Tea beverage and method for producing the same

• US 9,781,943 B2
• Filed: 04/16/2012
• Issued: 10/10/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nongfu Spring Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Nongfu Spring Company Limited
• Inventors: Han, Zhengchun, Huang, Yuan, Zhong, Jiping, Xue, Lian
• Primary Examiner(s): Warden, Jill
• Assistant Examiner(s): YOO, HONG THI
• Application Number:
  US14/114,013
• Publication Number:
  US 20140127373A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,003 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A23F 3/163 Liquid or semi-liquid tea extract preparations, e.g. gels, liquid extracts in solid capsules
• 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

Abstract

Disclosed is a tea beverage and production method therefor. The tea beverage comprises tea, reverse-osmosis water which is deoxidized and deionized, and a food antioxidant, and the oxygen content in the freshly packaged tea beverage is ≦1 mg/L.

Claims

1. A method for producing a tea beverage, consisting of the following steps:

1) immersing and extracting tea leaves not previously extracted, with reverse-osmosis water that is deoxygenated and deionized and has a temperature of 40-95°

C. and an oxygen content of ≦

1 mg/L, the tea leaves and water being in a ratio of 1;

20-120 by weight, the reverse-osmosis water being contained in a closed water tank, and ≧

99% nitrogen is injected into the top of the closed water tank, the extraction of tea leaves is carried out for 10-40 minutes in a closed extraction tank to obtain an extraction liquid of the tea leaves, >

99% nitrogen is injected to replace air in the closed extraction tank prior to extraction, and the extraction is carried out under nitrogen protection;

2) filtrating or clearing the extraction liquid of the tea leaves by centrifugation and a pocket filter to obtain a filtrated extraction liquid, wherein closed tanks are used during filtration or clearing;

≧

99% nitrogen is injected to replace air in each of the closed tanks in advance, and the filtrating or clearing process is carried out under nitrogen protection;

3) transferring the filtrated extraction liquid into a closed blending tank, diluting and blending it with the reverse-osmosis water that is deoxygenated and deionized, at a ratio of 1;

1-10 by weight to obtain a diluted extraction liquid, and adding an antioxidant, wherein ≧

99% nitrogen is injected to replace air in the closed blending tank in advance, and the whole process of step

     3) is carried out under nitrogen protection;

4) subjecting the product of step

     3) to ultra high temperature short time sterilization (UHT), wherein no degassing treatment is performed on the product of step

     3) after step

     3) and before UHT; and

5) subjecting the product of step

     4) to aseptic cold filling by using PET plastic bottles to get various tea beverages, wherein during aseptic cold filling, mouths of the bottles are purged with nitrogen before capping the PET bottles, so as to reduce oxygen content of the air in top gap of the bottles.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the tea leaves are selected from the group consisting of green tea, oolong tea, and black tea.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the antioxidant is ascorbic acid, in an amount of from 0.02 to 0.05 wt % of the total amount of the diluted extraction liquid.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the product of in step 4) has a dissolved oxygen content of ≦

1 mg/L.

5. A method for producing a tea beverage, consisting of the following steps:

1) performing an immersion and extraction of tea leaves not previously extracted, with reverse-osmosis water that is deoxygenated and deionized and has a temperature of 40-95°

C. and an oxygen content of ≦

1 mg/L, the tea leaves and water being in a ratio of 1;

20-120 by weight, the reverse-osmosis water being contained in a closed water tank, and ≧

99% nitrogen is injected into the top of the closed water tank, the extraction of tea leaves is carried out for 10-40 minutes in a closed extraction tank to obtain an extraction liquid of the tea leaves, >

99% nitrogen is injected to replace air in the closed extraction tank prior to extraction, and the extraction is carried out under nitrogen protection;

2) filtrating or clearing the extraction liquid of the tea leaves by centrifugation and a pocket filter to obtain a filtrated extraction liquid, wherein closed tanks are used during filtration or clearing;

≧

99% nitrogen is injected to replace air in each of the closed tanks in advance, and the filtrating or clearing process is carried out under nitrogen protection;

3) transferring the filtrated extraction liquid into a closed blending tank, diluting and blending it with the reverse-osmosis water that is deoxygenated and deionized, at a ratio of 1;

1-10 by weight to obtain a diluted extraction liquid, and adding an antioxidant, wherein ≧

99% nitrogen is injected to replace air in the closed blending tank in advance, and the whole process of step

     3) is carried out under nitrogen protection to obtain an antioxidant-containing diluted extraction liquid;

4) subjecting the antioxidant-containing diluted extraction liquid to ultra high temperature short time sterilization (UHT) without performing a degassing treatment on the antioxidant-containing diluted extraction liquid before the UHT to obtain a sterilized antioxidant-containing diluted extraction liquid; and

5) subjecting the sterilized antioxidant-containing diluted extraction liquid to aseptic cold filling by using PET plastic bottles to obtain various tea beverages, wherein during aseptic cold filling, mouths of the bottles are purged with nitrogen before capping the PET bottles, so as to reduce oxygen content of the air in top gap of the bottles.