Summer is here, precautions for tea garden production


Summer is quietly approaching, bringing about changes in the climate. We all know that as time goes by, the temperature gets higher, the light becomes stronger, and the rainfall becomes more abundant.

The mild climate of spring ensures the quality of tea leaves is just right, so what impact does summer climate have on tea plantation production?

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What impact does summer climate have on the growth of tea trees?

Tea trees prefer warmth and light. Although strong light and high temperature can promote the growth of tea trees, secondary metabolites in fresh leaves will continue to accumulate and increase, especially polyphenolic substances with a bitter taste. This is because tea trees grow too vigorously, so tea leaves made from summer raw materials will have a significant bitter taste. In tea production, it is generally believed that spring tea has the best quality, followed by autumn tea, while summer tea has the worst quality because most tea gardens will rest in winter and will not produce tea, so it is not included in the discussion.

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How to improve the quality of summer tea?

The excessive amount of tea polyphenols in tea leaves is the main reason for the bitterness and poor quality of tea. Can’t the fresh leaves of tea trees in summer be used to make tea? For premium teas, summer raw materials are indeed not suitable for making tea because they cannot reach the level of high-quality tea leaves. However, the main types of tea that ordinary consumers can access and afford are Da Zong tea, so researching and improving the quality of summer tea is the focus of high-yield and high-quality bulk tea. So what can we do?

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1. Change the production of tea products

There are too many polyphenolic substances in summer tea. If the process of green tea is used to terminate the oxidation of polyphenols through withering, the green tea produced will retain the original tea polyphenols of fresh leaves, and such green tea will inevitably have a bitter taste.
However, if the tea polyphenols in fresh leaves can be oxidized and converted into polyphenol oxides (tea pigments), the bitterness will be greatly reduced and the taste will be milder. So, summer raw materials are not suitable for making green tea. For those raw materials with high polyphenol content, it is recommended to use oxidation fermentation technology in production to make fermented teas, including black tea, black tea, and medium to heavy fermented oolong tea. For example, black tea made from high polyphenol tea fresh leaves has a strong red color, high aroma, and strong taste. It can be consumed as a tea base or used for tea preparation.

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2. Improve production processes

In addition, in the production of summer tea, the bitter taste of summer tea can also be alleviated by improving the process, such as extending the withering time, strengthening the degree of dehydration, or increasing the degree of fermentation to reduce the bitter substances in the tea leaves.
Of course, some tea gardens have excellent ecological locations, abundant vegetation coverage, good ecological environment, and high altitudes. The tea trees grown in this type of tea garden are better than those grown in ordinary low mountain tea gardens, even if they are harvested from summer raw materials.
The reason is that there are many trees, high biodiversity, and a cool high-altitude climate, which creates an ecological environment with more diffuse blue purple wavelength radiation. In addition, the regulation of the microclimate inside the tea garden is more conducive to the accumulation of amino acids and aromatic substances in the tea tree, maintaining the tenderness of the buds and leaves and making it difficult for them to grow old.

3. Enhance cultivation management

In conventional tea gardens, ecological tea gardens can also be simulated by covering shading nets and regularly spraying water for irrigation, reducing the light intensity, temperature, and humidity of the tea garden, slowing down the synthesis and accumulation of polyphenolic substances, and achieving the goal of reducing bitter taste substances.
For some tea gardens that only produce high-quality tea products, they usually do not use summer tea raw materials to make tea. Instead, they cultivate the tea garden through pruning and appropriate fertilization, and wait until autumn to extract autumn tea. At this time, the accumulated contents in the tea will be more abundant and coordinated.
However, it is unlikely for tea gardens producing bulk tea to adopt this production method, as it would result in low tea production, high prices, and inability to meet public consumption.

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Therefore, in the production of bulk tea, more attention should be paid to improving the quality of summer tea. This can be achieved by improving the types of tea produced, enhancing processing techniques, and improving planting and cultivation measures, providing appropriate artificial shading, cooling, and humidification, in order to ensure the high yield, high quality, and sustainable development of the tea industry.