Convectional, sedimentation, and drying dissipative structures of black tea in the presence and absence of cream

Convectional, sedimentation, and drying dissipative structures of black tea with and without cream were studied in a tea cup, a cover glass, a watch glass and a glass dish on macroscopic and microscopic scales. The convectional patterns were vigorous and irregular at the initial stage but soon highly distorted Bernard cells grew. The global integrated flows of the tea particles coated with cream at the air–suspension interface were observed vaguely from the central area toward outside edge at the initial stage in a tea cup and a large watch glass, but the flow direction turned oppositely from the outside to the central area. At the similar time, the short and few spoke lines appeared at the outside edge and grew long toward the central area. Then, the cooperative formation of clusters and bundles of the spoke lines took place at the middle and final convectional stages, and then the dynamic sedimentation patterns appeared. The drying patterns of tea with and without cream were composed of the broad ring at the outside edge and a round hill accompanied sometimes with the bundles of spoke lines. These features are consistent with those of suspensions of non-spherical particles. The pinning effect is not always supported by this work, but importance of the gravitational and Marangoni convectional flows is proposed instead.