tea

Tea is a type of non-alcoholic beverage made by steeping processed leaves, buds, twigs of the tea bush, known as Camellia Sinensis, in hot water for a few minutes.

Four Basic Types of True Tea

Black Tea

The tea leaves are allowed to completely ferment or oxidize.

Oolong Tea

Oxidation or fermentation is stopped somewhere between the standards for green tea

and black tea.

Green TeaIn this type of tea, oxidation process is stopped after a

minimal amount of oxidation by application of heat, either with steam, or by dry cooking

in hot pans, the traditional Chinese way of oxidizing tea.

White TeaIt is manufactured by a process

that uses relatively low heat and no rolling. The formative stage is an extended period of withering, during which enzymatic reactions

progress under the right temperature, humidity and

airflow.

Tea Production/ Processing ORTHODOX

Withering

In withering, harvested tea flush is evenly spread on the withering troughs which are normally 4 to feet wide and

50 to 70 ft. long . In this process hot and cold air is blown through to

remove the moisture of fresh leaf to 30-40 with in 16 to 18 hours.

The main purpose of withering is to make the turgid leaf flaccid and prepare the leaf for the next

stage of facilitate rolling.

Rolling

Withered leaf is charged in the rollers with different sizes. The sizes of rollers are normally 36” and 48” rollers that can roll 70 to 120 kg of withered leaf. The pressure is exerted on the leaf in ‘open and pressure’ sequence.

At this stage the green color of leaf starts to diminish and brown coopery color of leaf begins to appear.

Fermentation/ Oxidation

At this stage rolled leaves are place on the fermentation racks specially made either of tiles, cement or aluminum.

During this stage the leaf changes color and becomes dark coppery, a typical aroma of tea develops at this

stage,.

Firing/ Drying

During the drying process enzymes responsible for fermentation are inactivated

and even after the tea was dried the maturation process continues and tea attains

the mellowness, a desirable character of Daejeeling teas.

At this stage the fermentation leaves are loaded onto the dryer, which comprises perforated moving trays. The

dryer inlet temperature must be maintained at 200 to 2400 F.

Sorting & Grading

Bulk tea is mow sorted on mechanically oscillated sieves.

The sieve size decreases gradually from top to bottom. Thus, the bigger size teas are retained on the

top while the broken leaves fall towards the floor.

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