Traditional tea making method

The manufacture of tea is not a simple matter, and all aspects need to cooperate with each other to make high-quality tea with endless aftertaste. At present, the manufacture of tea can be industrialized and mass-produced, but many tea leaves that won prizes in the competition are still handmade, just like a work of art. After tea leaves are picked from tea trees, they can be made into different kinds of tea by different processing techniques. The general tea-making process includes picking tea seeds, withering in sunlight, standing indoors and withering, frying tea seeds, rolling and drying. Among them, the quality of tea seeds has a great influence on the quality of finished tea, while varieties, seasons and picking time will all affect the quality of tea seeds. Generally speaking, the quality of spring tea and winter tea is better, followed by autumn tea and summer tea.

Picked tea seeds (young leaves of tea trees) need to be fermented immediately. Among them, "Sunlight Withering Carving" mainly uses solar energy to evaporate water in tea seeds and activate enzymes in tea seeds to start fermentation. "Indoor standing withering" is the fermentation caused by continuous sunlight withering. The so-called "fermentation" in tea-making science is different from the fermentation of general foods (such as brewing and soy sauce), and there is no microbial action, only the simple enzyme action in tea seeds. The fermented tea seeds then destroy the enzyme activity in tea with high temperature. This step is called "frying tea seeds" and aims to fix the flavor of tea.

In order to make tea easy to brew, the tea maker will "twist" the fried tea, which will be curled and shaped by external force, and the tea tissue cells will be destroyed, and the juice will flow out and attach to the tea surface. Finally, "drying" is carried out to stop all biochemical reactions in tea seeds by high temperature, reduce water content, fix tea quality, and improve aroma and taste at the same time.

There are many kinds of tea, and the classification methods are different, some according to the place of origin, season, tea varieties, and some according to the appearance, color, aroma or preparation method. At present, the generally accepted method is to distinguish tea according to its fermentation degree. According to the degree of withering (fermentation), the finished products can be divided into three types: unfermented tea, partially fermented tea and completely fermented tea.

The most famous "non-fermented tea" is green tea There are no processes such as withering and stirring in the production of green tea. The picked tea seeds directly enter the frying step. The frying of tea seeds completely inhibits the enzyme action in tea seeds, so the most primitive components of tea seeds, such as catechins and chlorophyll, are retained, so the color of tea soup is greener.

The processing of "partially fermented tea" includes more withering and stirring steps than non-fermented tea. In this process, some chemical components in tea will change due to the action of enzymes, resulting in special aroma and taste. The color of the brewed tea soup is different from that of green tea, which changes from golden yellow to amber. The representative products are Wenshan Baozhong Tea, Frozen Top Oolong Tea and Mucha Tieguanyin.

The unique production process of "full fermented tea" is that it withers to the highest degree and thoroughly, so some polyphenols in tea seeds are oxidized and polymerized to produce colored substances such as theaflavins and thearubigins, so the color of tea soup is deep red, indicating that the product is black tea.

There is also a kind of post-fermented tea, which mainly uses mold to ferment non-fermented tea (green tea), and Pu 'er tea, which is popular recently, belongs to this kind.