Black
- Tea is plucked and laid on wire mesh is
troughs for up to 18 hours with warm air
blown gently through it. This allows the
leaf to wither and brings it’s
moisture content down to around 70%.
Following this withering process, the tea
is manufactured either by orthodox or CTC
methods.
Orthodox
– Withered leaf is passed into a
large rolling machine that rolls the tea
between two brass plates, mimicking the
action of hand rolling. (The ancient way
that tea would have been made.) This
rolling slowly breaks and bruises the
leaf veins, which allows gentle and
steady oxidising that favours leaf style
and flavour over strength.
CTC
– (Cut, Tea & Crush) the
withered leaves are loaded into the CTC
machine which then cuts into the leaf
with sharp cutters. The shape of these
cutters encourages the leaf to curl into
small “ball” like particles.
Because the leaf veins are being cut, the
oxidising process is quicker than that of
orthodox tea. The result is that CTC type
tea brews quicker and is stronger, making
it perfect for teabags.
Green
– The plucked leaves are laid in
troughs, with warm air blown through to
allow them to wither. The leaves are then
rolled and immediately either steamed or
pan fired in large “wok” type
pans to stop any oxidising from
occurring. If the tea is steamed it will
produce a very dark, green liquor;
comparing to a lighter, more yellow
liquor from the pan-fired tea.
Oolong
– Where black tea is oxidised for a
long period of time and Green tea is not
allowed to oxidise at all. Oolong tea is
allowed to semi-oxidise. This means that
instead of breaking or cutting the veins
(as in orthodox or CTC manufacture), the
leaves are simply tossed by hand to
lightly bruise the leaf and allow a small
degree of oxidisation. This is repeated
many times and the tea is finally fired
in large woks.
White
– From the Narcissus variety of
Camellia Sinensis, the tea buds are
plucked by hand before they have been
allowed to open and whilst they still
have their white down hair. The leaves
are carefully sorted prior to drying so
that only perfect and undamaged leaves
are used. Once sorted, they are laid out
in the sun to dry and wither naturally.
This process obviously allows for no
oxidisation whatsoever and produces a
very light and delicate liquoring tea
that has been favoured by Chinese
Emperors for thousands of years.
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