Black tea is a popular tea variety, and its production method has a unique process. The following is a detailed introduction to the black tea production method:
1. Picking
The first step in making black tea is to pick fresh leaves from the tea tree. When picking, the index finger and thumb are usually used to hold the middle of the young stem between the leaves, and the tea leaves are picked off by the elastic force of the two fingers. During the picking process, different picking parts will be selected according to the production needs. Generally, the young leaves of the tea tree are selected because the young leaves contain rich internal substances and are good raw materials for making high-quality black tea.
2. Withering
This process is crucial. It can make the grassy taste disappear and the fragrance of the tea leaves appear. It is an important processing stage for forming the aroma of black tea. Withering refers to the process in which the fresh leaves lose water after a period of time, causing the originally hard and crisp stems and leaves to wilt and wither. After withering, water can be evaporated appropriately, making the leaves soft and tougher, which is convenient for subsequent shaping. When making the raw materials of Keemun black tea, the masters will wither the leaves reasonably according to the picking time, climatic conditions and growth environment of the fresh leaves. The degree of withering will affect the quality of the final black tea.
3. Rolling
Put the withered tea leaves in a rolling machine (traditional technology can also use manual rolling) to roll them and form curls. Due to the rolling pressure, part of the juice is squeezed out and adheres to the surface of the tea leaves, so that it can be easily dissolved in the tea soup when brewing. Different black tea varieties have different rolling degrees, and the control of the rolling degree has an important impact on the taste and flavor of black tea.
4. Fermentation
Fermentation is a unique stage in the production of black tea and a key step in determining the quality of black tea. After fermentation, the leaf color changes from green to red, forming the quality characteristics of black tea red leaves and red soup. Fermentation starts with rolling. Due to the pressure of rolling, the leaf cells are damaged, the polyphenols are damaged by mold-promoting oxidation, and the polymerization is accelerated, thus starting fermentation. The fermentation time of Keemun black tea varies according to the temperature and the quality of the tea leaves, and generally takes 3-5 days.
5. Drying
Drying is the process of baking the fermented tea leaves at high temperature (or other drying methods, such as hot air drying, etc.) to quickly evaporate the water and achieve the dryness required for quality preservation. There are three main purposes: first, to use high temperature to quickly inactivate the activity of enzymes and stop fermentation; second, to evaporate water, reduce the volume, fix the shape, and maintain the dryness to prevent mildew; third, to emit most of the low-boiling point grass smell, intensify and retain the high-boiling point aromatic substances, so as to obtain the unique sweet fragrance of black tea.
The black tea production methods of different origins may differ in details, but generally include the above five main steps. The black tea carefully made through these steps is not only dark in color and rich in fragrance, but also fresh and sweet in taste, bringing people a unique taste experience.