Tea professionals often spend years trying to learn and understand a single style of tea production. That said, there are two main methods of tea production, called the orthodox method or CTC (Crush-Tear-Curl), which includes five basic processing steps. These steps can be refined depending on the style of tea being produced.
Orthodox tea production
Step 1 "Plucking": The leaves are harvested by hand, typically only the unopened bud, the three best leaves, and the bud, depending on the tea being brewed. To make the harvest possible, the tea trees are plucked to the waist. After harvesting the leaves, they are sorted for uniformity, and any excess, such as stems, branches, broken leaves, etc., are removed.
Step 2 "Withering": The leaves are spread out and withered for several hours to prepare them for further processing. Even the freshest, tender leaves are not very flexible, but without withering, they would shatter and crumble when shaped and rolled. During the withering process, the leaves are gently fluffed and checked to ensure balanced exposure to air.
Step 3 "Rolling": This process creates thousands of varieties in the appearance of tea and also where the process of flavor development begins, to break the cell walls of the tea leaf, the leaves are softened and rolled, they are pressed or braided and thus the juices inside are drained, this exposes the enzymes and essential oils of the leaf and in the air the oxidation process begins.
Step 4 "Oxidation": After rolling, the leaves are left to rest for several hours, allowing oxidation to take place. Oxidation is the process by which oxygen in the air interacts with enzymes in the leaf, turning them a reddish-brown color and changing their chemical composition. This step also has the greatest impact on creating the many wonderful and complex flavors in tea. The length of this process depends on the style of tea being produced and the ambient conditions at the time. However, depending on the type of tea, the third step can be repeated and the tea can be left to roll and oxidize further.
Step 5 "Cooking": The final step in the tea production process is to heat the leaves with fire so that they dry quickly and the result should be a moisture content of less than 3%, which is what stops the oxidation process and to maintain good quality, this process must be done evenly so that the tea remains that way.
Now you know how tea is produced, and you're fortunate enough to be able to choose from a wide variety, always choosing Tétique organic teas . There are many options these days when it comes to flavors and types of organic tea .
If you own a restaurant or other business where you receive customers, offering them the best organic tea is a guarantee that will give them confidence and security. Don't hesitate and always serve your customers Tétique teas and infusions , because they're a safe bet.
