Tea Processing Plants

Tea is a non- alcoholic beverage that is consumed world wide. It comes in many varieties like black tea, green tea, etc. During processing, lot of flavors are added to generate freshness and new taste in the tea. The popular flavors added during blending are chocolate, cardamom, ginger etc.

There are different ways of processing tea however, the most common methods applied for the processing of tea are withering, rolling, oxidation and drying.

Withering
The tea leaves are picked and are spreaded for drying. In case of humid climate, tea leaves are treated with dryer which reduces the moisture content in the leaves.

Rolling
The completion of withering gives way to rolling. During rolling process, the leaf cells are broken. Oil is released while rolling which gives tea pleasant aroma and taste. The release of enzyme causes chemical oxidation of the phenolic compounds present.

Oxidation
After the rolling process is completed, the tea is allowed to ferment in an open damp climate. The fermentation results in the changing of color of tea. Later it is dried in hot air to reduce the excess moisture.

Drying
In this stage the leaves are dried evenly through firing process. Firing and drying stops the oxidation of tea leaves.

Packaging
This is the final stage where tea is sorted out, graded, blended and then packed.