Chinese Teas: Facts about Tea Processing

CHINESE TEAS FACTS ABOUT TEA PROCESSING -.......... FRESH TEA LEAVES (Camellia sinensis) *t aka Cháhuă White, green, yellow, wulong, pu-erh and black teas are all harvested from this species. Specific processes determine the shape and flavor of the tea. OPTIONAL WITHERING OPTIONAL WITHERING WITHERING WITHERING WITHERING WITHERING DRYING FIXATION FIXATION OXIDATION SHAPING FIXATION SHAPING SHAPING FIXATION OXIDATION SHAPING DRYING HEAPING SHAPING DRYING DRYING DRYING DRYING FERMENTING WHITE TEA GREEN TEA YELLOW TEA WULONG TEA BLACK TEA PU-ERH TEA NON OXIDIZED TEAS (« > FULLY OXIDIZED TEAS In a nutshell - green teas are not oxidized and black teas are fully oxidized. WITHERING OXIDATION FIXATION SHAPING DRYING FERMENTING Removing excess Sunning, panning, air drying or baking the tea in order to finish it for sale and and exposing the tea to humidity, Housing tea leaves in a climate con- trolled room where they turn darker as Exposing tea leaves to moderate heat to kneadin and forming the tea water from tea leaves via sun or wind exposure, deactivate oxidative microflora and into strips, pellets, spheres or other desired shapes enzymes and oxygen. chlorophyll is broken down enzy- thereby promoting remove unwanted scents without damaging the flavor distribution the breakdown of leaf proteins into matically and tannins are released or transformed free amino acids of the tea and increasing the availability of free caffeine Sources http://daoli.eu/ http://the-leaf.org/issue%202/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/oxi- dation-fermentation-in-tea-manufacture-single-page-layout.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camellia_sinensis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_processing dataowls