Small pot roasting, paired pot roasting and large pot roasting are all carried out on the same type of round tea roasting machine. These procedures are crucial for forming the round pellet shape of gunpowder tea. They share common operational skills while having their respective unique purposes and technical requirements.
First-step Forming (Small Pot Roasting) The primary purpose of small pot roasting is to evaporate moisture while shaping tender and fragmented tea leaves into round pellets. This procedure requires a relatively high pot temperature, which serves two purposes: firstly, it prevents tea sap from adhering to the pot interior and interfering with operation and finished tea quality; secondly, high temperature facilitates fine broken leaf fragments to aggregate into round pellets. For small pot roasting, adjust the amplitude lever to the top position, set the pot temperature between 120℃ and 160℃, load 12 to 15 kilograms of tea leaves after secondary drying, and keep roasting for around 45 minutes until the moisture content reaches 30% to 35%. For coarser mature leaves, the feeding quantity is about 13 kilograms with a final moisture content of roughly 35%. For tender leaves, around 15 kilograms of leaves are loaded to reach a moisture level of approximately 30%.
Second-step Forming (Paired Pot Roasting) Paired pot roasting is the most critical procedure for shaping gunpowder tea pellets. The formation of tea granules, especially medium-sized core pellets, mainly takes place in this stage. Therefore, steady low heat and prolonged roasting are required to support full rounding shaping. Adjust the amplitude lever to the middle position of the screw rod for paired pot roasting, maintain the pot temperature at about 60℃, and combine all tea materials from two batches of small pot roasting as feeding stock. The roasting duration lasts roughly 3 hours until the moisture content drops to 15% to 20%. Coarse low-grade mature leaves retain higher moisture and should be finished at around 25% moisture content.
Final Plasticing (Large Pot Roasting) The objective of large pot roasting is to further evaporate residual moisture, fix the pellet shape formed during paired pot roasting, and round the larger surface tea leaves into granules. Set the amplitude lever to the lowest position for large pot roasting, adopt a gradually rising pot temperature ranging from 60℃ to 80℃, and combine all tea materials from two batches of paired pot roasting for feeding. The roasting process takes 2.5 to 3 hours until the moisture content falls to 6% to 7%.
A pot cover is applied during large pot roasting to slow down moisture evaporation, keep leaf texture soft and pliable for pellet formation, especially helping large surface leaves turn into complete round granules. Covering the pot delivers positive effects on pellet rounding, yet prolonged covered roasting should be avoided, otherwise the tea will develop over-yellowed leaf color, dull suppressed aroma and yellowish infused leaves. Practical experience proves that the optimal operation is uncovered roasting in the early large-pot stage followed by moderate covered simmering in the later phase, which achieves ideal appearance and internal quality of gunpowder tea.
Some gunpowder tea producing areas have adopted a balanced heating roasting method featuring high steady temperature, uniform fire, short total duration and limited covered time after repeated trials. This technique produces gunpowder tea with tight solid round pellets, emerald green color, fresh clear liquor, elevated aroma and bright infused leaves for superior overall quality. Under this balanced heating drying process, the temperature of small pot, paired pot and large pot roasting is moderately raised, the total drying roasting time is controlled at around 7 hours, and covered simmering in the late large-pot stage is limited within 0.5 hours with alternating covering and uncovering operations. This method greatly optimizes the color, aroma, taste and shape of finished gunpowder tea.
For small pot roasting, leaf temperature should be high at first then lowered gradually, starting at 45℃ in the early stage and dropping to 38℃ in the later stage with an average leaf temperature of approximately 40℃. Higher pot temperature is suitable for thick, plump buds and leaves. Thin leaves shall be roasted at low temperature initially to promote curling, with leaf temperature raised slowly as dehydration proceeds. The whole small pot roasting period lasts 40 to 60 minutes.
The leaf temperature during paired pot roasting is maintained between 38℃ and 40℃ with steady even heating required, and the process lasts around 90 minutes. The average leaf temperature for large pot roasting is similar to that of paired pot roasting at 38℃ to 40℃ under constant uniform heat. However, the leaf temperature can rise to approximately 50℃ during the later covered simmering stage. Keep the pot covered for around 10 minutes for simmer roasting, then remove the lid once the tea leaves regain moisture. Alternate between covering and uncovering the lid when the leaves turn firm, and the whole large pot roasting process takes 120 to 150 minutes.
