JPH0143540B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

The present invention relates to a method for producing a shaped instant beverage. More specifically, instant coffee powder (preferably ground instant coffee), instant tea powder, or a mixture of these and creaming powder is mixed with moistened sugar, molded under low pressure, and the molded product is heated with steam. The present invention relates to a method for producing a molded instant favorite beverage having high solubility in water and high hardness, which comprises a step of passing through a tunnel and then performing a glazing treatment of drying. Instant coffee refers to coffee that is ready to drink by dissolving it in hot or cold water. Instant coffee is very popular today because it is easier to handle than traditional coffee, which is made by crushing coffee beans at home and then boiling them. However, in the case of powdered instant coffee, milk, sugar, etc. must be added as necessary. Not only does this require a slightly troublesome operation of adding coffee powder, milk, and sugar into one pot, but it is also somewhat difficult to adjust the three ingredients to appropriate amounts at home. Therefore, a powder product that mixes coffee powder, sugar, and milk can be considered, but this also includes coffee powder, sugar, and milk.
Since the milk powder and sugar powder are different in size, there is a risk that certain components will be unevenly distributed during storage and use, which is also not desirable. Therefore, the idea was to solidify the amount of coffee powder, sugar, and, if necessary, milk to be drunk at a time. The most important things for such solidified beverages are (i) that the solidified beverage does not break down (since this is a product, if the solidified beverage breaks until it enters the consumer's mouth, the consumer will feel uncomfortable); (ii) The solidified beverage should dissolve in hot or cold water as quickly as possible (if it takes 2 to 3 minutes to dissolve, the meaning of instant is lost) (iii) It should have a good appearance, that is, the product surface. and (iv) do not use binders to bind the powder (the use of such binders may change the taste of the coffee). (i) and (ii) These are contradictory qualities. Molding the powder under high pressure makes the solid material more difficult to break, but it also has a hard time dissolving in hot water. Also, when powder is molded under low pressure, it melts quickly, but the solid material is easily broken. Although solidified beverages have been known in the past, there have been no products that have been improved in the four points mentioned above. For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 44-14773 uses sorbitol as a binder for the powder, but this may change the taste of the coffee. Additionally, Japanese Patent Publication No. 49-45583 discloses a method for producing a solidified beverage, which involves molding powdered flavoring agents such as sugar and coffee, starch syrup, etc., and then drying the molded product by spraying steam on the molded product. . But 49−45583
Since there is no mention that the molding is carried out at low pressure, it is assumed that the molding is carried out at high pressure. However, with high-pressure molding, the resulting product becomes difficult to melt. or
No. 49-45583 injects steam onto the molded product for 1 second, but in this case, color unevenness occurs in the product. In addition, it has been conventionally possible to humidify sugar or add an aqueous sugar solution to sugar and then mold the resulting product under low pressure to make sugar cubes. However, such low-pressure molded square cane is brittle and easily crumbles, so it was not always possible to mold it perfectly. By adopting the following method, the present invention
These shortcomings have been resolved. (i) instant coffee powder or instant tea powder, or creaming powder;
Humidified sugar is added to the powder mixture, which is then molded under low pressure. (b) Glazing involves passing the molding through a heated steam tunnel and then drying it. As mentioned above, it is difficult to produce a solidified product that does not break by molding a powder mixture under low pressure. However, in the present invention, after low-pressure molding, the molded product is passed through a heated steam tunnel and then subjected to a glazing treatment, in which it is dried, thereby improving the brittle nature of the solidified product. In the present invention, since steam is not directly injected onto the molded product, a product with a uniform color tone can be obtained without causing color unevenness on the surface of the product. Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be explained below. In the present invention, 1 to 5 parts by weight per 10 parts by weight of instant coffee powder or instant tea powder.
10 to 80 parts by weight, preferably 20 to 50 parts by weight of sugar, which has been moistened to a moisture content of 2 to 4%, is added. If creaming powder is added, the total amount of instant coffee powder or instant tea and creaming powder is 10
5 to 40 parts by weight, preferably 10 to 20 parts by weight
Add part by weight of sugar. In this case, the sugar humidification is 1-5%, preferably 2-4%. If the moisture content of the added sugar is too low, the hardness of the molded solid product will be insufficient, and if the moisture content is too high, moisture will be adsorbed to the instant coffee powder or instant tea powder during mixing, resulting in flavor deterioration and dissolution of the molded product. A decline in sexuality occurs. Also, if the humidified sugar is left to stand for a long time after mixing, due to the high hygroscopic nature of the instant coffee powder or instant tea powder, water will migrate to it and be excessively adsorbed, degrading the solubility and flavor of the product. Become. Therefore, the time from blending with humidified sugar to molding (curing time) should not be too long, and is usually preferably 10 minutes or less. In addition, the low pressure molding of the present invention is
It is carried out at a pressure of 15Kg/cm ² and can give the product the desired solubility and hardness. The solid product can be formed into a solid product equivalent to one cup of coffee or tea, and can be in any shape such as a cube, round, or tablet. Note that the sugar used in the present invention may be of any type, such as granulated sugar, caster sugar, or coffee sugar. As mentioned above, in the present invention, by appropriately combining the amount of sugar, the degree of humidification, the curing time, and the pressure during molding, the product has excellent physical properties such as solubility and hardness, and is rich in flavor. You can get the product. The glazing treatment after molding performed in the present invention is as follows:
The moldings are passed through a tunnel of heated steam and then dried. For example, hot air drying (70~
(90°C, 0.5 to 2 hours) or by high frequency drying. As a result of the glazing treatment, the hardness of the solid material increased from approximately 1 to 3 kg before treatment to approximately 3 to 16 kg, and hardly any deterioration of flavor or decrease in solubility was observed. Products treated with glazing are easier to handle due to increased hardness and do not break, and their appearance is improved due to their gloss. Furthermore, when producing by blending creaming powder, there is a tendency for a feathering phenomenon to occur when hot water is poured into the solid product of the present invention. To prevent this, edible salts such as citrates, such as sodium citrate, or phosphates, such as sodium phosphate, can be added in an amount of 0.01 to 2% of the total weight. The instant solid beverage produced by the present invention can be almost dissolved in about 20 seconds or less by pouring hot water, and can be completely dissolved by stirring lightly with a spoon to produce flavorful coffee or tea. can be inserted. Therefore, coffee or tea can be easily brewed anywhere as long as there is hot water, and depending on the type of product, a beverage with or without cream can be obtained. In addition, since the product of the present invention can be molded into single drink portions, it is not necessary to package each drink portion separately as with powder or liquid products, and the product can be shipped in a package or container, which is commercially advantageous. It is. The present invention will be explained in more detail by the following Examples and Experimental Examples.

[Table] Instant coffee, creaming powder and sodium citrate were thoroughly mixed (A). Separately, add water to granulated sugar and mix (B).
After (A) was added and mixed quickly and uniformly, a pressure of 4 kg/cm ² was applied using a molding machine to compression mold the mixture. The solid coffee was passed through a heated steam tunnel for 5 seconds, dried and cooled in a hot air dryer at 85°C for 1 hour, and then packaged. After that, the color tone and hardness of the product's appearance and 85
The state when immersed in hot water at 5°C and cold water at 5°C was measured. The results are shown in Table 1. Instead of passing molded parts through tunnels of heated steam
The above procedure was repeated except that 100°C steam was injected for 1 second. The properties of the product were measured as described above, and the results are shown in Table 1 as Comparative Example 1. The above procedure was repeated except that the molding pressure was 15 kg and instead of passing the molded article through the heated steam tunnel, 100 DEG C. steam was injected for 1 second. The properties of the product were measured as described above and the results are shown in Table 1 as Comparative Example 2.

[Table] Example 2 A product was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 except that ground coffee sugar (same amount) was used instead of granulated sugar. When coffee sugar was used, an effect on the uniformity of the surface color was observed. Example 3 Solid coffee was produced using caster sugar instead of granulated sugar in Example 1. Even when compared with Example 1, no significant difference in appearance or solubility was observed. The type of sugar is not particularly limited. Example Amount of 4 ingredients (1) Humidified granulated sugar 20 (Kg) (moisture 2-3%) (2) Instant coffee 6.8 (3) Creaming powder 7.7 (4) Sodium citrate 0.3 In a ribbon mixer, (2) ) to (4) were thoroughly mixed for 5 minutes, then 2 kg of moistened sugar and 1.5 kg of the mixture of (2) to (4) were mixed for 2 minutes using a mixer. The mixture was placed in a hopper and molded using a molding machine at a pressure of 4 kg/cm ² . The shaped solid was passed through a heated steam tunnel for 5 seconds, dried in a hot air dryer at 85° C. for 1 hour, and after cooling was subjected to a packaging process. Example 5 ingredients: Granulated sugar 6 (g) (moisture 1.3%) Instant coffee 2.0 g Humidified sugar and instant coffee were mixed, molded at a molding pressure of 5 kg/cm ² , and glazed in the same manner as in Example 1. After that, it was dried with hot air at 85°C for 0.5 hour. Example 6 ingredients blended amount Granulated sugar 6 (g) (moisture 1.0%) Instant black tea 0.8 Humidified sugar and instant black tea were mixed and molded (molding pressure 6 kg/cm ² ), and after glazing in the same manner as in Example 1, 85 It was dried with hot air at ℃ for 0.5 hours. Example 7 Ingredients Amount Granulated sugar 6 (g) (moisture 2.5%) Instant black tea 0.8 Instant creaming powder 2.3 Humidified sugar, instant black tea powder and instant creaming powder were mixed and molded (molding 6Kg/cm ² ) and carried out. After glazing in the same manner as in Example 1, it was dried with hot air at 85°C for 1 hour. The shapes, weights, hardnesses (Kiya style), dissolution rates (seconds) of the products produced in Examples 1 to 7, and the flavors of beverages made with these products are shown in the table below.

[Table] Experimental Example The following analysis was conducted by changing the molding pressure, humidification amount, and curing time among the processing conditions of Example 1. Analysis example-1 Effects of changes in molding pressure and glazing on hardness and dissolution rate

[Table] Analysis example-2 Effects of changes in the amount of sugar humidification on hardness and dissolution rate

[Table] Analysis example-3 Effect of change in time from mixing to molding (curing time) on hardness and dissolution rate

[Table] * Analysis example of corner chipping after removal from molding - 4 Flavor stability due to glazing (5-level evaluation: 7 sensory analysis panel members)

【table】

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Add creaming powder as necessary to instant coffee powder or instant tea powder, mix with humidified sugar, mold the mixture under low pressure to make a molded product of a certain size, and then A method for producing a molded beverage with excellent solubility and high hardness, which comprises a step of subjecting the molded product to a crazing treatment by passing it through a heated steam tunnel and drying it. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the mixing and molding are performed in a short time of 20 minutes or less.