Instant tea today and future

Instant tea is a kind of fine powder or granular solid tea product that can be quickly dissolved in water, which is processed through extraction (juice extraction), filtration, clarification, concentration and drying. . After more than 60 years of development, traditional instant tea processing technologies and product types have basically matured. With the changes in the needs of China’s consumer market in the new era, the instant tea industry is also facing major opportunities and challenges. It analyzes and clarifies the main problems, proposes future development paths and technical requirements, and conducts relevant technical research in a timely manner to better It is of great significance to solve the upstream low-end tea outlets and promote the sustainable development of the instant tea industry.

The production of instant tea began in the United Kingdom in the 1940s. After years of trial production and development, it has become an important tea beverage product in the market. The United States, Kenya, Japan, India, Sri Lanka, China, etc. have become the main production of instant tea. country. China’s instant tea research and development began in the 1960s. After R & D, development, rapid growth, and steady growth, China has gradually developed into the world’s leading instant tea producer.

In the past 20 years, a large number of new technologies and equipment such as extraction, separation, concentration and drying have gradually begun to be widely used in instant tea products, and the quality of instant tea has been significantly improved. (1) Advanced extraction technology. Such as low temperature extraction equipment, continuous dynamic countercurrent extraction equipment, etc .; (2) membrane separation technology. Such as microporous filtration, ultrafiltration and other separation membrane devices and the application of instant tea special separation membrane; (3) new concentration technology. Such as the application of equipment such as centrifugal thin film evaporator, reverse osmosis membrane (RO) or nanofiltration membrane (NF) concentration; (4) aroma recovery technology. Such as the application of SCC aroma recovery device; (5) biological enzyme technology. Such as tannase, cellulase, pectinase, etc .; (6) other technologies. Such as UHT (Ultra-high temperature instant sterilization) applications. At present, China’s traditional instant tea processing technology is relatively mature, and a traditional instant tea processing technology system based on single-pot static extraction, high-speed centrifugation, vacuum concentration, and spray drying technology and dynamic countercurrent extraction, membrane separation, membrane concentration, and freezing have been established. Modern instant tea processing technology system based on new technologies such as drying.

As a convenient and fashionable tea product, instant milk tea has been loved by consumers, especially young consumers. With the continuous deepening of tea and human health promotion, people’s understanding of the effects of tea on antioxidant, weight loss, lowering blood pressure, lowering blood sugar, and anti-allergy has been increasing. How to improve the health function of tea on the basis of solving the needs of convenience, fashion and flavor, is also an important consideration for convenient and healthy tea drinking for a group of middle-aged and elderly people. An important direction to promote added value.