Green Tea Processing（fresh tea leaf water content 75%-80%）
1.Q: Why should the first step of all types of tea be withered?
A: As the freshly picked tea leaves have more moisture and the grassy smell is heavier, they need to be placed in a cool and ventilated room to be withered. The water content of the fresh tea leaves is reduced, the leaves become soft, and the grassy taste disappears. The aroma of tea began to show up, which was beneficial to the subsequent processing, such as fixation, rolling, fermenting, etc., The color, taste, texture, and quality of the produced tea are better than the tea without withering.
2.Q: Why should green tea, oolong tea, yellow tea and other tea be fixation?
A: This step of fixation is mainly used for the production of various non-fermented or semi-fermented teas. The enzyme activity in fresh leaves is reduced by high temperature, and the tea polyphenols in fresh leaves are stopped from oxidative fermentation. At the same time, the odor of the grass is removed, and the aroma of the tea is excited. And the water in the fresh leaves is evaporated, making the fresh leaves more soft, which is conducive to subsequent rolling processing, and the tea is not easy to break. After green tea fixation, it needs to be cooled to reduce the temperature of the tea and emit moisture to prevent the high-temperature moisture from suffocating the tea.
3.Q: Why do most tea leaves need to be rolled?
A: Different tea leaves have different twisting times and different rolling functions.
For black tea: Black tea is a fully fermented tea that requires a chemical reaction between enzymes, tannins and other substances in the air and oxygen in the air. However, usually, these substances in the cell wall are difficult to react with air. so you need to use a twisting machine to twist and break the cell wall of fresh leaves, make cell fluid flow out. These substances in the fresh leaves are in full contact with the air for oxidative fermentation.The degree of twisting determines the different soup color and taste of black tea.
For green tea: Green tea is non-fermented tea. After fixation, the oxidative fermentation inside the tea already stopped. The most important reason for the rolling is to get the shape of the tea. So the rolling time is much shorter than that of black tea. When rolling into the desired shape, you can stop the rolling operation and proceed to the next step.
For oolong tea, oolong tea is a semi-fermented tea. Since it has undergone withering and shaking, some of the tea has begun to ferment. However, after fixation, the tea has stopped fermenting, so rolling the most i
mportant function for oolong tea. The function is the same as green tea, is for the shape. After rolling into the desired shape, you can stop rolling and proceed to the next step.