Tea Processing

[Wholemeal Crank]

How does C sinensis provide teas as diverse as white, black, green, oolong, puerh?

I was browsing wikipedia the other day, and came upon this great chart, that shows the different steps in processing tea, and how different combinations of them result in very different types of tea. It's brought a lot of information together in a way that helps me keep it all straight, more simply than several books and many articles & web pages.

So the chart shows how oolongs and black teas both go through some bruising and oxidation, steps that white, yellow, and green teas skip, which steps help develop their fruity & spicy complex flavors, with black tea going 'all the way' and oolong varying from almost green to very near black tea. It also clarifies the relationship between puerh and green tea, making clearer why some young puerh appeals to me most when brewed as though it were a green tea (low temp, short infusions).

Of course, if I had just looked at the chart without reading those books & articles & web pages, it might have been pretty confusing itself. So this seems like a good idea for a topic, to discuss tea processing, and link to good sources for information about it.

For example, I have a link to a great video of hand processing sencha in Japan that I will try to find & post next.

[Wholemeal Crank]

--hand rubbed sencha. This is amazing, to watch a tea master make the tea completely by hand.