Ancient tea belongs to fermented tea, and its production system is that fresh leaves of Yunnan big-leaf wild ancient tea tree are used as raw materials, which are wilted, twisted, fermented and dried first. The process of putting fresh and delicate tea leaves collected from ancient tea trees on ventilated bamboo curtains to emit water is called withering. When the water dissipates to a certain extent and the tea leaves become loose, they are put into a rib kneader for kneading, so that the tea juice is kneaded and the tea leaves become strips. The kneaded tea leaves are put in a wooden pallet. Under suitable temperature and humidity conditions, tea leaves gradually turn red, emitting a unique fragrance. At this time, when the tea leaves are dried in the dryer to be kneaded into powder, the ancient tree black tea is made! The specific tea-making process is as follows:

(1) Pick up the goods

Picking is to pinch the middle part of the young stem between leaves with the index finger and thumb, and pick the tea by the elasticity of the two fingers.

(2) withering

Spread the picked fresh leaves of ancient trees in the sun, or moderately evaporate the water in the fresh leaves with hot air, so as to reduce the water content of cells, reduce their activity, remove the semi-permeability of cell membranes, and make the leaves soft, plastic and easy to shape.

(3) Kneading

Put the withered tea leaves into a kneading machine to make them roll and form a curly shape. Due to the rolling pressure, some juice is squeezed out and attached to the surface, which makes it easy to dissolve in tea soup during brewing. Different tea leaves have different rolling degrees.

④ Fermentation

The key to determine the color, aroma and taste quality of tea. Fermentation begins with kneading dough. Due to the pressure of kneading dough, leaf cells are destroyed, polyphenol mold is destroyed in promoting oxidation, polymerization is accelerated, and fermentation begins.

(5) Drying (wool drying by fire, foot drying by fire,):

Drying is to use a dryer to dry and knead with hot air, so that its water content is lower than 4%, which is beneficial to storage, transportation and marketing, usually to make the internal and external drying consistent;

The first stage: water evaporation stops the mildew, and the water disappears quickly, and the water content drops from about 60% to about 47%, which is beneficial to remove odor, raise temperature and increase ventilation.

The second stage: shaping (rolling), the water content is reduced to about 18%.

The third stage: dry feet, with water content of about 5%.