Abstract: Sediment easily forms during the process and storage of tea beverage, instant tea powder and concentrated tea, which not only has an unattractive appearance, but also detracts from the flavor quality of tea products. However, there are no clear forming mechanism and controlling methods of tea sediment because the forming of tea sediment is rather complicated and lacks satisfactory solution. And at present, most of tea beverage producers remove tea sediment or inhibit tea sediment formation by physically removal or chemically de-creaming. These methods not only cause a great loss of active ingredients and decrease healthy functions, but also influence the appearance and inherent quality of the products, and then hinder the development of Chinese tea-beverage industry. Tea cream, the turbid phenomenon produces when tea infusion cools, is the previous process of tea sediment formation. It was reported that tea sediment can be divided into reversible and irreversible sediment. And their chemical constituents, formation mechanism and influencing factors were distinctly different. In order to effectively control the sediment in tea beverage, this paper summarizes the chemical components participating in tea sediment formation, the factors and the mechanism of tea sediment formation, and the controlling methods.

Key words: tea sediment, chemical components, formation mechanism, controlling methods