In commercial tea brewing, such as restaurants, there is a lack of consistency from one batch of tea to the next. The industry uses standard sugar in 50 lb. bags to sweeten tea, and the industry standard is basically one pound of sugar per gallon of tea, which gives a brix of about 11. Brix is a measure (degree) of the sugar consent of an aqueous solution. One degree Brix is one gram of sucrose in 100 grams of solution and represents the strength of the solution as a percentage by weight (% w/w). If the solution contains dissolved solids other than pure sucrose, then the Brix only approximates the dissolved solid content. The Brix is traditionally used in tea, wine, sugar, fruit juice, and honey industries to measure sweetness. Brewed sweetened tea has a typical Brix level of 10½ to 11. The problem is restaurants usually do not have a scale to weigh out one pound of sugar per gallon of tea so the Brix level varies from one urn of tea to the next. Most of the time the people making the sweet tea are the wait staff, and this is a job that is inconvenient to them. The first waitress may like tea really sweet so she adds several cups of sugar when making the tea. A second waitress coming in later in the day, does not like her tea too sweet, so she just puts less cups in the tea. A third waitress likes to talk, so she puts in 4 cups of sugar, gets to talking, and puts 1 more cup of sugar in. So there is no consistency regarding the amount of sugar being put in the urn. In addition, there is an amount of sugar that is not dissolved located in the bottom of the urn that is not considered.
A commercial tea brewing urn typically holds at least 3 gallons of tea and has a brewing basket. A paper filter is placed in the basket and then filled with the tea. Hot water flows into the brewing basket to steep the tea in the basket, and concentrated tea solution is passed into the urn. At the same time, cold water is being delivered into the urn, and the concentrated tea solution and cold water are mixed to make tea. However, when the sugar is added, the temperature of the tea is much cooler. The sugar does not dissolve completely, and some of the sugar reaches the bottom of the urn. If 3 lbs. of sugar is poured into the urn with 3 gallons of tea, some of the sugar goes to the bottom without dissolving. It would take longer, more time than the tea itself lasts, before enough sugar is dissolved to reach a Brix value of 11. There is not much accuracy because sugar that you thought was dissolved, is not.
Various attempts have been made to package tea and sugar together in separate compartments for use as an infusion product which is immersed in hot water. US Published Application No. 2010/0159076 A1 shows a floatable infusion package that may include tea and sugar in separate compartments. US Published Application No. 2008/0171110 A1 shows a foraminous plastic vertical tube that can contain tea and sugar, or other solids, which is rigid enough to grip and stir in a liquid to dissolve or infuse its contents. U.S. Pat. No. 2,362,459 discloses an infusion package and the manufacture thereof that includes compartments A and B wherein one compartment contains tea and the other compartment contains sugar. US Published Application No. 2005/0247207 A1 shows a drink infusion device, including tea, having a submersible element and a buoyant retrievable element. U.S. Pat. No. 3,809,215 shows a floating infusion package for tea. U.S. Pat. No. 2,791,505 shows an infusion package having one compartment filled with tea and another compartment filled with sugar. Other patents show various other means of packaging tea and/or sugar. U.S. Pat. No. 2,791,324 discloses a compartmented package that may include tea in one compartment, sugar in another, and creamer in another compartment, which may be poured into a cup of hot water. U.S. Pat. No. 3,186,850 discloses an infusion package containing beverage ingredients, such as powdered tea sugar carried by a cup, wherein the ingredients are poured into the cup containing hot water. U.S. Pat. No. 4,853,234 discloses a rigid beverage package that can contain any desired beverage ingredients. None of the prior art has provided a way to make sweetened tea accurately and consistently. The floating infusion products are not practical or suitable for brewing tea in an urn.
Accordingly an object of the invention is to provide an accurate and consistent way of brewing sweetened tea.
Another object of the invention is to provide a sweet tea brewing product and method for use in a drip coffee machine which provides an accurate and consistent way of brewing sweetened tea.
Another object of the present invention is to provide sources of tea particles and sugar granules which can be brewed together in prescribed blend ratios in a brewing basket to form a concentrated sweet tea solution that enters the urn hot with sugar dissolved.
Another object of the invention is to provide a mesh pouch containing tea and sugar in a prescribed blended ratio for use in the brewing basket of a drip coffee machine to brew tea accurately and consistently.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a sweetened tea product whereby one may pull a brew basket out of the tea maker and place a mesh plastic pouch containing a prescribed blend ratio of tea and sugar, and push a start button to brew sweet tea consistently, time and time again. This will provide a huge step in the ice tea market.