How Tea is Made and Produced
Tea Production Process
There are three major tea production processes: applying
fertilizer, pest control, and harvest. Pest control refers to the control
and prevention of pests in agricultural operations. These processes are
done during different seasons depending on the type of tea.
Ichiban-cha(first grade tea) is the first tea harvest of the year. The teas harvested after
that are named Niban-cha(second grade tea), San-ban-cha(third grade tea), Yon-ban-cha(fourth grade tea), and so on, according
to their order.
| Name of tea | When to apply fertilizer | Time of control | harvest time |
| first grade tea | Spring January-April | November～December | around May |
| second grade tea | Spring January-April | May | around June |
| third grade tea | Spring January-April、June-July | May-July | around August |
| fourth grade tea | Spring January-April、June-September | May-July | around October |
Tea Processing
There are many different types of tea processing methods.Processing
is divided into eight major categories: plucking, steaming, cooling, rough
rubbing, twisting, medium rubbing, fine rubbing, and drying.
| Name of process | Process Description |
| picking | The process of plucking tea leaves and transporting them to a rough tea factory |
| carrying in | The process of quickly transporting plucked tea leaves to the rough tea factory |
| steaming | The process of steaming tea leaves with steam.Cooling is the process of cooling tea leaves while removing water from them. |
| cooling | The process of putting tea leaves in a coarse rubbing machine and drying them while also watching them with hot air. |
| waving a leaf | Process of evaporating water by shaking tea |
| first rolling | The process of rubbing the tea leaves with force to equalize the moisture content. |
| second rolling | The process of drying the tea leaves by rubbing them with hot air again |
| third rolling | The process of drying the tea leaves with hot air while rubbing them again |
| shaping | The process of shaping the tea leaves by applying heat and force again and drying them. |
| drying | Process of thoroughly drying tea leaves |
| Total & Weighing | The process of equalizing the number of leaves. After this process, these teas are turned into rough tea. |
carrying in
steam
cooling
waving a leaf
first rolling
second rolling
third rolling
shaping
drying
Weighing