A GREEN TEA COFFEE CONSISTING OF GREEN TEA EXTRACT AND COFFEE EXTRACT Background of the Invention Technical Field The present invention relates to a green tea coffee comprising green tea extract and coffee extract.

BackgrousldA7t Green tea plant is cultivated in Korean, Japan, China and the like and its leaf is used as a tea material. It contains a large amount of polyphenol which has physiologically useful effects including antioxidant effect and antihypertensive effect.

At present, green tea leaves are provided in the form of a tea back and coarse tea, or are dried and ground to be supplied as powder. The former is not convenient to drink while the latter is not completely dissolved into water, causing an offensive feeling upon drinking. Also, green tea is not wide spread over various consumer levels as a favorite food due to its characteristic puckery taste and bitter taste.

On the other hand, coffee, which is one of the favorite foods which are most widely consumed, is usually processed by drying coffee beans and extract from coffee beans and powdering or granulating them and is reconstituted with water as needed. Thus, coffee is convenient and excellent in taste and incense. However, it is known that coffee contains substances which are of benefit to health in a less content, as compared to green tea.

Therefore, the present inventors have mixed a hot water extract of green tea leaves and coffee and, as a result, have found that the resulting mixture contains a

large amount of polyphenol which is a functional and effective component of green tea, is readily dissolved in water and provides the taste and incense of coffee.

Disclosure of the Invention It is an object of the present invention to provide a green tea coffee comprising green tea extract and coffee extract, which contains a large amount of a functional component of green tea, is readily dissolved into water and provides taste and incense of coffee.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention According to the present invention, it is directed to a green tea coffee comprising green tea extract and coffee extract.

The green tea coffee comprises 5 to 80 weight parts, based on the total weight of the green tea coffee, of the green tea extract.

The green tea coffee is prepared by the following method.

The green tea extract used in the present invention is prepared by hot water extraction and preferably prepared as follows.

1 weight part of powder of hot air dried green tea leaves is mixed with 5 to 20 weight parts of water and heated for 15 minutes to 2 hours. The green tea leaves are removed and the solution was cooled to separate precipitations. The resulting extract is again heated and cooled. After removal of the precipitations, the extract is dried to obtain the final extract of green tea. Here, the heating temperature is preferably 60 to 110°C and the drying is preferably performed by spray drying.

The final extract of green tea is preferably in the form of powder.

The coffee extract which is usable in the present invention is one prepared

by a common method for extraction and drying of coffee. The coffee extract is mixed with 5 to 80 weight parts, based on the total weight of the green tea coffee, of the green tea extract and lyophilized. The dried green tea coffee is pasteurized at a low temperature and enclosed in a bottle, a pouch, a can and the like according to a conventional packing method, followed by sealing.

The green tea coffee according to the present invention may be powdered or be prepared into a can drink.

Since the green tea extract and the coffee extract which are components of the green tea coffee according to the present invention are extracted from natural food, they are not toxic and the drink amount and the mixing ratio can be properly adjusted. For the powder form, several tens mg to several g per once can be properly selected for adults. Preferably, 0.1 to 2 g of the green tea coffee powder dissolved in 100 ml of water is recommended.

Also, sugar and vegetable oils (cream) in a proper amount can be added to the green tea coffee according to the present invention.

Now, preferred embodiments are presented to help understanding of the present invention. However, the following examples are only for the illustration and the present invention is not limited thereto.

Example 1) Preparation of green tea extract 1 kg of powder of hot air dried green tea leaves was mixed with 10 1 of distilled water and heated to 60 to 110°C for 60 minutes under reflux. The green tea powder was removed and the liquid was left at 4 C for 1 hour. Then, the liquid was filtered to obtain 8.5 1 of a filtrate. The resulting filtrate (8.5 1) was again heated for 60 minutes and left at 4°C for 1 hour to obtain an extract (7.5 1). The

extract was spray dried to obtain 220 g of a green tea extract.

The green tea extract was analyzed for elements using the following method.

-free amino acids: Ninhydrin color development, absorption at 570 nm -free sugar: High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) -caffeine : HPLC - inorganic ions: Molecular absorption spectrometry - polyphenol : Spectrophotometric redox assay by Prussian blue The results are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Component Content (%) Amino acid 12 Free sugar (maltose, fructose, glucose) 7 Polyphenol 64 Caffeine 1 Minerals (potassium, calcium, magnesium) 6 Others 10 2) Preparation of green tea coffee The coffee was a product purchased from a product company, which had been extracted and dried by a conventional method.

20 g, 50 g and 80 g of the green tea extract prepared in 1) were mixed with coffee extract according to one's taste to make the total weight of the green tea coffee to 100 g and lyophilized. The dried green tea coffee was pasteurized at a low temperature (60°C, 30 minutes to 2 hours) and sealed to give a product.

3) Functional test of green tea coffee Functional test was performed to examine taste, incense and color of the

green tea coffee prepared in 2).

0.8 g of the green tea coffee prepared in 2) was dissolved in 100 ml of water at 80 °C to prepare tea.

The prepared tea was subjected to the functional test using 30 women and men in twenties to fifties as the subjects of the test.

The comparative example was a tea prepared using a commercially available green tea back.

The results are shown in Table 2.

Table 2 Example Comparative (green tea coffee) example Content of green tea extract (%) 20g 50g 80 g Taste 1 1 2 3 Incense 1 1 1 3 Color 1 1 3 As shown in Table 2, it was noted that the green tea coffee according to the present invention has excellent taste and incense.

Industrial Applicability The green tea coffee according to the present invention comprises green tea extract containing an effective component and thus, maximizes the intake of polyphenol, the effective component of the green tea.

Particularly, polyphenol has excellent antioxidant effect and anticancer effect and is effective in prevention and treatment of diabetic and hypertension. By drinking the green tea coffee according to the present invention, it is possible to intake polyphenol in a large amount contained in the green tea extract while enjoying

the taste and incense of coffee, thereby expecting prevention of diabetic, hypertension and cancers.

Also, since the green tea coffee according to the present invention is readily dissolved in water and has excellent taste and incense, it can be widely adopted as a favorite food.