In 2005, a newspaper in a certain place in Guangdong published "Fermentation in the Pigsty to Quickly Make "Old Pu'er Tea"", which revealed that a small workshop was fermenting Pu'er tea with a pigsty, and the environment was disgusting!
In 2017, Fang Arkzi published "Can Drinking Tea Prevent Cancer or Cause Cancer?" The article claims that Pu'er tea will produce a strong carcinogen called aflatoxin during the aging process, and public opinion will be in an uproar for a time!
With the rising voice of consumers for food hygiene and clean production, the rapid development of the Pu'er tea industry in recent years has also exposed a profound problem due to unstable foundation: the initial processing of raw materials is weak, and the quality is worrying.
What is the current production of Pu'er tea? Are those black materials on the Internet real? Today's article, Lu Li will reveal the secret, Pu'er tea processing is not known to the truth!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > worrying start-up chaos</h1>
Tea farmers, small factories and tea merchants actually do not have enough funds to control the problem of tea green initial processing, and the traditional large factories that have the ability to implement the initial production link often only grasp more efficient refining because of problems such as the capital chain cycle.
This leads to a separation of the quality of the original and refined in the production of Pu'er tea. The refining link is often the focus of the tea factory control, which is quite advanced in the era of the state-owned tea factory, and has been implementing industrial production that keeps pace with the times.
Around 2008, some pu'er tea factories proposed to use the "concept of making medicine to make tea", introduced the strict management system of pharmaceutical companies, and precisely controlled the production safety of tea, which can be said to be perfect in refining.
However, in the early years, the initial production link was often purchased by the purchasing department from the tea farmers and the initial system of the Civil Construction, although the quality could be regulated in the form of tea harvesting standards, but there was still a phenomenon of extensive management and uneven quality.
After an in-depth investigation, Lu Li believed that there were three reasons:
First, the tea harvesting standards formulated by tea factories in the past often only stipulate the overall quality, and it is impossible to limit the individual standard, which leads some tea farmers to opportunistically mix bad tea into good tea and take the average standard.
Second, due to the large amount of tea received by tea enterprises, the amount of tea provided by each tea farmer is small, showing a one-to-many situation of hundreds of teas, so there are great difficulties in the traceability of mao tea, and it is impossible to implement the future quality traceability system.
Third, there are differences in the raw materials and primary processing of tea farmers, which leads to uneven quality of the tea received, which needs to optimize the taste through blending, and also limits the development of high-end ancient pure product lines.
The formation of this embarrassing situation is not only the "water depth" of the Pu'er tea industry, the phenomenon of bad money expelling good money, and the special market since the last century, resulting in a backward development situation.
On the one hand, in the planned economy era, tea production focused on mass production, and Yunnan red and Yunnan green occupied most of the production lines, as a special tea, Pu'er tea, usually limited to export exports, market share is minimal.
After the arrival of the market economy, the quality of Yunnan tea is excellent, but it cannot be sold at a low price, there are not enough market benefits, and the input in the planting and processing of tea gardens can only be in the primary development stage for a long time.
On the other hand, in the Pu'er tea market in previous years, the original ecological concept was very popular, and the tea made by tea farmers themselves was regarded as a traditional model, but there were also backward processes such as fire smoke smell and black spots after frying, and the production was unhygienic.
Lu Li believes that under the market standard of quality and health, taking the original and original ecology as the propaganda point is contrary to the mainstream of the era of great health, and it is not conducive to the long-term development of the entire industry.
Tea making should be taught by tea farmers, and it is necessary to learn from tea farmers, but it cannot be limited by backward concepts, but with professional and modern hygiene standards, the traditional method of making methods is abandoned, and healthy and hygienic traditional handmade teas are made.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the initial place for process specifications</h1>
In 2007, Pu'er tea collapsed, the market ushered in a round of large-scale adjustment, many tea companies began to reflect on the quality of products, but also realized that the bad currency in the primary processing link expelled good money, opened the era of standardizing the initial system.
To improve the quality of raw tea, the first thing to do is to improve the traditional handmade tea making methods, some far-sighted tea companies in the major tea mountains to send buyers, in-depth layout of raw materials primary processing links, the main ways are the following categories:
In terms of scientific management, the production workshop and living area are completely separated, chickens, dogs and livestock are forbidden in the village, and special bamboo dustpans are used to dry, twist and dry fresh leaves, reflecting the clean production concept of the ground.
In terms of information communication, there are resident buyers in each tea area, and each tea farmer has a special person to follow up on the location of the tea field, tea quality, picking progress and pruning time, and undertake the bridge of communication between tea enterprises and tea farmers.
On the tea making equipment, equipment such as color sorters, green killing machines and kneading machines are used to replace the traditional handmade tea making methods such as cutting wood and burning coal, small pots and killing greens, so as to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and basically eliminate quality problems such as burnt paste and fire taste.
In the transmission of the concept, in the form of standardized tea greens collected at a higher price, irregular tea greens are in the form of certain fines, and the tea garden management mode and picking habits of tea farmers are slowly changed.
In terms of quality control, each batch of raw materials into the warehouse will first be determined by pesticide residues, and then the quality control department will carry out the double acceptance of appearance and endoplasm, and after all qualified, it is also necessary to store in the tea season, sub-region and sub-level stacking.
After the vigorous implementation of these concepts, the initial processing of Pu'er tea has made great progress over the original, and in order to comply with the concept of clean production, the industry has also proposed the concept of "dust-free first workshop".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > advanced dust-free first workshop</h1>
The "first" here refers to the fact that compared with the refining plant in the industrial park far below the mountain, the primary processing workshop is directly built near the tea garden, starting from the tea garden management and tea green picking at the source, and controlling the production of the entire initial production link.
The word "dust-free" is borrowed from the management standards of pharmaceutical companies, due to environmental restrictions and fermentation needs, although it is not necessary to achieve the same level of sterility as laboratories and operating rooms, it is also necessary to ensure the closed dust avoidance standards of production.
Not only to be as close as possible to the place of origin, but also to create a hygienic environment to the greatest extent, but also to ensure the vitality of beneficial bacteria during post-fermentation of Pu'er tea, balance these three types of conditions, "dust-free first workshop" needs to do:
Closure of the processing plant. At present, most of the initial production institutes are open, which will inevitably be mixed with some dust and foreign matter, and the dust-free first workshop needs to completely close the processing workshop and try to isolate the dust and bacteria outside.
Dust-free ventilation. Closed workshop will inevitably need to reasonably place ventilation and ventilation system, in this regard, in addition to filtering and purifying the air, but also according to the current processing links, regulate the temperature and humidity of the internal air.
Eradication of harmful bacteria. Refer to the three-step layout of the laboratory, establish a sterile locker room, a wind shower sterilization room, avoid human bacteria, and interfere with the probiotic fermentation on the tea leaves.
Air shower system
Standardization of management processes. Visitors in and out of the report, and can not enter the processing environment, but take an independent glass channel to observe at close range, the whole process of dust-free operation, to maximize the stability of the initial processing of the small environment.
The tea making system is traceable. The introduction of blockchain core logic, mao tea produced from which tea garden, which master processing and production, tea making high-definition camera and other key information are uploaded to the cloud, for the majority of consumers to view and retrieve.
Tea makers are deeply cultivated. Establish a complete salary, promotion and reward and punishment system, cultivate the top tea maker business card, usually guide tea making, only make ancient trees and fresh leaves, accept private customization, spring tea auction and other commercial behaviors.
Before completing this article, Lu Li had investigated the primary processing environment of major tea mountains and the hygiene satisfaction of market consumers in the primary processing link, and found a worrying situation.
A considerable number of tea friends feel that seven points of raw materials and three points of processing, as long as they rely on the top ancient tree tea raw materials, then no matter what, they can make good tea, like tens of thousands of pieces of cabbage, but also because the Brown small pot is famous.
In fact, in that era, this kind of original ecological behavior is just a helpless move, the rise of mesozoic star tea, the most essential or quality, do not believe in today's tea companies, who does not pay attention to the initial production? Who dares to waste the fresh leaves of the old Ban Zhang?
Ancient tree tea is a valuable asset in Yunnan, but for a long time, it has only been sold as a primitive commodity.
From the original ecological period of barbaric growth, to the initial production period of process standardization, and then to today's modern standard workshop period, the continuous advancement of planting and processing, and the production requirements of professionalism and hygiene must be the general trend.
Tea friends, what do you think?