The Professor's Only Slightly Rambling Lesson in the Processing of the Delightful Beverage, Tea
Welcome all my minions! No, wait. I am not supposed to use that term anymore. Welcome, my tea loving friends, to my only slightly rambling lesson in tea processing. That is to say, the activities of tea before it reaches you are what we will be talking about here. To begin with, there are six types of tea and that does not include herbal infusions, which are also delicious.
When we talk of teas, we are referring only to drinks brewed with leaves from the actual tea plant. The differences between the types of teas come primarily from the way they are processed, or not processed, as the case may be. There are six steps and some find themselves going through steps multiple times or not at all. The six steps are plucking, withering, rolling, oxidization, firing, and sorting. Everything else, while lovely, is a herbal infusion.
When we talk of teas, we are referring only to drinks brewed with leaves from the actual tea plant. The differences between the types of teas come primarily from the way they are processed, or not processed, as the case may be. There are six steps and some find themselves going through steps multiple times or not at all. The six steps are plucking, withering, rolling, oxidization, firing, and sorting. Everything else, while lovely, is a herbal infusion.
Here, we will define the steps of processing.
Step 1: Plucking- The leaves are plucked either by hand or machine. The best teas are plucked by hand using individuals that have been specially trained to carefully pluck only the exact leaves needed for the tea.
Step 1: Plucking- The leaves are plucked either by hand or machine. The best teas are plucked by hand using individuals that have been specially trained to carefully pluck only the exact leaves needed for the tea.
Step 2: Withering- After plucking the leaves, they are left out in thin, even layers in a temperature controlled area for up to 24 hours. It is during this phase that the leaves lose much of their moisture. It is also interesting to note that the leaves at this point also develop higher levels of caffeine and amino acids. So, the longer the leaves are allowed to wither, the greater the amount of tea in it when it is drunk...or rather, when you drink it.
Step 3: Rolling- Exactly what it sounds like! People or machines roll the leaves. Rolling bruises the leaves and encourages oxidization. Lovely oxygen, without which we could not survive. That reminds me of a trip I took with my companions to the depths of the ocean...poor Mittens. Oh, wait. I must remember to focus.
Step4: Oxidization- The teas are then left out to oxidize. In this phase, the teas change colors, growing dark with time. The different types of tea are left out to oxidize for various amounts of time, with the darker teas left to oxidize longer than the lighter ones.
Step 5: Firing-To stop the oxidization process, the leaves are fired in pans of rotating drums. Different teas are fired in various manners in order to produce particular teas.
Step 6: Sorting- Finally, the tea is sorted so that only the best whole leaves are sent out to tea drinkers around the world. Leaves that are broken during the processing are either discarded or used in lesser quality teas.
Well, that is today's lecture. I hope you took notes. I will not be testing you on it, I just like it when people take notes. Now, I am off to work on my Hyper Sonic Wave Pulse Tickle Beam. Where is Mittens III? He was just here...