Black Tea manufacture: Withering:
The objective of withering is to reduce the moisture in the t ealeaf by up to 70% (varies from region to region). Tea is laid out on a wire mesh in troughs. Air is then passed through the tea removing the moisture in a uniform way. This process takes around 12 to 17 hours. At the end of this time the leaf is limp and pliable and so will roll well.
Rolling: Tea is placed into a rolling machine, which rotates horizontally on the rolling table. This action creates the twisted wiry looking tealeaves. During the rolling process the leaves are also broken open, which starts the third process - oxidisation.
Oxidisation: Once rolling is complete, the tea is either put into troughs or laid out on tables whereby the enzymes inside the tealeaf come in to contact with the air and start to oxidise. This creates the flavour, colour and strength of the tea. It is during this process that the tealeaf changes from green, through light brown, to a deep brown, and happens at about 26 degrees centigrade. This stage is critical to the final flavour of the tea, if left too long the flavour will be spoilt. Oxidisation takes from between half an hour to 2 hours. This process is monitored constantly with the use of a thermometer along with years of experience. The tea then passes to the final stage of drying.
Drying: To stop the oxidising process the tea is passed through hot air dryers. This reduces the total moisture content down to about 3%. The oxidisation will be stopped by this process, and now the dried tea is ready to be sorted into grades before packing.
Green Tea manufacture: The main difference when making green tea is that the oxidisation process is omitted, which allows the tea to remain green in colour, and very delicate in flavour. In order to ensure that the freshly picked leaf does not oxidise, before the tea is rolled, the leaf is either pan fried, or steamed. This will prevent the interaction of the enzymes in the leaf, and so no oxidisation can take place. In China some green teas are withered before being pan fried, but more usually in green tea manufacture, the withering process is omitted as well.
Rolling, drying, and sorting follow.
Grading Tea
After processing, the tea is graded by size. Grading tea is more of an art than a science. Here is what you need to know...
The size needs to be consistent among the various grades because smaller, broken pieces of leaves brew faster than whole leaf.
Before I explain the grades let me first say that whole leaf is considered better quality than broken, and smaller whole leaves generally have more flavor than larger ones.
Now, with that said, the grades of tea are represented by initials or a series of initials. Here are the grades of leaf sizes from largest to smallest:
Whole Leaf
S - Souchong (Usually the fourth leaf of the shoot which means it comes from coarse plucking and is therefore, lower quality)
FOP – Flowery Orange Pekoe (It's often thought that Orange Pekoe is a type of tea, but it's really just a size. Flowery refers to its shape resembling a crushed flower because it is loosely rolled.)
OP – Orange Pekoe (Generally regarded as a good quality tea that is rolled up slightly tighter than FOP)
Broken Leaf
P – Pekoe (A large broken leaf grade that usually does not contain any visible tips)
BOP – Broken Orange Pekoe (Broken into pieces that are typically square shaped)
Fannings and Dust
F – Fannings (The size usually found in tea bags. The name comes from an old practice of using fans to separate the smallest pieces from the larger)
D – Dust (The finest of all grades, almost powder-like)
Additional Modifiers:
T – Tippy (A modifier used in whole and broken leaf grades to indicate that the that there are buds present)
G – Golden (Describing the coloring of the tips or buds and is considered favorable)
When grading whole leaf teas, they usually start at the lowest grade, PS (Pekoe Souchong) to FOP which is a higher quality. Then, they will add the modifiers such as GFOP (Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe) which is even better.
After that, even more modifiers are added such as, FTGFOP (Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe) and even SFTGFOP (Special Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe).
OP – Orange Pekoe (Generally regarded as a good quality tea that is rolled up slightly tighter than FOP)
Broken Leaf
P – Pekoe (A large broken leaf grade that usually does not contain any visible tips)
BOP – Broken Orange Pekoe (Broken into pieces that are typically square shaped)
Fannings and Dust
F – Fannings (The size usually found in tea bags. The name comes from an old practice of using fans to separate the smallest pieces from the larger)
D – Dust (The finest of all grades, almost powder-like)
Additional Modifiers:
T – Tippy (A modifier used in whole and broken leaf grades to indicate that the that there are buds present)
G – Golden (Describing the coloring of the tips or buds and is considered favorable)
When grading whole leaf teas, they usually start at the lowest grade, PS (Pekoe Souchong) to FOP which is a higher quality. Then, they will add the modifiers such as GFOP (Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe) which is even better.
After that, even more modifiers are added such as, FTGFOP (Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe) and even SFTGFOP (Special Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe).
