Pu’er processing steps
(1) Cool down
Remove some of the moisture from fresh tea leaves. In the water removal process, some aroma substances are formed, and some macromolecular ester-capacitive sugars are hydrolyzed into small-molecule compatible sugars.
(2) Remove the green color
The raw material for raw Pu’er tea is Yunnan large-leaf and sun-dried green tea. The green color of these tea is mostly removed by pot frying. Due to the high water content of large-leaf species, it must be combined with suffocation and shaking to make the tea lose water evenly. In the same time, the enzyme activity could be quickly inactivated at high temperature, and it could prevent the oxidation of polyphenols. Afterwards, you can evaporate part of the water, which is beneficial for kneading into strips.
(3) Kneading
Break the tea cells to ensure that the tea juice is fully leached during brewing. The kneading should be controlled flexibly according to the age of the raw materials. The young leaves are lightly kneaded for a short time; the old leaves are kneaded heavily for a long time. Knead the raw material until it basically in stick shape.
Pu’er tea drying process
- At the beginning, the temperature change is controlled at 35℃-40℃, and the drying time is 1 hour.
- Increase the temperature to 45°C -50°C and maintain the temperature for 10 hours.
- The final temperature is raised to 55℃-58℃,
- The maximum temperature should not exceed 60℃, and the total drying time is 18 hours.