Tea product and process for preparing the same

• US 10,881,118 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2015
• Issued: 01/05/2021
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ekaterra Tea Manufacturing USA LLC
• Original Assignee: Conopco (Unilever PLC)
• Inventors: Guttapadu, Sreeramulu, Govindaswamy, Vadivel, Jahabardeen, Mohamed Sirajudeen, Singh, Gurmeet
• Primary Examiner(s): Weier, Anthony J
• Application Number:
  US15/512,941
• Publication Number:
  US 20170245517A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,940 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: A23F 3/18 Extraction of water soluble tea constituents A23F3/166 takes precedence; isolation of tea flavour or tea oil A23F3/42
• CPC Class Codes: A23F 3/225 by evaporation, e.g. drying in thin layers, foam drying A23F3/26 and A23F3/28 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A23F 3/30 Further treatment of dried tea extract; Preparations produced thereby, e.g. instant tea A23F3/166 takes precedence; flavouring A23F3/40

Abstract

The present invention relates to a tea product and more particularly the present invention relates to a black tea product. According to the present invention there is provided a process for producing a tea product comprises the steps of: a) extracting a leaf tea product including both a soluble part and an insoluble part with a solvent; b) separating the insoluble part from the soluble part; c) compacting the insoluble part to obtain a base tea material; d) drying the base tea material to a moisture content of less than 5% by weight. e) contacting the soluble part obtained in step (b) with the dried base tea material; f) further drying the mixture to obtain the tea product.

Claims

1. A tea product comprising:

a) 5 to 95% by weight of a base tea material which is porous and has a porosity of less than 5 cc/kg and which comprises less than 5% of polyphenols by dry weight; and

b) wherein the base tea material comprises a coating of 95 to 5% by weight of soluble tea solids, and wherein the soluble tea solids comprise 10 to 40% of polyphenols by dry weight.

2. The tea product as claimed in claim 1 wherein the soluble solids comprise 0.1 to 5% by weight of theaflavins.

3. The tea product as claimed in claim 1 wherein the soluble solids comprise 1 to 20% by weight of catechins.

4. The tea product as claimed in claim 1 wherein the soluble solids comprise 0.5 to 10% by weight of theanine.

5. The tea product as claimed in claim 1 wherein the soluble solids comprise 4 to 40% by weight of caffeine.

6. A process for producing the tea product as claimed in claim 1 comprising:

a) extracting a leaf tea product comprising both a soluble part and an insoluble part with a solvent;

b) separating the insoluble part from the soluble part;

c) compacting the insoluble part to obtain a base tea material to provide a porosity of less than 5 cc/kg;

d) drying the base tea material to a moisture content of less than 5% by weight;

e) contacting the soluble part obtained in step (b) with the dried base tea material;

f) further drying the mixture to obtain the tea product.

7. The process as claimed in claim 6 wherein the solvent is water.

8. The process as claimed in claim 6 wherein the porosity of the base tea material is less than 5 cc/kg.

9. The process as claimed in claim 6 wherein the polyphenols content in the base tea material is less than 5% by dry weight of the base tea material.

10. The process as claimed in claim 6 wherein bulk density of the base tea material is at least 350 g/L.

11. The process as claimed in claim 6 wherein the hydration capacity of the base tea material is less than 50 mL/100 g.