work first completed in the mid 1990s on recovering aroma from tea led to the conclusion that highly significant yield and quality improvements could be gained by processing tea slurry, as opposed to tea extract. The slurry would typically be prepared by adding 10% by weight of leaf tea to water (see Figure 1). Such a feed material could simply not be processed in conventional multistage columns. A similar approach was soon being investigated for processing coffee slurry and, as in the case of tea, the ability to process coffee slurries containing up to 20% suspended
solids facilitated the recovery of much ound) flavours than is possible from extract.