Scented tea originated from the Song Dynasty in China, began in the Ming Dynasty and became popular in the Qing Dynasty. The production of scented tea is still inseparable from the tea processing machine.
craftsmanship
1. Acceptance of raw materials (tea greens and flowers inspection): Strictly inspect the tea greens and select jasmine flowers that are full in shape, uniform in size, and bright in color.
2. Tea greaves processing: According to different grades of tea leaves, they are piled and refined for production. The tea greaves are required to have a moisture content of 8%, a clean and even appearance, and no inclusions.
3. Flower processing: The jasmine flowers required for scented tea are processed and produced using the flowers produced between the summer solstice and summer.
There are two main technical links in flower processing: flower feeding and flower screening.
Feed flowers. After the flower buds enter the factory, they are spread out. When the flower temperature is close to room temperature or 1-3°C higher than the room temperature, they are piled. When the pile temperature reaches 38-40°C, they are turned over and spread to cool down to dissipate heat. Repeat this process 3-5 times. The purpose of flower care is to maintain the quality of flowers and promote uniform ripening and opening and fragrance.
Sieve flowers. When the jasmine flower opening rate reaches 70% and the opening degree (the angle formed by the petals after the buds open) reaches 50-60°, the flowers are screened. The mesh apertures are 12 mm, 10 mm, and 8 mm to classify flowers. When the graded jasmine flower opening rate reaches more than 90% and the opening degree reaches 90°, it is the appropriate standard for blooming.
4. Camellia mixing: The tea and flowers are required to be evenly distributed, and the mixing operation must be completed 30-60 minutes after the opening rate and degree of jasmine reach the technical standard, and the pile height is generally 25-35 cm, so as to avoid a large amount of jasmine essential oil Volatile.
5. Leave to stand for scenting: The standing time for the first scenting is 12-14 hours. As the number of scentings increases, the standing time can be gradually reduced, and there is generally no clearing in the middle.
6. Flowering: Also called flowering, the scented flower residue is screened out with a screening machine to separate the tea and flowers. Flowering should follow the principles of timely, rapid and clean flowering. When flower residues with more than five stems bloom, they will be bright white in color and still have a lingering fragrance, so they must be embossed or dried into dried flowers in time; embossing is usually carried out between 10:00-11:00 am, and the flower residues and tea bases After mixing, pile it up to a height of 40-60 cm, and let it stand for 3-4 hours before blooming.
7. Baking: It is very important to control the drying moisture during baking. Generally, the moisture content of the first basket is about 5%, the second basket is about 6%, and the third basket is about 6.5%, and then increase gradually; the baking temperature is generally 80-120℃ , and gradually decreases as the number of times increases.
8. Treatment of tea leaf inclusions before jacquard: The inclusions, pieces, powder, buds, etc. produced during the scenting process of tea must be removed before jacquard.
9. Jacquard: Some of the tea leaves roasted by the tea roasting machine are not fresh and fresh. In order to make up for this shortcoming, during the last scenting, a small amount of high-quality jasmine flowers are mixed with tea leaves and left to stand for 6-8 hours. The flowers are not baked before being evenly stacked and packed into boxes.