Taste-improving agents and tea drinks containing thereof

摘要

The present invention provides an agent for improving taste of tea drinks, comprising at least one glyceroglycolipid, preferably monogalactosyl diacylglycerol or digalactosyl diacylglycerol, as an active ingredient. The agent of the present invention is for use to enhance kokumi, to mask astringent taste, and to prevent precipitates. The agent of the present invention is effective especially in improving tea drinks containing ground tea leaves. The present invention also provides a method for producing tea drinks containing ground tea leaves and at least 1.0 μg/ml of glyceroglycolipids and having an absorbency of 0.25 or below at 680 nm, and tea drinks containing glyceroglycolipid, which method comprises grinding tea leaves into an average particle size of 1-100 μm (preferably 1-50 μm, more preferably 1-20 μm), and mixing the resulting ground tea leaves with neutral (pH 5-7, preferably 5.5-7, especially preferably 6-7) water to elute the glyceroglycolipids into the water.

主权项

1. A method for producing a tea drink containing glyceroglycolipids, comprising:
grinding tea leaves to break cell walls of the tea leaves, wherein the ground tea leaves have an average particle size 1-100 μm; mixing the resulting ground tea leaves with water having a temperature effective for extraction of glyceroglycolipids to elute glyceroglycolipids into the water and wet grinding by use of a high pressure homogenizer at a pH condition of 5-7 to obtain a tea extract comprising glyceroglycolipids; and blending the tea extract with green tea extract solution to obtain a tea drink containing at least 1.0 μg/ml of glyceroglycolipids and 0.10-5.0 mg/ml catechins, wherein the tea drink comprises 0.002-0.025 parts by weight of the glyceroglycolipids per 1 part by weight of catechins.