JP6478099B2 - Containerized green tea beverage - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a packaged green tea beverage or a method for producing the same, and more particularly to a low caffeine packaged green tea beverage having improved taste and aroma and improved palatability or a method for producing the same.

  Green tea is a drink that has been loved by many people since ancient times. In addition to the mode of extracting from tea leaves at home or restaurants, it is widely spread as a beverage filled in containers such as plastic bottles, paper packs, cans or bottles.

  Analysis of components contained in green tea has been attempted. For example, Non-Patent Document 1 describes that a relatively high amount of aromatic components such as dimethyl sulfide is contained in high-grade tea. However, dimethyl sulfide is only one of many aroma components, and Non-Patent Document 1 does not describe the relationship between the preference for dimethyl sulfide and green tea. Non-Patent Document 2 describes that the dimethyl sulfide concentration suitable for a ready-to-drink beverage is 0.05%, but does not describe green tea and describes palatability. Absent. And in patent document 1, although the container-packed green tea drink containing dimethyl sulfide, caffeine, tannin, etc. is described in a specific ratio, about the thing using the tea leaf or tea extract which performed the caffeine reduction process Is not listed. In addition, Patent Document 2 describes a green tea leaf extract having a low polyphenol content and a low caffeine content, but does not describe dimethyl sulfide.

JP 2007-110990 A Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-27554

Perfume (2005), No. 227, p. 81-91 Perfum. Flavorist (2011), Vol. 36, p. 18-19

When producing a low caffeine green tea beverage, it is common to use a low caffeine green tea material (such as tea leaf powder or tea concentrate subjected to caffeine reduction treatment by ion exchange resin or activated carbon treatment). For example, tea leaves are not extracted with hot water, but low-fein green tea powder in the form of instant green tea is dissolved in water. However, due to the characteristics of the material, not only caffeine but also catechins had to be at a low concentration. As a result, it has been a problem that the flavor is light and the palatability is reduced. In addition, as described above, dimethyl sulfide is known only as one of many aroma components, and this dimethyl sulfide has a taste, aroma and palatability in a green tea beverage having a low concentration of caffeine and catechin. The effect was not known.
An object of the present invention is to provide a low caffeine-packed green tea beverage with improved taste and aroma and improved palatability, or a method for producing the same.

  As a result of intensive studies to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present inventors have found that dimethyl sulfide (having a green seaweed-like aroma) improves the deterioration of the taste and aroma of a packaged green tea beverage due to low caffeine, and the palatability The present invention has been completed.

That is, this invention provides the container-packed green tea drink shown below or its manufacturing method.
[1] A packaged green tea beverage comprising caffeine at 50 ppm or less, non-polymer catechin at 100 ppm or more, and dimethyl sulfide at 0.05 ppm or more and 1.00 ppm or less.
[2] The container-packed green tea beverage according to [1], including tea leaf powder subjected to a caffeine reduction treatment.
[3] The container-packed green tea beverage according to [1] or [2], including a tea concentrate subjected to a caffeine reduction treatment.
[4] The container-packed green tea beverage according to any one of [1] to [3], which is produced by a method that does not include a step of directly brewing a green tea beverage from tea leaves.
[5] A method for producing a containerized green tea beverage,
Including a step of preparing a solution containing caffeine of 50 ppm or less, non-polymer catechin of 100 ppm or more, and dimethyl sulfide of 0.05 to 1.00 ppm,
The manufacturing method characterized by not including the process of brewing a green tea drink directly from tea leaves.
[6] The method for producing a containerized green tea beverage according to [5], further including a step of adding tea leaf powder and / or tea concentrate subjected to caffeine reduction treatment.

According to the present invention, by adding dimethyl sulfide to green tea having a low concentration of caffeine and catechin, the taste and aroma of the green tea can be improved and palatability can be improved. Therefore, by adding dimethyl sulfide, it is possible to improve the taste and aroma of the container-packed green tea beverage due to low caffeine and to improve the palatability.
In addition, according to the present invention, since a highly-preferred container-packed green tea beverage can be produced by a method that does not include a step of directly brewing a green tea beverage from the raw tea leaves, a production method including a step of directly brewing the green tea beverage from the raw tea leaves Compared to the above, it is possible to shorten the time required for producing the container-packed green tea beverage and to reduce the waste in the manufacturing factory.

As the raw tea leaves of the “green tea beverage” described in the present specification, those used in the art can be used without limitation, for example, steamed tea, sencha, gyokuro, matcha, bancha, tama green tea, kettle Non-fermented tea leaves such as roasted tea and Chinese green tea may be used, or two or more of these tea leaves may be blended. The raw tea leaf can be used as powdered tea leaf powder or as a tea concentrate obtained by extracting and concentrating tea leaf components. The tea concentrate may be a liquid tea concentrate, a tea concentrate prepared by drying the tea concentrate, or a mixture thereof.
The “container-packed green tea beverage” described in the present specification can be produced by filling the green tea beverage into a beverage container by a conventional method. As the beverage container, those used in the art can be used without limitation, and for example, a plastic bottle, a paper pack, a can or a bottle may be used.

“Ppm” described in the present specification means mass ppm. For example, the concentration of caffeine when 2 mg of caffeine is contained in 100 ml of water is 20 ppm.
The “low caffeine” green tea beverage described herein refers to a green tea beverage that contains caffeine at a concentration lower than that of general green tea or no caffeine. The caffeine concentration in the container-packed green tea beverage of the present invention may be, for example, 50 ppm or less, preferably 30 ppm or less, more preferably 20 ppm or less. The caffeine concentration can be measured by a commonly used method such as high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). For example, a green tea beverage to be measured can be diluted with purified water twice and filtered with a 0.45 μm syringe filter as a measurement sample and measured under the following conditions.
Equipment: Complete set of Waters UPLC equipment (Detector: PDA gradient method)
Mobile phase: 0.5% formic acid (liquid A), 0.5% formic acid / methanol (liquid B)
Column: Waters Acquity UPLC BEH C18
1.7 μm 2.1 × 100 mm
Flow rate: 0.3 ml / min Gradient: A / B = 90/10 for 2 minutes, then 65/35 for 11 minutes

  The low-caffeine green tea beverage can be produced by mixing tea leaf powder and / or tea concentrate with water to prepare a solution containing each component at a predetermined concentration. The method for producing the low-caffeine green tea beverage may not include the step of directly brewing the green tea beverage from the raw tea leaves. The above-mentioned “process of directly brewing green tea beverage from raw tea leaves” means that water is added to the raw tea leaves to extract the ingredients of the raw tea leaves, and the green tea drinks as drinks that can be used as they are from the extracted raw tea leaves Means to separate. This process does not include the extraction or separation process, and is a process for producing a green tea beverage using the tea leaf powder and / or the tea concentrate as prepared just by mixing with water, or for drinking as it is. The step of preparing said tea concentrate without being included is not included.

  The tea leaf powder and / or tea concentrate may be subjected to a caffeine reduction treatment. As a method of “caffeine reduction treatment” described in the present specification, any method used in the art can be used without limitation as long as it is a method capable of reducing or removing caffeine from a green tea beverage. For example, a method of extracting and removing with supercritical carbon dioxide, a method of adsorbing and removing with activated carbon, activated clay and acid clay, a method of using a synthetic adsorbent, a method of using a molecular sieve such as zeolite, or a tannase You may use the method of depositing and isolate | separating using an enzyme.

  The term “non-polymer catechin” described herein refers to non-epimeric catechins such as catechin, gallocatechin, catechin gallate and gallocatechin gallate, and epicatechin, epigallocatechin, epicatechin gallate and epigallocatechin gallate It is a general term for epimeric catechins such as The concentration of the non-polymer catechin can be defined based on the total amount of the eight types of compounds described above. In the container-packed green tea beverage of the present invention, the non-polymer catechin can be contained without particular limitation within a concentration range that gives good astringency and bitterness. The concentration of the non-polymer catechin may be, for example, 3000 ppm or less, 1000 ppm or less, or 500 ppm or less, and preferably 300 ppm or less. The container-packed green tea beverage of the present invention provides an excellent container-packed green tea beverage such as astringency and bitterness even when the concentration of the non-polymer catechin is low by adding dimethyl sulfide described later. be able to. In this case, the concentration of the non-polymer catechin may be, for example, 100 ppm or more, preferably 130 ppm or more, more preferably 150 ppm or more. The non-polymer catechin concentration can be measured by a commonly used method such as HPLC. For example, the non-polymer catechin concentration can be measured under the same conditions as those used in the above-described caffeine measurement.

  “Tannin” described in the present specification is a general term for complex aromatic compounds having a large number of phenolic hydroxyl groups widely distributed in the plant kingdom, and may include non-polymer catechins and polymer catechins. The tannin can be contained in the container-packed green tea beverage of the present invention within a concentration range that gives good astringency and bitterness without particular limitation. The concentration of the tannin may be, for example, 3500 ppm or less, 1200 ppm or less, or 600 ppm or less, and preferably 350 ppm or less. In the container-packed green tea beverage of the present invention, by adding dimethyl sulfide described later, an excellent container-packed green tea beverage such as astringency and bitterness can be provided even when the tannin concentration is low. . In this case, the concentration of the tannin may be, for example, 250 ppm or more, and preferably 280 ppm or more. The tannin concentration can be measured by a commonly used method such as the iron tartrate method, for example, “Food Analysis Method” (Watanabe Atsuji, Mitsutoshi Co., Ltd. (Showa 57), pp. It can be measured according to the iron tartrate colorimetric method described in the section “Quantitative method”.

“Dimethyl sulfide” described in the present specification is a low-caffeine green tea beverage with a low taste and low taste, good taste, fragrance, good taste, sweetness, good astringency, bitterness and richness of taste. Can be improved. The dimethyl sulfide may be added to the low caffeine green tea beverage as a compound alone or as a flavor containing the compound, preferably as a green tea flavor containing dimethyl sulfide. The concentration of dimethyl sulfide in the green tea beverage packaged according to the present invention is not particularly limited as long as it is effective to exert the above-mentioned effects and the fragrance of dimethylsulfide itself does not become too strong. For example, it may be 0.05 to 1.00 ppm, preferably 0.10 to 0.70 ppm, and more preferably 0.15 to 0.50 ppm. The dimethyl sulfide concentration can be measured by a commonly used method such as analysis by GC / MS (SPME-GC / MS) using a solid phase microextraction (SPME) method. It can be measured by SPME-GC / MS.
SPME fiber: Divinylbenzene / carboxen / polydimethylsiloxane by Spellco
Extraction: 50 ° C., 20 minutes GC / MS: Agilent 5973N
Column: DB-WAX (0.25 mm ID × 30 m × 0.25 μm)
Carrier gas flow rate: 1.0 ml / min Oven: 30 ° C. (5 minutes) → 8 ° C./minute→240° C. (5 minutes)
Inlet temperature: 240 ° C

  The container-packed green tea beverage of the present invention may contain any additive other than the above-described components. As said arbitrary additive, what is used in this technical field can be used without a restriction | limiting, For example, vitamin C or baking soda may be used.

  The concentration of the tea concentrate is 5.0 g / L, and the concentration of the tea concentrated powder is 0.5 g / L. L was mixed with water. The caffeine concentration and non-polymer catechin concentration of the obtained solution were measured by HPLC, and the tannin concentration was measured by the iron tartrate method. Table 1 shows the measurement results for each concentration.

  Vitamin C and baking soda are added to the above solution, and green tea flavor containing dimethyl sulfide is not added (group 1), added (group 2), or added three times as much as group 2 (group 3). ) And green tea beverages were prepared. The green tea beverages of Groups 1 to 3 were sterilized by ultra-high temperature (UHT sterilization) and aseptic filling (ASP filling) to prepare a container-packed green tea beverage. The dimethyl sulfide concentration in the container-packed green tea beverage was measured by SPME-GC / MS. The sensuality of the packaged green tea beverage was evaluated in 5 stages using Group 1 as a reference (3 points) (N = 9). Table 2 shows the measurement results of the dimethyl sulfide concentration and the results of the sensory test.

  Group 1 packaged green tea beverages prepared from low caffeinated tea concentrate and tea concentrate powder did not contain dimethyl sulfide and had a light taste and aroma. Addition of a fragrance containing dimethyl sulfide improved all the items evaluated in the sensory test, that is, deliciousness, fragrance, umami / sweetness, astringency / bitterness and taste intensity (group) 2 and 3).

  From the above, it has been found that the addition of dimethyl sulfide can improve the taste and aroma of a container-packed green tea beverage due to low caffeine, and can improve palatability.

Claims (6)

  A packaged green tea beverage comprising caffeine at 50 ppm or less, non-polymer catechin at 100 ppm or more, and dimethyl sulfide at 0.05 ppm or more and 1.00 ppm or less.   The container-packed green tea beverage according to claim 1, comprising tea leaf powder that has been subjected to caffeine reduction treatment.   The container-packed green tea drink of Claim 1 or 2 containing the tea concentrate which performed the caffeine reduction process.   The container-packed green tea beverage according to any one of claims 1 to 3, which is produced by a method not including a step of directly brewing a green tea beverage from tea leaves. A method for producing a containerized green tea beverage,
Including a step of preparing a solution containing caffeine of 50 ppm or less, non-polymer catechin of 100 ppm or more, and dimethyl sulfide of 0.05 to 1.00 ppm,
The manufacturing method characterized by not including the process of brewing a green tea drink directly from tea leaves.   The manufacturing method of the container-packed green tea drink of Claim 5 which further includes the process of adding the tea leaf powder and / or tea concentrate which performed the caffeine reduction process.