Instant Tea

What is Instant Tea?

There is a famous saying, “Time values as gold”? That means you have to save your time and can’t waste your time on simple things with your busy life. Sometimes you don’t have enough time to make a cup of tea for yourself although you are tired. In that case, you have to find alternatives to make your routine easy and fast. Then the instant teas are the better option for you.

Instant tea is a value-added tea made from the powder of tea leaves (Camellia sinensis). You can easily dissolve it in water to prepare tea. It can make with either black tea or green tea. Most of the time, processed leaves use for making the powder. But you can use green leaves also. The extraction of tea leaves goes under a complex drying process to get a powder. The flavors and aroma can add according to the customer’s requirements. Instant tea with sugar, milk, ginger, spices has high demand in the market.

How to make Instant Tea? 

The manufacturing process of Instant tea is somewhat complex. You can read the steps of manufacturing as follows.

1. Selection of Raw materials –
2. Raw materials should select according to the availability, processing requirement, and market. It is most effective to use processed tea, fermented tea, or tea waste of black or green as raw materials. 
3. Extraction- Active compounds in tea should extract into a solvent or hot water. Quality of extraction depends on the temperature of extract water, purity of water, time of the extraction, the proportion of tea and water, and the type of tea. A maximum of 35% of solids can extract with the method.
4. Decanting – Insoluble compounds in extraction should remove because they can badly affect the appearance of the tea. Soluble compounds like Polyphenols and caffeine are only responsible for the aroma and the flavor of the tea.
5. Aroma Stripping –Aroma is a significant property for the acceptability of the final product. But the volatile aroma like Linalool can evaporate from the extraction. Therefore these compounds should strip from the extraction before evaporation and should add back before drying.
6. Decreaming –Fine particles should remove from the tea extraction by centrifugation.
7. Concentration – The extraction becomes too dilute after decreaming. Therefore the concentration should increase before drying. Usually, manufacturers use various evaporators to evaporate the extraction under low pressure.
8. Blending –  Stripped aroma should add before drying
9. Drying – Finally, The extract should dry by freeze-drying, spray drying, or vacuum drying. Here, low temperature should use to preserve flavor and aroma in tea.

Types of Instant Teas

There are various types of instant teas in the market. Followings are the most famous instant tea types of tea lovers.

• Sweetened black tea – Instant black tea powder with sugar
• Unsweet black tea – Instant black tea powder, No added sweeteners
• Black iced tea – Iced tea with pure instant black tea powder 
• Milked black tea – Instant black tea powder with milk powder 
• Sweetened black tea with lemon – Instant black tea powder with natural lemon extract
• Decaffeinated black iced tea– Iced tea with instant black tea powder, Free from caffeine,
• Matcha green tea – Instant green tea powder

Nutritional Value of Instant Tea

Perhaps you may doubt whether there is a nutritional value of instant tea. Of course, you can get 315 calories from 100 grams of instant tea which occupies 16 percent of your daily energy needs. Moreover, instant tea has 20.21 grams of protein and 58.66 grams of carbohydrate in 100 grams. But the vitamin and mineral content is very much low in instant tea except manganese.

Caffeine in Instant Tea  

Do you prefer low caffeine tea? If so, you should choose instant tea over black tea. Usually, brewed instant tea has a lower caffeine level (0 mg caffeine per 8 oz) than brewed black tea (0 mg caffeine per 8 oz). Additionally, decaffeinated instant teas are free from caffeine.

Instant Tea with milk

Do you prefer to drink tea with milk? Then the instant tea with milk is the perfect option for you. The brands like “Nestea” have a good demand among customers. It is a blend of instant black tea powder and milk powder. You also can try to make it at your home. Firstly, you should mix the instant black tea powder with milk powder. Secondly, add sugar or sweeteners as you prefer. Next, add the prepared premix to a cup of boiling water. Finally, mix it well and enjoy your cup. If you want to store the premix for few days, you can use an airtight container. Usually, proper storage of tea powder has 15 days of shelf life.

Best Instant Tea

Have you ever thought about why many people trust some tea brands over others? As a customer, we always try to buy only the best things. Some brands are popular because they have earned a good name among customers with high-quality products. How do you select the best instant tea? Here are some tips to identify the best instant tea.

Made from pure and quality tea leaves 

The quality of tea depends on the quality of the raw material. Therefore manufacture should select pure and high-quality tea leaves for the process. The flavor and aroma of tea leaves vary according to the types of tea, growing region, climatic and seasonal changes, and plucking standards. But manufacture should select the leaves according to the market requirements and for customer satisfaction. 

No unwanted additives and flavoring

The best instant teas have no unwanted additives like preservatives, colorings, aroma, and artificial flavorings. Those artificial additives may negatively affect human health. Preservatives and colorings can cause severe cancers. Sweeteners can increase the risk of diabetes too. Therefore you should check the ingredients of tea before buying if you need not buy diseases instead of tea

No Fillers

Best instant tea should be free from fillers such as crushed tea leaves and unwanted particles of tea leaves. Firstmost, customer satisfaction depends on the appearance of the brewed tea.

Benefits of Instant Tea

Easy and Fast

Now you need not bother with tea bags and loose tea anymore. You need not wait for your tea to steep. Even a child can prepare a cup of tea in less than a minute. Therefore, it is the right decision to select instant tea over tea bags or loose tea as it suits your busy life schedule.

You can control the strength of tea

It is not quick to make your tea stronger with tea bags or loose tea. Sometimes you have to steep the tea bag for 2 – 3 minutes to get enough astringency. But that is not a problem with instant tea because you only need to change the amount of tea powder to the water according to your taste.

Nothing to throw away

Imagine a situation of making tea. You had to find a place to throw away the used tea bags or loose tea. And it is annoying as they create more waste even at home. Instant teas are the best solution for this as it doesn’t have any bag or packing. Most of the instant teas come with a bottle that is easy for you to use.

Easy to make foods and drinks

You can prepare iced tea with instant tea powder easily. You only need to add tea powder to the cold water. Furthermore, instant Matcha powder can use to make green tea-flavored sweets and spices.

Health benefits of Instant tea

A study conducted in 2007 has found that unsweetened black tea limit blood sugar levels by increasing the amount of insulin released after meals. They believe the reason is Polyphenols found in the tea plant. At the same time, instant tea is free from fat and cholesterol and it prevents the risk of heart attacks.

Moreover, instant teas are a good source of minerals such as manganese. Is manganese that much value to the human body? Yes, it helps your body form connective tissues, bones, blood-clotting factors, and sex hormones. Furthermore, it is necessary for carbohydrate metabolism, calcium absorption, and blood sugar regulation. Manganese also needs normal brain and nerve function.

Side effects of Instant Tea

According to the American Journal of Medicine in 2005, some instant teas are high in fluoride. So the regular drinkers may have to face some problems due to that. Because too much fluoride can cause skeletal fluorosis, that affects your bones.

On the other hand, instant tea contains caffeine unless if they are not decaffeinated. If you get more than 500 mg of caffeine per day, it can cause headaches, anxiety and may feel difficult to sleep. Additionally, instant teas with sugar and sweeteners can increase the risk of diabetes and weight gaining. 

read more about black tea manufacturing and Earl Grey Tea