Collection: Hei Cha

Production process
Raw tea
(1) Raw materials
The requirements for fresh leaf raw materials are determined according to the category and grade of the black tea to be produced.
First-grade black tea: one bud and three leaves are just beginning to unfold.
Second-grade black tea: one bud and three leaves, one bud and four leaves are just beginning to unfold.
Third-grade black tea: one bud and five or six leaves. (Stationary buds, mature new shoots)
Fourth-grade black tea: mainly mature shoots. (Red stems, lignified shoots)
(2) Killing the green leaves
Killing the green leaves is to use high temperature to destroy the activity of enzymes to inhibit the enzymatic oxidation of polyphenols.
(3) Initial rolling
The rolling of black tea is divided into initial rolling and re-rolling. Most of the coarse tea leaves are initially rolled into strips, and the tea juice overflows on the surface of the tea leaves. The cell damage rate reaches more than 20%, creating conditions for the physical and chemical changes of the pile.
(4) Piling
After the initial rolling, the tea leaves can be piled directly without unblocking. The pile should be piled behind a window and on a clean floor, away from direct sunlight. The pile should be 66-100 cm high and covered with a wet cloth to keep moisture and heat. The suitable environmental conditions for pile rolling are room temperature of about 25°C and relative humidity of more than 85%. When the leaves have turned yellow-brown, the green smell has disappeared, and the sweet wine lees aroma is emitted, and the light is transparent and bamboo green, the pile is moderate.
(5) Re-rolling
Because the tea leaves after pile rolling are loose, they need to be rolled again to make them tight, further trim the fractal, break the cells, and make the breakage rate reach more than 30%, so as to improve the internal quality and appearance.
(6) Drying
Use pinewood fire, layered accumulation of wet dough and long-term one-time drying method. Traditional baking uses a special "seven-star stove", that is, the entrance of the stove is built with seven holes in bricks, and baked with pinewood fire, but the open flame does not enter the stove hole, and the smell of smoke is not avoided. When baking tea, wet dough is added seven times, and when the upper layer is 80% dry, it is turned over and baked, and the upper and lower layers are exchanged, and the drying is dried and baked. The raw tea is black and oily in color, with a unique pine smoke fragrance.