1 Picking tea green
This is the first process of making Tieguanyin. When the leaves of the terminal buds of tea grow to almost the same size, they can be picked. When picking, cut off the tea buds with scissors or blades, and separate the big, medium and small leaf buds, which is helpful to shake the green. The best time for picking is from noon to 3 pm on sunny days, and the quality of fresh leaves picked during this time is the best. The picked tea green can't be put on hold for too long. It should be sent home immediately and put in an air-conditioned room to dry and keep fresh, so as to avoid tea fermentation and affect tea quality. The freshness and tenderness of the picked tea should also be moderate. To meet these two conditions, the tea produced in one season is actually only a few days. If it rains for a long time, it will be ruined.
If you want to make high-grade Tieguanyin, there are stricter picking standards. Generally, three leaves and one bud are selected, and the freshness is moderate. The branches should be short and small, so that the water content of the branches will be less and the products will form good quality.
Step 2 get a tan
When the tea leaves are picked to a certain amount, they should be thinned and basked on the ground. There are many forms of drying, some of which are spread on water curtains and placed on shelves; Some are laid directly on the ground; Some put bamboo curtains on the ground. The purpose of drying leaves is to evaporate some water in leaves, promote the physical and chemical changes of substances in fresh leaves, and prepare for shaking leaves.
Step 3: let stand.
After the green leaves are dried, spread the tea leaves on a sieve and send them to an air-conditioned green room for standing. The temperature of the air-conditioned room is kept at 18-20 degrees Celsius. When the tea leaves are dried, some water will evaporate and the green leaves will become soft. When standing in a green room, the water in the petioles and veins will be replenished to the leaves, and then the leaves will straighten again.
Step 4 shake green
When the green leaves are still, it can be decided whether to shake according to the moisture change of the green leaves. Pour the green leaves in the water sieve into the bamboo "green shaker" and prepare to shake it. A motor is used to make the shaker rotate. Fresh leaves collide, scatter and rub in the shaking table, most of the cells at the edge of the leaves are broken and cracked, and water diffuses and permeates. The gaps between cells are filled with water, the leaves are stiff, and the green fragrance of tea leaves is volatilized. Contacting compounds such as tea polyphenols with enzymes to promote substance transformation; At the same time, the water gradually evaporates and decreases.
Shake and stand alternately for three or four times. This is the most critical link to form the quality of tea.
Shake and stand is called green, and the standard of doing green is the so-called "green leaves and red edges", as shown above. See the red edge?
5, killing is also called frying.
Its purpose is to quickly destroy the activity of enzyme by high temperature and consolidate the quality of molding. The picture above shows the drum dehydrator.
6. Knead plastic bags
Wrap the green tea with a special cloth, and tightly wrap the whole tea into a ball with a "quick packer". As shown above, the purpose of this link is to make shapes and colors.
Step 7 knead
Put the packaged tea bag into a "dough kneading machine" to knead the dough and shape it. The tea balls roll in a tightly wrapped state in the kneading machine, and the tea leaves inside will gradually form "particles" when squeezed. The magical works from leaf shape to particle shape are all here, of course, after many operations.
8. Keep warm
After the tea leaves are twisted, they should be baked. After the tea balls are broken, they are spread on a bamboo screen, placed on an iron frame and baked in a drying oven.
Wrap, knead and bake for two or three times. Until the appearance is satisfactory. It is best to dry the finished product.
The above is just a brief introduction to the production process of Tieguanyin, in fact, every link is very important. If something goes wrong in one link, you can't make good tea. It's really difficult to make a good cup of tea. Tea farmers work really hard, often without a few hours' sleep a day. The tea thus processed is called hairy tea. Five or six kilograms of tea green can be processed into one kilogram of hairy tea.
Tea refining
After sieving the tea powder, the tea stems and yellow leaves are removed. A catty of tea stalk processing salary is four or five yuan. Clean tea leaves should be winnowed to remove broken tea powder. A kilo of coarse tea can be processed into more than six taels of pure tea. If it is processing high-grade tea, there is only one catty of tea in the middle, only two ounces of clean tea can be processed, and the rest can only be sold at low prices. The processing salary of a catty of hairy tea stems is more than ten yuan. Clean tea leaves should be dried again, and then vacuum packed into bags of 7 grams or 8 grams each. It is best to use different grades of outer packaging according to the quality of tea.
When you tear open a small bag of tea, it doesn't know how many people have passed by and how many roads it has traveled. How much hardship does this include for tea farmers?