Tea friends know that tea has fermentation.
In addition to green tea, other kinds of tea have different degrees of fermentation, such as white tea micro fermentation, black tea after fermentation, oolong tea semi fermentation, and black tea full fermentation.
And fermentation is precisely because it is a process of biological oxidation.
In industry, fermentation refers to the industrial production that people rely on the life activities of microorganisms.
What we usually call tea fermentation refers to three kinds of oxidation reactions around tea polyphenols: polyphenols promoted oxidation reaction, nonenzymatic automatic oxidation reaction (damp heat reaction), and microbial enzyme promoted oxidation reaction.
No matter what kind of fermentation, the oxidation products are tea pigments, including theaflavins, rubins, and brownies.
For different types of tea, fermentation degree is different, then the proportion of the three kinds of tea pigment is not the same, performance in tea soup, is the difference in light and shade, depth.
In terms of degree and process, the other five types of fermented tea can be divided into mild fermentation (yellow tea, white tea), semi fermentation (oolong tea), full fermentation (black tea), and post-fermentation (black tea).
Micro fermentation: the degree of fermentation is about 5% - 10%, natural and slight fermentation occurs in the process of making, such as white tea.
Light fermentation: the degree of fermentation is about 10% - 20%, in hot and humid conditions, automatic fermentation, slightly light fermentation, such as yellow tea.
Semi fermentation: the degree of fermentation is about 15% - 50%, and then the fermentation is killed to stop the fermentation suddenly, such as in oolong tea.
Full fermentation: the fermentation degree is about 70% - 80%. The tea cells are damaged by rolling, and the enzyme can play a full role in full fermentation, such as black tea.
Post-fermentation: fermentation degree of 100%, with the help of external microorganisms, under the comprehensive effect of enzymes, microorganisms, and damp heat, the fermentation is complete, such as in black tea.
The Fermentation Process of Black Tea
It can also be simpler, completely standing in the perspective of the process, divided into pre-fermentation and post-fermentation.
After that, the so-called "end of fermentation" can be understood as "the end of fermentation" at the same time.
The corresponding "post-fermentation" is the primary processing fermentation, which is still in fermentation after the initial preparation and continues to ferment in the water storage, which has the characteristics of the whole process and continuity.
The former occurred in the process of initial production; The latter, whether it is the initial preparation, or after the formation of finished tea based on Maocha, is happening. Therefore, with the "primary production" as the node, one only has "early fermentation", while the other has "pre-fermentation and post-fermentation".
The so-called "pre-fermentation" and "post-fermentation" are both abbreviated.
There are four types of pre-fermented tea, yellow, white, green, and red, with different levels of fermentation, but all of them are fixed. Therefore, there is a distinction between micro fermentation, semi fermentation, and full fermentation.
Post-fermentation tea, fermentation is dynamic, in the development from low to high; In a long-term span of years, it includes all the evolution of micro (or light) fermentation, semi fermentation, and full fermentation.
Everything will flourish and decline. The quality of all kinds of tea, therefore, will decline from the "best" of its apex to worthless at a certain point in time. The premise here is to keep it properly, otherwise "deterioration" will accelerate.
Generally, pre-fermented tea also includes nonfermented green tea. Due to the good quality characteristics formed in the processing, it is not suitable to keep it for a long time and drink it within the shelf life;
Then fermented tea, their quality optimization, needs to be gradually achieved in the long-term storage, will be relatively "more and more good", but beyond a certain period, the same "worse and worse".
