South roadside tea manufacturing

South roadside tea is a kind of pressed tea produced in Sichuan and sold exclusively in Tibetan areas. In the past, it was divided into six colors: hairy tip, fine bud, Kang brick, gold jade and gold warehouse, but now it is simplified to Kang brick and Jinjian. In the past, it was mainly produced in Ya'an and Leshan, but now it has been expanded to the tea areas of the whole province. in Ya'an, Yibin, Chongqing, Wanxian and other state-owned tea farms (factories) centralized processing.

The raw material of south roadside tea is crude and contains some tea stalks. Because of the different processing methods of fresh leaves, Mao tea is divided into two types: those that are dried directly without steaming and kneading, which are called "Maozhuang tea" or "golden jade tea", and those that are steamed and piled many times and then dried. Maozhuang tea has been eliminated because of its simple method and poor quality.

The primary production process of south roadside tea is more tedious. The traditional practice of making Zhuangcha has to go through 18 processes of stir-frying, three steaming, three treading, four heaps, four drying, two picking and one sieving, and the least has to go through 14 processes. Since the 1960s, after continuous improvement, the new process has been simplified to 8 processes. Now the traditional and new processes of making Zhuangcha are described respectively.

(1) the traditional technology of making Zhuangcha

The manufacturing process of making Zhuang tea is as follows: kill green, first pile, first drying, first steaming, first stepping, second pile, primary selection, second drying, second steaming, second steaming, three heaps, three drying, screening, three steaming, three stepping, four heaps, four drying.

The traditional method of ① green killing is to use a large pot with a diameter of 93 cm. The amount of leaves is 15-20 kg each time, and the temperature of the pot before throwing leaves is about 3000C. The method is to stir-fry first, then stir-fry, and combine with boredom. The time is about 10 minutes, and the weight of fresh leaves is reduced by about 10%. Now the general use of Sichuan-90 green machine, pot temperature 240260 ℃ leaf volume of 2025 kg, stir-fry for 7-8 minutes, until the loss of gloss of the leaves, the quality of the leaves become soft, the stalks are constantly broken, and there is the smell of tea, you can come out of the pot.

② huddled together. Its purpose is to make the tea billet accumulate hot, promote the non-enzymatic automatic oxidation of polyphenols, change the leaf color from turquoise to yellow brown, and form the unique quality of south roadside tea. Huddling is an important process of making Zhuangcha, with four times as many as four times and the least three times. After the first gathering, the green leaves should be accumulated while it is hot, the time is 8-12 hours, the heap temperature is maintained at about 60 ℃, and the leaf color is converted to light yellow. After each steaming step will be carried out in a pile, the time is 8-12 hours, the function is to remove the astringent taste and send out the aroma of old tea. Pile until the leaf color turns dark reddish brown, and water droplets appear on the heap surface, you can open the heap. If the leaf color is too light, the last gathering time should be extended until it meets the requirements before drying.

The purpose of ③ steaming tea is to increase the toughness of the leaves after being heated, so as to facilitate de-stemming and kneading. The method is to put the tea billet into a steaming bucket and put it on an iron pot to boil water and steam the tea. A steaming bucket for steaming tea, commonly known as "retort". The upper caliber is 33 cm, the lower caliber is 45 cm, the height is 100 cm, and each barrel contains 12.5-15 kg of tea. Steam until the soda drips under the hat-shaped steam cap, the tea billet in the bucket is sunken, and the leaves are soft.

④ steamed the tea and poured it into the sack while it was hot, fastened the mouth of the bag, each held one end of the sack, put the tea bag on the top of the treadmill, and then stood side by side on the tea bag, pedaling from top to bottom to make the tea bag roll and make the tea billet tightly rolled into strips. The two should step together, and their efforts should be even. it is better for the tea bag to roll slowly, not too fast. The treading board is made of 6muri 7cm thick wood, about 6m long and 1m wide, installed as a 30-degree slope, with bamboo poles on both sides as handrails for easy operation. Steaming and stepping are closely linked, usually three steams and three steps, and if there are few, two steams and two steps.

⑤ picking stalks, screening the second and third times after the pile, each pick one time, according to the prescribed stem size standard, long stems of more than 10 centimeters should be sorted out. Sieve after the third sun, separate the thickness, steam, step on, pile up, and then bask in thousands.

Every time the ⑥ teas gather together, the tea blanks will be spread out. Spread the thickness of 6-10 cm, and turn frequently, and strive for uniform dryness. After each drying, the tea blanks have to be moved to the indoor stall for one or two hours, so that the water in the leaves is redistributed evenly before the next steaming and trampling can be carried out. If the tea billet is dry and wet unevenly, the water content after steaming is also different, and the leaves are easy to be broken when pedaling. The proper degree of drying is one of the keys to making Zhuang tea well, and we must carefully grasp the dryness of each process. According to the experiment, it is appropriate to dry 65% to 65% dry (water content 25-35%) for the first time, 70% to 75% dry for the second time, 75% to 80% dry for the third time, and 85% to 90% dry for the last time. The water content of Mao tea is 10-14%.

(2) the new technology of making Zhuangcha is the result of the joint research of Ya'an Tea Factory and Mengshan Tea Farm in the late 1960s.

The manufacturing procedures of the new process are as follows: steaming, initial kneading, initial selection, initial drying, re-kneading, holding pile, re-sorting, foot dry.

① steamed sugarcane green is to use steam to kill green. That is, put the fresh leaves into a steam bucket and steam them in a boiling water pot. When the steam comes out of the lid and the leaves become soft, the time is about 8-10 minutes. If steamed on a boiler steam generator, it will only take 1 or 2 minutes.

② kneading is carried out twice, and machine kneading has been popularized now. After the fresh leaves are green, knead them while it is hot, in order to separate the leaves from the tea stalks, without pressure, knead for 1-2 minutes. After kneading, the water content of the tea billet is 65-70%. After the initial drying, the water content is reduced to 32-37%, and the second kneading is carried out while it is hot for about 5 ^-6 minutes. Add light pressure while kneading, so as to knead into strips without breaking.

There are two methods of ③ pile: natural holding pile and heating and moisturizing pile.

The natural pile is to pile up the rolled leaves while it is hot, the heap is 1.5-2 meters high, and the stack surface is covered with a mat to maintain temperature and humidity. After about 2-3 days, hot gas appeared on the surface of the tea heap, and when the temperature in the pile rose to about 70 ℃, the pile was turned over once with a wooden fork, and the surface leaves were turned into the center of the pile and rearranged into a pile. The heap temperature should not exceed 80 ℃, otherwise, the heap leaves will burn out and become black and undrinkable. After turning the heap, after 2-3 days, the water droplets condensed by water vapor appeared on the heap surface, the heap temperature rose again to 60-65 ℃, and the leaf color changed to yellowish brown or brown, that is, the heap was properly grasped, and the coarse stalks were picked up and dried for the second time.

Heating and moisturizing is carried out in a specially built holding chamber. The indoor temperature is 65-70 ℃, the relative humidity is 90-95%, the air is ventilated, and the water content of the product in process is about 28%. If you can have such conditions, the process of holding the stack only takes 36-38 hours to meet the requirements, not only a short time, but also good quality, can increase the total amount of water extract by 2%, color, smell and taste are good.

The water content of the tea blanks dried by ④ is more than 30%. The water content of Zhuangcha is required to reach 12-14%. Therefore, the tea blanks after the pile must be dried to meet the requirements, and the quality can be fixed to prevent deterioration.

Drying is carried out in two stages, the first dry leaf water content is 32-37%, and the second dry leaf water content is 12-14%. Machine dryness is generally used.