Production of instant tea

Instant tea powder is extensively used in large quantity in various tea premixes. The main objective to produce instant tea powder is to save time & effort of mankind in preparation of tea and feel the people the actual taste of tea as & when they want to have a cup of tea.

Instant tea Instant tea is used almost entirely to prepare iced tea. The basic objective in the manufacture of instant tea is to extract the water soluble solids from a pure tea brew, and convert them into a powdery form. The instant tea ingredient must be an extract processed from the leaves, buds, and tender stems of the varieties of the species Camellia sinensis or Thea sinensis known to be suitable for making tea for consumption as a beverage.

It is manufactured by a fairly exhaustive extraction of black tea with hot water. After separation of leaf matter from the extract, the latter is usually stripped of volatile substances (aroma) and concentrated.

Drying of such a concentrate without further processing would result in a product incompletely soluble in cold water, so the extract is precooled to precipitate cold water-insoluble fractions, known as 'cream'. These may be processed to improve solubility and then added to the main extract. The preserved aroma fraction is added back ta the total extract concentrate before spray or freeze drying.
Production of instant tea

Manufacturing of instant tea

The process of the production of instant tea consists of the following operations: selection of raw materials; extraction; aroma stripping; cream processing; concentration and drying.

Extraction is in most cases performed using water and countercurrent procedures.  Concentration of the extract is effected by evaporation of the water under reduced pressure at a moderately elevated temperature and during this process various methods for trapping the escaping volatile compounds have been devised. These trapped volatiles are concentrated and retained for incorporation into the final dried product.

Tea extract requires concentration before drying; a solids concentration of 40-45% is most common, although concentrations as low as ca. 20% and as high as 51% have been used.

High solids concentrations in the dryer feed are desirable to improve reconstitution properties of the instant tea powder. Thermal evaporation under reduced pressure is most commonly used, evaporators usually being of the falling film or plate types. The concentrated extract is turbid due to the formation of cream and solubilization of this cream is a fundamental problem in the production of instant teas soluble in cold water.

Cream processing can be accomplished by maintaining the temperature above 65 °C or by removal of the cream, for example by cooling and centrifugation. Cream treatment is especially necessary for cold water-soluble instants, which are commonly used for beverages like ice tea.

The finals step of drying the concentrated tea extract is commonly achieved by spray drying, but other methods, such as freeze drying or drum drying are the subject of published patents.
Manufacturing of instant tea