First, green tea
Green tea, also called unfermented tea. Tea is made from proper tea shoots through typical technological processes, such as enzyme fixation, rolling and drying. Its dry tea color, brewed tea soup and leaf bottom are mainly green, hence the name. The characteristic of green tea is that it retains more natural substances in fresh leaves. Among them, tea polyphenols and caffeine retain more than 85% of fresh leaves and about 50% of chlorophyll, and the loss of vitamins is less, thus forming the characteristics of green tea, such as clear soup color, green leaves color and strong taste convergence. The most scientific research results show that the natural substances in green tea have special effects of anti-aging, anti-cancer, sterilization and anti-inflammation, which are beyond the reach of other teas.
Green tea is the largest tea in China, and its producing areas are distributed in tea-producing provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. Among them, Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangxi provinces have the highest output and the best quality, and are the main bases of green tea production in China. In the international market, China green tea accounts for more than 70% of international trade. The marketing area covers all countries in North Africa and West Africa and more than 50 countries and regions such as France, the United States and Afghanistan. In the international market, the sales of green tea account for more than 1/3 of the total domestic sales. At the same time, green tea is the main raw material for producing scented tea.
Second, the green tea manufacturing process
Green tea is the earliest tea in history. The collection of wild tea buds and dried tea leaves by ancient humans can be regarded as the beginning of green tea processing in a broad sense, at least 3000 years ago. But the real green tea processing began with the invention of steamed green tea in the 8th century, and ended with the invention of fried green tea in12nd century. The processing technology of green tea is relatively mature, which has been used to this day and is constantly improving.
The processing of green tea can be simply divided into three steps: enzyme fixation, rolling and drying, among which the key lies in the first process of primary production, namely enzyme fixation. Fresh leaves are inactivated by enzyme activity, and the chemical components contained in them are basically unaffected by enzymes, and change through heat, thus forming the quality characteristics of green tea.
1, fixed
Immobilization plays a decisive role in the quality of green tea. Through high temperature, the characteristics of enzymes in fresh leaves are destroyed, the oxidation of polyphenols is stopped, and the leaves are prevented from turning red; At the same time, some water in the leaves is evaporated, which makes the leaves soft and creates conditions for kneading and shaping. With the evaporation of water, the low-boiling aromatic substances in fresh leaves evaporate and disappear, thus improving the aroma of tea. Except for the special tea, the process is carried out in the green-fixing machine. The factors that affect the quality of enzyme fixation are enzyme fixation temperature, leaves left, enzyme fixation machine type, enzyme fixation time and enzyme fixation method. They are a whole, interrelated and restricted.
Step 2 knead
Kneading is a process of shaping the shape of green tea. Using external force, the leaves are crushed and lightened, rolled into strips, reduced in size and convenient for brewing. At the same time, some tea juice overflows and adheres to the surface of leaves, which also plays an important role in improving the taste concentration of tea. The rolling process of making green tea can be divided into cold rolling and hot rolling. The so-called cold kneading is to spread the green leaves and roll them up; Hot rolling is to roll the leaves while they are still hot, and don't scatter them. The tender leaves should be cold-kneaded to keep the bright yellow-green soup color at the bottom of the tender green leaves, and the old leaves should be hot-kneaded to facilitate close knot and reduce fragments. At present, the kneading operation of bulk green tea has been mechanized, except for the famous and excellent tea which is still operated by hand.
dry
The purpose of drying is to evaporate water, tidy up appearance and give full play to tea fragrance. There are three drying methods: sun drying, frying and drying. In the drying process of green tea, it is usually dried first and then fried. Because the water content of the twisted tea leaves is still very high, if fried directly, lumps will quickly form in the pot of the frying machine, and the tea juice will easily stick to the pot wall. Therefore, tea leaves should be dried first to reduce the water content to meet the requirements of pot frying.
Third, the varieties of green tea.
Among the green teas in China, the appearance is the most famous, which is not only rich in fragrance, long in taste, excellent in quality, but also unique in shape and has high artistic appreciation value. According to the different methods of drying and enzyme fixation, green tea is generally divided into frying, baking, drying and steaming.
1, stir-fried green tea
Due to the different mechanical or artificial forces in the drying process, the finished tea forms different shapes such as long strip, round bead, flat fan, needle and spiral, so it is divided into long fried green, round fried green and flat fried green.
Long-fried but refined, it is called eyebrow tea. The finished products have different colors, such as Zhenmei, Gong, Yucha, Needle Mei, Xiumei, etc., each with different quality characteristics. Ruzhenmei: The rope is tight and straight or looks like a lady's girl. The color is blue and cream, the aroma is high and fresh, the taste is strong and refreshing, and the soup color and leaf bottom are slightly yellow and bright; Gong Xi: This is a kind of round tea in fried green tea, which is called Gong Xi after refining. The shape particles are similar to bamboo tea, and the bottom of round leaves is tender and even; Rain tea: originally a long tea separated from pearl tea, now rain tea is mostly obtained from eyebrow tea, with short and tight shape, even green color, pure aroma, rich taste, yellow-green soup color and tender and even leaf bottom;
Round fried green: Round and compact in appearance. Due to different producing areas and processing methods, it can be divided into flat fried green, Quangang Bai Hui and Yongxi Huo Qing. Flat fried green: produced in Shengxian, Xinchang, Shangyu and other counties in Zhejiang. Historically, coarse tea was refined in Pingshui Town, Shaoxing, and the finished tea was round and firm as pearls, so it was called "Pingshuizhu Tea" or "Pingshui Tea", while coarse Chaze was called Pingchao Tea.
Fried green: due to different origin and preparation methods, it is mainly divided into Longjing, Qiqiang and Dafang. Longjing: produced in Xihu District, Hangzhou, also known as West Lake Longjing. Picking fresh leaves is exquisite, and the buds and leaves are required to bloom evenly. Senior Longjing is particularly fine in workmanship, with "green color and fragrant smell". Sweet taste and beautiful shape. Flag gun: produced in the surrounding area of Longjing tea area in Hangzhou and adjacent counties such as Yuhang, Fuyang and Xiaoshan. Dafang: produced in Shexian County, Anhui Province and adjacent areas of Lin 'an and Chun 'an, Zhejiang Province, with Laozhu Dafang being the most famous.
In roasted green tea, it is also called special roasted green tea because of its different tea making methods. In order to keep the leaf shape intact, the last process is often drying. Its tea products include Dongting Biluochun and Nanjing Yuhua Tea. Gold Huiming, Gao Qiao Yinfeng, Shaoshan Shao Feng, Anhua Songzhen, Guzhang Maojian, Jianghua Maojian, Dayong Maojian, Xinyang Maojian, Guiping Xishan Tea, Lushan Wu Yun and so on. Here only two products are briefly introduced, such as Biluochun in Dongting: Biluofeng in Dongting Mountain, located in Taihu Lake, Wuxian County, Jiangsu Province, has the best quality. The shape of the rope is slender, even, curled like a snail, revealing white hair, and the color is silver green, hidden and smooth; The essence is fragrant and lasting, the soup is light green and clear, and the taste is fresh and sweet; The leaves are tender, soft, even and bright. Gold Award Huiming: Produced in Yunhe County, Zhejiang Province. It was named after 19 15 won a gold medal at the Panama World Expo. The appearance is thin and uniform, the seedlings are tender and the color is green. Endogenous fragrance is high and lasting, with fragrant flowers and fruits, clear soup color, sweet and refreshing taste and light green leaves.
Step 2 bake green tea
It is dried in a drying cage. After reprocessing and refining, most of the roasted green tea is used as the tea blank for smoking scented tea. The aroma is generally not as high as that of fried green tea, and a few fried green teas are of excellent quality. According to its shape, it can also be divided into strip tea, pointed tea, slice tea and needle tea. Bar baking is produced in the main tea-producing areas in China; Pointed tea and flake tea are mainly produced in Anhui, Zhejiang and other provinces and cities.
Among them, the characteristic green baking mainly includes Huangshan Mao Feng, Taiping Monkey Kui, Luan Guapian, Jingting Green Snow, Tianshan Green Tea and ancient Zhuzi bamboo shoots. Jiangshan Green Peony, Emei Mao Feng, Jinshui Cuifeng, Zhouxiabi Peak, Nannuo Bai Hao and so on. Such as Huangshan Mao Feng: produced in Nennen County, Huangshan, Anhui Province. The appearance is tender, smooth and slightly curly, the buds are fat and even, and the edges are sharp. Shaped like a "sparrow tongue", it is golden and shiny, commonly known as ivory. The aroma is fresh and long, the soup color is clear, the taste is mellow and fresh, and the leaves at the bottom of the leaves are blooming, rich and bright.
3. Sun-dried green tea
It is bathed in sunshine. Mainly distributed in Hunan and Hubei. Guangdong. Guangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces have a small amount of production. The quality of sun-cured green tea is the best in Yunnan, which is called "Dianqing". Others, such as Qing Chuan, Qian Qing, Guiqing and Eqing, have their own merits, but they are not as good as Yunnan.
Step 4 steam green tea
Steam fixation is an ancient fixation method in China. During the Tang Dynasty, it spread to Japan until now. But in China, it changed to frying from the Ming Dynasty. Steamed green is the use of steam to destroy the enzyme activity in fresh leaves, forming the "three green" quality characteristics of dark green color, light green tea soup and green tea bottom, but the aroma is stuffy green and astringent, which is not as fresh as pot-fried green tea. Due to the need of foreign trade, China has also produced a small amount of steamed green tea since the mid-1980s. The main varieties are Enshi Yulu, produced in Enshi, Hubei; China fried tea is produced in Zhejiang, Fujian and Anhui provinces.