In this study, the swelling kinetics of individual tea particles as well as bed of tea granules were investigated for different types of teas. The swelling experiments involved image analysis and volume measurements of tea particles. Each individual particle shows different swelling characteristics. Separating funnels and cylindrical columns of varying sizes were used to study the changes in volume of tea bed. Swelling in separating funnel was observed to be more than that in column. The effect of temperature, particle size, bed height and vessel diameter were investigated. The extent as well as the rate of swelling is found to increase with rise in temperature (60 to 80 °C) and reduction in particle size. A decrease in swelling is observed with increase in bed height as well as decrease in vessel diameter and vice a versa. About 70 to 75 % swelling occurs in the first 40 to 45 s. Two empirical models viz. Weibull and Peleg were used to fit the experimental data. The rate parameters obtained for a sample T5 at different temperatures were in the range of 0.012 to 0.016. The volume changes of all the teas were compared with their elution behavior, by measuring the absorbance of a diluted sample of brew at 272 nm. The activation energies for the process of tea swelling calculated for T1 (1.2 mm), T5 (2.2 mm) and T5 (0.72 mm) were 14.156, 8.37 and 13.42 kJ/mol respectively.
Keywords: Image analysis; Kinetics; Model; Swelling; Tea; Weibull.