Approaches to decreaming of black tea infusions by solvent decaffeination and tannase treatment.

Creaming is a critical phenomenon in Instant tea processing leading to haziness of the final product. Caffeine and
galloyl esters of tea polyphenols are important Constituents of tea cream. Selective decaffeination of black tea by
solvent extraction using solvents like chloroform, petroleum ether, benzene and hexane by continuous soxhlet extraction
and steeping at ambient temperatures reduces the creaming in the resultant tea infusions. Chloroform was found to
he most effective. Similarly, treahnent of tea Infusions with microbial tannase studied at two temperatures and solids
concentrations was found to reduce the creaming to a good extent. There is a correlation between creaming and
hydrolysis of galloyl esters of tea polyphenols by tannase.