The following video shows “the becoming” of our Oolong No.12 Jin Xuan, together with the Oolong No.17 Ruan Zhi the major trademark of tea cultivation and production in Northern Thailand. Both hybrids originate from Taiwan’s Lishan Highlands, from where they were brought to the mountains of North Thailand for cultivation in 1994. The effort has definitely been worth it, as our little film clearly demonstrates.
Want to try Oolong N0.12 Jin Xuan and/or No.17 Ruan Zhi?
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Tea Processing
Principally, three main categories of tea processing can be differentiated: the processing to
• Green tea (not fermented)
• Oolong tea (part-fermented)
• Black tea (fully fermented)
Dependent upon country and region of cultivation and the equipment available to a producer, however, there are various individual procedures and methods within each main category that can differ from region to region, from producer to producer, and from specialty to specialty. This makes a comprehensible representation of all possibilities a difficult task and leads to perceived contradictions and confusions in much of the available literature. Two more (sub-) categories can be added to the above-mentioned classification
• White tea (very light fermented)
• Pu Errh tea (post-fermented)
In the following representation, we take orientation on the conditions at our producer partners in Doi Mae Salong, North Thailand, as detailed in the above video for our Oolong No.12. The description therefore uses no further picture illustrations. However, vivid photographic illustrations of the tea processing procedures in North Thailand can be found in our articles
and
Pang Kham – Tea Village in No-Man’s-Land
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Tea Harvesting
The harvesting/plucking conditions are crucial factor for a tea’s quality! Respectively only the youngest shoots of the tea plant should be picked, in the best only 2 youngest leaves with their corresponding tip (bud). It is obvious that no machine in the world can do this accurately, so we can say that the best teas will always be handpicked. Then, the best location for the cultivation of tea are sunny, often steep hillsides, where the picking by hand might be arduous, but the access by machine even more difficult, where not impossible. Machine-picked teas from plain locations, will therefore mainly be mass teas. As such, these don’t have to be necessarily ‘bad’, but they won’t make it to the higher ranks.
Dependent on type of tea and plant species, tea plants can be harvested several times per year. In North Thailand, harvests take place from the middle of February until October, as is typical for the most cultivation areas. There’s no tea harvested during ‘winter’. The first harvests of the year are considered as best quality and particularly covetable.
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Withering of the Tea Leaves
After the harvesting, the tea leaves are first spread in the open to ‘wither’ in the sun. Just as in all following processing steps, the tea leaves will loose moisture and become more malleable in this process. No fermentation takes place at this stage yet. During this phase, the tea leaves are constantly flipped over and swirled. The producer/tea master continuously examines the leaves and decides, when the time is right for the next processing step.
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Fermentation / Oxidation
Fermentation is a form of oxidation. The juices in the tea leaf react with oxygen. This process sets in automatically at a certain stage of drying of the leaves and is facilitated by a breaking up of the leaf surfaces. Hence, the continuous flipping over and swirling of the tea leaves during the withering and fermenting does not only serve the consistency of processes for all leaves of a lot, but is done in a rough way on purpose, in order to break up the leaf surfaces. The cracks will still be recognizable on the final product’s tea leaf in form of brownish stains, whereas the color is a result of the oxidation of the exiting leaf juices. For green tea, the processing stage of controlled fermentation is omitted.
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Green Tea
For the manufacture of green tea the oxidation process is stopped after the withering of the tea leaves. For this purpose, the tea leaves are heated to a temperature, where the enzymes responsible for the fermentation deteriorate. After this, the tea leaves are optionally subjected to a shaping process (rolling to needles, curls or granules), before they enter the final drying (today mostly by hot air).
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White Tea
A peculiarity at the processing of white tea is the prolongation of the withering phase beyond the setting in of the oxidation process. The result is a very lightly fermented tea, which in a way is an ‘interim form’ between green tea and Oolong tea.
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Pu Errh Tea
Pu Errh teas are also heat-dried after the withering in the sun, but at a comparably low temperature, so the fermentation process will not be completely inhibited. Then, the tea leaves once again spread out in the sun and left there to dry completely. During this stage of sun-drying, a post-fermentation process sets in. The ready sun-dried tea leaves are referred to as Maocha. If the Maocha is left to the natural course of the post-fermentation process, which can extend over years, the end product is a ‘raw’ Pu Errh or sheng Pu Errh tea. To shorten this process for obvious commercial reasons, a special procedure was developed in China to promote and accelerate the ripening process. The end product of this procedure, resembling a composting process, is referred to as ‘ripened’ Pu Errh or shu Pu Errh tea.
Though the Pu Errh method and tradition has its origins in China’s Yunnan province, at the city of Pu Errh, it was introduced and adopted in Taiwan and other regions of mainland China and South East Asia at an early stage. Strictly speaking, only Pu Errh teas originating from Yunnan province should be referred to as such.
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Oolong Tea
The skilled processing of part-fermented tea is very much more complex and elaborate and requires the tea master’s constant supervision. After the first withering of the tea leaves in the sun, they are brought inside, where they are distributed evenly in a thin layer on large bamboo trays and stacked in such way that allows free air and manual access to each level. During this ‘inside withering’, the tea leaves are again repeatedly flipped over and swirled to ensure a consistent drying and fermentation. Das Drehen und Verwirbeln erfolgt mit absichtlicher Rohheit, um die Blattoberflächen aufzubrechen und so für einen gleichmäßigen und beschleunigten Fermentierungsprozess zu sorgen.
The tea master decides when the desired degree of fermentation for each processed tea is achieved. Once this point is reached, the tea leaves are heated to stop the enzymatic activity and thereby inhibit further fermentation. During the withering and heating procedures, moisture is continuously extracted from the tea leaves. They become more and more malleable, which facilitates the ensuing forming process.
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The Rolling
Of course, many teas are simply left in their natural leaf form. In ancient times, the rolling to granules, needles or curls was done manually during the drying (e.g. in the wok). Today, however, it will mainly be done by machines: The malleable tea leaves are wrapped and pressed in a cloth to a bale and this bale then churned with a special machine. At this, the leaf surfaces are further broken up and the tea leaves will assume the desired shape. For Oolong teas, the cycle of heating the tea leaves and churning the bales under pressure is repeated several times, dependent on the type of tea produced. Then the tea leaves are transferred to end drying.
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Black Tea
For the production of black tea, the fermentation process of the tea leaves is allowed to fully complete.
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End Sorting
High quality teas are subjected to an end sorting process, where especially off-colors and second choice leaves and leave parts are picked out.
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Green, Oolong and black teas from the production of our producer partner in North Thailand, a small family operation in Doi Mae Salong, as well as a Pu Errh style tea harvested from wild growth tea trees and produced by the Shan people local to North Thailand are available online in our
A beautiful video, so informative and delightful. It is relaxing to watch especially while sipping delicious oolong tea from Doi Mae Salong