Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Foraminous material infusion type – or foraminous container... – Having diverse soluble or dispersible material
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-22
2001-05-22
Weinstein, Steven (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Foraminous material infusion type, or foraminous container...
Having diverse soluble or dispersible material
C426S077000, C426S435000, C426S597000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06235323
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a tea bag which may be used to make iced tea beverages. The invention also relates to a method for making iced tea.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Traditionally, ice tea is made by extracting soluble tea solids from tea leaves and then adding various flavoring agents such as sugar, lemon, mint, peach and the like. The beverage is then cooled. This method results in a good quality tea product. However, it is time consuming since the consumer must heat water, steep the tea bags, and then cool the hot product.
Instant tea powders are available and may be used to rapidly produce a tea beverage at reduced temperatures. However, instant tea powders usually do not provide an iced tea beverage of quality comparable to that produced by brewing tea leaves.
Further, while it is possible to make an ice tea beverage by steeping tea leaves in water at reduced temperatures, the beverage obtained is poor unless it is steeped for excessively long periods of time. The extraction is too slow and the beverage has a poor color and a flavor which lacks body.
This has lead to a situation where many consumers merely purchase ready-to-drink iced tea beverages.
Therefore there is a need for a tea which may be rapidly extracted at reduced temperatures to provide an acceptable extract for iced tea drinks.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, in one aspect, this invention provides a tea bag for ice tea beverages, the tea bag containing a tea mixture comprising:
about 30% to about 95% by weight of tea leaves; and
about 5% to about 70% by weight of dried soluble tea solids.
Preferably the tea mixture further comprises tea flavor or aroma. The tea flavor or aroma may be encapsulated into the dried soluble tea solids.
The dried soluble tea solids are preferably coated on the tea leaves.
The tea leaves are preferably thermally treated tea leaves; for example steam treated tea leaves. This provides the advantage of reducing the possibility of microbial contamination.
The dried soluble tea solids may contain solubilized tannin components.
In another aspect, this invention provides a tea bag for ice tea beverages, the tea bag containing a tea mixture comprising tea leaves and dried soluble tea solids, the tea bag providing a beverage having a color of at least about 0.7 absorbance at 420 nm and using a cuvet pathlength of 1 cm when immersed in 250 ml of water at 22° C. for about 90 seconds at a tea mixture concentration of about 10 g/l.
In a yet further aspect, this invention provides a tea bag for ice tea beverages, the tea bag containing a tea mixture comprising tea leaves and dried soluble tea solids, the tea bag, when immersed in cold water for 90 seconds, providing a beverage having a theaflavin content at least 25% of the theaflavin content of a standard tea beverage. Preferably the beverage has a theaflavin content at least 40% of the theaflavin content of the standard tea beverage.
In a further aspect, this invention provides a method for preparing an iced tea beverage, the method comprising:
immersing a tea bag containing a tea mixture comprising about 30% to about 95% by weight of tea leaves and about 5% to about 70% by weight of dried soluble tea solids into water at a temperature of about 30° C. or less,
extracting soluble tea solids from the tea mixture for a period of about 10 minutes or less to provide a tea extract; and
removing the tea bag from the tea extract.
The soluble tea solids are preferably extracted from the tea mixture for a period of about 1 to 5 minutes.
In another aspect, this invention provides a method for preparing an iced tea bag, the method comprising thermally treating tea leaves at a temperature of at least 80° C.;
combining the thermally treated leaves with soluble tea solids to provide a tea mixture comprising about 30% to about 95% by weight of tea leaves and about 5% to about 70% by weight of dried soluble tea solids;
packaging the tea mixture in a tea bag.
In this specification, the term “standard tea beverage” means a tea beverage which is prepared by immersing 2 single-serve tea bags in 1 liter of water at 75° C. for 5 minutes.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
This invention is based upon the finding that a highly acceptable iced tea beverage may be rapidly produced in cold water from a tea bag which contains tea leaves and soluble tea solids.
The tea leaves used in the tea bag may be any suitable tea leaves commonly used in tea bags. Preferably the tea leaves are black tea leaves; that is tea leaves which have been fully enzymatically oxidized during production from green tea leaves. Further, the tea leaves are preferably selected to provide optimum extraction at reduced temperatures. Tea leaves of this nature may be readily determined by persons skilled in the art. Examples of suitable tea leaves include Malabar Indonesian tea leaves, Nusantara Indonesian tea leaves, Papua New Guinea tea leaves, and mixtures of these tea leaves.
The tea leaves are preferably thermally treated to reduce microbial contamination; for example steam treated. This may be done by passing steam over the tea leaves to raise the temperature of the leaves to at least about 80° C.; for example about 85° C. to about 95° C. The treatment may be carried out in less than 20 seconds; for example about 3 to about 15 seconds. The tea leaves are preferably dried after the steam treatment.
The soluble tea solids may be produced by suitably extracting tea solids from tea leaves using hot water. For example, the extraction may be carried out in a battery of fixed bed reactors connected in series. The tea leaves are packed into the reactors to provide a packed bed and then a hot extraction liquid is caused to flow through each reactor, from one reactor to the next. Apart from the first reactor which receives fresh extraction liquid, the hot extraction liquid fed into any reactor is that leaving a previous reactor in the series. At the end of an extraction cycle, the spent tea leaves in the first reactor are removed and the second reactor becomes the first reactor. A reactor containing fresh tea leaves is then connected as the last reactor in the series and the process repeated. The hot extraction liquid leaving the battery of reactors forms the tea extract.
The tea extract may be treated to solubilize tannins in it so that they are soluble in cold water. This may be accomplished by removing the tannins from the tea extract by cooling the extract to precipitate the tannins. The tannins may then be subjected to oxidation in the presence of an oxidizing agent, an oxidation catalyst, and, if required, a base. Suitable oxidizing agents are hydrogen peroxide, ozone, oxygen, mixtures of these gases with air, and the like. Thereafter, the treated tannins may be recombined with the tea extract from which they were removed. The tea extract may then be processed as usual into tea powder or a tea concentrate. Suitable solubilization processes are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,787,590 and 4,156,024; the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference. Solubilizing the tannins in this manner reduces the cloudiness and turbidity of the beverage.
The tea extract may then be subjected to further processing to produce tea concentrates, soluble freeze- or spray-dried tea powder, or other products containing soluble tea solids as desired.
If it is desired to have a mixture of tea leaves and soluble tea powder in the tea bag, the soluble tea solids are suitably provided in the form of soluble freeze- or spray-dried tea powder. However, for better visual appearance, the soluble tea solids are preferably coated on the tea leaves. This may be accomplished by spraying a tea concentrate onto the tea leaves and drying the leaves; either simultaneously or in separate steps. The coating process may be carried out in any suitable coating apparatus; for example a fluidized bed drier, a rotary coater, and the like.
The tea leaves preferably provide about 30% to about 95% by weight of the tea mixture; more preferably about 70% to about 90% by weight. The dried soluble tea s
Carns Lawrence G.
Cilliers Johannes
Nestec S.A.
Pennie & Edmonds LLP
Weinstein Steven
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