Processing technologies for manufacturing tea beverages: From traditional to advanced hybrid processes

Over the past two decades, the global beverage industry has developed rapidly. Especially, the global tea beverage market reached 37 million tons in 2016, an increase of 40% in five years, and is estimated to reach 45 million tons by 2021. According to the forecast of Statista, a business data platform, the global tea beverage market is estimated to be worth about US $44.3 billion by 2021. In the last 5 years, remarkable progress has been made in the research on tea beverages, including liquid tea beverage, instant tea powder, tea concentrate, kombucha, tea wine and other fermented tea beverages. This article highlights and critically reviews the recent advances in tea beverage research with specific focus on the processing methods for flavor enhancement. An overview on the innovation and development of tea drinks over the world is provided. Cold extraction, ultrasonic extraction and dynamic extraction have been employed in the production of tea beverage. Tannase, β-glucosidase, pectinase, amylase, lyticase and protease have been used to improve the flavor of tea beverage. Chromatography and electrochemical fingerprints and other analytical techniques have been used in flavor evaluation of tea beverages. Many new types of fermented tea beverages have been developed.