low concentration shipping includes high amounts of water and excess packaging. If the concentration of tea solids could be increased it would eliminate shipping many containers and much water. For example, currently “Fountain Teas” have a tea concentration of roughly 0.5% so that when they are diluted in current dispensers with a 5:1 water to tea extract ratio they will have a beverage strength of about 0.1%. If the concentration could be increased significantly it would require shipment of less water and there would be a concomitantly reduced need for packaging. The difficulty lies in stabilizing the higher concentrations of tea. Not only must the concentrated solution itself be stable both physically and microbiologically, but the beverage prepared from it must also have good physical and microbiological stability. Microbiological stability in the beverage is not quite as important because the beverage strength tea is usually consumed within minutes of being dispensed. In addition, when sufficient preservatives are used to protect the “concentrate” at higher tea solids they will be present in the highly diluted beverage at much lower amounts and are not noticeable in the taste.
The physical stability of a highly concentrated tea solids solution is very tenuous, especially at the acidic pH's used when preservatives are employed to maintain microbiological stability in the concentrated storage solutions.
Tea concentrates containing 10% to 30% tea solids have a pronounced tendency to separate and “cream” thus resulting in an unsightly product which cannot be easily handled and which cannot be used in standard diluting equipment.
Accordingly, a concentrated tea solution with a relatively high amount of tea solids is seen to be extremely desirable.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to achieve the goal of shelf stable tea concentrates which can be employed with the invention, selected amounts of carbohydrates such as sucrose, corn syrup, oligosaccharides, high fructose corn syrup and the like have been employed. High fructose corn syrup has been found to be the most effective carbohydrate. Tea extracts from continuous or batch extraction using specific enzyme treated or extracted tea leaves (i.e., green, black and oolong tea) are centrifuged and separated to achieve certain levels of clarity. The carbohydrate is added either before or after evaporation and preferably after to achieve a final concentration of 12 to 20% (w/w) on a tea solids basis of the concentrate. A shear force is used to mix the concentrate. The stabilized concentrate is pasteurized, aseptically packed or preserved and acidified to a pH below 4.6, and stored at ambient temperature. Products made from the concentrate have a fresh brewed tea flavor and good clarity.
The concentrate used with the invention has a concentration of brewed tea solids of about 5% to 30% preferably 12% to 20% and employs a companion carbohydrate, such as corn syrup, oligosaccharides,
Gobbo Steven Alphonse
Kemly-Ellingham Meghan Mary
Lehmberg Gregg Lance
Spisak Martin John
Lipton division of Conopco, Inc.
Weier Anthony J.
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