Professional Documents
Culture Documents
www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng
Abstract
Instant tea is presently manufactured by spray/freeze drying of the concentrated brew of processed tea leaves/dust and the drawbacks
of this method are inferior quality, high cost and energy. A novel technique has been developed for the production of instant/soluble tea
powder from the expressed juice of green leaves. After plucking, the leaves are crushed and juice pressed out. The juice is then subjected
to fermentation under specied conditions. The fermented juice is steamed, centrifuged and freeze-dried to get instant tea powder. The
pressed leaf residue is subjected to fermentation and drying for preparation of tea granules. The instant tea produced is of good liquoring
characteristics and various constituents are also in the acceptable range [Theaavin (TF) to Thearubigin (TR) ratio 10.71 for instant tea
(IT) and 12.12 for tea granules (TG), Caeine content 40.4 mg/cup of IT and 96 mg per cup of TG]. The tea granules produced is comparable to CTC (crushing, tearing & curling) tea in quality and liquoring characteristics. There is considerable savings in the economy as
the juice and residue are converted into value added products in this method.
2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Instant tea; Soluble tea; Beverages; Non-leaf tea products; Freeze-dried tea
1. Introduction
Tea is one of the most pleasant and popular drinks consumed by two-third of the worlds population. It is not
only the most popular and one of the oldest known beverages in the world but also an antioxidative agent available
in everyday life, which may help to prevent a wide variety
of diseases such as cancers and heart diseases (Luczaj &
Skrzydlewska, 2005; Yang, 2002). The tea industry in India
occupies an important place and plays a useful part in the
national economy. Today at the global level, India is not
only the largest producer of tea but also one of the major
exporters of dierent forms of tea (Kidwai, 1999). Tea processing has had many incarnations over the last 100 years
from loose tea to blended, to packet teas, to tea bags and
nally to instant teas, ready-to-drink teas and avored
teas. As the penetrating vision of science and technology
probes deeper the chemical and metabolic processes trig-
Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 3222 281323; fax: +91 3222 282244.
E-mail address: sinijav@iitkgp.ac.in (V.R. Sinija).
0260-8774/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2007.01.024
277
Fresh green top two leaves and the terminal bud of tea
bush were plucked from the experimental farm of Agricultural & Food Engineering Department, Indian Institute of
Technology, Kharagpur, India. The weight of the fresh
leaves was determined by a laboratory balance with an
accuracy of 0.01 g and the moisture content was measured
by oven drying method (AOAC, 1995).
Sequential steps involved in processing are given below.
Plucked leaves were crushed to a ne paste in a domestic
mixer grinder (Sumeet brand). Experiments were carried
out for dierent crushing periods (14 min) at medium
speed (2540 rpm) in order to nd out the conditions for
maximum juice recovery with maximum amount of polyphenols and total solids content. The crushed leaf (paste)
samples were pressed in a laboratory press for the expression of juice. The press consists of a cylinder and a screw
type piston with handle. A at disc with holes was provided at the bottom of the cylinder for sieving. The
amount of juice recovered, total solids (gravimetric
method, BIS 1981) and total polyphenols in juice were
measured by standard procedures. The weight, moisture
content and the total polyphenols of the pressed leaf residue were also determined. The juice as well as the pressed
leaf residue samples was separately subjected to fermentation under ambient conditions (3032 C and 8085%
278
Tea brew
1 ml tea brew + 9 ml distilled water
IBMK Layer
Aqueous Layer
1 ml IBMK layer +
9 ml 95% ethyl alcohol
Absorbance at 380 nm (A)
IBMK layer +
1 ml 45% ethyl alcohol
Absorbance at 380 nm
(C)
TF % = 4.313 * C
HPS % = 13.643 * E
butanol layer
aqueous layer
Aqueous layer
(Discarded)
1 ml butanol layer +
9 ml 45% ethyl alcohol
Absorbance at 380 nm
(B)
Absorbance at 380 nm
(D)
TR % = (B+D-C) * 13.643
279
Tea shoots
1 kg, 78-80 % mc (w.b.)
Crushing
Pressing
Juice
(310-320 ml, 9 - 10 % TS)
Oxygen
Fermentation
Fermentation
Heat treatment
(Steam at 1.2 kg/cm2, 1 min)
Centrifugation
Drying
Freeze-drying
(Temperature 39 to +15, 6-8 h)
Instant tea
Tea granules
Table 1
Eect of crushing period on the juice recovery (75 g of sample)
Crushing
period (min)
Juice
obtained
(ml)
Pressed leaf
residue (g)
TS in
juice (%)
Total
polyphenols
(%)
1.0
2.0
2.5
3.0
4.0
18.8
20.5
23.0
21.5
20.8
44.85
43.51
42.32
42.16
42.38
7.58
8.54
10.72
9.62
9.46
5.31
5.86
7.02
6.70
6.30
for IT
OD 4 105 t2 0:0049t 0:1903
and for TG
OD 3 105 t2 0:0053t 0:2908;
280
Table 2
Mean readings obtained for color measurement of various tea samples
0.35
OD at 460 nm
0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
0
20
40
60
80
Fermentation time, min
100
120
140
0.6
Quantity of tea
(g)
%
Z
IT
0.3
0.4
0.5
150
150
150
3.9
4.1
4.5
0.61
0.65
0.70
0.82
0.86
0.91
0.08
0.09
0.11
TG
2.5
2.83
3.0
142
142
142
3.5
3.9
4.1
0.58
0.61
0.73
0.79
0.83
0.99
0.09
0.11
0.14
CTC tea
2.83
142
4.10
0.66
0.97
0.11
OD at 460 nm
Table 3
Chemical analysis of IT and TG samples
R = 0.9334
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
Constituents
Instant tea
Tea granules
Total polyphenols, %
Catechins, %
TF, %
TR, %
Caeine, %
High polymerized substances, %
19.63
12.21
0.915
9.88
2.02
9.15
6.61
3.73
0.566
6.86
3.36
8.58
3.3
3.7
0
0
20
40
60
80
100
Fermentation time, min
120
140
160
trend was found for pressed leaf residue also where the OD
increased up to 90 min. The decrease in TF content beyond
a certain time may be due to the conversion of TF into high
polymeric TRs.
There was about 1220% loss in weight during fermentation for the pressed leaf residue and about 514% loss
in weight for the juice. This may be due to the loss of moisture due to evaporation during fermentation.
The amount of IT and TG required for producing a
brew with the same color and percentage brightness as that
of CTC tea was determined by colorimeter measurements
using trial and error. It was found that the quantity of
instant tea required to produce the same brightness and
L, a, b values as that of the standard CTC tea was 0.5 g
in 150 ml of water and for TG 2.83 g in 142 ml of water
which is same as that for CTC tea. The values are presented
in Table 2.
The tea samples (IT and TG) produced were analyzed
for various chemical constituents by the standard procedures and the samples were also sent to UPASI (United
Planters Association of South India), Tea Research Institute for analysis. The results are shown in Table 3. The
TF content for a CTC tea varies between 0.4% and 1.2%
and TR varies between 8% and 16%. TR: TF ratio for
instant tea was 10.71 and that for tea granules was 12.12.
281
Table 4
Mean sensory score for the quality attributes of various tea samples
Mean score*
Sample
Instant tea
IT-125
IT-175
IT-225
IT-275
IT-325
CD
1%
5%
Tea granules
TLG-125
TLG-175
TLG-225
TLG-275
TLG-325
CD
1%
5%
CTC tea
CTC-125
CTC-175
CTC-225
CTC-275
CTC-325
*
**
Color
Flavor
Pungency
Strength
Mouthfeel
Overall acceptability**
6.80
6.96
6.95
6.84
6.26
5.69
6.09
6.03
5.97
5.55
5.83
6.31
6.13
6.06
5.99
6.07
6.54
6.29
6.19
5.96
5.85
6.02
5.94
5.93
5.69
0.79
0.86
0.85
0.84
0.77
0.19
0.27
0.13
0.17
0.08
0.11
0.08
0.11
0.13
0.18
0.01
0.01
5.90
6.64
6.75
6.72
6.53
6.13
6.36
6.40
6.38
6.21
5.57
5.96
6.04
5.94
5.89
6.44
6.51
6.94
6.70
6.48
5.99
6.30
6.54
6.27
6.04
0.79
0.86
0.89
0.89
0.81
0.08
0.11
0.20
0.26
0.11
0.14
0.10
0.14
0.15
0.20
0.02
0.03
6.55
6.65
6.63
6.72
6.25
6.55
6.37
6.64
6.89
6.49
5.74
5.80
5.54
5.79
5.94
6.67
6.94
6.60
6.79
7.02
5.93
5.80
6.01
6.21
5.82
0.86
0.82
0.78
0.85
0.85
910, Excellent; 78.9, very good; 56.9, good; 34.9, fair; 12.9, poor.
+2, liked very much; +1, liked; 0, neither liked nor disliked; 1, disliked; 2, disliked very much.
All the quality attributes for instant tea and tea granules
were rated from good to very good. Figs. 5 and 6 showed
the results of the sensory evaluation depicted in the form
of bar diagrams. From the gure it is seen that the color
and pungency was highest for the instant tea sample,
whereas the avor was relatively less than the CTC tea
and TG. The TG exhibited almost same or slightly higher
score for all the quality attributes as compared to the
CTC tea. The overall acceptability for both the IT and
TG were comparable to that of CTC tea. The removal of
a part of juice from the green leaves does not have a
marked eect on the quality of black tea. Thus, we can
get both IT and TG from the green shoots simultaneously
in this method.
8
1
0.9
0.8
instant tea
tea granules
CTC tea
Mean score
Mean score
5
4
3
2
instant tea
tea granules
CTC tea
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
1
0
color
flavor
pungency strength mouthfeel
Error bars indicate the mean value +/- standard deviation
overall acceptability
Error bars indicate the mean value +/- standard deviation
282
Mean score
0.7
0.6
0.5
Instant Tea
0.4
Tea Granules
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0
0.5
1.5
2.5
Fermentation time, h
Error bars indicate the mean value +/- standard deviation
study is of less operating cost and at the same time maintaining the quality of tea, since there is no heat treatment
during juice expression.
Tea contains about 300450 g/kg of extractable solids,
but the yield of instant tea is only 200 g/kg prepared tea
(black tea) in commercial production scale, leaving the
major portion (800 g.) as waste (spent tea leaf) (Chen,
1979), whereas in the present method 20 2 g instant tea
powder and 225 5 g. black tea granules were produced
from 1 kg of fresh green tea shoots. Even in methods using
direct extraction from fresh shoots for production of
instant tea, the maximum amount of solids extracted with
hot water is around 30% of dry matter present in fresh
shoots (Schott, 1988).
4. Conclusion
In conclusion, a novel technique for the production of
instant tea has been established in this investigation and
it is patented (India No. 195073). The IT produced by
this method is of good color, pungency and other
liquoring characteristics. Polyphenols, TF and TR contents are also in the acceptable range. The IT produced
is soluble even in cold water. The pressed leaf residue
is converted into black tea, which is comparable to
CTC tea in quality and liquoring characteristics. Thus,
there is considerable savings in the economy since both
the juice as well as the residue is converted into value
added products.
References
AOAC (1995). Ocial methods of analysis. Washington, DC: Association
of Ocial Chemists.
Boriah, G. (1997). Constraints to raising output. In The Hindu Survey of
Indian agriculture (pp. 103105). Chennai: Kasturi and Sons Ltd.
Chen, Y. (1979). Tea Manufacture (pp. 364381). Beijing: Agricultural
Publication House of China.
Harler, C. R. (1993). Tea manufacture. London: Oxford University Press.
Kidwai, S. M. (1999). Tea industry. The telegraph daily. Calcutta: Anand
Bazaar Patrika Groups, 1st February.
Lakshminarayanan, K., & Ramaswamy, S. R. (1978). Towards optimising
fermentation during manufacture. UPASI. T. Sc. Dept. Bulletin,
38(35), 3447.
Luczaj, W., & Skrzydlewska, E. (2005). Antioxidative properties of black
tea review article. Preventive Medicine, 40(6), 910918.
Muthumani, T., & Kumar, R. S. S. (2007). Inuence of fermentation time
on the development of compounds responsible for quality in black tea.
Journal of Food Chemistry, 101(1), 98102.
Owuor, P. O., & Obanda, M. (2001). Comparative responses in plain
black tea quality parameters of dierent tea clones to fermentation
temperature and duration. Food Chemistry, 72, 319327.
Pintaro, N. (1977). Tea and soluble tea products manufacture. Food
Technology Review, 38.
Ranganna, S. (1980). Manual of analysis of fruits and vegetable products.
New Delhi: Tata Mcgraw Hill.
Ravichandran, R., & Parthiban, R. (1998). The impact of processing
techniques on tea volatiles. Food Chemistry, (3), 347353.
Robinson, J. M., & Owuor, P. O. (1992). In K. C. Willson & M. N.
Cliord (Eds.), Tea cultivation to consumption (pp. 459510). London:
Chapman & Hall.
283