Lastea - Know more about tea: 4 Main Black Tea Processing Methods

Due to different regions and types of tea, there are many different black tea processing methods. Among them, the most popular and the basic is “Orthodox traditional black tea processing method”, With the exception of a few places, such as China, that have tea manufacturing techniques passed down from history, most of the black tea now sold in mainstream markets around the world is produced in this way.
In addition to the basic “Orthodox” method, there are “CTC”, “Gongfu Black Tea” and “LapSang Souchong” etc. Four main black tea processing methods make black tea having a different flavor.

Contents

Orthodox Black Tea

Picking

Tea is made from the young leaves and buds which picked from tea trees. High-quality black tea is usually picked from tender leaves and buds.

Withering

The fresh leaves will be immediately sent to the tea factory after picked, evenly spread out and stand, so that the water of tea slowly volatilize and reduce, become soft and easy to roll. The tea leaves also undergo chemical changes as water is lost. Usually, tea will be withering in the room, ventilation equipment is set under the withering trough to provide air and even heat according to weather conditions to improve efficiency.

Rolling

After withering, tea leaves are processed by rolling machine. On the one hand, tea tissues are destroyed, so that the tea juice, tea essence, and fragrance are released from the surface of tea leaves, so that they can be rapidly dissolved in the future steeping; On the other hand, tea leaves are tightly rolled and shaped for packaging and preservation. And the way of tea rolling and weight of different degree of pressure will also cause flavor differences.
In the process of rolling, due to heat generated by pressure and friction, coupled with the release of gum in the tea, easy to increase the temperature of tea and form a lump, so it must be based on the situation from time to time to take out the lump and untie, and continue to roll;This cools the tea and makes the rolling movement smoother.
In contrast to other teas, black tea leaves are chopped during preparation to facilitate steeping, packaging, and transportation. Many are cut at the end of the screening, but more broken black tea is often in advance in rolling steps directly (generally after kneading and then into the kneading machine, kneading cut tea).

Fermentation

The tea leaves will be fermented in warm, moist air after rolled and cut, oxidizing the polyphenols contained in the leaves to theophylline.
Drying: After fermented, tea will be dried at high temperatures to stop the fermentation and to remove water completely.

Refining

The tea leaves that complete the drying process is called “Primarily processed tea “, which must be screened and graded according to the quality of the tea leaves and the size of the leaves. Remove stems by hand or machine, blows away the foreign matter and impurities through the winnowing separator, and packaging to sell.

CTC Black Tea

CTC is an abbreviation of Crush, Tear, and Curl. It is a method of mass production of black tea in the 1930s with rapid and low cost.
This method mainly uses a special CTC roller machine. After picking and withering, the tea leaves are directly fed into the machine, and the tea leaves are rolled, chopped, kneaded and rolled into very fine round grains at high speed, which is convenient for steeping thick and abundant tea juice in a very short time. According to the actual steeping comparison, one kilogram CTC tea can steep about 400 cups of black tea, but if the Orthodox method, one kilogram can only out of about 200 cups, the gap is very large.
The CTC process method is currently used in India, Kenya and other places, and the tea is mainly used for steeping milk tea or making tea bags. Especially in India, CTC black tea is the most important national beverage due to its low price and good taste. More than 90% of the production and consumption is concentrated in this country (especially the most popular local tea, Masala Chai, must be steeped with CTC black tea from Assam to be tasty).

Because black tea is basically used to steep into milk tea, in the local, CTC black tea standard test tea procedures are unexpectedly all in the way of milk mixing, determine to match the degree of the high and strong flavor of the top grade.

Gongfu Black Tea

This is a popular black tea processing method in China. Its concept is much the same with Orthodox processing methods and procedures, but the refining process in the later stage is more elaborate. It needs to go through the process of Screening, winnowing, selection, re-drying, blending and so on, so as to produce the fine gongfu tea with compact and delicate appearance and elegant flavor.

LapSang Souchong

It is said to gongfu tea was evolved from it, which is the oldest black tea making method in China. The process is similar to that of gongfu black tea, except that a process called “Pot Frying” is added after fermentation to stop the fermentation, preserve the polyphenols, and make the soup redder in color and sweeter in the aroma.
“Pot Frying” is usually redone by rolling, called “re-rolling”, to firm up the loose leaves. It is then baked and dried to create a unique aroma.

Lastea - Know more about tea

Sunday, November 10, 2019

4 Main Black Tea Processing Methods – Orthodox, CTC, Gongfu, and LapSang