Withered:

Make the leaves soft, plastic and easy to shape.

Zuo Qing:

Shaking and stacking alternate and consist of two processes: shaking and drying.

Shake green:

The withered tea leaves are moved back and forth in a bamboo sieve, so that the edges of the leaves are rubbed, the cells at the edges of the leaves are destroyed, and the polyphenols in the leaves are gradually oxidized under the action of mold, forming the unique quality of tea leaves.

Tieguanyin should be shaken again to extend the green time; Shake green for 5 ~ 6 times, so that the leaf edge becomes vermilion and the leaves are yellow-green (semi-ripe banana peel).

In the process of shaking green, the tissue increases the water absorption of cells due to vibration, the water in the stem is transported to the veins and leaves, the fragrance and soluble substances are transported to the leaves, and the water evaporates from the leaves. After shaking green, the leaves return to a relaxed state, which is called "rejuvenation" After turning green, let it stand and air dry, the water will continue to evaporate and then wither. After 5 ~ 7 times of alternating shaking and air drying, the leaves are green and red-edged, spoon-shaped, stiff in appearance, soft to the touch, emitting a strong osmanthus fragrance, which is moderate green.

Shake the green light first and then the heavy light, so as not to break the stems and leaves and cause green death.

The drying time is short and then long, and the thinning time is thin and then thick.

The green room temperature is about 25℃ and the relative humidity is about 80%.

Fixed:

It is to treat fresh tea leaves with high temperature to make them soft, keep green, and lose some water, which is convenient for kneading.

Temperature: 280 ~ 300℃.

Objective: Using high temperature to kill the catalytic mold in green leaves, so that it will not lose its activity, keep the leaves green, and eliminate the foul smell and bitter taste in leaves through thermochemical reaction, so as to transform them into fragrant and mellow green leaves.

Knead:

The water content of tea is 60%, which is suitable for setting; Increasing leaf temperature can enhance the plasticity of kneading.

Stuffy pile:

The tea leaves fried in the pot are covered with cloth and stuffy yellow.

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.

The initial fermentation temperature is 32℃ ~ 40℃. Late 15℃ ~ 18℃.

In the early stage of fermentation, the oxidation rate is high, so it is necessary to provide sufficient oxygen and good ventilation indoors.

Drying:

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%.

The drying temperature is about 80℃ ~ 130℃.

Modern tea-making technology

Pick:

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. The picking time is better from noon 12 to 3 pm, and different tea picking parts are different. Some people choose a terminal bud, the first leaf next to the bud is called one leaf with one heart, some people choose one leaf with one heart and two leaves, and some people have one leaf with one heart and three leaves. Now there are also single and double tea pickers, which can pick tea mechanically, which is labor-saving and fast.

The sun withered:

Picked tea seeds must be spread in the sun, or the moisture of tea seeds must be evaporated by hot air to reduce the water content of cells, reduce their activity and remove the semi-permeability of cell membranes. The chemical components in cells can also be fermented by enzyme oxidation, and then spread on the buds after stirring.

Fried green:

When the tea leaves wither to a proper degree, the enzyme activity in the leaves is destroyed by high-temperature frying, which can remove the foul smell in the fresh leaves, and the fresh leaves are easy to knead because of the evaporation of water.

Knead:

Put the fried tea into a kneading machine and knead it into 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.

Same.

Kneading (method of making oolong tea):

Massage is to wrap the tea leaves into a ball with a cloth towel, and then rub them back and forth by hand or a cloth ball kneading machine. From time to time, the tea leaves are spread out to dissipate heat, and the kneaded tea leaves will be more tightly knotted to form hemispherical or spherical tea leaves.

Stacking fermentation (production method of Pu 'er tea);

The general production of tea green has come to an end, and the rest is just drying. The process of "post-fermented tea" after enzyme fixation and kneading is called "heap fermentation", that is, the tea leaves after kneading are piled up and stored. Due to the high water content of tea green, heat will be generated after stacking, which will lead to microbial growth. Because of the relationship between heat and microorganism, tea green will produce another kind of fermentation, and the quality of tea will "deteriorate"

Drying:

Drying is to dry the twisted tea with hot air with a dryer, so that the water content is lower than 4%, which is beneficial to storage, transportation and marketing. Usually, in order to make the internal and external drying consistent, the secondary drying method is often used. First, they are dried to 70% to 80%, then they are taken out for moisture regain, and then they are dried again.

Compaction:

Compaction refers to pressing tea leaves into pieces after steaming. Such tea leaves are called "compacted tea", which is not only convenient for transportation and storage, but also creates another mature and rough flavor for tea leaves during steaming, pressing and placing.

Steam:

Make the tea more damp and hot.

Pressure:

The gum of tea leaves is used to keep the leaves closely together, which stabilizes the humidity and aging speed of Chen Fang.

Put:

The degradation and aging of some components before pressing continue to make the tea more mellow. Chen Fang's pressed tea is a very important factor in determining the market price, and of course the quality of Chen Fang is also very important.

The pressed shapes are round cakes, square bricks, bowls, balls and columns. And the degree of pressing is different. Some pressed teas can be peeled by hand, and some pressed teas need tools. The tightness of the knot will also affect the effect of Chen Fang. If the degree of tight knot is high, the function of Chen Fang will be slow and the tea will be strong. If the degree of tight knot is low, Chen Fang's effect will be quick and the tea will be generous.

improve

Tea green is made into "primary tea" by withering, fermenting, deactivating enzymes, rolling, drying and other manufacturing processes (the first two items are not fermented, and after rolling, pile fermentation is added). This kind of tea is unstable in quality and cannot be put on the market, otherwise it will easily deteriorate after a period of time. This deterioration does not mean that drinking it will damage the stomach, but that the appreciation value will be reduced. Primary tea must be refined before it is completely made.

Tea refining can be divided into the following three situations:

Refinement of high-grade tea;

The so-called high-grade tea here refers to manual picking or machine picking, but it has been picked manually. After making this kind of tea, the most important thing is to let it dry in a few days, that is, to cover the fire, in addition to sifting out the fine powder, sorting out the coarse pieces and separating the branches and leaves of the leaf tea. Bud tea can be dried at low temperature and leaf tea can be dried at high temperature, but the upper limit is 90℃.

Refined popular tea;

At present, this kind of tea is almost harvested by machine, and the manufacturing process is also very dependent on automatic equipment. After the initial preparation is completed, it must be screened (screened into three shapes: coarse, medium and fine), cut (cut excessively thick leaves into required specifications), pull stems (pick out tea branches), reshape (make the appearance more standardized), winnow (blow off fine and coarse pieces) and cover the fire.

Refining of post-fermented tea;

Post-fermented tea can be divided into bulk tea after accumulation, fermentation and drying and pressed block tea. The refinement of these teas refers to Chen Fang. If these teas are only rough finished products, their appreciation value is not high, and it will take a long time to go through Chen Fang. The long-term Chen Fang here refers to five, eight, twenty and thirty years before the quality of tea is upgraded to another level. Chen Fang should be stored in a dry, cool and odorless place instead of vacuum freezing. Chen Fang is naturally in the air and needs to be packed with dust, moisture and ventilation. Increasing temperature and humidity can increase the Chen Fang effect, but the quality of the finished product is poor. Other kinds of tea also have the practice of Chen Fang's old tea, which is the treatment method after the finished tea, which can be seen in the description of the processing unit of this website.

process

After tea is refined, it is a product that can be packaged and listed, but in order to make tea more diversified, some processing can be carried out.

Processing can be described in four ways: smoking, baking, mixing and cooking.

Smoked flowers:

Tea has a characteristic that it can absorb other smells well. For example, where it is painted, it will soon smell like paint. We use this feature to make it absorb our favorite flowers. For example, if we mix jasmine into it, it will absorb the fragrance of jasmine and become jasmine tea. If we mix osmanthus, it will absorb the fragrance of osmanthus and become osmanthus tea. Flowers are fresh and in bud, because dried flowers are not fragrant. But mixed with flowers, won't the tea get wet? So do it again after smoking the flowers. Do you want to sift out the dried flowers? It depends on whether the dried flowers are still effective. If the dried jasmine flowers have no taste effect, they can be screened out and left in the tea for ornament. Osmanthus fragrans is different. Dried osmanthus still has the function of improving taste, so dried osmanthus is not screened out. When brewing, mix some dried osmanthus evenly. How long will it take? About eight hours, the smoking mentioned here is only to mix flowers and tea in a certain proportion (for example, 20%) without heating, but after the flowers and tea are mixed together, the temperature will rise. If it is too hot, turn it over and let it dissipate heat (called flower transfer). Smoked flowers are written as fragrant flowers, and scented tea is also called fragrant tablets.

You can smoke flowers many times, because if you smoke them only once, the fragrance will not enter the room, and once or twice, there will be no fragrance. The way to improve it is to smoke it again, that is, after airing it again, mix in another batch of flowers and make it again. The tea made in this way is called double smoked scented tea. If it is not enough, it can be smoked again, which is three-smoked scented tea. But we have to remember that we are drinking tea, and we just use flowers to set off the taste of tea, so the father of the tea-making teacher will remind us: "Seven cents for tea, three cents for flowers."

Are there any rules about what tea goes with what flowers? No, but most people will consider incompatibility, such as jasmine and osmanthus. Compared with jasmine, jasmine is younger and osmanthus is more mature, so we will smoke jasmine with green tea or green tea and frozen osmanthus or Tieguanyin.

Baking fire

If we want tea to smell like fire and feel warmer, we can bake it with fire. The weight of the fire will also cause different flavors. The light fire will feel raw, and the heavy fire will feel cooked. How to see the weight of baking fire from the appearance? The light roasting color is brighter, and the heavy roasting color is darker, including the color of dry tea and the color of brewed tea soup. When fermenting, we said: the lighter the fermentation, the greener the color, the heavier the fermentation, and the redder the color. The fire affects the depth of color, that is, brightness. The heavier the baking fire, the lower the brightness, and the lighter the baking fire, the higher the brightness.

What's the difference in taste? Drinking light roasted tea is like eating steamed cooking, and drinking heavy roasted tea is like eating braised pork. What is the difference in the effect on the body? It is colder to drink unbaked tea and colder to drink roasted tea. Tea is a cold food. Baking can make it less cold, but it won't produce a hot effect.

Generally speaking, the so-called raw tea and cooked tea mainly refer to roasting fire, but the more mature the tea, the more twisted it is and the more fermented it is. The more tender the tea leaves are, the less they are twisted and the less they are fermented. Therefore, to judge which kind of tea is mature, we should analyze it from four factors: stir-frying, tea green, rolling and fermentation, and the one with some mature factors is mature.

The production technology of packaged tea can be divided into two parts: rough and refined. Tea leaves are called coarse tea after drying, and their products are called coarse tea or coarse tea. Rough tea can only be called refined tea after screening, picking and baking.

Among them, baking has two main purposes for some fermented teas:

1. Reduce the moisture content of tea to slow down the deterioration of tea quality. It is to improve or adjust the aroma and taste of tea and the color of tea soup, so as to make up for the defects of rough technology and make tea into the quality that meets the market demand.

2. Baking is an important key to determine the aroma and taste of some fermented teas. Correct baking methods can significantly improve the quality and value of tea, but baking is also the most difficult processing procedure. The effect of baking is greatly influenced by the season, origin, processing technology, freshness, rope, baking equipment, heat source, temperature and time of crude tea.

Here are some basic experiences in baking tea.

Temperature level:

Temperature is the main factor that determines the quality of tea. With the increase of temperature, the water in tea gradually evaporates, and then the aroma evaporates with the water. The boiling point of essential oil in most aroma components is 150.

Therefore, the baking temperature should be below 150 degrees, and usually not more than 1 10 degrees. Generally, older tea leaves need higher baking temperature, and caramel products are used to cover the rough cyanine taste of older tea leaves. The temperature of delicate tea leaves should not be too high. The principle of prolonging the time is to make the taste of tea soup sweet and the fragrance can be carried forward appropriately.

Re-baking time:

At the same temperature, the fire resistance of tender tea leaves is weak, so the baking time should be shortened. On the contrary, rough old tea leaves have strong fire resistance and need longer baking time. If the fermentation degree of raw tea is enough, the temperature will be weak and the time will be shortened, otherwise it will be prolonged; The tea with compact shape has high fire resistance and needs a long redrying time, otherwise it will shorten the time.

Difference of water content in tea:

One of the reasons for redrying tea is to reduce the water content in tea, so the baking temperature and time should be increased and prolonged for tea with high water content. At the same time, if the baking environment is humid, we should also pay attention to raising the baking temperature or time.

The relationship between tea quantity:

Because tea is not a good heat transfer conductor, it should be diluted for tea with high water content and tight strips. If it is spread too thick, it will also cause boredom.

Filled flame:

Filling fire is an important process before tea packaging and transportation. If the tea is dry enough, it is not necessary to fill fire. Usually, the temperature used to fill the fire should not be too high and the time should not be too long, so as not to affect the aroma and taste of the original tea. Generally speaking, the low roasting degree of tea should not exceed 90 degrees, and the inferior tea should not exceed 1 10 degrees.

Mixed:

Blending is to mix favorite food with black tea, such as chopping Luoshen flower and mixing it with black tea, for example, mixing Luoshen scented tea with chopped mint green tea to make mint tea. The practice of adding edible spices into tea is also called blending, such as adding apple spices to make apple tea and adding lemon spices to make lemon tea. Mixed tea must be labeled. If substances that increase the sweetness and aroma of tea are added without labeling, it is against the food labeling law to say that tea is sweet and fragrant. So far, the aroma of all kinds of tea can't be synthesized artificially, so if a certain tea is very similar to the aroma of camellia or a certain food, it is doubtful whether artificial spices are mixed. The sweetness of tea will not be highlighted as soon as it is drunk, but the so-called sweetness. If you feel sweet immediately after drinking, and it is very strong, you should also doubt whether it is mixed with artificial sweetness.

Chen Fang:

Chen Fang just bought tea and put it back for a year, five years or more to make it more mellow. One year Chen Fang belongs to short-term Chen Fang, the purpose is only to reduce the green taste and coldness of tea. Dolly is used for green tea or non-baked tea. This type of Chen Fang needs special drying. Those who have stayed in Chen Fang for more than three or five years belong to the medium-term Chen Fang. The purpose is to change the quality characteristics of tea and make it pure and less irritating on the original basis. Dolly is used for leaf tea with light fire or above. Those who have been in Chenfang for more than ten years belong to the long line, aiming at changing the style of tea and making it produce another taste of old tea. Dolly is used for leaf tea and post-fermented tea with small fire or above.

Chen Fang should be in a dry and tasteless place. Packaging should be moisture-proof and light-proof, but don't vacuum or refrigerate. Don't open it when the humidity is high, don't open it often, and dry it when it is wet. The drying method again depends on the kind of tea, such as low temperature drying or high temperature drying. The quality of tea would rather be higher, because Chen Fang's time is expensive; Don't bake it too high at first, or there won't be much room for change in the future.

Packaging:

It is beneficial to the quality and sales of tea to package tea into the size and type needed for use and mark the goods well.

Small tea bag:

The first tea product is packaged into small tea bags that can be directly brewed, and the small tea bags are taken out and discarded after being soaked to the required concentration. This kind of packaging originated from broken black tea, because broken black tea can be automatically filled and packaged on the machine. Because this kind of packaging is really convenient for drinking tea, it will soon be popularized to scented tea and oolong tea, but it needs to use finely chopped tea or specially cut into corners, which is very unfavorable to the quality of non-fermented and partially fermented tea, so the popularity is not very great. In recent years, the situation has greatly improved. As long as the tea leaves are kneaded into compact balls and the branches and leaves are separated, the machine can automatically fill and package, resulting in a new type of small bag tea, called three-dimensional tea bag or original tea bag. This packaging method greatly facilitates the drinking of some fermented tea and non-fermented tea.

Small package:

The second category of tea commodity packaging is small packaging, and tea is packaged in cans or bags with different weights of100g, 300g and 600g. Someone vacuumed this package, or vacuumed it first and then washed it with nitrogen. Even green tea is required to be stored below 0 degrees Celsius. This kind of packaging is for short-term drinking. If it is tea that can be used in Chen Fang, that is, tea whose quality will not deteriorate after Chen Fang, there is no need to vacuum or pack it with nitrogen, and it does not need to be put in the refrigerator after opening. Just remind consumers on the package to be moisture-proof, odor-proof and sun-proof.

Large package:

The third category of tea commodity packaging is large packaging, which sells tea in cans in units of 3 kg, 5 kg or 1 kg. This kind of packaging is for Chen Fang's purpose, so the tea must be treated according to Chen Fang's conditions. At this time, retting treatment is very important, especially the separation of leaves from leaves. The jar has high durability, good moisture-proof and light-proof effect, moderate tightness of the jar mouth, moisture-proof but breathable.

In addition to the items required by the commodity labeling law, it is best to describe the situation of tea, including the description of tea name and the description of tea properties. Tea names are general commodity names, such as Longjing and green tea. The explanation of tea properties includes: fermentation (such as no fermentation, light fermentation, medium fermentation, heavy fermentation, full fermentation and post-fermentation) and rolling (such as light rolling, medium rolling and post-rolling).

Manufacturing technology of various tea leaves

Green tea:

Fresh leaves > enzyme fixation > rolling > drying > green tea

Deactivation method: 1. Heat for deacidification.

2. Steam fixing

Drying method:

1. parched dry (parched green): long parched green-long strips of parched green tea.

Flat fried green-flat and smooth appearance

Round fried green-round and granular in appearance

Special fried green (tender fried green)

2. Sun-drying (baking): ordinary baking-usually used to smoke scented tea.

Tender roasted green

3. Sun drying (sun drying): processing into pressed tea.

Black tea:

Fresh leaves > withering > rolling > fermentation > drying > black tea

Fermentation:

Fermentation is the key to making black tea, also called "lying red". Because tea contains biocatalyst "polyphenol oxidizing mold", this mold will lose its activity at high temperature, so black tea is not inactivated, so the mold maintains a high degree of activity. In addition, tea also contains a colorless substance called "tea polyphenols". Under the catalysis of polyphenol-oxidizing mold, tea polyphenols are easily oxidized into red compounds. Some of these compounds are soluble in water and turn into red soup, while others are insoluble in water and accumulate in leaves and turn red. This is how the red soup leaves of black tea are formed.

Category: 1. Sai Black Tea: Red leaves and red soup, with pine smoke fragrance, resembling longan soup.

Smoked and roasted: the tea leaves are thinly spread in a bamboo sieve, and the pine trees are piled on the ground and burned with an open flame, so that the tea leaves absorb a lot of pine smoke fragrance.

2. Kung Fu black tea: fermented until the leaves turn copper red before drying, mastering the heat, baking until it is sweet, which is a fine product. (This method was done after 1875)

3. Broken black tea: When kneading, use a machine to chop the tea leaves into granular pieces.

Black tea was made after green tea, about 1650 years ago.

Green tea (oolong tea):

Fresh leaves > drying > shaking > cooling > deactivating enzymes > primary kneading > primary baking > bag kneading > secondary baking > drying > green tea (oolong tea)

It belongs to semi-fermented tea, which is between black tea and green tea. This method was done around 1855.

White tea:

Fresh leaves > drying (or slow fire drying) > white tea

Pick delicate tea leaves with white hairs on the back, and do not stir-fry or knead them during processing, so that the white hairs remain intact on the surface of the tea leaves.

1. silver needle: also known as Bai Hao silver needle.

2. Bai Mudan: Picking one bud and two leaves, drying them directly after withering, and naming them after peony.

3. Gong Mei: Pick a bud and two or three leaves.

4. Longevity eyebrows: when manufacturing, needles are drawn, the picked tea buds are made into silver needles, and other leaves are made into eyebrows. During manufacturing, the leaves are slightly curled, and the white hairs on the back of the leaves remain intact. The leaves are named after the eyebrows of the old birthday girl.

White tea is cool and has the function of clearing away heat and reducing fire.

Yellow tea:

Fresh leaves > fixing > rolling > punching > drying > yellow tea

Black tea:

Fresh leaves > enzyme fixation > primary rolling > heap fermentation > secondary rolling > drying > black tea.

Black tea is called black tea because its raw materials are coarse and old, and it takes a long time to accumulate and ferment in the production process, so its leaves are mostly dark brown.

Due to different quality characteristics and ever-changing processing methods, the above kinds of tea are generally divided into primary processing and fine processing. Primary processed products are generally called coarse tea (or primary tea), and coarse tea is processed into refined tea or finished tea.

All kinds of coarse tea or fine tea are smoked with fragrant flowers, and the products are called scented tea.

Raw tea is processed by steam and pressed into various shapes in a mold, which is called pressed tea.

Scented tea:

Coarse tea and light rice are layered on top of each other. A few hours later, after the tea absorbs the fragrance of flowers, the tea leaves and flowers are separated, dried separately, and then the flowers are added to the tea leaves to form the scented tea. Take jasmine as an example: 50 kg of tea, about 15 ~ 40 kg of jasmine.

According to the tea spectrum, jasmine, rose, rose, cymbidium, lotus, orange, gardenia, radix aucklandiae and plum can all be used as tea.

Text interpretation of tea-making process

Tea green: Bud leaves picked from the new shoots of tea trees according to the requirements of tea making, including the terminal buds of the new shoots and the first, second, third and fourth leaves with downward tips, commonly known as tea green, raw leaves or green leaves. Fresh leaves are processed into tea for brewing drinks.

Fermentation: the essence of fermentation is the oxidation process of enzymes contained in tea; Generally, it refers to the color change process of all kinds of tea under different conditions due to the change of contents. Withering: the process of removing some water from fresh leaves and promoting the change of chemical composition of leaves. After fresh leaves lose a certain amount of water, the leaves become soft, the respiration is accelerated, heat is generated, the membrane permeability of the leaves is improved, the enzyme activity is enhanced, and a series of biochemical changes will occur.

Yellow stuffing: yellow stuffing is the characteristic of yellow tea processing technology, and it is also the key process to form the quality characteristics of yellow leaves in yellow soup. From the beginning of enzyme fixation to the end of drying, suitable moist and hot conditions can be created for tea yellowing.

Shaking green: a special process in the primary processing technology of oolong tea, also known as "making green". Greening is to put the moderately dehydrated leaves into a water sieve or shaker, so that the leaves rotate, the edges of the leaves are rubbed, the cell tissues of the leaves are destroyed, and the tea polyphenols undergo enzymatic oxidative condensation, which makes these leaves turn red.

Stacking fermentation: the key process to determine the quality characteristics of black tea in black tea production, also known as post-fermentation. When tea contains certain moisture, temperature, oxygen and proper strips, after a certain period of accumulation, the content changes in series, making tea alcohol and crude green gas disappear.

Inactivation: The purpose of deacidification is to destroy the oxidation activity of fresh leaves with high temperature, and to prevent the enzymatic oxidation of tea polyphenols and unnecessary changes in the content of leaves.

The activity of oxidase in tea will be destroyed only when it is above 70℃, so that the leaf temperature can reach above 70℃ quickly, which is the key to the technology of enzyme fixation. High temperature makes the leaves soft and easy to knead, which promotes the formation of aroma.

Drying: the last process of primary tea making, which becomes coarse tea after drying. Drying temperature, leaf dosage and operation method are important technologies to ensure the final quality of tea.

Kneading: the process of kneading tea leaves into strips by manual or mechanical friction, which destroys some leaf tissues, so that the dried tea leaves have a dense appearance and the tea juice is easy to bubble out when brewed with water.

Scenting: flowers and tea blanks are mixed in proportion and stirred evenly. Using the adsorption characteristics of tea blank, at a certain temperature, with the gradual evaporation of water, the flower fragrance is absorbed by tea, which is a unique processing procedure of scented tea.

Steam pressing: a special reprocessing procedure for pressing tea leaves. Steam tea leaves with high-pressure steam to soften them, and then put them into a mold box to press them into tea pieces with different shapes.