JPH0799995B2 - Tea beverage - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a tea beverage such as green tea, and more specifically to a tea beverage having an excellent scent and a high value as a luxury product.

Problems to be Solved by the Related Art and Invention Tea beverages such as green tea are said to be of higher quality as they have a good scent, but in the case of producing a high-grade tea beverage with a good scent,
It is common practice to use tea leaves that have undergone special processing during cultivation as a raw material. For example, undercover tea, which is the highest quality green tea raw material, is used for 1 to 2 weeks before germination during the germination growth period. It is produced by covering the tea leaves with straw or the like and blocking the direct rays. That is, in general, tea leaves have a ratio of α-carotene to β-carotene of 20 to 30:80 to 70 (weight ratio).
Carotenoids are contained to a certain extent, and this carotenoid decomposes in the tea manufacturing process to produce an aroma component, but Omotescha tea has a higher content of the above carotenoids than open-air tea, and therefore carotenoids are decomposed. Since a large amount of aroma components are generated, a unique scent is formed.
However, when trying to obtain such a scented beverage from a special raw material, there is a problem that it takes a lot of trouble and the tea beverage becomes extremely expensive.

On the other hand, it is possible to obtain a tea beverage with a high scent by adding an aroma component to the tea beverage. However, the aroma components detected from green tea and the like reach more than 300 types, and as it is clear from the fact that there is no one that characterizes the aroma of green tea or the like, the aroma of tea has a very complicated composition, and therefore It is not possible to obtain a good scent just by adding a small amount of fragrance ingredients. In addition, consumers are extremely reluctant to add a flavor component obtained by chemical synthesis to a tea beverage. For this reason, the fact is that the flavor of tea beverages has not been enhanced by adding flavor components.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, it is possible to enhance the aroma of tea without using a special and expensive raw material, and without adding a synthetic flavor component, and it is possible to easily and inexpensively produce a high-quality tea aroma. It is an object of the present invention to provide a tea beverage with a good scent that can reproduce.

Means and Actions for Solving Problems That is, as a result of intensive studies conducted by the present inventors in order to achieve the above object, the composition of carotene contained in palm oil or the like is represented by the following formula (1). The ratio of α-carotene and β-carotene represented by is 25 to 45:75 to 55 by weight ratio, and the ratio of trans form and cis form is 60 to 80:40 to 20 by weight ratio, which is equivalent to tea leaves. It has almost the same composition as the contained carotene, and the thermal decomposition product of this carotene, especially the decomposition product thermally decomposed under the conditions of temperature 90 to 150 ° C and pressure 20 to 40 mmHg is elegant and has a flower-like scent and a scent unique to blue green tea. It has an extremely excellent flavor as a tea beverage, and it has been found that tea added with the above-described carotene decomposition product has the same aroma as so-called high-quality tea without using a special and expensive raw material, and the present invention is provided. It came to eggplant.

Therefore, in the present invention, the ratio of α-carotene to β-carotene is 25 to 45:75 to 55 by weight, and the ratio of trans isomer to cis is 60 to 80:40 to 20 by weight. It is an object of the present invention to provide a tea beverage to which a thermal decomposition product of carotene is added.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail.

Flavor to be added to the tea beverage of the present invention, as described above, the ratio of α-carotene and β-carotene (weight ratio, the same below) is 25-45: 75-55, the trans-form and cis-form. A carotene having a ratio of 60 to 80:40 to 20 is used as a starting material, and as such a carotene, for example, natural carotene concentrated from palm oil (hereinafter,
Palm carotene) can be mentioned, and in the present invention, it is preferable to use the thermal decomposition product of palm carotene from the viewpoint of obtaining tea with an excellent scent.

In this case, the means for obtaining a carotene pyrolyzate from the above carotenes is not particularly limited, for example, carotene in water 90 ~
A method such as heat decomposition under conditions of 20 to 40 mmHg at 150 ° C, recovery of the decomposition product from this aqueous solution in ethyl ether, and then distilling off the ethyl ether can be suitably adopted, which results in carotene having a unique scent. A decomposed product can be obtained. That is, the caroten pyrolyzate has a different scent quality depending on the decomposition temperature, but the one pyrolyzed under the above temperature conditions has an elegant flower-like scent and a scent unique to blue green tea, and is effectively used as a flavor. It is something. The pressure is adjusted in correlation with the temperature in order to prevent bumping, but if the temperature and pressure are adjusted, the outflow time (decomposition time) becomes constant. This carotene decomposition product is represented by the following formula (2), that is, It is considered to have a form in which oxygen is bonded to a heat-stable ionone nucleus such as β-ionone shown by.

The present invention is to add the above-mentioned carotene decomposition product to a tea beverage, but in this case, the kind of tea beverage is not limited, and examples thereof include green tea products, tea bags, instant tea, and tea extract liquids. .

Further, the addition method is not limited, for example, a solution of a carotene decomposition product dissolved in ethyl alcohol at a ratio of 500 to 1000 ppm is sprayed on the product green tea, or a method of adding it to an extract of tea, cotton, etc. It is possible to employ a method in which a product impregnated with a decomposed product of carotene is allowed to coexist with the product green tea in a closed container and the scent is transferred to green tea. In the case of a tea bag, a tea bag may be made using leaves sprayed with the ethanol solution, or a bag of a tea bag may be soaked with the ethanol solution for perfume. Furthermore, in the instant tea in which the aroma component is easily dissipated during production, an ethanol solution of the carotene decomposition product is added to the component after extracting and concentrating the component from the tea leaves,
A freeze-drying method can be suitably adopted.

The amount of the decomposed product of carotene is not particularly limited, but it is preferably about 1 to 10 ppm of the whole tea beverage.

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION As described above, the tea beverage of the present invention has an excellent aroma. That is, according to the present invention, it is possible to reinforce the sweet flower-like scent of the finest tea and the scent peculiar to blue tea even in middle-to-lower-grade green tea, and to reduce the scent of the finest tea during storage. Can be improved. Moreover, in tea bags and instant tea, the scent has been dissipated before drinking, but this can be reinforced. The unique scent of green tea cannot be supplemented by a single chemical synthetic substance, but it is similar to a mixture of carotenoid decomposition products actually produced in green tea leaves, and it is possible to reinforce natural aroma components. This is the greatest feature of the invention.

EXAMPLES Next, the present invention will be specifically described with reference to examples, but the present invention is not limited to the following examples. In addition, prior to the Examples, an example of production of the carotene degradation product of the present invention will be described.

Production example Ratio of α-carotene to β-carotene 35:65, palm carotene 500 mg ratio of trans cis to cis 7: 3
Was placed in distilled water 1 that had been heated to 90 ° C or higher in advance, heated under the conditions shown in Table 1, extracted 3 times with 50 ml of ethyl ether each time, and the ethyl ether layer was separated and dried with anhydrous sodium sulfate. Dehydrate, have. Then, the ethyl ether layer was distilled under reduced pressure, and the ethyl ether was distilled off to obtain a pale yellow oily carotene decomposition product having the weight shown in Table 1.

In addition, the analysis result by the gas chromatograph of the carotene decomposition product of manufacture No. 2 is shown in the drawing. The analysis conditions at this time are as follows.

Column URBON HR-20M 0.24mm × 25m GC Yokogawa HP 5890A Temperature 70 ℃ ～ 220 ℃ (5 ℃ / min) He 80ml / min FID 250 ℃ Example 1 500 ~ 1
A solution (hereinafter referred to as a fragrance stock solution No. 1) dissolved at a rate of 000 ppm was prepared, and the fragrance stock solution No. 1 was sprayed onto the product green tea so that the weight of the decomposed product of carotene was 1 to 10 ppm of the dry weight of the green tea. This green tea had an excellent floral-like aroma and seaweed-like aroma, that is, a so-called "smelling aroma" peculiar to high-grade tea, which was excellent in aroma, as compared with the case where no decomposed product of carotene was added.

Example 2 The above-mentioned perfume stock solution No. 1 was sprayed onto paper at a rate of 10 to 100 ml / m ² and dried, and the product was enclosed in a closed container together with the product green tea, and the aroma was transferred to the tea leaves. This green tea had a so-called “smell scent” characterized by a flower-like scent and a blue scent, as compared with a substance in which the scent of a decomposed product of carotene was not transferred, and was excellent in aroma.

Example 3 A tea bag was manufactured using the tea bag-like leaves obtained in the same manner as in Example 1. This tea bag had a so-called “smell scent” characterized by a flower-like scent and a blue scent, as compared with a leaf-free tea bag containing no carotene degradation product, and was excellent in aroma.

Example 4 A fragrance stock solution N was applied to a wrapping paper like a tea bag in the same manner as in Example 2.
O.1 was sprayed and dried, and a tea bag was produced using this wrapping paper to transfer aroma to the tea leaves. This tea bag has a so-called "smell incense" that is characterized by a flower-like scent and a blue scent, compared to the one that uses a wrapping paper that does not transfer the scent of decomposed products of carotene, and has an excellent aroma. there were.

Example 5 0.1 to 0.2 cc of an aqueous solution in which the decomposed product of carotene of Production No. 2 was dissolved at a ratio of 500 to 1000 ppm was dropped into tea extraction water when drinking green tea. This tea had a so-called “smell scent” characterized by a flower-like scent and a blue scent, as compared with the one without addition of a carotene decomposition product, and was excellent in aroma.

Example 6 Tea leaves were extracted with ethanol / water (75/25) at 50 ° C., separated and concentrated, and a solution prepared by dissolving the carotene decomposition product of Production No. 3 in ethyl alcohol at a ratio of 500 to 1000 ppm was sprayed. ,
Instant tea was prepared by freeze-drying, crushing and filling at -35 ° C. This instant tea is
It had a so-called "smell scent" characterized by a flower-like scent and a blue scent, as compared with the one without the addition of carotene decomposition products, and had an excellent aroma.

[Brief description of drawings]

The drawing is a chromatogram showing the results of analysis of the carotene degradation product of the present invention using a gas chromatograph.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. The weight ratio of α-carotene to β-carotene is 25 to 45:75 to 55, and the weight ratio of trans isomer to cis isomer is 60 to 80:40 to 20. A tea beverage characterized by being obtained by adding a thermal decomposition product of certain carotene. 2. A thermal decomposition product of carotene converts carotene at a temperature of 90.
The tea beverage according to claim 1, which is obtained by heating and decomposing under a condition of ~ 150 ° C and a pressure of 20-40 mmHg. 3. The tea beverage according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the carotene is palm carotene concentrated from palm oil.