Zhenghe white tea processing technology

Zhenghe white tea is a specialty of Zhenghe County, Fujian Province. It is famous for its dark bud color, clear and transparent tea soup, fresh and lasting aroma and refreshing taste. The production process of Zhenghe white tea is as follows:

1. Picking: Select the tender buds that meet the standard, and be careful not to damage the tea leaves when picking.

2. Air cooling: Keep the picked leaves in a cool place until they lose some water and become soft.

3. Deactivating: Put the cooled tea into a high-temperature pot, and use high temperature to inactivate the tea to make it fresh, tender and moist.

4. Squeeze and cut: put the green tea into a bamboo basket, and slowly squeeze the tea with pressure to dehydrate it.

5. Cooling: the pressed and cut tea leaves are broken up and cooled to remove residual moisture.

6. Kneading: Kneading is the most critical step in the whole production process. Tea farmers need to put the cooled tea leaves in a round pile and rub them by hand until the tea leaves are dry and soft.

7. Drying: put the twisted tea leaves into a dryer for drying, so that the water content of the twisted tea leaves is about 5%.

8. Screening: the dried Zhenghe white tea is screened to separate tea leaves with different sizes.

9. Packaging: after screening, cooling again to remove moisture, and then packaging.

Generally speaking, the production process of Zhenghe white tea is relatively simple, but it requires higher skills and has a keen sense of smell and grasp of tea.