Chinese flower tea has a long history.
With the quiet rise of the flower tea market, consumers' choice of drinking tea is not limited to the six major types of tea. Counting the types of flower tea on the market, jasmine tea is one of the most common flower teas. According to the statistics of China Tea Circulation Association, in 2020, the total processing volume of jasmine tea in the country was 112,500 tons, and the total output value was 12.538 billion yuan. It can be seen that consumers love jasmine tea.
△ Flower farmers work in jasmine fields Image source: Fuzhou Rural Revitalization
The kilning process of jasmine tea is very exquisite, and similar kilning processes can also be glimpsed in the production of many other flower teas on the market. So, what is the magic of the kilning process that has been "reproduced" by many flower teas? What are the flowers suitable for kilning, and how are they developing?
Tea introduces floral fragrance Flowers promote tea aroma
How much is known about the jasmine tea kiln making process
In addition to the choice of raw materials, the kilning process itself is also an extremely tedious and difficult technical task.
△ Fuzhou jasmine tea Image source: Pocket Fuzhou client
The process of making jasmine tea is divided into: raw materials (tea blank, jasmine flowers, magnolia flowers), mixing and kilning, heat dissipation through flowers, flowering, re-fire drying, turning or jacquard to finally make jasmine tea.
Mix and knead
According to the two characteristics of tea blanks such as incense absorption and flower incense, the camellia flowers are mixed and contacted together in a certain proportion, standing and kilning, and controlling suitable temperature, ventilation and other conditions to promote the suction and vomiting effect. In the process of kilning, attention should be paid to the ratio and dosage of camellia flowers and the method of kilning, at present, the production of flower tea has two kinds of manual kilning and mechanical kilning.
Through the flowers to dissipate heat
After the camellia flowers are left standing for a certain period of time, the metabolic processes of life alienation such as jasmine flowers breathing and spitting incense continue, and while releasing the aroma, the CO2 gas of the respiratory effect is also released. Through the heat dissipation of flowers, the environmental conditions in the pile are improved, so that jasmine tea continues to maintain the fragrance.
Flowering
After the flowering is completed, the tea is separated from the flower residue, and the flowering is carried out in time in accordance with the requirements of the kiln standard.
Re-dry over re-fire
The tea blank kiln process absorbs the fragrance of flowers at the same time, but also absorbs the moisture of flowers, and it is necessary to bake and dry the water in time to ensure the quality of tea.
Turn or jacquard
The purpose of jacquard is to improve the freshness of flower tea and make the water content of flower tea meet the finished water standard. Finally, in order to make full use of the jasmine fragrance, the tea blank is made of flower residue, that is, the process is completed.
"Fork" those teas made of jasmine tea
How are they going?
At present, the flowers suitable for kilning are jasmine, orchid, osmanthus flower, tortoiseshell flower, grapefruit flower, rose, gardenia flower... The teas produced by these flowers have their own styles, which not only maintain the aromatic floral atmosphere but also have the simple charm of tea. These flowers and different tea combinations are also diverse, such as jasmine in addition to the common with green tea, jasmine white tea, jasmine black tea is also a popular combination in recent years; Osmanthus Longjing tea, osmanthus oolong tea, osmanthus black tea and other teas also have their own markets...
So, how is the development of the flower tea industry that "reproduces" jasmine tea making techniques today? From the following four typical production areas, we may be able to glimpse a hint of the development effect.
Peaceful yuzu chilan tea
Pinghe County is located in the southwest of Zhangzhou, known as "the hometown of China's Zhenxi grapefruit, China's white bud Chelan tea town" and other reputations. In recent years, Pinghe County has vigorously developed the road of tea industry, transformed and upgraded, and used the finished tea of white bud Chelan and the flowers of the "king of grapefruit" Zhenxi grapefruit as raw materials to make grapefruit chilan tea.
△ Pinghe Zhenxi grapefruit flowers Image source: Pinghe News
Yuzu Chilan tea is a reprocessed tea, which adds grapefruit floral fragrance on the basis of the excellent quality of traditional white bud chelan tea, and compounds the health effect of yuzu flower tea, becoming a new favorite in the market and favored by consumers. In view of the development path of grapefruit Chelan tea, the Pinghe County Government has continuously promoted the improvement of its scale, quality and efficiency, and organized the "15th Pinghe White Bud Chelan and the First Yuzu Chilan Tea King Competition"; Join hands with CCTV Channel to launch the brand awareness of "Yuzu Qilan Tea" high-quality tea industry, which will last for 3 months in the future and appear in the weather forecast column of CCTV-2 "First Time"; It has also successively carried out a new chapter in the development of "tea grapefruit", created a road for the integration of tea tourism, and promoted the high-quality development of "tea grapefruit" double business cards.
Fuding Gardenia White Tea
Under the great attention and support of the Fuding Municipal Party Committee and the Fuding Municipal Government, the development of Fuding white tea industry has moved towards the fast lane, successively opened up major tea markets, carried out diversified formats of Fuding white tea, and jointly expanded the deep processing industry chain with local characteristic agricultural products. At present, Fuding has successfully developed the "Gardenia White Tea" and other blending and flower series products, and for the classification, requirements, production methods, test methods, inspection rules, labeling labels, packaging, transportation and storage of Fuding Gardenia White Tea, etc., it has formulated the group standard of "Fuding Gardenia White Tea", promoted the integration and development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries of Fuding Gardenia White Tea, strengthened enterprises and benefited farmers, and helped rural revitalization.
△ Fuding Gardenia White Tea Image source: Happiness Fuding
It is understood that Fuding Gardenia White Tea has the effect of clearing heat and reducing fire, as an extension and innovation of traditional white tea, integrating the aroma of flowers and tea, which not only enhances the value of drinking, but also provides a broad space for development for the market.
Shexian Zhu orchid tea
Shexian is located in the mysterious 30 degrees north latitude golden line, Shexian is known as "Xin'an good landscape, the world ancient Huizhou" reputation, breeding Huangshan Maofeng, Shexian dishuixiang, Shexian zhulan flower tea and a large number of famous teas. Among them, the selection of high-quality tea leaves such as Huangshan Maofeng and Huizhou Baking Green as tea blanks, the pearl orchid tea made of mixing and kilning has won many major awards and honors. At the 2016, 2017 and 2018 Beijing International Tea Industry Exhibition, the pearl orchid tea selected by Shexian County won the gold medal and special gold award of the tea product selection and promotion activities consecutively; Shexian zhulanhua tea and other agricultural products were included in the national list of famous and excellent new agricultural products; "Pearl Orchid Tea Making Technique" was listed on the list of the fifth batch of intangible cultural heritage representative projects in Huangshan City... Not only that, the standardized implementation of pearl orchid tea has also received attention from the local government. In 2019, the local standard of "Pearl Orchid Tea" was officially implemented.
△ Shexian Juju orchid Image source: Shexian released
In recent years, the Shexian County Party Committee and the county government have attached great importance to the development of the tea industry, driving the sales of flower tea with the integration of primary, secondary and tertiary production, enhancing the trade exchanges and cooperation of the local tea industry, and improving the popularity and market share of shexian flower tea.
Hangzhou Osmanthus Longjing
Hangzhou Osmanthus Longjing Tea is made from the world-renowned "Green Tea Queen" West Lake Longjing and osmanthus flowers representing the image of Hangzhou. Different from other flower teas, Osmanthus Longjing has a wide range of use in tea drinks, delicacies, etc. A few days ago, Luckin launched the Osmanthus limited series, which integrates Osmanthus Longjing tea, coconut cloud cover and longan to layout the early autumn drink marketing; Sawada Honjia integrated into the characteristics of Hangzhou city to launch the osmanthus Longjing Copper Gong Roast... At present, the application of osmanthus in flower tea is also relatively extensive, such as osmanthus oolong, osmanthus black tea, osmanthus nine-curved red plum and so on.
△ Hangzhou osmanthus picking Image source: Hangzhou West Lake Xixi Scenic Area
Inheritance and development is the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation, in addition to the above four regions, there are many tea producing areas rely on the kiln process to innovate, the development of innovative flower tea, thus, not only to open up the local tea brand awareness, but also to further fill the gap in flower tea innovation, to the production area to bring unlimited development opportunities.
Editor-in-Charge / Promise
Duty Editor / Yu Jieyun