Directions are given for a simplified, hand-processed, Japan-style black tea and hand-processing green tea using a microwave oven and wok

Ikeda, Namiko

Kinoshita, Tomomi

Sato, Dwight

ScholarSpace at University of Hawai'i at Manoa

Food Safety and TechnologyMar. 2007FST-26Published by the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR) and issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperationwith the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Andrew G. Hashimoto, Director/Dean, Cooperative Extension Service/CTAHR, University of Hawai‘i at Mänoa, Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96822.An equal opportunity/affirmative action institution providing programs and services to the people of Hawai‘i without regard to race, sex, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, disability,marital status, arrest and court record, sexual orientation, or status as a covered veteran. CTAHR publications can be found on the Web site <http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/freepubs>.Home-Processing Black and Green Tea(Camellia sinensis)Dwight Sato,1 Namiko Ikeda,2 and Tomomi Kinoshita31Department of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences; 2National Institute of Vegetable and Tea Science, Shizuoka, Japan (black teamethod);  3Department of Life and Environmental Science, Kagoshima Prefectural College, Kagoshima, Japan (green tea method)Hand-roll in muslin cloth on ribbed washboard Black tea in a bamboo Chinese dryerA simplified, hand-processed, Japan-styleblack teaMaking black tea is a simple process. This type of tea isallowed to fully ferment before drying. Camellia sinensiscultivars high in tannins are most suitable for makingblack tea. Oxidizing enzymes change the chemical con-stituents in the tea leaves, and this results in brown- orred-colored brews. Assam hybrids such as ‘Benihikari’,‘Benihomare’, and ‘Bohea’ make good black teas.On a sunny afternoon, harvest young tea shoots thathave two leaves and a central, needle-like leaf. Plan onstarting with 1⁄2–1 lb of fresh tea shoots. Spread the shootsin a single layer on a screen or muslin cloth over a wireshelf rack in a relatively dry withering room with tem-perature between 68° and 77°F overnight for 16 hours.Weigh to determine that the tea is around 70 percentleaf moisture before proceeding to the next step. (Sub-tract the weight of the dried leaves from the weight ofthe fresh leaves, divide the result by the fresh leaf weight,and multiply the result by 100 to find the percent leafmoisture).Gather the shoots into a ball in muslin cloth and hand-roll (knead) it for at least 10 minutes. Open the clothand separate the tea. Repeat this process four times,lightly kneading for 3–5 minutes each time. The tem-perature of the room for this process should be the sameas for the withering. Using a washboard helps with therolling. (Optional step: If two major leaf sizes exist, youmay want to experiment with sorting the shoots intogrades according to size. Roll and knead the larger shootstwo more times. Ferment the two size classes in sepa-rate batches.)Carefully separate the tea shoots from each other.Spread them in a tray until they are five or six shoot-layers deep in a fermenting room at 77–86°F with highhumidity. Cover the rolled tea with a single layer ofcheesecloth for about 3 hours. The tea will undergo anoxidation-fermentation process and change to a cop-pery color. Monitor the process for aroma and flavorqualities.When the tea has darkened, stop this process by dry-ing at 203°F for 5 minutes, followed by 140°F for approx-imately 60 minutes. Use a convection oven or a bambooChinese dryer with heating coils. Reduce leaf moisturecontent to about 5 percent. Get well accustomed to yourdrying unit. Calibrate it with a thermometer, and makenecessary adjustments. Pack the cooled, dry tea in air-tight aluminum bags or other containers for storage.UH–CTAHR Processing Tea (Camellia sinensis)—Green and Black FST-26 — Mar. 20072Hand-processed green tea using a microwaveoven and wokFor making green tea, the least oxidized tea, you gener-ally don’t solar-wilt the freshly harvested tea, but youcould allow a slight amount of indoor withering or ex-pose the tea to diffused sunlight, depending on the typeof tea you plan to make. Green tea keeps its color be-cause oxidizing enzymes (i.e., polyphenol oxidase, per-oxidase) that would turn the leaves dark are inactivatedwith heat, generally soon after harvest. Inactivated, theenzymes cannot break down the tea tissue chlorophyll,which contributes the green color. Sustaining adequatelevels of soil nitrogen, especially ammonium, duringshoot growth is more important for developing good fla-vor in tea processed as green tea (with its higher aminoacids content) than as oolong or black tea.On a sunny morning, harvest young tea shoots thathave two leaves and a central, needle-like leaf. Plan onstarting with 1⁄2–1 lb of fresh tea shoots. Microwave thetea shoots for approximately 2 minutes in an autoclav-able plastic bag using level 5 (or a mid-range setting;we have been using a 1300-watt inverter microwave oventhat has 10 power-level settings). The microwaved teain the plastic bag will be hot, so be careful. Remove thecooked tea, separate the shoots, and spread them on amuslin cloth for about 3 minutes. The tea will look likecooked spinach. This step removes surface moisture andcools the leaves.Gather the tea into a loose ball within the muslin clothand roll it with light pressure for 1 or 2 minutes. Rolluntil the leaf and stem extract (the tea’s “liquor”) ex-udes. This process equalizes the moisture content of thebatch as the tissue juices are slowly extracted. The ten-der shoots take on a sticky consistency. Carefully breakapart the ball and separate the tea shoots from each other.This allows uniform moisture loss for each tea shootprior to pan-frying.Pan-fry the shoots in a wok over low heat, tossingthem gently for about 11⁄2 minutes until the surfaces ofthe leaves appear dry. Spread the tea on a muslin clothto cool, separating the shoots again. Gather the tea intoa ball in the muslin cloth and roll it again to the pointwhere the leaf and stem juices begin to exude. Breakapart the ball and separate the shoots. Pan-fry again whiletossing for 5–6 minutes until the leaves appear dehy-drated. It is important that during the pan-frying pro-cess the leaves are gradually dehydrated each time. Thistime can vary and will depend on the amount of freshtea you begin with. Repeat the gathering, rolling, spread-ing and pan-frying of the shoots two more times. In-crease pressure on the ball by using the base of yourpalms. Then slowly separate the tea shoots from eachother. Eventually the tea leaves and stems should takeon a slightly crispy texture.Spread the tea evenly in a wok over very gentle heatfor final drying until the stems are fully dried. Pack thecooled, dry tea in airtight aluminum bags or other con-tainers for storage.Work on these tea processing methods was supported in part by the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s Pacific Basin Agricultural ResearchCenter and the Department of Research and Development, County of Hawai‘i.Pan-frying in a wok Finished green tea

Home Processing Black and Green Tea (Camellia sinensis)

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Home Processing Black and Green Tea (Camellia sinensis)

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