Tea Extract and Ready-to-Drink Tea Products
Besides flavour, what the eye sees is also important with tea. It must not only be free of any cloudiness, but also give off a sparkling clarity.
This is why the tea industry uses decanters and separators from GEA Westfalia Separator in the production of cold- and hot-mix instant teas and ready-to-drink tea products. Following extraction, various clarifying stages ensure that the extracted tea leaves are perfectly dewatered and that all residues are completely removed. The high degree of clarifying efficiency is associated with extremely gentle treatment of the tea extract and maximum product yield.
Production of ready-to-drink tea beverages
The complex process of obtaining tea extract starts by cleaning the broken tea leaves. Hot water is then added to the leaves which are fed to the first extraction stage. A decanter is used to pre-clarify the tea extract obtained; the solids discharged from this pass through another decanter before the second extraction step. The pre-clarified tea extract itself then passes through three clarifying stages in which clarifiers separate fine and extremely fine solids.
To achieve the brilliant clarity required by consumers, a special treatment follows in which a polishing clarifier removes any solid particles still remaining.
Following evaporation, the tea extract is spray-dried and granulated. The result is a first-class instant tea; its gentle treatment and the complete separation of all residues satisfy even the most discerning requirements.
Ready-to-drink tea products – refreshingly different
Ready-to-drink products are also becoming increasingly popular in the tea sector. Young, active people in particular enjoy refreshing iced tea and tea-mix drinks. Fine black tea develops its stimulating effect and added lemon juice or other fruit juices give the drink its desired flavor.
In addition, ready-to-drink green teas and oolong teas are gaining popularity, especially in Asia. Separators from GEA Westfalia Separator are also used in the clarification of these fashionable products.