JP2009125070A - Rotary pot heat-treating apparatus, and tea processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a tea processing apparatus and a tea processing method capable of efficiently producing Ten-cha (raw material for powdered ceremonial green tea) having improved flavor, as compared with conventional oven-dry Ten-cha processing method. <P>SOLUTION: The heat-treating apparatus is provided with a rotary drum, supported substantially horizontally on a machine frame and having an inner spiral groove; an external heating device for the rotary drum; a heating means placed in the cylinder of the rotary drum, in a state of being inclined at a prescribed angle to perform nearly downward radiation of heat; a covering plate placed above the heating means; and a tea leaf removing means, placed at the top of the covering plate. A Schwank(R) heater is used as the heating means in a cylinder, and an eccentric cam is used as a heated tea leaf removing means on the roof of the top of the covering plate. The tea processing method comprises heat-treatment of heated tea leaves, with a rotary pot heat-treating apparatus at a high temperature and a high speed, without rolling the tea leaves. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a rotary kettle heat treatment apparatus for roasting tea leaves and a tea making method using the apparatus.

  Traditionally, green tea production methods include steaming the freshly harvested tea leaves with saturated steam, then producing sencha through the steps of crude koji, bonito, middle mushrooms, koji, and drying, and heating the green tea leaves. There is a method of producing kettle roasted tea through the steps of roasting on the “kettle”, then twisting, water drying, roasting and finishing. Sencha is characterized by maintaining the green color of fresh tea leaves because it loses the activity of oxidase by applying a large amount of steam to fresh tea leaves. Since it is fried above, it is characterized by the roasted flavor of tea. Therefore, even if it is the same fresh tea leaf, it was manufactured with each processing apparatus corresponding to each manufacturing method by the form of tea finally calculated | required. In general, sencha is mainly produced. However, due to the diversification of tastes, when kettle roasted tea with a unique flavor is reviewed, even if it is both green sencha, a richer flavor is also required. It is these days. Therefore, it is required to continuously produce tea with such a fragrant kettle roasted flavor at low cost and high efficiency.

  In particular, matcha tea, which requires a bright green color, represents the traditional tea ceremony culture, and it is important to enjoy the scent of matcha along with its methods. This matcha tea is made from tencha that is made from tea leaves and then crushed with a mortar. It will dry for a long time. Accordingly, not only the tea production efficiency is bad, but also a large equipment cost and a large processing cost are required, so that matcha tea is very expensive as a result. There is a demand for making this matcha tea more efficiently and easily at a low cost.

As a conventional technique, for the kettle roasted tea orientation, an apparatus capable of producing a large amount of green tea having the advantages of kettle roasted tea and sencha is disclosed. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1.)
This conventional device is an agitating type tea leaf processing device that sends heated air together with an external burner, and since it contains tea leaves, it is intended for making kettle roasted sencha. Is a completely different tea and has a low production efficiency due to the batch type.
Moreover, what replaces with the steaming process of the conventional tencha manufacturing method and performs the pot roasting process is disclosed. (For example, refer to Patent Document 2.)
Furthermore, there is an improvement of the manufacturing method, in which the drying process after entering the kettle is also performed in a roasting kettle. (For example, refer to Patent Document 3.)
Both of these have no steaming process and are steamed and steamed by the water that evaporates from the roasted raw leaves, and since no boiler is used, uniform oxidase inactivation by steam cannot be achieved. The resulting tea color and flavor are far from traditional tencha.
In addition, as a “method for producing steamed roasted tea”, a method for carrying out a kneading and drying process with a stirrer and a stirrer after the steaming step is also disclosed. (For example, refer to Patent Document 4.)
This manufacturing method is a method of incorporating a unique fragrance by frying leaf cores and stems, which tend to be insufficient in the steaming process, and has a stir-fried process and a twisting process. Even though it has a high scent, it is still different from traditional tencha.
In addition, there is also disclosed one that avoids local heating in a tea leaf dryer and avoids the influence of a temperature difference depending on the position in the drum. (For example, refer to Patent Document 5.)
In this conventional apparatus, instead of external heating, a heating and drying burner is disposed in the rotating drum of the tea leaf dryer, and the tea leaves put into the rotating drum are diffused while meandering, The purpose is to eliminate the uneven drying of the crude tea to the last and to perform more complete drying efficiently. Therefore, the temperature in the cylinder is about the same as that of a conventional dryer.
Although this apparatus has a common part in structure with the present invention, both are completely different in technical idea. The reason for this is that after the steaming heat-treated tea leaves containing a large amount of water, which is the point of the present invention, are cooled and directly heated directly from both the inside and outside of the cylinder with a rotary kettle heat treatment device. First of all, the idea of heat treatment at high temperature and high speed has never been in the industry as a whole. That is, the steamed leaves are rapidly dried at a stretch by high-temperature high-speed heat treatment.
In making high-flavored matcha, the applicant observes a tencha furnace that produces conventional tencha. After the heat treatment, move to the highest part where the temperature is a little lower and gradually spread the tea leaves on the conveyer without applying any force, focusing on processing in a long drying process for a long time, drum this This is a study of what can be done at once.
That is, after the steamed tea leaves are cooled, the spiral groove is dropped and reversed in the cylinder, and it is automatically dropped and reversed by high-temperature heating with far infrared rays to extract the flavor more than conventional tencha, and the desired result is obtained It is.

References

  JP 2006-204183 A   Japanese Patent Publication No.59-44017   Shoko 60-25095   Japanese Patent Fair 01-47130   JP-A-2005-224182

It is intended to meet the demands of many recent markets where bright green and fragrant green tea are required to be made efficiently at low cost.
That is, it is to provide a tea manufacturing apparatus and a tea manufacturing method for efficiently producing tencha (green tea raw material), which has a flavor extracted more than the conventional tencha furnace manufacturing method.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a rotary hook heat treatment apparatus of the present invention is provided with a rotary drum supported substantially horizontally on a machine frame, and a heating device from the outside of the rotary drum and an inner wall of the rotary drum. Is provided with a guide plate to form a continuous spiral groove of a predetermined width, and a weir plate bridged between the two guide plates is provided at a position so as to divide the circumference of the groove into a predetermined portion, A heating means disposed at a predetermined angle to dissipate heat in a substantially downward direction, a covering plate that covers the top of the heating means in a roof shape, and the top of the covering plate rides on the roof. A means for removing tea leaves after steaming is provided.
The “substantially predetermined equality” here refers to a fixed number of divisions determined by roughly dividing the circumference according to the diameter of the drum. When the drum diameter in this embodiment is about 120 cm, it is 3 etc. Minutes to 4 equal parts are preferred.

  And it is preferable when the heating means arrange | positioned in the cylinder of the said rotating drum is a far-infrared radiation device. The “far-infrared heat dissipation device” referred to here is, for example, a Schwann burner having a porous ceramic plate on a gas flame.

  And it is making it the rotary pot heat processing apparatus which provided the eccentric cam which provided the removal means of the tea leaf on the roof of the said cover board top part provided on the axis | shaft along the ridge part of a roof.

  The tea-making method is to heat-treat the tea leaves after steaming heat treatment at a high temperature and high speed without stagnation of the tea leaves after steaming heat treatment in the rotary kettle heat treatment apparatus according to claim 1, claim 2 or claim 3. .

As described above, according to the present invention, by using a high-temperature rotating drum (rotary kettle) provided with heating means in the cylinder, a tea scent superior to that of a tea product produced by a large-scale tea-tea furnace is obtained. The intensity of the tea fragrance and the vividness of the leaf color can be freely set according to the rotational speed of the drum and the temperature control in the drum.
Moreover, by using a high-temperature rotating drum (rotary pot) provided with a spiral guide side wall on the inner wall of the cylinder, it is possible to continuously and efficiently produce tencha that has sufficiently extracted the flavor.
Therefore, mass production and production of tea (matcha) was made possible.
Further, unlike a tea-tea furnace, a large amount of preheating is not required, the equipment is large and bulky, the installation cost is remarkably reduced, and the installation can be easily moved.

  And, by making the heating means in the cylinder a Schwann burner device, a large amount of far-infrared rays can be emitted and the steamed tea leaf can be cooled and then dried from the inside of the tea leaf at high temperature and high speed in a short time. The green is brilliant and the tea can be made efficiently.

  And by providing the eccentric cam which provided the removal means of the tea leaf on the roof of the said cover board top on the axis | shaft along the ridge part of a roof, the tea leaf on the roof is removed rapidly and reliably. As a result, tea leaves are not burnt and high quality tea can be made.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a simplified cross-sectional side view showing an embodiment of the rotary hook heat treatment apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a front view partially cut away at YY in FIG.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, 1 is a machine frame, 2 is an external burner, 3 is a rotating drum, 4 is an internal burner, 5 is a burner cover, and 6 is an eccentric cam. Yes.

  A rotary drum 3 supported substantially horizontally is provided on the machine frame 1, a heating device 2 from the outside of the rotary drum 3, and a guide plate 35 provided on the inner wall of the drum to form a continuous spiral groove 34 having a predetermined width. A weir plate 36 bridged to the guide plate 35 is provided at a position so as to divide the circumference of the spiral groove 34 into approximately three equal parts, and further, a predetermined angle to dissipate heat substantially downward in the cylinder of the rotating drum 3. A Schwan burner 4 is provided as a heating means that is held and disposed, and a burner cover 5 that is a covering plate that covers the upper portion of the heating means in a roof shape is provided, and a roof is provided on the top of the burner cover 5. Is provided with an eccentric cam 6 which is a means for removing tea leaves after steaming heat treatment.

The rotary drum 3 is provided with a cylindrical body 3a and a guide plate 35 on the inner wall of the body 3a in order to form a single spiral groove 34 having a predetermined width over the entire area inside the cylinder. At the same time, the weir plate 36 bridged to the guide plate is provided at 120 degree intervals that divide the circumference of the spiral groove 34 into approximately three equal parts. The first weir plate 36 is preferably about 20% of the height of the guide plate 35 which is the side wall of the spiral groove 34. This is because the tea leaf accumulated in the dam plate 36 while flowing through the spiral groove 34 is reversed.
As shown in FIG. 2, annular guide rails 33 similar to the structure of the conventional tea leaf dryer are fixed to the rotating drum 3 on both the left and right sides at the outer peripheral body 32 near both ends of the rotating drum 3. Is provided. The left and right guide rails 33 are supported and supported by a pair of axially supported rollers 7 on both sides of the machine frame 1 so that the rotating drum 3 is supported substantially horizontally with respect to the machine frame 1. It is what has been.
Further, a drive sprocket 8 coaxially mounted with a drive motor 9 having a speed change means is engaged with a large annular drum sprocket 38 fixed to the rotary drum 3 via a chain 81, and the rotary drum Reference numeral 3 denotes the drive motor 9, which is rotated counterclockwise as indicated by a white large arrow in FIG. Therefore, as shown by the small continuous arrows in the figure, the tea leaves are turned upside down by a reverse fall from a position of about 90 degrees, moved into the previous spiral groove 34, and this is continuously repeated to make the spiral groove 34 the rotating drum. Proceed to the forefront of 3.

In the cylinder of the rotary drum 3, the far-infrared gas burner is disposed at a position where the far-infrared radiation is most efficiently radiated at a position where the rotary drum 3 rotates and the tea leaves spontaneously fall from the weirs 36 of the spiral groove 34 and are reversed and inverted. The schbank burner 4 is installed.
The Schwann burner has a porous ceramic plate at the tip of a gas flame, and emits a large amount of far infrared rays having a wavelength (about 2.8 microns) that is particularly easily absorbed by water as far infrared rays. It is.
Then, a burner cover 5 which is a cover plate for covering the upper part of the Schwanburner 4 in a roof shape is formed in an inverted V-shaped roof shape, and is installed and fixed at the upper position of the Schwanburner 4.
Further, as a means for removing tea leaves on the roof at the top of the burner cover 5, a cam shaft 61 is provided on the top of the burner cover 5 along the ridge of the roof, and the eccentricity provided on the cam shaft 61 is provided. The cam 6 is provided such that the tip is in contact with the top of the roof.
The Schwann burner 4, the burner cover 5, the eccentric cam 6 and the cam shaft 61 are always assembled in an optimum positional relationship so that they can be held at a predetermined position in the rotary drum 3. Install. Here, due to the temperature uniformity in the cylinder and the size of the Schwan burner 4, the machine frame is attached to each stay member so that it can be inserted and removed from both ends of the rotating drum 3 so as to hit the center. Attach to 1 and fix.
Further, by rotating the cam shaft 61, the tip of the eccentric cam 6 intermittently contacts the roof top, so that the tea leaves caught here can be dropped and removed regularly. The eccentric cam 6 has a substantially circular cross section, and the center of the rotating shaft is biased, and the tip is sometimes in contact with the roof.
The tea leaves on the sloped part of the roof of the burner cover 5 fall naturally because the inclination angle is steep.

When using the rotary pot heat treatment apparatus according to the present invention, the following procedure is used.
First, the external burner 2 is ignited to heat the rotary drum 3 from the outside, and then the drive motor 9 is operated to rotate the rotary drum 3 via the drive sprocket 8, the chain 81, and the drum sprocket 38. Subsequently, by igniting the Schwann burner 4 in the drum 3 and burning the inner and outer burners, the internal temperature of the rotating drum 3 can be raised from about 150 degrees to about 250 degrees and maintained at a constant temperature in that state. Adjust the temperature control device.
Next, a predetermined amount of steamed and heat-treated tea leaves to be dried are fed from the tea leaf feeding hopper 12 at the left end of the rotary drum 3 of FIG. 2 by the tea leaf feeding conveyor, and the cam shaft 61 is rotated.
After that, it is confirmed that the falling and reversing state of the tea leaves from the spiral groove 34 in the rotating drum 3 is smoothly repeated and sequentially sent in the direction of the exit, and if the tea leaves get on the roof of the burner cover 5 on the way In this case, it is only necessary to confirm whether or not the eccentric cam 6 can quickly drop and remove.
Finally, the tea leaves subjected to the high-speed and high-temperature drying treatment are received from the opening 31 of the tea leaf outlet at the tip of the rotating drum 3 and sent to the next process. Therefore, it is a very simple operation.

The operation of this apparatus will be described. Steamed tea leaves introduced from one end of the rotating drum 3 are scattered in the spiral groove 34 on the inner wall of the rotating drum 3 and rotated together with the rotating drum 3. When the rotation angle reaches 90 degrees, the tea leaves are gathered downward, stopped and accumulated at the weir plate 36 of the spiral groove 34, and further rotated by the rotating drum 3, whereby the upper layers of the tea leaves gathered together. When the rotation reaches 180 degrees, all the tea leaves fall and the tea leaves are inverted.
The inverted and fallen tea leaves enter the spiral groove 34 that advances in a single spiral groove 34 located on the opposite lower side, and rotate together with the rotating drum 3. While the rotation angle of the rotary drum 3 reaches 90 to 180 degrees, all the tea leaves fall and fall as described above.
Then, the spiral groove 34 is again moved forward by one line. By repeating this continuously, the tea leaves are fed to the opening 31 at the tip of the rotating drum 3 while being reversed within the drum by the number of spiral grooves.

During this time, the outer wall of the rotating drum 3 is heated from the lower part of the outer side of the rotating drum 3 by the heating burner, and the inner wall of the rotating drum 3 is also heated to a high temperature to rapidly dry the moisture that has come out on the surface of the tea leaves. A large amount of far-infrared rays and high heat (approximately 150 to 250 degrees) are applied to the tea leaves by the Schwang burner 4 provided inside, so that moisture is released from the tea leaves to the surface and rapidly and rapidly. Will be dried.
This Schwann burner 4 has a function of rapidly penetrating heat that produces water toward the center of the moisture retaining material, and generally emits abundant far-infrared rays with a porous ceramic surface that looks like a net. It dissipates far infrared rays equivalent to or better than Bincho charcoal.
As a result, the tea leaves are not subjected to any external force and are repeatedly inverted only by natural fall and rapidly dried from both sides of the inner and outer walls of the rotating drum 3 at high temperatures. Favorable results are obtained, and a green, bright and fragrant tea is obtained.

In such a case, the desired flavor and leaf color can be arbitrarily extracted according to the type, quality and form of the steamed heat-treated tea leaves.
Also, as a very great advantage, there is a conventional tea tea furnace device as a method for high-temperature treatment of steamed tea leaves, but this tea tea furnace is large and extremely bulky, and it is very large to install. Cost.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the flow of the tea making method by the rotary pot heat treatment apparatus according to the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 3, the fresh tea leaves harvested before being processed by this apparatus are steamed. After the steaming heat treatment is finished (sufficiently containing moisture), the tea leaves are once cooled to remove surface moisture, and then put into the apparatus. In this apparatus, before the tea leaves are introduced, the external burner 2 of the rotating drum 3 and the Schwann burner 4 inside the cylinder are also ignited and burned in advance so that the inside of the rotating drum 3 becomes about 150 to 250 degrees. And kept at a constant high temperature. Then, the tea leaves are charged into the charging hopper 12. The introduced tea leaves are repeatedly dried at a high temperature and high speed along a spiral groove 34 on the inner wall, repeatedly dried at a high temperature and at a high speed, and finished in about 5 to 10 minutes, and discharged from the tea leaf outlet at the tip of the rotating drum 3. Is done. The discharged product is sent to a conventional finishing adjustment drier to complete a series of manufacturing steps.

Ordinary tencha is made by steaming fresh tea leaves, and after steaming the tea leaves that have been steamed (sufficiently contained moisture) to remove surface moisture, The drying process is performed while flowing on the net conveyor, and the apparatus of the present invention can perform the same drying process in a remarkably short time.
According to the tea production method, the amount of tea that is produced by changing or adjusting the amount of tea leaves charged into the apparatus and the drum passage time, that is, the rotational speed of the rotating drum of the apparatus and the internal temperature of the rotating drum is adjusted. It is also possible to easily change the color and flavor by selecting them according to the taste and changing them easily.
Generally, when the temperature inside the drum is high and the rotation speed is slow, the scent becomes high and the vividness of the leaf color is weakened. In the opposite case, the leaf color increases vividness and the fragrance becomes weaker.
This is also a breakthrough in the tea industry.

  According to this rotary kettle heat treatment device, in addition to the heat treatment of a general external burner 2 from the outside of the rotary drum 3, a large amount of far infrared rays are emitted by the internal Schwan burner 4 and moisture from the inside of the tea leaves is also absorbed. It is discharged at a stretch and dried at a high temperature and high speed, and a high-quality tea with a fragrance can be obtained.

It should be noted that it is easily conceivable to provide a distance movement adjusting mechanism that moves the in-cylinder heating means (in the embodiment, the Schwan burner 4) with respect to the opposing surface of the inner peripheral wall surface of the rotating drum 3.
It is also conceivable to easily provide a heat radiation angle adjusting mechanism that changes the heat radiation angle of the in-cylinder heating means (Schbank burner 4 in the embodiment) with respect to the opposing surface of the inner peripheral wall surface of the rotating drum 3.

In such a case, optimum fine adjustment according to the type, quality and form of tea leaves or according to the distinction of tea desired to be obtained in the processing result is possible.
It should be noted that it is most preferable to change the variation according to the use scene without any problem even if the additional components are partially combined.
For example, an eccentric cam provided with a means for removing tea leaves on the roof at the top of the covering plate on an axis along the ridge of the roof can be used as a simple square member, channel member, strip member, or other heat-resistant steel eccentric wire brush. It is also possible to do.

So far, several examples have been described as described above, but the present invention is not limited to these examples.
It is intended to be included within the scope of the present invention without departing from the spirit.

It is a simplified cross-section side view showing an embodiment of the present invention. It is the front view which notched a part of this invention. It is a figure which shows the flow of the tea manufacturing method of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Machine frame 11 Cover body 12 Loading hopper 2 External burner 3 Rotating drum 31 Opening part 32 Trunk part 33 Guide rail 34 Spiral groove 35 Guide plate 36 Dam plate 38 Drum sprocket 4 Schwann burner 5 Burner cover 6 Eccentric cam 61 Cam shaft 7 Roller 8 Drive sprocket 81 Chain 9 Drive motor

Claims (4)

  A rotating drum supported substantially horizontally is provided on the machine frame, a heating device from the outside of the rotating drum, a guide plate is provided on the inner wall of the rotating drum to form a continuous spiral groove of a predetermined width, and both the guides A weir plate bridged by a plate is provided at a position to divide one circumference of the spiral groove into a substantially predetermined equal portion, and is further held and arranged at a predetermined angle in the cylinder of the rotating drum so as to dissipate heat substantially downward. Provided with a heating means provided, a covering plate for covering the upper portion of the heating means in a roof shape, and a means for removing tea leaves after steaming on the roof provided at the top of the covering plate Rotating pot heat treatment device.   The rotary hook heat treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heating means disposed in the cylinder of the rotary drum is a far infrared radiation device.   The rotary pot heat treatment apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein an eccentric cam is provided on a shaft along a ridge portion of the roof as a means for removing tea leaves on the roof of the covering plate.   A tea-making method characterized by heat-treating tea leaves after steaming heat treatment at a high temperature and high speed without stagnation in the rotary kettle heat treatment apparatus according to claim 1, claim 2 or claim 3.

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