JPH07110198B2 - Instant tea production method - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for producing instant tea which can be served as a beverage by simply pouring cold water or hot water.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Normally, teas such as green tea, fermented tea and semi-fermented tea are steamed with steam to stop fermentation.
It is dried to make tea leaves. Then, using a teapot, a tea strainer or the like, hot water of 60 ° C. or higher is poured into the tea leaves, and the hot water (chayu) is drunk. In some cases, like matcha, the above-mentioned tea leaves are finely crushed to a size of about 50 μm, supplied to warm water, and sufficiently stirred with a tea whisk to drink.

[0003]

As described above, conventionally, when tea is used as a beverage, tools such as a teapot, a tea strainer, or a tea whisk are required. Therefore, when drinking tea outdoors, such as hiking, excursions, and camping, it was necessary to carry the above-mentioned tools along with tea leaves. Of course, in this case, tea water, which has been used as a beverage in advance, may be carried, but in that case, the loss of the freshly roasted flavor is unavoidable.
In addition, it is necessary to wash before and after using these tools, and especially when only one cup of tea is to be roasted, this washing is extremely troublesome.

In recent years, several methods for producing instant teas have been proposed in order to solve the above problems.
For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 62-15174, Japanese Patent Publication No. 63-4
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2498 discloses a method of solidifying an elution component extracted from tea leaves with cyclodextrin. Since such instant tea does not require the use of tools such as teapots, it has solved these problems of carrying and washing. However, since the conventional instant tea described above contains about 97% by weight of dextrin, the original flavor of the tea is low. In addition, the above-mentioned instant tea is oxidized and deteriorated during processing, which impairs the original flavor.

On the other hand, a so-called "tea bag" in which tea leaves are filled in a water-permeable paper bag does not require the use of a teapot or the like, and the water-permeable paper serves as a tea strainer. It is an effective means. However, it is difficult for the above-mentioned "tea bag" to maintain good quality of tea leaves for a long period of time. Therefore, the quality of tea does not deteriorate even after a long period of time, and it does not require special tools or labor, and can be easily and uniformly dispersed in hot or cold water to penetrate into a suspended state. In addition, there is a demand for instant tea with a rich flavor when it is consumed without precipitation or solidification.

[0006]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been proposed in order to improve the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks and to meet the conventional demand, and powders of teas such as green tea, fermented tea and semi-fermented tea. To
A method for producing instant teas, which comprises pressurizing at 50 to 1500 Kg / cm ² to increase the density and the denseness so that it can be submerged in water to improve the water infiltration and dispersibility. As a powder of, use powder pulverized to 0.5 to 150 μm, and if necessary, add a water-soluble dispersion aid to powder of tea and add it to hot or cold water to make it homogeneous in water immediately. As it is dispersed in, it can be drunk as the original Japanese tea.

The instant tea production method of the present invention is
It mainly comprises a crushing process of tea leaves and a pressurizing process. Further, a processing step of shaping the pressed tea into an appropriate shape can be performed as necessary.

First, in the above-mentioned pulverization step, dried tea leaves are made into fine powder, which is 0.5 to 150 μm.
It is desirable to make the powder into a powder of a certain size. If the particle size of the powder is 150 μm or more, good dispersibility in water cannot be expected, and it may precipitate when pouring hot water or cold water. Further, if it is 0.5 μm or less, it is difficult to manufacture it as a powder.

Then, in the pressurizing step after the pulverizing step, the powder of tea leaves having the above-mentioned particle size range is added to 50 to 150
0 kg / cm ² (preferably 100 to 600 kg / cm
² ) Pressurized to increase the density and compactness of the powder of tea leaves so that it can be submerged in water, and to be submerged in hot or cold water,
The swelling property and the dispersibility are improved. When the above-mentioned pressing force is less than 50 kg / cm ^2, it becomes a brittle solid. That is, the shape retention is poor, and the water permeability is not good. However, when instant teas (products) are made into powder, there is no problem in maintaining the above-mentioned shape, and addition of a water-soluble dispersion aid described later improves shape retention. On the other hand, when the applied pressure is 600 kg / cm ² or more, the swelling property is not good and the solid may have high hardness. However, when the water-soluble dispersion aid described later is added, the upper limit of the pressing force can be increased to about 1500 kg / cm ² .

The above-mentioned pressurizing method includes pressurizing under normal pressure and pressurizing under vacuum, either of which is acceptable, but it is necessary to slowly pressurize for some time to release the gas in the powder. is there. That is, when pressure is applied rapidly in a short time, the quality may vary due to pressure unevenness. Eg 1
The liter of tea leaf powder is pressurized to a specified pressure in about 20 to 30 seconds, and the pressure is maintained for about 10 seconds. And if it is not possible to pressurize slowly as described above, pressurize rapidly to the specified pressure,
Moreover, the pressure can be applied twice or three times to prevent unevenness.

After that, appropriate processing steps may be performed to appropriately form powder, granules, or a larger solid shape.

The instant teas obtained according to the present invention described above have a water-immersive property in which hot water or cold water permeates into the compressed solid in a short time when hot water or cold water is poured or supplied to the hot water or cold water, Further, it has a swelling property of returning to a conventional volume (before compression) in a short time by hot water or cold water, and further has a dispersibility of being uniformly dispersed in hot water or cold water in a stable floating state. That is, the essence of instant tea is that when hot or cold water is poured or added to hot or cold water, it immediately permeates or disperses without sufficient stirring, and it is not precipitated or floated before drinking. Therefore, the above-mentioned water immersion property, swelling property, and dispersibility are important factors as a commercial product.

The above-mentioned water immersion property, swelling property, and dispersibility may vary depending on the compressive force at the time of pressurization and the state after pressurization. For example, even if the tea powder is pressed with a pressure of 100 kg / cm ² or less, it has good water-immersion property, swelling property, and dispersibility as it is. can do. And
1 mm after pressurizing, even if pressurizing more than 100 kg / cm ^2.
The following granules have good water immersion property, swelling property and dispersibility, but those having a solid form of 1 mm or more even when pressurized to 100 kg / cm ² or more have good water immersion property. Since the swelling property and the dispersibility may decrease, the commercial value of instant tea is low. Therefore, the pressing condition and the shape of the powder of tea after pressing may affect the commercial value of instant tea.

Then, the water immersion property when the powder of tea leaves is pressurized changes abruptly when the applied pressure is about 40 kg / cm ² . That is, about 40 kg / cm ² or less at the pressure does not become too flooded property excellent, about 40~50kg / cm ² or more rapidly becomes favorable comes, powder hot and cold water on the upper surface of the pressurized tea leaves Just by dropping it from above and supplying it, it quickly permeates into the liquid and becomes uniformly dispersed. However, even if the pressing force of the powder is further increased, the water immersion rate does not increase much. Furthermore, about 50 kg / cm of tea leaf powder
^{When the} pressure is increased to ² , the apparent volume is reduced by about 20 to 30%, the density and the denseness are increased and the submersion is possible in water, but there is little change even if the pressure is further increased. From these, it is recognized that there is a correlation between the water infiltration and dispersibility and the density, etc., and the instant tea of the present invention has a powdery, granular, or larger solid form. Also showed good water immersion and dispersibility.

Further, the swelling property and the dispersibility tend to be inversely proportional to the applied pressure, and as mentioned above, it becomes worse when the applied pressure is too large. The upper limit is 10 with respect to the volume at the time when the apparent volume does not change with the increase in the pressing force.
It is about the time when it is large. Furthermore, since the swelling property increases as the contact area with hot water or cold water increases, the surface area of instant teas after pressurization is larger, that is, they are more granular or powdery than those with a large solid shape. The finer the better. When a water-soluble dispersion aid described below is added,
When the dispersion aid dissolves in hot water or cold water, the solid form of instant tea is destroyed, so that the surface area is increased and the swelling property is improved.

The dispersibility in hot water or cold water becomes worse as the powder of tea leaves becomes larger, and as described above, particles having a diameter of 150 μm or more may precipitate. Further, dispersibility, like the swelling property described above, improves as the contact area with hot water or cold water increases, and the surface area of instant teas after pressurization is large, that is, larger solid shape granules. It is better to be in the form of powder or powder, but finer particles are more likely to uniformly float in hot water or cold water, and thus are less likely to settle or float.
Although powdered tea originally has a property of easily agglomerating, when a water-soluble dispersion aid described later is added, hot water can be introduced between the powders, so that the agglomeration is prevented and the powdered tea is dispersed. The property is improved.

As described above, the swelling property and the dispersibility are improved by adding a water-soluble dispersion auxiliary agent to tea leaves and applying pressure thereto. The above-mentioned water-soluble dispersion aid is not particularly limited as long as it is an edible substance such as starch, but especially dextrins, carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), silica gel for food additives, or chitin. , Calcium, etc. can be used. Instant tea produced by using such a water-soluble dispersion aid will dissolve the dispersion aid in hot or cold water instantly when hot or cold water is poured. As a result, voids are formed where the dispersion aid was present before the dissolution. That is, the fixed shape of instant tea is destroyed, the surface area in contact with hot water is increased, and the expandability is improved. Further, when the dispersion auxiliary agent is present as a thin layer around the tea leaves, it permeates into the hot water between the adjacent tea leaves, which prevents aggregation and improves the dispersibility. . The amount of the above-mentioned water-soluble dispersion aid used should be 100% by weight of the powder in consideration of the flavor of tea, and 50% by weight or less based on the whole powder.

As described above, according to the production method of the present invention, instant teas that can be served as a beverage can be produced very simply by pouring hot water or cold water. And, unlike the conventional instant tea, it does not solidify the components extracted from the tea leaves, but it crushes the tea leaves themselves and pressurizes them, so there is no concern that the components will deteriorate, and a tea rich in flavor can be obtained. You can drink. Also, when drinking matcha, the present invention does not need to use a chasen as in the conventional case,
High quality tea can be drunk very easily without agitation or with agitation.

[0019]

[Examples] In Shizuoka prefecture, 25 kg of the first sprout, the first tea picked in May 1991, was crushed with a jet mill to an average particle size of 10 to 15 μm and a maximum particle size of 32 to 48 μm, and 10 kg of powder was obtained. Sample 1 was used, and 10 kg of maltodextrin was added to 10 kg of the powder tea of Sample 1 and pressed with a hydraulic press device at a pressure of 200 kg / cm ² for 20 seconds, and a powder that passed through a 1 mm sieve mesh was used as Sample 2. Furthermore, in Shizuoka prefecture, 10 kg of the second bud, the second bud, picked in July 1991 was jet-milled to give an average particle size of 1
4 kg of powder pulverized to a particle size of 0 to 15 μm and a maximum particle size of 32 to 48 μm is used as sample 3, 4 kg of powder tea of sample 3 is added with 4 kg of maltodextrin, and a hydraulic press machine is used for 20 seconds at a pressure of 200 kg / cm ^2. Sample 4 was a powder that was pressed and passed through a 1 mm sieve mesh. (Evaluation test) 1. Water immersion Put water or water of the following temperature in a transparent cup of 100 cc, and stir with a spoon at a speed of 2 revolutions per second to supply samples 1 to 4 by gently dropping them from above 1 g. When the time until sufficient water immersion was measured, it was as shown in Table 1 below. The following measurement time is 10
It is the average value of times. Table 1 Temperature of hot or cold water Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3 Sample 4 80 ° C 25 seconds 5 seconds 23 seconds 4 seconds 50 ° C 28 seconds 7 seconds 28 seconds 7 seconds 20 ° C 30 seconds 8 seconds 31 seconds 9 seconds 5 ° C 31 seconds 11 Seconds 31 seconds 11 seconds 2. Dispersibility When the cup obtained as a result of the water immersion test was left as it was for 3 minutes and the sedimentation and floating state of the powder was visually observed, the results are shown in Table 2 below. Table 2 Temperature of hot water or cold water Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3 Sample 4 80 ° C ○ ◎ ○ ◎ 50 ° C ○ ◎ ○ ◎ 20 ° C × ◎ × ◎ 5 ° C × ◎ × ◎ In the above Table 2, ◎ indicates a precipitate or No floating material was present, ∘ indicates that precipitates and floating materials were slightly present, and x indicates that precipitates and floating materials were clearly present.

[0020]

As described above, the instant tea producing method of the present invention comprises the crushing step and the pressurizing step, and can produce high quality instant tea extremely easily. In addition, the instant teas produced by the present invention can be served as a beverage simply by pouring hot water or water, or by supplying it to hot water or water, and does not lose the natural flavor like conventional instant tea. In particular, even if it is stored for a long period of time, the quality is not deteriorated due to oxidation or the like. And, it can be drunk as normal tea without any special tools or labor, and has practical value.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. Powders of teas such as green tea, fermented tea, and semi-fermented tea are pressurized at 50 to 1500 Kg / cm ² to increase the density and compactness, and make them submersible in water so as to be submerged and dispersible. A method for producing instant teas, which is characterized in that 2. A tea powder having a particle size of 0.5 to 150 μm.
The method for producing instant teas according to claim 1, wherein the crushed tea is used. 3. The tea powder is added with a water-soluble dispersion auxiliary agent and is pressurized.
The method for producing instant tea according to any one of 1.