Tea processing

Tea processing

Tea is a Chinese word used in China and northern India and has entered the Persian language with almost the same pronunciation.

The name of this plant is pronounced as tea in the southern Chinese dialect and as te in the northern Chinese dialect, and both are pronunciations of a single word in ancient Chinese. The people of Western Europe learned the name of this plant from the North Chinese and the people of the Middle East and North Africa learned its name from the South Chinese.

Black tea or regular tea makes up 2/3 of the world’s tea consumption. Black tea is made in two official orthodox and unorthodox methods.

The production steps of orthodox black tea are:

China Green leaves from tea plant gardens

plus

Rubbing

Fermentation (oxidation)

dry

Head (Classification)

Packing

 

1- Green leaf cut from tea plant gardens

The green leaves collected to the tea factory from the gardens, which are under the close and precise management of their experts, are arranged in the form of two leaves and a bud, which is the most delicate and high-quality part of the tea plant .

These orchards, which are under the control of biological pest control, do not use any pesticides or chemical fertilizers.

 

2- Plus

Plus is the first step in tea production. During this process, the leaf moisture is reduced to prepare the leaves for the rubbing and fermentation stages.

After careful control of green leaf quality by experienced and experienced experts, it is done automatically in the plus room for plus leaf operation in long transfers that have low width, long length and low height.

Heat is blown by suction fans from the heat source to the sub-tracts under the grille and daily; And causes the leaves to plush and (wither).

The plus stage causes physical changes (reduction of moisture, decomposition and concentration of substances in the leaves) and chemical changes (increased activity of polyphenol oxidase enzyme, breakdown of proteins in the leaf into amino acids, breakdown of chlorophyll, etc.) in the leaf Will be

 

3- Rubbing

The main purpose of rubbing green tea leaves is done after plushing; First , the cells disintegrate and the leaves twist and twist to release their contents. Second, as a result of exposure to oxygen in the air, a better fermentation process begins and the substance in the tea leaf is called “diastase” (one of the oxidases Known as “Te Az” is released.

In this process, the leaf juice or intracellular material that is preserved after fermentation and drying, in order to reveal the tea and its color and taste in the most pleasant and enjoyable state during cooking.

 

4- Fermentation (oxidation)

To make black tea, oxidation fermentation (absorption of air oxygen) must be done, which is the last change and chemical interaction after rubbing. This operation, which was previously started by rubbing, is completed. At this stage, the drying of the tea is stabilized in it

The fermentation stage is a sensitive stage of chemical interactions and reactions and is of great importance that is given much attention in tea. Tea experts recognize it well, because finishing the fermentation process a few minutes earlier or later has a great effect on the quality, aroma, color and taste of the tea.

 

5- Drying tea

Chinese leaf stages, plus fermented green leaf sieves deal with green leaves. But drying tea is actually terminating the fermentation process and preserving the properties it has created in the leaves.

Processed tea should be dried so that its material does not change to provide the desired quality for which it is planned. When drying the leaves, two distinct actions are performed: one is heating the leaves and the other is drying them.

 

6- Head and classification of tea

At this stage, the produced tea is separated in terms of coarseness and fineness, which is known as head and classification in the tea industry. Classified types of tea have special names and their supply to consumer markets is based on the above terms, which introduce General characteristics of tea

 

7- The last step: packing

After the tea is prepared, it is poured into bags and packaged and marked. That is, the weight of the tea, its type and date of production are recorded on it and it is ready to be presented to the market.

 

Types of tea leaves in the custom of the tea industry:

Pekoe-Fleuri: The terminal bud that determines the longitudinal development of a branch is a leaf that is not fully open and covered with white hairs, and the best tea is made from this terminal bud. The more sprouts, the better the tea. This type of tea is also related to white tea

After the terminal bud, the first leaf with orange hairs is called Peko Orange.

Pokeo-Ordinair: Composed of the second leaf, on this leaf is also observed a small amount of hairs. The mixture of the first and second leaves and the terminal bud, gives excellent grade 1 tea.

Souchong: It is the leaves of numbers 3 and 4, the tea made from these leaves is medium or grade 2 tea.

Congou: Leaf No. 5, which is thick and the lowest type of tea, ie grade 3 tea, is made from this type of leaf.

 

Types of tea produced:

1.  Green tea (without fermentation)
2.  Black tea (complete fermentation)
3.  Olang tea (semi-fermented)
4. Molded tea and black tea produced may be marketed in bulk or packaged, tea bags and instant tea.

Green tea:

20 to 25 percent of the world’s total tea production is allocated to green tea, about 80 percent of the world’s tea production is done in China and Japan, and the remaining 20 percent of green tea production by Indonesia, the Soviet Union, Russia , Vietnam and India.

In terms of consumption, 15% of green tea is consumed by Morocco, the United States, Pakistan and France, the rest is consumed in China and Japan. The green leaf used to make green tea is no different from other types of tea, only the steps are different

black tea :

Black tea has the highest production and accounts for two thirds of the world’s tea and is consumed in most parts of the world. Black tea is usually produced in two formal and informal ways. To prepare black tea, all stages of tea production, ie, plus, sieve, fermentation and drying are done.

 

Oolong tea:

In this type of tea production, after the rubbing operation, the semi-finished fermentation stage is performed. Olang tea is also common in China, Japan and Taiwan.

 

Molded tea:

This type of tea is usually made in China. To prepare it, they use leaves, stems and even young and slender branches. After performing the tea-making operation, they press it and use wooden molds to make it into molded tea or tablets.

 

Instant tea:

This type of tea is mostly produced in India and Sri Lanka. It is produced in such a way that first black tea is brewed and after extraction, it is concentrated and powdered at low temperature.

Instant tea consumption is very similar to instant coffee consumption. For this reason, its consumption is expanding in Western European countries, especially the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. The production of this type of tea in the world has an average annual growth of about 17%. This tea is a type of black tea.

tea bag :

It is usually prepared from small tea cultivars (soil) or from small CTC tea and is a type of black tea.

Bagged tea due to its ease of consumption and the fact that its efficiency is higher in terms of the amount of soda than other types of tea (about 230 cups of tea soda are obtained from each pound of tea soda, while from each pound of non-bagged tea (About 150 cups are obtained) has significantly increased the consumer’s tendency to consume non-bagged tea, the bagged tea is usually bottled in 2 grams.

However, this type of tea has recently been marketed in terms of saving 4 gram bags.

 

Source:

Agricultural and livestock production lines