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.
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.
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.
Black tea belongs to fully fermented tea. Fermentation is the most important part of the production process. Fermentation is to make the grassy taste in the tea disappear. The internal substances of the black tea are fully in contact with the air. Polyphenols are fermented and oxidized to form substances such as theaflavin and melanin, and to make black tea emit a unique aroma. Under normal circumstances, the fermentation time of black tea should not be too long. Because during drying, during the temperature increase stage, the tea leaves will continue to ferment.
For green tea: The drying of green tea is usually to evaporate the water in the tea, so that the tea is tightened and shaped, and it is more compact. It emits the grassy smell of tea and enhances the flavor of green tea.
For black tea: Because black tea is still in the fermentation process before drying. Therefore, for black tea, firstly, the water in the tea is evaporated, and then the enzyme activity is destroyed by high temperature, so that the tea stops oxidative fermentation, and the quality of the black tea is maintained. At the same time, the smell of grass is released, and the tea leaves are compacted. Tea is more beautiful and more aromatic
During the processing of tea, it is inevitable that the tea will break. After drying, the size of the tea will also be different. Through screening, different types of tea with different sizes and qualities are selected. Different tea qualities can be positioned and sold at different prices.
Shaking and withering are part of the fermentation. During the process withering, the leaves are calm and a large amount of water will only evaporate from the leaves, and the water in the leaf stalks will not be lost. Which will cause the bitterness of the tea leaves is very strong and seriously affects the quality of oolong tea. Therefore, it is necessary to shake. Through the shaking process, the leaf activity is enhanced. The water in the leaf stem continues to be transported to the leaves, allowing the leaves to re-evaporate the water. The grassy smell in the tea is dropped, so that the taste of the finished oolong tea is not very bitter, which greatly improves the quality of oolong tea.
The process of white tea is very simple, it only needs to be withered and dried (sometimes it is not necessary to dry). However, not all fresh leaves can be used to make white tea. To make white tea, first of all, there must be more fluff on the back of the fresh leaves, and leaf buds are mainly used.The white tea produced will spread all over the white fluff, and it will be needle-shaped, beautiful and fragrant. If it is made of ordinary fresh leaves, the fluff is sparse, and the leaves are large, then the white tea made is like dry leaves, without white fluff, showing yellow-green. Not only ugly, but also tastes like rotten leaves and is of poor quality.
Since China is the birthplace of tea, a long time ago, there was the Silk Road and the Tea Horse Road to conduct tea trade.
However, because the tea itself is very loose and bulky, large-scale transportation requires a lot of space, which makes the cost of tea very high. Therefore, the wisdom of the ancients made tea cakes. Common cakes are 100 grams, 200 grams, and 357 grams. 357 grams of tea cakes are the most common tea cakes. Usually 7 tea cakes are packed together and the weight is 2.5 kg. , So it is also called Qizi cake tea.
Not all teas are suitable for making tea cakes. The teas that make tea cakes are mainly Pu'er tea, black tea, white tea, and other teas that can be stored or fermented. Because of the limited transportation conditions in ancient times, only teas that can be stored for a long time, such as Pu'er tea and black tea, can be used to make tea cakes. Due to its nature, green tea cannot be stored for a long time, so it cannot be made into a tea cake. At the same time, making tea cakes requires high-temperature steam to soften the tea leaves, which will destroy the taste of oolong tea and green tea, so oolong tea green tea is rarely made into tea cakes.
Generally, the moisture content of most fresh leaves is between 75% -80%, and the moisture content of the finished tea is between 3% -5%. So to get 1 kg of finished tea, you need About 4 kg of fresh leaves.