Matcha primary tea (tencha) processing technology

In recent years, Matcha tea mill machine technology has continued to mature. As colorful and endless new matcha drinks and foods have become popular in the market, and are loved and sought after by consumers, the rapid development of the matcha industry has attracted increasing attention.

Matcha processing includes two processes: primary processing of matcha (tencha) and refined processing of matcha. There are many processes and high technical requirements. The processing process is as follows:

1-silage

Fresh leaves can be processed upon arrival at the factory. If it cannot be processed in time, it will be stored. The thickness of fresh leaf silage shall not exceed 90 cm. During the storage process, attention should be paid to maintaining the freshness of the fresh leaves and preventing them from becoming hot and reddened.

2-Cut leaves

In order to make the raw materials uniform, the fresh leaves need to be cut using a Green Tea Cutting Machine. The fresh leaves in the silage storage tank enter the leaf cutter at a constant speed through the conveyor belt for cross-cutting and longitudinal cutting. The fresh leaves at the discharge port are even in length.

3-finalize

Use steam fixing or steam hot air Tea Fixation Machine to preserve the chlorophyll as much as possible and make the dry tea green in color. Use saturated steam or high-temperature superheated steam to cure, with a steam temperature of 90 to 100°C and a steam flow rate of 100 to 160 kg/hour.

4-Cooling

The dried leaves are blown into the air by a fan and raised and lowered several times in an 8 to 10-meter cooling net for rapid cooling and dehumidification. Cool until the water in the tea stems and leaves is redistributed, and the tea leaves become soft when pinched by hand.

5-Initial baking

Use a far infrared dryer for initial drying. It takes 20 to 25 minutes to complete the initial baking.

6-Separation of stems and leaves

The Tea Sieve Machine is used. Its structure is a semi-cylindrical metal mesh. The built-in spiral knife peels off the leaves from the stems when rotating. The peeled tea leaves pass through the conveyor belt and enter the high-precision air separator to separate the leaves and tea stems. Impurities are removed at the same time.

7-Drying again

Use a Tea Dryer Machine. Set the dryer temperature to 70 to 90°C, the time to 15 to 25 minutes, and control the moisture content of the dried leaves to be below 5%.

8- Tencha

The primary processed matcha product after re-baking is Tencha, which is bright green in color, even in size, clean, and has a distinctive seaweed aroma.