GB2315992A - Beverage source with water softening material - Google Patents

Abstract

A mixture of a water softening material and a beverage source, eg tea, coffee, cocoa etc, is employed so that the water contacting the beverage source during infusion is softened. The mixture may be trapped in the bottom of a cup by a perforated disc or held in a bag or two separate bags may be employed - one containing the water softening material and the other containing the beverage source. The bags (s) may be held in a cartridge. The water softening material may be an ion exchange resin, a polyphosphate, or other such sequestering agent. A disposable cup and urns for holding the mixture, bag or cartridge are also disclosed.

Description

This invention relates in one aspect to a novel method of making beverage liquor VIZ Liquid Tea of uniform taste and quality, or liquor of Coffee, Cocoa etc.

In another aspect, this Invention relates to a container for making such a liquor.

In yet another aspect, this invention relates to a cartridge for use in the above container. Conventionally, liquid Tea is prepared by taking a quantity of packed tea in a Container, pouring hot water thereto and allowing the soluble portion to be extracted to get the liquor. The Liquor is then filtered and used with or without milk and/or sugar or otherwise as per the requirement of the user. The left over insoluble is to be discarded.

In another method, ready made tea bags are used in a Container like cup or tea kettle, to which hot water is poured and after the soluble portion has been extracted as liquor, the exhausted tea bags are discarded.

In either method, there are several draw backs, of which the following require to be mentioned.

a) The exhausted material in either case is to be removed separately for disposal and it creates a certain amount of messiness.

b) In the first method atleast, a tea filter is separately required to retain the infused exhausted tea leaves.

c) In the fist method atleast, the infused and exhausted tea leaves are discarded openly into a dustbin or other places and is an invitation for files and mosquitos.

d) In both methods, very commonly, at Homes, Restaurants, Railway Stations, Canteens, Air Ports and Eating Houses, the water used for boiling is collected from taps or from candle filtered sources. These sources at difference places deliver water of different degree of hardness. Thus, the real taste and flavour of tea is not obtainable whenever the water used has hardness.

Same is with other cases such as Coffee, Cocoa etc.

It is therefore an object of this Invention to propose a method for the preparation of beverage Liquor having the real original taste and flavour irrespective of the hardness and source of water.

It is another object of this Invention to propose method for the preparation of beverage liquor without the necessity of a separate filtration of infused and exhausted material or without the necessity of separating the exhausted material from the liquor as in the case of tea bags.

It is yet another object of this invention to propose such a method which makes drinking beverage viz. tea, coffee, cocoa pleasurable, enjoyable and satisfactory for the discrete drinker and to give a comfortable olfactory sensation.

It is further object of this invention to propose a disposable container, a disposable contrivance or a reusable container for the preparation of the above mentioned liquor.

These and other objects of this invention will be apparent from the following paragraphs.

According to this invention there is provided a method for the preparation of beverage liquor such as Tea, Coffee or Cocoa from respective sources which comprises subjecting said source to a step of extraction using hot water characterized by the improvement where the said source used for extraction is associated with water hardness removing properties viz. (a) ION Exchange resin or (b) Polyphosphates.

The ION Exchange resins/polyphosphates are of cationic type and are selected from food grade type like such as INDION 225, INDION-220, DUOLITE-C20, DUOLITE-C20A, AMBERLITE.

The ION Exchange resins/polyphosphates are used in amounts depending upon the extend of hardness of the water.

In another embodiment a layer of ION Exchange resin/ polyphosphate and a layer of said source are provided in the immediate proximity of each other or mixed with each other.

The extraction is carried out by allowing the hot water to contact the layer of said source cum-ionexchange resin/polyphosphate of layers of ION Exchange resin/polyphosphate and said source through a perforated membrane.

According to another aspect of this invention there is provided a container for making beverage liquor by the method of this invention which comprises a top part to hold beverage liquor and a bottom part to hold beverage source cum-ion-exchange resin/polyphosphate or layers of ION Exchange resin/polyphosphate and beverage source to be extracted and an inlet for hot water.

According to one aspect the container is a disposable cup or a reusable larger vessel and the layer of beverage source-cum-ion exchange resin/polyphosphate or the layer of beverage source and ION Exchange resin/ polyphosphate are used in the form of a cartridge.

The cartridge includes a perforated disk membrane.

The Cartridge is held in an annular portion at the bottom of the container or simply press-fitted or snugly held therein.

The container is a large vessel, the top portion being a hollow vessel, the bottom portion being a removable bottom cover and the cartridge being held between the lower end of the top portion and the removable bottom cover which is screwably secured thereto.

The inlet for the hot water is the mouth of the top portion.

In another embodiment, the hot water is admitted through a side inlet near the bottom of the container and wherein the cartridge in such a case has a bottom perforated disc and a top perforated disc with the layer of tea-leaves-cum-ion exchange resin/polyphosphate or layers of tea leaves and ion exchange resin/polyphosphate held therebetween in a sandwiched manner.

The larger container can have the usual tap for withdrawing liquor therefrom.

The disposable cup straightway provides beverage liquor of original taste and flavour because the hardness of water is substantially reduced by the ion exchange resin/polyphosphate.

In the case of larger reusable container, it is enough if the cartridge is replaced after use with a fresh cartridge.

It is known that the quality of tea liquor is affected adversely by the hardness of water (i.e. the amount of soluble Ca2+ or Mg2+ salts present) with which it is prepared. To get the best liquor quality the optimum hardness of water should be less than or around 200 ppm. The ordinary tap water has a total hardness of about 400 ppm.

When the water is boiled for use (for the extraction of tea leaves) some of the hardness of water (called temporary hardness) is removed and the boiling water shows a hardness of around 300 ppm. Tea liquor prepared with water of this hardness does not give the real taste.

After considerable research and experiments, we have found that if the extraction of Tea if carried out in the presence of water softening agents and relatively soft water is allowed to be in contact with the Tea leaves, the liquor obtained shows improved taste and flavour.

We have found that if Cation exchange resins are used then these resins bind the calcium and magnatium ions present in the hard water and reduce the hardness.

In the experiments carried out by us a mixture of required quantity of tea leaves and cation exchange resins are used along with the strainer plate positioned at the bottom of a tea cup so that hot water comes in contact with the resins and the tea leaves simultaneously and reduction of hardness is achieved to some extent and tea liquor made with this arrangement results in a better and improved taste.

We have also tried various alternatives like keeping the Tea leaves and resins particle together in the same pouch or separately in different pouches. The hot water has been allowed to flow from the top of an experimental Tea Cup.

In a modification the hot water has been allowed to enter from the bottom of the Tea Cup and underneath the above said pouches. We have also successfully tried the Pouches underneath a strainer holding plate in the form of a disposable cartridge. On this experiment and the different devices have been found to be satisfactory.

In orde to achieve still better results and further removal of hardness of water we continued our efforts in finding a proper agent which can provide such improved results. In our continued research and experiments we have used sequestering and buffering agents suitable for preparation of tea liquor. After considering the requirements of Prevention of Food Adulteration Act (1954), we have selected a polyphosphate containing three phosphate moieties named as sodium tripolyphosphate or STPP) of food grade quality. Unlike ion exchange resins, which are insoluble in water, STPP is water soluble and appears to give more efficient results in terms of Kinetically faster rate of binding with Ca2+ or Mg2+ ions. Some of the results obtained by us in our experiments are shown in Tables 1 and 2 attached herewith.

TABLE 1 EFFECT OF POLYPB0SPHPTE (STPP) TO REDUCE THE HARDNESS OF BOILED WAIVER Wt. of Amount of Amount of Concen- Total Reduction % STPP in STPP in boiled tration hardness of total Reduction gm. micro water of STPP in ppn Hardness Equivalent in tea as in ppm liquor/ CaCo3 ppm Control - 1 Cup - 300 (110 ml) 0.05 gm 679 - 455 196 104 34% 0.065 gm 883 - 592 162 138 46% 0.07 gm 1019 - 682 139 161 54% Control - 1 Cup - 370 (110 ml) 0.05 gm 679 - 455 240 130 35% 0.065 gm 883 - 592 204 166 45% 0.075 gm 1019 - 682 170 200 54% Control - 1Cup - 430 (110 ml) 0.05 gm 679 - 455 280 150 35% 0.065 gm 883 - 592 230 200 46% 0.075 gm 1019 - 682 192 238 55% TABLE 2 EFFECT OF TSPP (TETRA SODrUM PYRO PHOSPHATE) TO REDUCE THE HARDNESS OF BOILED Wt. of Amount of Amount of Concen- Total Red TSPP in TSPP in boiled tration hardness action Reduction gm. micro water of TSPP in ppm of total Equivalent in tea as hardness liquor/ CaCO3 ppn Control - 1 Cup - 300 (110 ml) 0.02 gm 300 - 182 210 90 30% 0.03 gm 451 - 273 165 135 45% 0.04 gm 600 - 364 119 181 60% Control - 1 Cup - 370 (110 ml) 0.02 gm 300 - 182 259 111 30% 0.03 gm 451 - 273 204 166 45% 0.04 gm 600 - 364 148 222 60% Control - 1 Cup - 440 (110 ml) 0.02 gm 300 - 182 308 132 30% 0.03 gm 451 - 273 240 200 45% 0.04 gm 600 - 364 195 245 56% Though the sequestrant TSPP is not as widely accepted as STPP in food, it is mainly provided for reinforcement of the results.

It appears from the Tables that depending on the hardness of water, varying amounts of seq-uestrants are required to get the hardness around 200 ppm. The indicated amount of polyphosphate (STPP) is either mixed with the tea leaves for preparation of 1 cup of tea or the mixture is held in a schet with the strainer plate for larger volume of tea. It is also possible to use two different sachets, one of tea leaves and another of STPP as a part of sachet. However, because of very small quantity of STPP required, it is recommended that a single sachet containing required quantities of tea leaves and STPP may be used for kettles for larger volume of tea.

The above experiments have been carried out to determine the amount of the sequestering agent required to achieve a reduced hardness of around 200 ppm with the object of attaining an optimum level of hardness vis-a-vis tea taste. However, amounts of sequestrant (STPP) below/ 0.05 gm can also be used while the initial hardness of water is low. Similarly use of the sequestering agent in amounts higher than 0.075 gm will provide soft water even with more than 300 ppm of hardness. But experiments have shown that such a soft water when used for extraction of tea gives tea liquor of lower quality.

It may be noted that the amounts of seq-uestering agent selected will depend on the degree of hardness of water.

If boiled water has less than 300 ppm hardness compared to boiled water having say, 430 ppm hardness, the amount of sequestering agent required to achieve hardness of about 200 ppm will be obviously low with the first case and goes on increasing with increased hardness of water.

The tea liquors prepared by our experiments shown above exhibited satisfactory taste and flavour.

The invention will now be more fully described with reference to the accompanying drawings for extracting tea liquor for example: Figure 1 shows a disposable tea cup of this invention.

Figures 2 & 3 show larger container of this invention.

Figures 4 & 5 show different types of cartridge used in the container of figure 2 while figure 6 shows a cartridge suited to the container of figure 3.

Referring to the figures of the drawings it will be noticed that the disposable cup 1 is of the usual type of paper cup or plastic cup but for the difference that it is provided at its inner bottom 2a with the material 3 containing tea leaves mixed with food grade polyphosphate, held below a perforated disc 6 on suitable support arms or lugs 7 in the disc.

In place of mixed polyphosphate and tea leaves it is also possible to use a cartridge 2 having the mixture or separate tea bag 4a and a separate bag of polyphosphate 5a, one below the other in any order in the annular gap between the bottom of the perforated disc 6 and the lugs 7 for larger quantity of tea in kettle etc.

The cartridge 2 can be snugly held at the inner bottom of the kettle or press fitted or.held in an inner circumferential groove or in any other convenient manner.

Referring now to the larger container, it can be an ordinary steel drum 8 with a tap 9. A cartridge 10 similar in construction to cartridge 2 can be similarly accommodated as shown in the figure 2 below the level of the tap. In this case the hot water is poured from the top of the drum and the lid closed while the liquor can be withdrawn through the tap 9.

Alternatively, the hot water can be conveniently admitted from the side at a level below the cartridge 10.

In such a case, the cartridge will contain a pair of perforated discs, lower one (10a) and an upper one (10b) with the bag of tea leaves-cum-polyphosphate or bags of polyphosphate and tea leaves sandwiched there between (see figure 3).

In yet another embodiment, the bottom of the container can be removably secured, for example by screwing, to the lower end of the hollow container with the cartridge in between.

While the scope of the invention is to be determined by the claims attached, nevertheless, it also includes other alternations and modifications as would occur ordinarily to any person of average skill and knowledge.

Though extraction of tea liquor has been described for the purposes of understanding the invention, the invention is applicable equally for making Coffee liquor, Cocoa liquor and similar liquors which are also within the scope of the claims.

In place of the polyphosphates, it is also possible to use polyiodide ION Exchange resins which also gave satisfactory results.

All details described with reference to the drawings for polyphosphate apply equally to polyiodide resins also.

Claims (12)

I CLAIM:

1. A method for the preparation of beverage liquor such as Tea, Coffee, Cocoa from respective sources which comprises subjecting said source to a step of extraction using hot water characterized by the improvement where the said source used for extraction is associated with water hardness removing material selected from ION Exchange resin or polyphosphate.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the ION Exchange resins are of cationic type and are selected from food quality type and are used in amounts depending upon the hardness of the water used for extraction.

3. A method as claimed in claims 1 or 2 wherein a layer of said hardness removing material and a layer of said source are provided in the immediate proximity of each other or mixed with each other.

4. A method as claimed in claims 1 to 3 wherein the extraction is carried out by allowing the hot water to contact the layer of said source cum said hardness removing materials or layers of said hardness removing materials and said source through a perforated membrane.

5. A container for making beverage liquor by the method of this invention which comprises a top part to hold beverage liquor and a bottom part to hold beverage source cum hardness removing material selected from ION Exchange resins/polyphosphates or layers of hardness removing material selected ION Exchange Resins or Polyphosphates and beverage source to be extracted and an inlet for hot water.

6. A container as claimed in claim 5 wherein the container is a disposable cup or a reusable larger vessel and the layer of beverage source cum said hardness removing material or the layers of beverage source and said hardness removing materials are used in the form of a cartridge.

7. A container as claimed in claim 6 wherein the cartridge includes a perforated disk or membrane and is held in an annular portion at the bottom of the container or simply pressfitted or snugly held therein.

8. A container as claimed in claims 5 to 7 wherein the container is a larger vessel, the top portion being a hollow vessel, the bottom portion being a removable bottom cover and the cartridge being held between the lower end of the top portion and the removable bottom cover which is screwably secured thereto and wherein the inlet for the hot water is the mouth of the top portion or a side inlet near the bottom of the container and wherein the cartridge in such a later case has a bottom perforated disc and a top perforated disc with the layer of beverage source cum said hardness removing material or layers of beverage source and said hardness removing material held therebetween in a sandwiched manner.

9. A cartridge for use in the method of Claims 1 to 4 comprising at least a water permeable pouch holding a beverage source to be extracted and a hardness removing material selected from ion exchange resin/polyphosphate for reducing substantially hardness of water used for extraction and at least a perforated disk or membrane above the said pouch and wherein, if desired a second, perforated disk or membrane is included below the said pouch and wherein if desired two separate pouches are provided one for the beverage source and the second for the said hardness removing material.

10. A method for making beverage liquor substantially as herein described.

11. A container for making beverage liquor substantially as herein described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

12. A cartridge substantially as herein described and illustrated.