Abstract:
A Horchata beverage manufacturing process mixes two distinct rice syrups, one from a high hydrolysis conversion and with a dextrose equivalence (DE) over 90%, and the other from a low hydrolysis conversion and with a DE under 20%. The mix is combined with water to form a slurry and heated. After homogenizing and cooling the slurry, aseptic packaging is used to prepare a Horchata beverage for sale that has a very long shelf-life and a very low cost-of-production.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0002]     The present invention relates to drinks and beverages, and more particularly to simplified methods and recipes for making Horchata, without dairy products or added sugars or preservatives, and for long shelf-life at ambient temperatures.  
         [0003]     2. Description of Related Art  
         [0004]     Horchata is a creamy refreshing cold drink traditionally made of rice, water, milk, and cinnamon. In some recipes, more flavors are added to the base, e.g., strawberry, banana, and chocolate. Some Horchata recipes include other major ingredients like almonds, regular milk, or condensed milk.  
         [0005]     Horchata was an old-world drink brought to the New World by the Spanish in the Sixteenth Century. It was enjoyed by the Aztecs and other peoples of Mexico, Central America, and South America. In Old Spain, Horchata was made traditionally with ground melon seeds. In Latin America, the Spaniards substituted readily available squash seeds. Later, almonds and rice were incorporated into the drink after they were introduced in to the New World. Horchata drink is regarded as a perfect drink to accompany spicy Mexican foods. It is well known that drinking some milk or Horchata will quench the mouth burning.  
         [0006]     Horchata is well suited for lactose intolerant individuals. Well over 50% of Hispanics, and even higher percentages of Asians, African Americans, and Native Americans, naturally become lactose intolerant after childhood. Horchata can often be used in place of milk as a beverage.  
         [0007]     The usual Horchata drink has a short life span and needs to be refrigerated. Some recipes include milk, and many recipes do not cook the mix or use sterile ingredients or procedures. So bacteria will multiply quickly and spoil the drink in only a few days. Conventional methods also waste a lot of the starch, fiber, and protein coming off the rice. The insoluble debris precipitates to the bottom of the container, and is often filtered out. This waste adds to the overall cost and expense.  
         [0008]     Table I illustrates a conventional recipe for making Horchata.  
                       TABLE I                                       INGREDIENTS:           1 cup long grain rice, rinsed           2 quarts water           1 cinnamon stick, broken into pieces           1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)           ½ cup white sugar           DIRECTIONS:           In a large saucepan, combine rice, water and cinnamon           stick. Set aside for 3 hours. Afterwards, bring to a           boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. Allow to           cool. Puree rice mixture in a blender until smooth.           Strain through cheesecloth or a fine sieve. Flavor with           vanilla and sugar to taste. Chill, and serve over ice.           Even though the drink has a milky appearance it is           completely dairy-free.                      
 
         [0009]     Table II is another recipe for making Horchata with milk.  
                         TABLE II                       Horchata - Ground Rice Drink       Yield: 6 servings                                    1 cups Long Grain Rice           4 cups Milk           ½ cups Sugar 1 teaspoon Vanilla           ½ teaspoon Cinnamon           Ice           Place the rice in a bowl with enough hot water to           cover. Let the rice sit overnight. Next day, remove           the water. Place ½ cup of water, and 2 cups milk in a           blender. Blend until rice is all ground up. Mix in ¼           cup sugar, ½ t vanilla, ¼ t cinnamon. Do the same           with the other half of the ingredients. Strain through           cheesecloth (or whatever). Serve over ice. Makes 6           glasses.                      
 
         [0010]     Making Horchata with conventional methods can be very time consuming, e.g., soaking rice over night, grinding, filtering, etc. More than half the rice used will be wasted, most of the larger size, fiber, protein and all insoluble material will precipitate to the bottom of the container. The usual Horchata drink shelf-life is very short, and the typical product should be refrigerated.  
         [0011]     What is needed is a method for making Horchata that is efficient and produces a good tasting. drink with a long shelf-life.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0012]     Briefly, a Horchata beverage manufacturing embodiment of the present invention comprises blending a final Horchata drink from a high dextrose equivalent (DE) rice base, and a low DE rice base. Each are obtained from parallel separate hydrolyses of rice starches with different glucose/maltose and oligosaccharide ratios. The low DE rice. base includes a rice oligodextrin which provides the body and rice flavor. The high DE rice base is a syrup that provides sweetness. Both are made enzymatically from organic, polished, brown, or white rice.  
         [0013]     An advantage of the present invention is a Horchata manufacturing method is provided for continuous production of high quality Horchata drink, with no waste using enzymatic processes.  
         [0014]     Another advantage of the present invention is a Horchata manufacturing method is provided that uses enzymatic processes to reduce waste.  
         [0015]     A further advantage of the present invention is a Horchata manufacturing method is provided to produce a Horchata drink without needing sugar, whiteners, preservatives, condensed milk, sweetened milk, or other dairy products.  
         [0016]     A still further advantage of the present invention is a Horchata manufacturing method is provided with aseptic processing methods that improve its room-temperature shelf-life over conventional products.  
         [0017]     The above and still further objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description of specific embodiments thereof, especially when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0018]      FIG. 1  is a flowchart diagram of a Horchata beverage manufacturing method embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0019]      FIG. 2  is a flowchart diagram of a way to make the high-DE rice base used in the process of  FIG. 1 ;  
         [0020]      FIG. 3  is a flowchart diagram of a way to make the low-DE rice base used in the process of  FIG. 1 ; and  
         [0021]      FIG. 4  is a flowchart diagram of a Horchata beverage aseptic process embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0022]      FIG. 1  represents a Horchata beverage manufacturing method embodiment of the present invention, and is referred to herein by the general reference numeral  100 . The Horchata beverage manufacturing method  100  comprises blending a final Horchata drink  102  from a high dextrose equivalent (DE) rice base  104 , and a low DE rice base  106 . Both bases  104  and  106  are made enzymatically from organic, polished, brown, or white rice. Each of the bases are obtained from parallel separate hydrolyses of rice starches for different glucose/maltose and oligosaccharide ratios. The low DE rice base  106  includes a rice oligodextrin which provides body and a rice flavor. The high DE rice base  104  is a syrup that provides sweetness. The two are balanced with water in a step  108  to provide the desired taste, appearance, and body. A finishing step  110  can include thermal processing, pasteurizing, homogenization, and aseptic packing. Such step  110  also adds natural flavors, natural oils, and emulsifier salts like monosodium, disodium and trisodium phosphate.  
         [0023]     Table III lists the range of ingredient mixtures possible in one instance of the Horchata drink  102 .  
                           TABLE III                                   Ingredient   Usage Range (%)                           Rice Oligodextrin A   10-90           Rice Dextrins B   10-90           Filtered water   10-40           Flavors     0-5.0           Safflower Oil     0-5.0           Disodium Phosphate (anhydrous)     0-1.0                      
 
         [0024]     As an example of a rice syrup sweetener made from whole grain rice, Mitchell, et al., describe in U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,096, issued Oct. 24, 1989. Either white or brown rice is liquefied in a saccharification step with glycosidase and/or beta-amylase enzyme. The enzymatic reaction time is limited to about four hours for both liquefaction and saccharification steps to avoid undesirable off-flavors. The saccharification product is clarified to remove substantially all the rice fiber, and concentrated to produce a rice syrup sweetener, as in Table IV. Such syrup can be dried to produce dried rice sweeteners.  
                               TABLE IV                                       Soluble Complex Carbohydrates   10-70%   of solids           Maltose   0-70%   of solids           Glucose   5-70%   of solids           Ash or Minerals   0.1-0.6%   of solids           Protein and Fat   1-3.5%   of solids                      
 
         [0025]      FIG. 2  represents a way to make the high-DE rice base  104 . A rice syrup method embodiment of the present invention, referred to herein by the general reference numeral  200  provides a rice base  202  with a DE over 90%. Using a high-DE rice syrup to sweeten the Horchata  102  eliminates the need to use refined sugar or high fructose corn syrup. In method  200 , over 90% of the rice carbohydrates are converted to glucose using enzymes. A feed of rice grain particles  204 , a high temperature a-amylase enzyme  206 , and calcium chloride  208  are mixed with water in a step  210 . A liquefaction step  212  uses heat and the amylases to liquefy the rice grain particles. A resulting liquid slurry  214  is treated with glucoamylase protease  216  to hydrolyze the protein, a pullulanase  218  is used as a de-branching enzyme, and a-amylase  220  is added to reduce the slurry viscosity, all in a saccharification step  222 .  
         [0026]     Such saccharification step  222  takes 30-80 minutes. But, higher glucose levels can be obtained in a step  224  by treating the slurry  214  even further with glucoamylase and pullulanase for up to twelve hours.  
         [0027]     The pullulanase  218  is included to reduce the levels of glucoamylase  216  needed during saccharification, and it improves the ultimate glucose yield. A protease  226  is added to hydrolyze proteins and reduce foaming.  
         [0028]      FIG. 3  represents a process to make the low-DE rice base  106 , of  FIG. 1 . A method embodiment of the present invention, referred to herein by the general reference numeral  300  provides a rice base  302  with a DE under 20%. The low-DE rice base  106 ,  FIG. 1 , is a white-color oligodextrin from a low-enzyme conversion process like method  300 . It is a viscous fluid with a rice flavor and provides body to the Horchata. An input of white rice  304  is used to make a rice oligodextrin by enzymatically converting its starches with a-amylase enzymes  306  in a liquefaction process  308 . The enzymes are deactivated with heat in a step  310 . Then a slurry  312  from the liquefaction step is clarified in a step  314  to remove substantially all the rice fiber. The rice base  302  is placed on holding tank for further processing, e.g., as in  FIG. 4 . The resulting product is bland with a hint of rice flavor and is not so sweet since the DE is less than 20%.  
         [0029]     A suitable rice base  302  may be commercially available. California Natural Products (Lathrop, Calif.) manufactures rice oligodextrin solids in a variety of DE&#39;s, without using acid, alkali or sulfite. They are bland in taste and disperse readily in aqueous solutions. Rice oligodextrins are used for many of the same applications as maltodextrins, including viscosity and body modification of liquid systems, flavor carriers, hypoallergenic products, oral dehydration and sports beverages or carbohydrate loading products, control of osmolality, and as a bulking agent. “Maltodextrin” must contain a maximum of 0.5% protein. CNP&#39;s oligodextrins contain about 3% protein, so they cannot be called maltodextrin, although they do have similar DE and functionality. Products are currently available in DE&#39;s of 5, 10, and 18.  
         [0030]      FIG. 4  represents a Horchata beverage aseptic process embodiment of the present invention, and is referred to herein by the general reference numeral  400 . The aseptic process  400  provides a Horchata beverage with an extended shelf life at room temperature, e.g., 9-12 months. The aseptic process begins by pumping rice base ingredients  402  and other ingredients  404  into an aseptic mix tank  406 . The rice base ingredients  402  include two distinct rice syrups, one from a high hydrolysis conversion and with a DE over 90%, and the other from a low hydrolysis conversion and with a DE under 20%. The other ingredients  404  include spices, oils, and flavors.  
         [0031]     Once thoroughly mixed with water, a slurry is pumped to a heat exchanger  408 . The heat exchanger preheats the product to 170-180° F., and can be either a tubular heat exchanger or a plate heat exchanger. The product is then steam injected to obtain a temperature of at least 284° F. in an injector  410 . The temperature is held in a holding tube  412 , then the water from the steam injection is removed in a flash chamber  414 . The product is cooled to 180-190° F. in another heat exchanger  416  before being homogenized in two stages, e.g., a first homogenizer  418  set to 2500 psi, and a second stage homogenizer  420  set to 500 psi. Once the Horchata is homogenized, it passes though another heat exchanger  422  to cool the product to 85-90° F. The product is then pumped to a holding tank  424 , e.g., a Steri-tank, until it is ready to be packaged in step  426 . The fill temperature for a packaged Horchata-type beverage  428  is around 80° F.  
         [0032]     Embodiments of the present invention to manufacture Horchata combine two rice-based ingredients, one high DE and one low DE, along with natural flavors, natural oil, emulsifier salts like sodium phosphate. The formulation provides a clean, all-natural, non-dairy ingredient declaration. Such Horchata drink does not need preservatives, artificial flavors, or artificial colors. It can be described as a refreshing, creamy, white beverage with different types of flavors that include cinnamon, vanilla, rice, banana, strawberry, chocolate, etc.  
         [0033]     Although particular embodiments of the present invention have been described and illustrated, such is not intended to limit the invention. Modifications and changes will no doubt become apparent to those skilled in the art, and it is intended that the invention only be limited by the scope of the appended claims.