How much do you know about tea polyphenols when drinking tea?

Tea polyphenols are the main compounds found in tea, which is a general term for polyphenol compounds, also known as tea ravaging and tea tannins. Tea polyphenols account for 18% to 36% of the total dry matter of tea leaves, and some Yunnan large-leaf species will account for more than 40%. Tea polyphenols are the most soluble substances in tea leaves, and so far, no plant in the world has been found to have such a high content of tea polyphenols. It can be said that the content of tea polyphenols in tea ranks first in the biological world. It has a great impact on the formation of tea color, aroma and taste, and also has important health significance for human physiology. The chemical properties of tea polyphenols are generally more active, and under different processing conditions, they are prone to multiple forms of transformation. Its transformation will cause the transformation of other substances, and its transformation products are diverse. Therefore, the quality of various teas mainly depends on the composition, content and proportion of polyphenolic compounds.

Tea polyphenols play a huge role in tea making. In different tea making processes, the form, depth, breadth and transformation products of transformation are also different, so teas with different quality characteristics can be obtained. The six major types of tea in China are classified according to the different degrees of oxidation of tea polyphenols in the processing process. Green tea is called non-oxidizing tea; white tea is called lightly oxidized tea; yellow tea is called micro-oxidized tea; oolong tea is called partially oxidized tea; black tea is called fully oxidized tea; and black tea is called post-oxidized tea.