|
By Suanne J. Klahorst Contributing Editor There is tea and there is "real tea." The common use of the word tea denotes a beverage prepared by infusing a plant or animal derivative with water, usually hot water, to promote the extraction process. This article will focus on plant-derived teas, since the demand for yak-butter tea, though popular in Nepal, has not caught on internationally as readily as plant-based chai teas and other ethnic exotics. Origins of tea Regardless of the true origins of the tradition some anthropologists say they go back to prehistoric man tea made from these prized leaves have spun the fortunes of many a British and Dutch trading company, and even the North American Hudson Bay Company. The English tea tax played a role in the revolts leading up to the American Revolution, and these events are still blamed for why many Americans traditionally prefer coffee to tea. Bygones being bygones, tea is currently experiencing a revival in the United States, and afternoon teas are now drawing refined customers to fancy hotels on both sides of the Atlantic. However, Americans still prefer their tea iced to hot, in the overwhelming ratio of 80 to 20. Ironically, it was an Englishman who is credited with inventing iced tea at the St. Louis Worlds Fair in 1904 with some help from the sweltering Midwestern summers a stimulus sorely missing in the typical English climate. Tea is grown primarily in tropical climates, from sea level up to 8,000 ft. "High-growth" tea is grown at elevations where the temperature results in slow growth for a superior flavor. The major tea-producing countries are India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Argentina, China and Malawi. All of the popular teas being consumed around the world are derived from black tea, green tea, or oolong tea, and all from the same plant. Much like wines and other gourmet foods, the names of the types of tea indicate the region in which they are grown. Examples are Assam from India, Ceylon from Sri Lanka, Darjeeling from the Himalayas, Keemum and Lapsang Souchong from China, Formosa Oolong from Taiwan, and Kenya, Russian, Malaysia from their respective countries. Black, green
or in-between Teas are also known by their characteristic blends. Examples of blended teas are Irish Breakfast (blend of African teas) and English Breakfast (blends of Assam, Ceylon or Kenya). Tea is often blended with blossoms to impart fragrance. The more famous ones are jasmine, pouchong (with gardenia, jasmine or yulan blossoms), rose (with rose petals) and Earl Grey (with oil of bergamot). There is also a distinctly American tea. Ruth Campbell Bigelow blended orange peel and spices over 50 years ago to develop the popular Bigelow tea known as Constant Comment®. Bigelow Teas are known for the foil packets that maintain the freshness of every tea bag. Some tea is named for the shape and size of the leaf, which influences the way the tea steeps in the water. Gunpowder tea gets its name from the way the leaves are rolled into pellets that explode with flavor once added to hot water. Not all teas are best when brewed with boiling water In fact, green teas are sometimes steeped after cooling the boiled water for two minutes. The familiar term "orange pekoe" refers to the size of the leaf, that is, whole leaves that are thin and include some tips. Broken orange pekoe is made up of smaller, broken leaves that give good color and strength when brewed. Tea-base basics While "fresh-brewed" tea may sound better to some consumers, where the brewing occurs is becoming less important in todays market. Some of the largest and most innovative ready-to-drink tea companies toll-manufacture their entire product line on bottling lines for hire that have no brewing capabilities. There are many reasons to do this. Unlike reconstituted orange juice or milk, tea is not subject to the creation of as many off-notes in the state-of-the-art concentration process. While some flavor might be lost in the process of reducing tea to a concentrated form, the flavor retained is very much like fresh-brewed tea. Len Tambone, business manager, coffee and tea flavors, FIS, Frehold, NJ, shares his insights on the tea-side of the flavor business. "Tea powder and tea extract are two terms that are used synonymously for concentrated tea flavor made from brewed tea. Tea essence is a clear, liquid derivative of tea extract that carries all the flavor notes and none of the solids. It is used with tea powder to enhance the tea flavor. Most people dont appreciate the technology that goes into brewing tea for making a tea extract. It is much more complex in the number of steps required than for a spray-dried coffee extraction process. Our tea extracts go through the same basic process as our other complex flavors. There is a wide range of products on the market in terms of quality, but you usually get what you pay for. The top-noted flavors are not present in the less-expensive tea powders. Most of the best quality tea powders are also cold-water soluble, a requirement for instant tea mixes, however some hot-water soluble mixes are still seen in the marketplace from off-shore manufacturers." Tea flavor manufacturers with the corresponding technology can be surprisingly versatile in the types of tea they are able to process. It is not unheard of for customers to purchase their own leaf and contract for the powder or extract to be made to their specifications, keeping in mind that minimum quantities are in the range of 50,000 lbs. of final concentrate. Customers can specify the color they want by blending teas of different hues together, and they can specify the pH range of the extract to tolerate the addition of components that may affect the final product pH. Tannins are
key Human saliva contains proteins that are rich in proline, an amino acid known for its ability to bind tannins. Nutritional experts in the popular media have addressed consumer concerns regarding the tendency of tannins to bind iron, an essential nutrient. Human saliva reduces the binding properties of tannin, perhaps contributing to the fact that the quantities of tannin ingested by humans are not considered sufficient to cause iron anemia. Tannin extracts are approved for food use, and are added to foods as flavors and to clarify beer during brewing. When making tea beverages that are blended with other ingredients, tannin must be considered in terms of how it will interact with other beverage components and whether tannin precipitates will adversely affect the clarity. Juice that has not been properly depectinized has been known to precipitate in some shelf-life tests of ready-to-drink tea-based beverages. "Ive never had any problems with tannins interacting with flavors," says Donna Mascaro, project leader, beverage applications, David Michael and Company, Philadelphia. "Most people are used to the taste of tannic acids in tea, so it seems almost expected that any notes they impart will be present. The most popular flavors still seem to be the traditional lemon, peach, raspberry and mint in the tea beverages. Natural flavors are preferred, probably because of the connotation that they are healthier if all natural." Flavored tea
or tea-flavored? "Flavors are often added to tea leaves, tea mixes and ready-to-drink tea beverages at levels of anywhere from 0.1% to 0.5%," explains Janet Schurig, director of applications, Virginia Dare, Brooklyn, NY. For tea leaves, flavor can be added to the tea bag as a solid, or purchased as a liquid extract and sprayed on providing the solvent system allows the flavor to dry rapidly. When solid flavors are added, the particle size must be large enough to be retained within the mesh of the tea bag. For tea mixes, a smaller particle size is compatible with most sugars and artificial sweeteners. "When a flavor company collaborates on a compounded flavor for tea," Schurig continues, "a fundamental question must be addressed early on in development. Will the final product be a flavored tea beverage, or a tea-flavored beverage? In other words, how much tea flavor do you want to preserve? Particularly in the case of green teas, the tea flavor is much subtler than for a black tea and can easily be overpowered by the types of flavors commonly used, such as lemon, lemon grass, ginger and mandarin orange. The addition of green-tea solids is one way to boost the green-tea flavor. If the final beverage contains artificial sweeteners or herbs that may impart an off-flavor, this should be addressed by a masking flavor blend early in the process. Once the final flavor blend is selected, the masking blend may interfere with the desirable flavors if it is not optimized first." Tea is a good vehicle for delivery of botanicals because off-notes are less apparent, whereas in fruit juice, off-notes are much more prominent, Schurig notes. "Tropical flavors especially complement herbs because they do not accentuate green or botanical notes. The color of tea blends is also an important consideration for ready-to-drink products; some have the characteristic iced-tea color, while others are naturally colored to add eye appeal, even to the extent of being compatible with the graphics used to decorate the transparent container." New tea trends Other herbal ingredients also show potential for adding the same natural kick to hot beverages that compete with coffee as pick-me-up drinks for the afternoon doldrums. Although real teas contain similar levels of caffeine as coffee, caffeine differs in each variety, and up to 50% less caffeine than coffee is often extracted in the brewing process. Two South American stimulants that provide alternatives to real tea are yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis) and guarana (Paullinia cupana). Yerba mate, translated as gourd tea, is made from the leaves of a South American tree related to the holly family. It forms the basis of a soft drink that is enjoyed in Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina. Traditionally it is drunk from a hollowed-out gourd in a social ritual that stimulates conversation, their version of our coffee-shop culture. Yerba mate has been examined in clinical studies for antioxidant activities and for saponins, chemicals that stimulate the immune system. It contains from 0.3% to 2.0% caffeine. Guarana, another beverage ingredient from South America, is prepared from the seeds of a creeping shrub in the Amazon. Guarana seeds contain up to 5% caffeine, which attests to its popularity in Brazils Guarana Antartica soda. Guarana drinks are flavored with fruit, vanilla, tea and cola. Guarana is currently marketed as a dietary supplement for weight loss. Both yerba mate and guarana are credited with many biological effects that have not been thoroughly proven in human clinical studies, although preliminary results show effects similar to tea and coffee. Regardless, they have inspired a consumer following that targets them as new ingredients for trendy tea beverages. East meets West in the form of Guarana Chai®, a proprietary tea-bag blend from Traditional Medicinals, Sebastapol, CA. This fusion-flavor fest contains black-tea leaf, cardamom seed, ginger rhizome, roasted chicory root, nutmeg seed, organic black peppercorn, guarana-seed extract, stevia leaf, vanilla pod extract, clove stem, rose petal and cinnamon-bark oil. Botanical teas
and their flavors "The trends are in making teas that are marketed as good for you stress-reducing or energizing, for example. These contain blends of black teas and green teas and have added herbals such as ginseng, kava-kava, chamomile, gingko biloba and many others," explains Mascaro. "Most of these herbs are used at rates too low to cause any undesirable flavor notes in the beverage. Rather than bitter, the taste that is imparted by these is usually a green, botanical, earthy note. A sweetness enhancer can be used to mask and distract the consumer from recognizing these notes." A sweetness enhancer is a compounded flavor used to increase the sweetness perception in a product and thereby delivers a more flavorful impact of top notes to the product tasted by the consumer. This has a tendency to suppress the undesirable notes, causing them to fade into the background. Some companies offer masking flavors to get a similar effect. These non-characterizing flavors are often listed on the label as "with other natural flavors" (WONF). Flavor companies report requests for passion fruit and mango, but not on a grand scale. Many of the flavor additions add just a hint of flavor because marketers still want the tea to be the primary flavor. Celestial Seasonings Emerald Gardens® Green Tea lists a number of flavors on the label including orange blossoms, ginger root, passion fruit and plum flavors. However, these flavors do not overpower the subtle green-tea flavor. If a consumer chooses to use botanical herbs that are added at efficacious amounts, they are sometimes willing to forego taste to some extent. However, most tea manufacturers agree that teas that can successfully mask the off-flavors will gain the competitive edge. The ultimate goal is to develop medicinal or nutraceutical teas that taste good. While it might make sense to add B vitamins to an energy tea, they often require a masking flavor. Two of the best-selling herbs that are known for their offensive off-notes are echinacea and kava kava. Kava kava has a strong aftertaste and a mouth-numbing effect, as does echinacea at some levels. Strong flavors such as peppermint, menthol, eucalyptus or cinnamon are often used to overpower off-notes in medicinal echinacea teas. One herb that is added for its contribution to flavor rather than health is stevia. Stevia extracts are approved in some countries for use in foods as artificial sweeteners. Like many botanicals that are not approved as food additives, the FDA says it is illegal to add stevia to food, but not to a dietary supplement, provided it is safe. Much as it defies common sense, stevia and many other botanicals are approved only for dietary-supplement tea. Health benefits
of tea In September 1999, 90 delegates from 56 countries in the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization met in Ottawa, Canada to discuss the health benefits of tea, among other international tea issues. A symposium on Tea and Human Health was held in September 1998 in Washington D.C., and results were published in the April 1999 Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. Following are some of the studies of interest: Antioxidant Properties Compared to Healthy Foods. Tufts University, Boston, compared tea leaves to 22 antioxidants found in vegetables known for their high antioxidant content by measuring their oxygen radical absorption capacity. (Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, 1996). The Antioxidant Research Center, London, showed that two cups of tea contain the same quantity of antioxidants as seven glasses of orange juice or 20 glasses of apple juice (Free Radical Research, 1999). Cardiovascular Disease. Black-tea consumption of three cups or more resulted in a 45% reduction in death from coronary heart disease (Lancet, 1993). Men who drank black tea were protected from risk of stroke (Archives of Internal Medicine, 1996). Harvard studies showed that heart attack was reduced by more than 40% with one or more cups of black tea consumption (American Journal of Epidemiology, 1999). A study of 3,454 Netherland men and women who drank one to two cups of black tea daily had a 50% risk reduction for atherosclerosis (Archives of Internal Medicine, 1999). Cancer Prevention. The University of Toronto reported that 1,200 men had reduced risk of prostate cancer if they drank more than two cups of tea per day (International Journal of Cancer, 1998). Johns Hopkins University studied 35,000 post-menopausal women and found that urinary tract cancer was reduced by 60% and digestive tract cancer was reduced by 32% (American Journal of Epidemiology, 1996). Studies based on animal models showed that a 2% solution of tea, which is comparable to how the average consumer brews it at home, slowed the progression of cancer in the lung, skin, esophagus and duodenum. Anticariogenic Effects. Polyphenols in tea are known to have antibacterial activities, but speculation is that they inhibit collagenase activity of bacteria (Journal Peridontology, 1993) and increase the acid resistance of tooth enamel (Journal Dentistry, 1995). Seal of approval The regulatory environment has created opportunity for organizations willing to certify quality. ConsumerLab.com, LLC, White Plains, NY, an independent testing lab, publishes test results for dietary supplements on its website. They recently released results of the Ginseng Product Review, announcing that eight out of 22 brands tested contained high levels of pesticides and some had unacceptable levels of lead. The ginsenoside content was also evaluated with methods set by the American Botanical Council Ginseng Evaluation Program. While the results did not name the brands that were contaminated, it did publish the names of companies that had products containing adequate quantities of marker compounds without contamination, effectively giving those products their approval. Certifiable products are offered the option of licensing the ConsumerLab seal for their product label. Marker compounds are chemicals that are associated with the plants nutraceutical effects and are currently used to standardize various herbs or their extracts. Until more clinical studies have been completed, this is far from an exacting science, since the relationships between active biologicals and human health are just beginning to be adequately researched. In many cases it is more likely that it is the combinations of natural components that are effective, rather than only a single chemical in a particular plant. Suppliers of botanicals that represent quality and efficacy can easily go unappreciated, since the final product quality is not readily discerned by the consumer. David Wilson, CEO of A.M. Todd Botanicals, Montgomeryville, PA, (formed when Folexco acquired East Earth Herb, Eugene, OR) explains his companys philosophy for establishing marker compounds or other indicators of quality or efficacy. "To the greatest possible extent, we produce a whole- herb powder or extract but it also depends on the customer specification for the product. We believe in having the benefits of the total plant presented in a full-spectrum extract or powder blend that is similar to the herb in its original form. Sometimes you have a marker representative of efficacy and sometimes not. It all depends on what the customer is trying to accomplish with the finished product. "Customers prefer either the whole herb or an extract, and preferences are usually dictated by product development activities and the corporate culture of the specific beverage manufacturer," Wilson continues. "Technological and formulation considerations are also considered, such as ingredient distribution profiles, solubility, pH, color, flavor and stability. Sometimes customers prefer to coat the herb or extract with flavors before addition to the final formula. Our company has a foundation in the food and beverage industry, and so we are very specific on standards for microbiology, heavy metals, pesticides, foreign matter, kosher certification, and other regulatory considerations. All of these topics can be very interesting to navigate when using powdered herbs or concentrated extracts of those herbs. We spend a lot of time ensuring that the customer is aware of the quality and testing requirements." Suanne Klahorst is associate director of the California Institute of Food and Agricultural Research (CIFAR) at the University of California-Davis. CIFAR serves as an informational clearing house for research programs and results related to food, nutrition, and human health at that campus. She can be contacted at [email protected] 3400 Dundee Rd. Suite #100 |
