AU2015351378B2 - Jasmine tea beverage - Google Patents

Abstract

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a tea beverage that contains a jasmine tea extract and has well-balanced sweetness. Provided is a tea beverage that contains a jasmine tea extract, ethyl phenylacetate (A), methyl benzoate (B) and cis-jasmone (C), wherein the ratio by mass of the content of component (A) to the sum of the contents of components (B) and (C) [A/(B+C)] is 1.0-3.3 inclusive. Even in the case of adding a sweetener having a sweetness degree of 2.5% or greater expressed in terms of sucrose, the aforesaid tea beverage has well-balanced good taste without impairing the jasmine tea flavor.

Description

JASMINE TEA BEVERAGE

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a tea beverage containing a jasmine tea extract.

BACKGROUND ART

Jasmine tea, which is a variety of Chinese tea, is prepared by mixing green tea or weakly fermented tea akin to green tea with natural jasmine flower such as Jasminum sambac and Jasminum paniculatum to add flavor to tea leaves (flower flavoring). Various types of jasmine tea with enhanced flower flavor have been developed by taking advantage of unique aroma of jasmine.

For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a flavoring composition for giving flower flavor, the flavoring composition containing methylanthranilate and linalool as active ingredients. Methylanthranilate and linalool are major contributors to the aroma of jasmine. It also describes that a tea beverage (canned beverage) manufactured by adding the above flavoring composition to a blue-green tea extract has natural jasmine flavor and a good balance of flavor and taste. Further, Patent Document 2 discloses a flavor-enhanced jasmine tea beverage containing methylanthranilate and benzyl alcohol in a specific ratio. It also describes that the above jasmine tea has rich and strong top notes even when consumed in a refrigerated state.

G20150021AU (ASF-008PCT)

Meanwhile, diversified personal preferences at the present day require development of various types of tea beverages to meet consumers' demands. For example, with regard to green tea, green tea beverages have been developed which are sweetened with honey, sugar, and the like.

Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2003-261895

Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2010-49

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

For a jasmine tea prepared by flower-flavoring green tea, the aroma composition of the jasmine tea may not, however, be a simple mixture of the aroma components of green tea and flower as raw materials. Rather, some kind of changes in aroma may occur during the manufacturing process, resulting in generation of another aroma component. That is, the aroma composition thereof is complex. Therefore, desired palatability may not easily be obtained when it is sweetened with sugar, honey, and the like as in the case of green tea. Consequently, no jasmine tea has been available having balanced sweetness to meet consumers' demands.

The present invention is made to solve the above problem. An object of the present invention is to provide a tea beverage including a jasmine tea extract and having balanced sweetness .

G20150021AU (ASF-008PCT)

Means for Solving the Problems

The present inventors find that the above object can be achieved when ethyl phenylacetate, methyl benzoate, and cisjasmone in a specific ratio are blended in jasmine tea. Then, the present invention has been completed.

That is, the present invention can provide the followings. (1) A tea beverage, including a jasmine tea extract and the following components (A), (B), and (C) ;

(A) ethyl phenylacetate (B) methyl benzoate (C) cis-jasmone, wherein the mass ratio (A/(B+C)) of the content of the component (A) to the sum of the contents of the component (B) and the component (C) is 1.0 or more and 3.3 or less.

(2) The tea beverage according to (1), wherein the tea beverage includes a sweetening agent, and the degree of sweetness in terms of sucrose for the sweetening agent is 2.5 or more .

Effects of the Invention

The present invention can provide a tea beverage including a jasmine tea extract and having balanced sweetness.

PREFERRED MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Below, embodiments of the present invention will be described. It is noted that the present invention shall not be limited to the following embodiments.

(Tea beverage)

G20150021AU (ASF-008PCT)

The tea beverage according to the present invention includes a jasmine tea extract, an aroma component, and a sweetening agent. As used herein, the term tea beverage may or may not further include other tea extracts (such as green tea, oolong tea, and brown rice tea) as long as it includes a jasmine tea extract.

(Jasmine tea extract)

The term jasmine tea extract as used herein refers to a tea leave extract in which green tea (non-fermented tea) or hardly-fermented weak-fermented tea is flavored with natural flower aroma of jasmine such as Jasminum sambac and Jasminum paniculatum. In general, jasmine tea can be prepared by mixing green tea or weak-fermented tea with jasmine flower to allow flower aroma of jasmine to adsorb on tea leaves, and then dried to prepare a tea product. However, there is no particular limitation for the raw materials of the jasmine tea extract according to the present invention, and any can be used as long as tea leaves can be flavored with the flower aroma of jasmine. Flower aroma adsorbed near the surface of tea leaves are extracted from jasmine tea prepared as described above to obtain a jasmine tea extract. Water or warm water may be used as an extracting solvent, and extraction time may be selected appropriately depending on the type and amount of tea leaves to be used. It is noted that an antioxidizing agent such as L-ascorbic acid and/or sodium Lascorbate; a pH adjuster such as L-ascorbic acid, citric acid, trisodium citrate, and tripotassium citrate; and the like may

G20150021AU (ASF-008PCT) be added appropriately to an extracting solvent for extraction or a jasmine tea extract after extraction.

It is noted that the method of extracting a jasmine tea extract according to the present invention is not limited to the extraction method as described above. Two or more extracts extracted under different extraction conditions may be mixed, or a commercially available jasmine tea extract powder and jasmine tea extract may be used.

(Aroma component)

Further, the tea beverage according to the present invention contains cis-jasmone, methyl benzoate, and ethyl phenylacetate. For these aroma components, those from a flavoring agent and those from commercially available jasmine tea may be added to a tea beverage, or aroma components from the aforementioned jasmine tea extract may be used. There is no particular limitation for the method of incorporating these aroma components, and the aroma components may be from one material, or may be from two or more materials.

That is, the tea beverage according to the present invention contains (A) ethyl phenylacetate, (B) methyl benzoate, and (C) cis-jasmone as aroma components. (A) is an aroma component which confers refreshing feeling on a tea beverage, and (B+C) are aroma components characteristic of the scent of jasmine. The mass ratio (A/(B+C)) of the content of the component (A) to the sum of the contents of the component (B) and the component (C) may be 1.0 or more, 1.5 or more, 2.0 or more, and 2.2 or more, and may be 3.4 or less, 3.0 or less,

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2.8 or less, and 2.6 or less. A smaller (A/(B+C)) tends to result in a tea beverage having poorly balanced flavors while a higher (A/(B+C)) tends to decrease the scent of jasmine, resulting in a tea beverage having weak flavors.

Many aroma components different from those of green tea are contained in a jasmine extract. Nonetheless and surprisingly, after conducting extensive studies, the present inventor find that a tea beverage including a jasmine extract and having superior balanced sweetness can be obtained by adjusting (A/(B+C)) which represents the ratio of refreshing feeling to the characteristic scent of jasmine in a tea beverage. This finding may not easily be reached when other tea beverages having completely different aroma components are investigated. Further, the tea beverage having adjusted aroma components according to the present invention benefits from not only balanced sweetness but also remarkable palatability.

It is noted that a method of adjusting the ratio (A/(B+C)) may include adjusting the contents of aroma components in a tea beverage by changing extraction conditions of jasmine tea, or may include adjusting the contents of aroma components by adding a flavoring agent and the like to a tea beverage. Further, the ratio (A/(B+C)) may be adjusted by using aroma components from one material, or may be adjusted by mixing aroma components from two or more materials.

The content and percentage of an aroma component may be determined as follows: 10 ml of a sample and 3 g of NaCl are placed in a vial and sealed, and then heated to 50°C and

G20150021AU (ASF-008PCT) extracted for 30 minutes by the SPME method (the solid-phase microextraction method), and GC-MS is subsequently performed in accordance with the following measurement conditions to measure an area size.

SPME fiber

SPELCO DVB/carboxen/PDMS

Instrument

AGILENT 5973 N GC-MS system

Column

DB-WAX (30 m x 0.25 mm ID x 0.25 pm)

Quantitative ion

Ethyl phenylacetate: m/z = 91

Methyl benzoate: m/z = 105 cis-jasmone: m/z = 164

Temperature conditions degrees, 5 min-5°/min-240 degrees, 5 min

Flow rate of carrier gas

He 1.0 ml/min

Injection temperature

240°C

Ionization chamber temperature

230°C

Measurement range of mass to 500 amu (Flavoring agent)

Flavoring agents include natural flavoring agents, synthetic flavoring agents, blended flavoring agents, isolated

G20150021AU (ASF-008PCT) flavoring agents isolated from natural flavoring agents, and the like. These flavoring agents may be blended alone or in a combination of two or more. Synthetic flavoring agents include hydrocarbons, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, esters, phenols, ethers, lactones, acids, synthetic musk, and natural flavoring agents. Ethyl phenylacetate, methyl benzoate, and cis-jasmone as the aroma components used in the present invention may be blended with a tea beverage as flavoring agents in the aforementioned ratio. However, they may be preferably added as an extract of tea leaves (in particular jasmine tea leaves) because scenting becomes gentle, and more natural flower aroma can be enjoyed without chemical feeling. Further, a beverage including the aforementioned aroma components as an extract of tea leaves represents a preferred embodiment because flavoring agents need not to be indicated when prepared as a packaged beverage .

(Sweetening agent)

Sweetening agents which may be used in the present invention may include natural sweetening agents such as sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, lactose, and oligosaccharide; and artificial sweetening agents such as aspartame, acesulfame potassium, sucralose, saccharin (saccharin sodium), dulcin, chikuro (cyclamate), and neotame. Further, they may be appropriately mixed. Moreover, the term degree of sweetness in terms of sucrose as used herein may be derived by the following calculation: a sweetness of 1 mass/volume% sucrose is taken as 1, and the concentration of a

G20150021AU (ASF-008PCT) target sweetening agent giving the same sweetness as the reference sweetness is defined as the degree of sweetness of 1 in terms of sucrose for that sweetening agent.

For the tea beverage according to the present invention, adjustment of the ratio (A/(B+C)) can provide a balanced tea beverage even when a sweetening agent is added. There is no particular limitation for the degree of sweetness in terms of sucrose for a sweetening agent used in the present invention, but specifically, it is preferably 2.5% or more, more preferably 3.0% or more, and most preferably 3.5% or more. Further, for the tea beverage according to the present invention, the degree of sweetness in terms of sucrose is preferably less than 10.0%, more preferably less than 8.0%, and most preferably less than 6.0%. When the tea beverage according to the present invention has a small degree of sweetness in terms of sucrose, the balanced quality and palatability of a tea beverage may be difficult to obtain. When the degree of sweetness in terms of sucrose is high, the tea beverage may be too sweet due to an excess amount of a sweetening agent, and refreshing feeling of jasmine tea may not be well appreciated when consumed. Conveniently, desired palatability can not be obtained when jasmine tea is sweetened. However, surprisingly, the present inventors find that a more tasty tea beverage can be obtained by adding sweetness and adjusting the ratio (A/(B+C)).

(pH)

The pH of the tea beverage having balanced sweetness may

G20150021AU (ASF-008PCT) be adjusted with a pH adjuster. There is no particular limitation for the pH adjuster as long as it is commercially used in the field of food industry, and does not impair the flavor of jasmine tea. However, sodium bicarbonate may be preferably used. A pH adjuster as described above may be added to a tea beverage at any stage before and after heat sterilization, but in particular, is preferably added before heat sterilization. Further, examples of the method of adding a pH adjuster include a method in which a pH adjuster is directly added to a tea beverage before heat sterilization, a method in which a separately prepared solution of a pH adjuster is added to a tea beverage after heat sterilization, or the like. Heat sterilization, for example, UHT sterilization may be performed at 130°C for about 60 seconds. It is noted that these jasmine tea extracts may be subjected to precision filtration through a filter and the like at any stage .

(Others)

When the tea beverage according to the present invention is prepared as a packaged beverage, a flavoring agent and a sweetening agent are added to a jasmine tea extract, and raw materials such as water and an antioxidizing agent are also blended, if desired, to obtain a tea beverage. Subsequently heat sterilization treatment and container filling are performed to obtain products. Heat sterilization treatment may be performed according to the publicly known method. For example, when manufacturing a canned beverage, a can may be

G20150021AU (ASF-008PCT)

filled with	a specified amount	of the above	tea	beverage,	and
then retort	sterilization	may	be performed	(for	example,	1.2
mmHg, 121 °C,	7 minutes).	When	the beverage	is bottled in	a

PET-bottle, a paper box, or a bottle, UHT sterilization may be performed in which for example, a temperature of 120 between and 150°C is maintained for one second to several tens of seconds .

A tea beverage obtained in this way will have sweetness without impairing a graceful and sweet scent which is characteristic of jasmine tea.

EXAMPLES

Below, the present invention will be described specifically and in detail with reference to Examples, but the present invention shall not be limited to these.

<Examples 1 to 2, Comparative Examples 1 to 3, and Control Example 1: Effects of aroma components on the balance and the like of a tea beverage>

To a commercially available jasmine tea extract, added were 0.05% sodium ascorbate and 25 g/1 of sugar. The pH was then adjusted to 6.4 with sodium bicarbonate. Subsequently, UHT sterilization was performed to obtain a tea beverage. It is noted that a sample without sugar was taken as a Control Example (Score: 4, A/(B+C) = 0.0) . Aroma components in samples prepared under five conditions of (A/(B+C)) (0.0 (Comparative

Example 1), 0.8 (Comparative Example 2), 2.2 (Example 1), 2.6 (Example 2), 3.5 (Comparative Example 3)) were quantified by

G20150021AU (ASF-008PCT) gas chromatography. Results are shown in Table 1. It is noted that the values for aroma components represent area sizes.

[Table 1]

	Sugar (g/i)	Ethyl phenylacetate (A)	Methyl benzoate (B)	cis-Jasmone (C)	A/(B+C)
Example 1	25	352,654,683	153,602,690	4,430,674	2.2
Example2	25	408,212,219	152,704,994	4,474,752	2.6
Comparative Example 1	25	335,840	158,767,427	4,602,238	0.0
Comparative Example2	25	136,294,633	156,746,616	4,559,743	0.8
Comparative Example3	25	544,171,013	150,684,183	4,432,257	3.5
Control Example 1	0	1,533,395	153,745,804	4,170,620	0.0

Sensory evaluation of balanced quality and palatability was performed for the tea beverage from Control Example 1, the tea beverages from Examples 1 to 2, and the tea beverages from Comparative Examples 1 to 3. Results are shown in Table 2.

The term balanced quality refers to a balance in flavors expanded by tastes such as sweetness, sourness, and astringency; olfaction; and the like. The terms palatability refers to distinctness of tastes. Higher values for the above balanced quality and palatability indicate superior results from the sensory evaluation. For each tea beverage, the balanced quality and palatability felt upon consumption were evaluated by a panel of 7 persons using the

G20150021AU (ASF-008PCT) magnitude estimation method (the control area was 4.00). The mean values of the scores are shown in Table 2.

[Table 2]

	Example 1	Example 2	Comparative Example 1	Comparative Example 2	Comparative Example 3	Control Example 1
Balanced quality	4.4	4.6	3.6	3.7	3.9	4.0
Palatability	4.4	4.6	3.9	3.9	3.9	4.0

In Examples 1 and 2 where (A/(B+C)) was in the range of between 1.0 or more and 3.3 or less, sweetened tea beverages containing a jasmine tea extract which were excellent in both balanced quality and palatability were able to be obtained. In constant, Comparative Examples 1 to 3 where (A/(B+C)) was in the range of 1.0 or less or 3.3 or more, both balanced quality and palatability were rated lower than those from Control Example .

<Example 1, 3 to 5: Effects of a sweetening agent on the balance and the like of a tea beverage>

Next, the amount of sugar suitable for sweetening was investigated. To the above jasmine tea extract, added were 0.05% sodium ascorbate and 0.08% of a flavoring agent. Sugar in an amount shown in Table 3 was then added, and the pH was adjusted to 6.4 with sodium bicarbonate. Subsequently, UHT sterilization was performed to obtain a jasmine tea beverage. Quantification was performed by gas chromatography. Results are shown in Table 3. Below, % in the table represents mass%. [Table 3]

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	Example 1	Example3	Example4	Example5
Sugar (g/1)	25	37.5	42	50
Degree of sweetness in terms of sucrose (%)	2.50	3.75	4.20	5.00
Ethyl phenylacetate (A)	352,654,683	352,278,131	352,152,613	351,901,578
Methyl benzoate (B)	153,602,690	150,368,977	149,291,072	147,135,264
Cis-Jasmone (C)	4,430,674	4,413,860	4,408,256	4,397,046
A/(B+C)	2.2	2.3	2.3	2.3

Sensory evaluation was performed for balanced quality and palatability. Results are shown in Table 4. For each tea beverage, the balanced quality and palatability felt upon consumption were evaluated by a panel of 6 persons using the absolute evaluation tests with 7 scales.

[Table 4]

	Example 1	Example3	Example4	Example5
Balanced quality	4.2	5.5	5.5	4.7
Palatability	4.3	5.7	5.5	4.7

Here, higher values indicate superior balanced quality and palatability. As shown in the table, Examples 1, 3 to 5 where the degree of sweetness in terms of sucrose was 2.5% or more, sweetened tea beverages excellent in both balanced quality and palatability were able to be obtained. To date, desired palatability has not been obtained for sweetened jasmine tea. However, the present invention can provide a more tasty sweetened tea beverage.

Claims (2)

1. A tea beverage, comprising a jasmine tea extract and the following components (A), (B), and (C):

(A) ethyl phenylacetate (B) methyl benzoate (C) cis-jasmone, wherein the mass ratio (A/(B+C)) of the content of the component (A) to the sum of the contents of the component (B) and the component (C) is 1.0 or more and 3.3 or less.

2. The tea beverage according to claim 1, wherein the tea beverage comprises a sweetening agent, and the degree of sweetness in terms of sucrose for the sweetening agent is 2.5% or more .