The different colors of various types of tea are mainly affected by the pigments in the tea.
The pigments in tea can be divided into fat-soluble pigments and water-soluble pigments.
Fat-soluble pigments are insoluble in water, and mainly include chlorophylls and carotenoids, which are important factors in forming the color of dry tea and leaf bottom.
For example, chlorophyll a in chlorophylls is dark green, chlorophyll b is yellow-green, lutein is yellow, and carotenoids are orange-red.
Water-soluble pigments are water-soluble pigments, so they have an effect on the color of tea soup. For example, anthocyanins are yellow, anthocyanins are red-purple, and there are theaflavins, thearubicins and theafucins produced during processing.
So, how do they make up the color of the six major teas?
Green tea is basically a clear soup with green leaves, and its dry tea color is mainly affected by the ratio of chlorophyll a and b.
For the fresh buds and leaves, the content of chlorophyll b is higher, so the dry tea and leaf bottom are mostly tender yellow or tender green; while the chlorophyll a content in the relatively rough and old fresh leaves is higher than chlorophyll b, so the dry tea is mostly dark green .
The tea soup of green tea is mostly yellow-green, which is mainly determined by anthocyanin. In addition, it is also affected by a small amount of chlorophyll decomposition products in the tea soup.
During the processing of black tea, a large amount of chlorophyll is destroyed, coupled with the effect of demagnesium, the dry tea becomes dark brown. The bottom of the leaf is affected by the precipitate formed by the combination of thearubicin and alkaline protein, which is often red.
The tea soup of black tea is mainly affected by theaflavins and thearubicins, and it is golden or orange-red. Theaflavins determine the yellow or orange color in the tea soup and also affect the brightness of the tea soup. The thearubin constitutes the red or orange-red color in the tea soup.
Yellow tea is basically yellow leaf yellow soup. The color of dry yellow tea and the bottom of the leaf is mainly determined by orange-red carotene and yellow lutein.
During the yellowing process of yellow tea, chlorophyll is destroyed due to thermal effect, the green pigment is greatly reduced, and the yellow color is more prominent. This is the main reason why yellow tea appears yellow.
The color of white tea is silvery white and grayish green, mainly fresh leaves full of Pekoe. When withering, the chlorophyll undergoes oxidative degradation and gradually turns dark green. With the addition of Pekoe, it presents a silvery white and gray-green color.
White tea tea soup is mostly apricot yellow, which is the combined effect of anthocyanins and traces of theaflavins and thearubigen formed by oxidation of polyphenols in the middle and late stages of withering.
The color of green tea is required to be sandy green and oily, with green leaves and red borders at the bottom of the leaves. This is because the two or three leaves of the new shoots they pick have high chlorophyll content and darker color. During processing, the chlorophyll and pheophytin are partially degraded to form a small amount of polyphenol oxides, thus forming green leaf red borders.
The soup color of green tea varies with the degree of fermentation.
The lightly fermented soup is light and blue, which is affected by a small amount of chlorophyll decomposition products and anthocyanin;
The moderately fermented soup is orange and bright, mainly affected by theaflavins, supplemented by thearubigen and anthocyanin;
The color of the heavily fermented soup is reddish and dark, mainly due to excessive accumulation of thearubigen and thearfuscin.
The raw materials of black tea are coarse and old, and the color of dry tea changes from green to brown during the process of heaping. This is mainly due to the destruction of chlorophyll in the heap, plus the effects of theaflavins, thearubicins and theafucins produced during the processing , The leaf color was yellowish brown.
Black tea tea soup tends to be brown and dark, which is caused by the production of a large amount of theafuscin during the pile process. Of course, there are also orange-yellow tea soups, which are mainly caused by theaflavins.
Pu'er tea should be classified as dark tea, but its raw tea processing technology is very different from dark tea. Therefore, more and more people are now willing to classify Pu'er tea as a separate category.
The soup color of Pu'er raw tea varies from year to year, which is mainly determined by the ratio of anthocyanin, theaflavin, thearubicin, and theafuscin. As the age of raw tea increases, the trend of raw tea soup color gradually changes from green-yellow, yellow, orange-yellow, orange-red to red.