Traditional process: wild tea, wild tea is the main handmade iron pot to kill green, hand kneaded tea, Qingmao tea sun drying or smoke fire drying and pressing finished products natural shade drying or sun drying outsourced handmade paper, bamboo baskets, bamboo shells, bamboo basket packaging sunshine green tea, does not include Wodui cooked tea.
Modern process: mainly taiwanese tea, drum type qingqing, Qingmao tea sun drying or mechanical baking and pressing of the finished product natural shade drying or drying room drying still partially retain the traditional packaging, many changed to machine paper, cartons, paper bags, iron wire, referring to Pu'er tea for Wodui cooked tea.
Tea elite progression
In 1979, Qingmao Tea was uniformly divided into five grades and ten grades, with double samples and second grades. That is, the second, fourth, sixth, eighth, tenth and other five levels. Generally speaking, the first-level young tea jing is usually blended with the second level to make loose tea, tuo tea, square bricks and the like, the second level tea jing is mixed with the third level to make cake tea, and the fourth and fifth grade tea jing are the main raw materials for brick tea.
At present, the classification of tea elite grades on the market has some deviations from the above official data, and the general tea merchant tea people habitually use the level " to call the "etc" in the classification, that is, the tea elite is directly called ten levels, rather than "wait". The term "progression" in this book refers to "market idioms of levels one to ten."
In the field of Pu'er tea, the biggest difference from general green tea and oolong tea is that in addition to the low-temperature production and post-fermentation characteristics, there is also the market value of green and strong leaves, rather than pursuing fine leaves. The main reason is that the Pu'er tea on the market is mainly based on drinking aged tea, after a long period of aging and fermentation, the delicate grade of tea usually shows the characteristics of fragrant and short water, which is obviously different from the characteristics of long rhyme and long soaking water of the green and strong leaves. Therefore, in the world of Pu'er tea, Chinese like the habits and values of delicate tea quality have obvious changes in the tip of hair and the first and second grades of delicate tea leaves are fragrant, light in weight, short in water, three to six grades of green and strong leaves are heavy, high in bitterness, long in water, and seven to ten grades and outside the tea are thin, light in taste and sweet in water. Each grade of tea has its advantages and disadvantages, taken for a variety of suitable tea production, do to blend or pass the material, there is no advantage or disadvantage, depending on the price and consumer preferences.
Acquisition of Qingmao Tea
The state-owned Menghai Tea Factory has three base tea gardens, most of which were made in these three primary teas before 2003, and the remainder was purchased by other tea vendors. Most of the state-run Shimonoseki Tea Factory comes from acquisitions, and its own tea gardens produce too little Mao tea. At present, the output of private Pu'er tea factories' own tea gardens is not enough to supply the needs of the factory, and the vast majority of them rely on tea vendors to buy ethnic minority family-style processed raw tea. The processing quality of the primary production is relatively stable and the output is larger, and the quality of the ethnic minorities' own processing is relatively unstable and the yield is also small, but the entire acquisition process is often in the same tea area and in the same season, there will be a phenomenon of mixed stacking, which is also the main reason why the quality of Pu'er tea has not been stable at present, especially the cultivation of wild tea and wild tea is the most obvious.
Processing
Before the privatization of the state-owned factory, tea products were selected and processed by the factory itself, and the tea merchants customized tea art was selected by the factory to process the tea jing in the factory. Since 2000, The Guangzhou tea merchants have selected their own tea elites and handed them over to The Menghai Tea Factory for customized processing, opening a precedent for the first time that the state-owned tea factory has made compacted tea products with non-factory tea elites, and only charged processing and packaging costs, called "processing of incoming materials".
Outsourcing processing
After June 2003, due to the rise of the Mainland Pu'er market and the privatization of menghai tea factory, a large number of orders have exceeded the factory capacity in the factory, so the factory will hand over the raw materials of tea elites, or the raw materials owned by the tea merchants to other tea factories for processing, or the employees of Menghai Tea Factory will pile up cooked tea and press them tightly to other factories, and still deliver and sell them under the brand of Menghai Tea Factory, which is called "outsourced processing".
Blending
200 years ago (1799), the "Yunnan Hai Yu Hengzhi" mentioned "transforming tea", which is now paved mixing. At present, the concept of blending is divided into three categories: tea area blending, progression blending and different years. The use of different tea areas to produce a variety of aroma and taste, the series of blending is applied to the paving, the heart to increase its appearance, different years of blending is to increase the smoothness and staleness of the taste.
All conventional teas in the era of state-owned factories are blended, and the main purpose is to increase the taste, stabilize the quality, reduce costs, and expand the number of teas, and smoothly consume different grades of tea. The mixing of raw and clinker passed down from the anecdote is not accepted by the general tea factory, and the former state-owned Menghai and Xiaguan Second Factories have not produced raw and clinker blending.
Withering
The moisture content of fresh leaves just picked is as high as 75% to 80%, and the main purpose of withering is to reduce the moisture content of fresh leaves and branches, and promote complex chemical changes in enzymes. The chemical effects of withering and fermentation involve a wide range of tea aromas, tastes, and soup colors.
After the fresh leaves are picked, they should be spread out and left to rest, avoiding stacking. At present, in the production of Pu'er tea in Yunnan, the phenomenon of red change at the bottom of the leaf can often be seen, which is often related to improper stacking. To avoid similar situations, fresh leaves can be placed on the storage tank to maintain appropriate temperature and humidity; According to the local climate adjustment at that time, it is best to let the withering time be between 8 and 10 hours.
The withering time and method are determined by the picking time, season, weather, fresh leaf tenderness, factory facilities and concepts, and the methods are divided into sun withering, standing withering, spreading wave withering, and hot wind withering.
Fixing
The main methods of Pu'er tea are divided into pot roasting and drum killing. Large factories or general terrace teas are mostly drum-type machines to kill qingqing, ethnic minorities and wild wild teas are mostly wok stir-fried hand-killed Other teas are aimed at using high temperature to stop enzymes from continuing to work, while Pu'er tea is only to slow down its fermentation speed and increase its softness to facilitate kneading, as well as remove the green flavor. The temperature of Dianqing tea is judged by the actual situation of fresh leaves, and the temperature and time are usually higher than the temperature outside the pot at about 180 ° C.
Kneading
By means of external force to destroy the surface of the tea and the internal cell tissue, the tissue liquid adheres to the surface of the tea elite, which is conducive to increasing the aroma and taste during brewing, and allowing the connotation substance to be released evenly. Ethnic minorities and small factories mostly knead tea by hand, and most of them use tea as wild wild tea; Machine tea kneading is a plate-type tea kneading machine, and the use of tea jing is mainly Taiwanese tea. The purpose of kneading and twisting Pu'er tea is mainly to make the tea strips and cords, and to make the surface of the tea leaves crack without breaking, which is easy to make the tea inclusions even and fully released. Insufficient kneading, strips into pieces, light taste; Excessive kneading, tea is dull, the soup color is cloudy, the bitterness is high, and it is easy to have a miscellaneous taste after drying and storage.
Re-knead
In the early days, when kneading tea by hand, due to the uneven thickness and force of the tea, the thick old leaves and stems were easy to knead unevenly and not formed; At this time, it is necessary to re-pick the branches and thick old leaves by hand, and knead them again, called "re-kneading".
Unblock
After the fresh leaves are kneaded, the dissolved leaves are separated as soon as possible and the temperature is quickly lowered to avoid a dull taste and insufficient dryness, resulting in a stuffy and sour phenomenon. Another advantage of unblocking is that it can remove excess water vapor, and rapid cooling of fresh leaves can keep the dried tea green and shiny.
Sun-dried green hair tea
Different from green tea, oolong tea, mao tea drying method is stir-fried drying, drying, Pu'er tea fresh leaves through withering, killing, kneading, spreading, drying, through the sun drying that is, into the sun-dried Qingmao tea, referred to as Qingmao tea, Dianqing: due to the "sun taste" produced by the sun, is irreplaceable by the sun-dried Qingmao tea
Special flavor. After drying, the water content of tea jing is about 9% to 10%. When dry coal, the temperature slows down the effect of residual enzymes: too high temperature will completely stop the aging of Pu'er tea, which is prone to deterioration.
screening
Terrace tea Jingmao tea is sieved by instruments according to the tenderness of the five grades and ten grades, and wild tea is mostly graded by the number of buds and leaves, and the number of tenderness areas. After the tea is sieved, it is convenient for subsequent tea elites to be stored and blended.
Dian green
Yunnan green tea produced by high temperature killing, high temperature dry coal drying and other processes. In the Pu'er tea process, if the high temperature is killed, the raw tea is dried at high temperature, and the finished product is dried at high temperature, which is very different from the original low temperature process of Yunnan green tea, the resulting tea will be green tea.
The original product is sweet and not bitter, but after aging, the taste is sour and thin, can not be stored for a long time, the more aged the more mellow, the author calls it "Yunnan green Puer". As a result, the meaning of "Yunnan green Pu'er" is not to use green tea as a tight pressure, but to refer to the green tea process of Pu'er tea.
Tea leaves ferment
In the early days, it was believed that tea fermentation was caused by microbial action, but in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, scientists found that tea can be fermented in a sterile state, so it is believed that some parts of tea fermentation are controlled by enzymes and have nothing to do with microorganisms. In the world of Pu'er tea, because there is no high temperature drying, the enzymes and fungi in the tea can maintain a certain amount of activity, whether in the process or after the completion of the finished product, it can still have a fermentation effect on the tea.
Sprinkler wodle fermentation (hot fermentation)
The artificial rapid fermentation process developed in the 1970s reduces the active irritating connotations such as theophylline and polyphenols by sprinkling water and heating and humidification, so that the taste is smoother and sweeter. In the process of Wo Dui, the temperature of the heap core is as high as 60 ~ 65C, which is the hot fermentation process of Pu'er tea, and the taste aroma has a clear Wo Heap taste, and the tea produced is called Pu'er ripe tea.
Pre-fermentation (cold fermentation)
In the process of fresh leaf withering, green killing, kneading, or before the drying of mao tea after kneading, the fermentation degree is increased by using unique techniques, and the transformation and oxidation of tea active substances are different from the general post-fermentation procedure of Pu'er tea, called pre-production fermentation; Because the fermentation process is not as high as the fermentation of wo pile, it is also called cold fermentation.
Post-fermentation
Tea products are divided into non-fermented (green tea), fermented tea (Oolong, Tieguanyin, etc.), and post-fermented tea (Pu'er, Lu'an, Liubao, Qianliang tea, etc.) due to the difference in process. The key to post-fermentation is that the process does not have excessive high temperature to stop the enzyme enzyme, after the dispersion or compact pressing of the finished product, the use of tea itself anaerobic fermentation and oxidation, tea can still continue to ferment and age, after years of natural environment aging and not inferior, the more aged the more mellow for the characteristics of post-fermentation tea, and green tea and oolong and other fermented roasted tea is different.
Autoclaved
Place the tea essence in the aluminum urn, steam to soften the tea essence, and press it tightly. Using tools, the traditional boiling water steam is heated and pressurized with the boiler, resulting in a fixed shape due to the pectin in the tea leaves. The time and temperature vary according to different factors such as weight, tenderness, raw and cooked tea, autoclaving tools, processor needs, etc.
swage
It first appeared in the mid-1950s, also known as machine molds. The tight pressure of the iron mold is higher, and the relative aging speed is slower, but the tea quality is easier to preserve; Taking blue print discus and Chinese tea brand discus as an example, the tea is heavy and prone to nectar fragrance. In addition to steam time and pressure, it is also related to the tenderness, greening temperature and drying temperature of tea elite, and different reasons lead to differences.
Stone mold
Before the advent of mechanical iron molds, the utensils used to press tea in Yunnan were mostly stone molds, referred to as stone molds. According to the literature, the weight of the early use was about 25 kg, and the stone molds that follow the traditional process today are mostly 33 to 37 kg. According to different needs, stone molds have different shapes and weight specifications, and the cake type is more simple and rounded. Usually, the tight pressure of the cake tea pressed by the stone mold is more symmetrical, not as tight as the iron mold and the tight pressure of the center point and the edge are different. Due to the relatively loose pressure, the tea made by stone mold is relatively fast aging, and the soup is smoother, but the aroma is weak.
Finished product drying
Reduce the moisture content in the tea to between 9% and 12% to avoid mold and deterioration of the tea. Generally divided into low temperature dry coal, sun drying, high temperature drying three ways, low temperature drying method is more in line with the principle of long-term storage of Pu'er tea. If the drying is insufficient, it will produce mildew, the drying temperature is too high to easily make the tea moisture regain quality change, and the sun drying will easily lead to the redness of the tea and acidification of thin water.
The finished product is dried in the sun
After the fresh leaves have withered, killed and kneaded, the proportion of moisture content is much lower than that of fresh leaves; In the drying process of mao tea, the tea itself can be said to have no temperature and humidity to speak of, after four or five hours of sun drying and air drying, the tea quality does not produce daylight odor and oil consumption in a short period of time. This is the reason why the drying of mao tea does not produce deterioration, which is a completely different situation from the sun after the completion of autoclaving mao tea.
After the tea is autoclaved, the temperature in the tea leaves is increased again (far higher than the temperature of the sun), a lot of water is increased (far higher than the water in the original tea elite), and more pressure is increased (once again destroying the surface and endoplasm of the tea leaves). If the undried tea is exposed to the sun at this time, it will increase the "rapid" destruction of chlorophyll and catechins by ultraviolet rays. Pay attention to the word "fast", because even if the tea has been dried, after a long period of sun exposure and excessive oxidation, it will also produce the same sunlight odor and oil consumption, but the time is slower. Therefore, any tea exposed to light or too ventilated environment, just for a short time, will produce daylight odor and oil consumption.
baking
The high temperature drying method drys the water of the tea, which can further enhance the aroma of the tea; However, this method will stop the effect of enzyme enzymes and other beneficial factors in tea, and is not suitable for post-fermentation teas. Pu'er tea has several basic conditions, Yunnan production, sunning green hair tea, etc., the most important must be in line with the characteristics of long-term storage, the more aged the more mellow. After high temperature drying, or deliberately high temperature roasting of tea, the factors that can make the tea continue to ferment have disappeared, as long as the leaf matter is not carbonized, carcinogens are produced, in principle, they are good teas, but they can no longer be called Pu'er tea, because it is impossible to continue to age and ferment.
"Anxiety"
In the production of cooked tea, sprinkled with water wo heap fermentation, if the temperature of the heap core exceeds 65 ° C, the heap core temperature is too high, and the coke phenomenon of tea jing appears, which is called coke.
Heartburn
When pressing tea, the autoclaving temperature is too high and the time is too long, resulting in the situation that the tea in the center of the tight pressure is slimy and the tea is not clear. Then due to excessive pressure, the surface of the tea is damaged, and the moisture is not easy to disperse, which in turn leads to rapid fermentation, resulting in the phenomenon of redness and curing of tea, which is called "heartburn". This phenomenon is easy to appear in discus, large bricks, large cakes, and Yunnan tightly pressed thousand two tea pillars.
Carbonization
The bottom of the leaf produces an infrequent, black-hard, or even coke phenomenon, which is called "carbonization". Carbonized foods contain very high free radicals, which is considered by modern medicine to be one of the important causes of accelerated aging, chronic diseases and cancer. Generally in fermented roasted tea, the main reason for the carbonization of tea leaves is a high temperature roasting, or multiple improper baking caused.
In Pu'er tea, there are three reasons for the carbonization of the leaf bottom:
First, Wo dui cooked tea, Wo dui time is too long or the temperature is too high.
Second, raw and cooked tea storage high temperature and high humidity.
Third, Pu'er tea is roasted at high temperature or improperly baked multiple times