IL52057A - Process for flavouring a tea composition - Google Patents

Description

A process for flavouring a tea composition Socie*te* des Produits Nestle* SA This invention relates to the flavouring of beverages. More particularly, the invention is concerned with strengthening the flavour of tea in beverages based on tea.

Instant teas are generally prepared by extracting black tea leaves, followed by concentration and, if desired, drying. During these operations, however, a large part of the volatile substance is responsible for flavour is lost. In some cases, they can be recovered by condensation and then re- incorporated in the tea extract. In most cases, however, the aforementioned volatile substances have undergone changes which make them unsuitable for re-incorporation. In cases such as these, it may be advisable to flavour the extract with suitable compos tions.

British Patent Specification No. 1,306,017 describes certain compositions used as flavour strengtheners in tea for imparting a note of freshness. These compositions are mostly based on compounds whose presence in the flavour of tea is well known. In addition, they are frequently highly complex.

According to the present invention, a flavouring agent which contains geranyl acetone and <S -decalactone may be added to the aforementioned beverage. In the context of the invention, a tea-based beverage, apart of course from the conventional infusion of tea leaves, may be any of the beverages known as "instant teas" which are aqueous solutions of flavours and soluble tea extracts, especially solids, capable of additionally containing various additives, such as citric acid for example. In this case, the term beverage as used in the context of the invention applies both to the liquid reconstituted bsverage and also to the extract of the solids before or after drying, which means that the flavouring agent may be added before, during or after reconstitution of the liquid beverage by the addition of water. Thus, although the quantities specified hereinafter are expressed interms of weight with reference to the soluble solids of the tea, this does not imply that the flavouring agent is added to the solids themselves. It is merely one convenient method of presentation, because the addition can be made for example either to the extract of the solids before drying or :.o the reconstituted liquid beverage.

It should be pointed out that, although geranyl acetone on its own is not a very interesting flavouring agent in view of its terpenic aromatic note and its bitter flavour, its entire interest is as a constituent of flavouring compositions. Thus, the following compositions: geranyl acetone 1 part S -decalactone 1 to 2 parts provide the tea-based beverage with a balanced flavour, although bitterness reappears with greater relative proportions of geranyl acetone. These compositions have to be added in quantities corresponding to quantities of ^-decalactone of from 0.5 to 9 ppm, preferably from 1 to 6 ppm, based on the solids in the tea.

A preferred beverage is the following: geranyl acetone 1.5 parts r > -decalactone 3 parts soluble tea solids 1P00,000 parts The process according to the invention may be carried out in many different ways.

In a first embodiment, an infusion of tea or a liquid reconstituted tea in any concentration, hot or cold, is treated with a flavouring agent. To this end, the flavouring agent may be directly added or, if it is a composition, its constituents may be added either individually or in combination, after which the whole is homogenised. The same procedure may of course be adopted for a liquid extract of tea solids intended, after drying, to give an instant tea powder. Since the flavouring agent on the one hand is relatively simple and, on the other hand, consists of stable, substantially non-volatile substances, the increase in temperature which may occur during drying does not have any serious disadvantages. In one preferred modification of this first embodiment, the flavouring agent or its constituents are added not as such but in solution or emulsion in a diluent, the quantities of flavouring agent to be incorporated in the beverage being proportionally very small and, where the volume of this beverage is reduced, too small to allow any dosage. It is preferred to use a so-called "food-grade" diluent, for example water or an aqueous alcoholic solution.

A second embodiment of the process according to the invention comprises treating a solid tea extract, for example in powder form. In a first modification of this embodiment, the flavouring agent is added directly to the powder, followed by homogenisation, for example in a rotary cylinder. In another modification, the constituents of the composition may be added either individually or in combination, followed by homogenisation. In another referred embodiment, the flavouring agent is added to a small fraction of the tea powder to be treated, for example 5 to 10 %, which facilitate addition, after which this fraction is mixed with the rest of the powder, followed by hotnogenisation until the flavouring agent is uniformly distributed throughout the powder. It is also possible, in another preferred embodiment individually to add each of the constituents to as many small fractions of the tea powder, subsequently to combine all the fractions and the untreated powder and then to homogenise the whole, the aforementioned fractions either being equal in weight or selected in a ratio by weight constant with the quantity of constituent to be added to it, so that each of the fractions is flavoured to the same extent. For the same reasons as those described above, the flavouring agent or its constituents are not added as such in preferred modifications of all these embodiments, but in solution or emulsion in a diluent, preferably a "food-grade" diluent . In this case, it may be that the quantity of diluent used is sufficient to dissolve the fraction of treated tea powder. During these treatments, dispersion of the flavouring agent may be facilitated by a slight increase in temperature. Finally, the instant tea is reconstituted, for example simply by adding water to the powder.

The process according to the invention is illustrated by the following Example. In this Example, the aqueous alcoholic solutions referred to are solutions containing 10 % of ethanol, whilst the values expressed in ppm are based on the tea solids..

EXAMPLE 3 fractions of an instant tea powder weighing 100 g, 200 g and 1700 g, respectively, are prepared. 10 ml of an aqueous alcoholic solution containing 300 mg per litre of geranyl acetone are added to the 100 g fraction, and 20 ml of an aqueous alcoholic solution containing 300 mg per litre of S -decalactone (30 ppm) are added to the 200 g fraction. These two fractions are then combined along with the 1700 g fraction of non-flavoured powder.

The whole is homogenised. The concentration of S -decalactone is then 3 ppm. 1 % of the aromatised and homogenised powder is then removed and 6.5 litres of hot water added to it, followed by stirring up to dissolution. Nine tasters out of ten preferred the flavoured tea, describing it as having a very balanced flavour with an agreeably astringent but non-bitter flavour. For the same level of flavouring, the gap between the flavoured tea and the reference tea narrows down if the relative proportion of geranyl acetone decreases, whilst a higher relative proportion of this ketone produces an unpleasant, bitter note.

Claims (6)

1. A process for flavouring a beverage based on tea, / wherein a flavouring agent containing at least geranyl acetone and £ -decalactone is added to the beverage.

2. A process as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the flavouring agent has the following composition: geranyl acetone 1 part £ -decalactone 1 to 2 parts

3. A process as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the flavouring agent is added in quantities corresponding to quantities of <5 -decalactone of from 0.5 to 9 ppm, based on the soluble tea solids.

4. A process as claimed in any of the preceding Claims, wherein the flavouring agent is added to a liquid or solid tea extract.

5. A process as claimed in any of the preceding Claims, wherein the flavouring agent is added in solution or emulsion in a diluent.

6. A tea-based beverage of which the tea flavour has been strengthened by the process claimed in any of the preceding Claims. For the Applicants RT/JH