In major North African green tea importing countries, the greenness of the tea liquor is the first visible quality check during the initial brewing and evaluation. This aesthetic preference for green directly determines the grade of a batch of tea and the success or failure of an order. Market Reality of Green Liquor Standards For bulk gunpowder tea and chunmee tea sold to mainstream markets like Morocco, the ""greenness"" of the liquor is directly linked to orders-importers will reduce prices or even reject the entire batch if the liquor color does not meet the standard. The Chemical Basis and Technological Guarantee of Green Tea The ""greenness"" of green tea liquor primarily depends on the retention of chlorophyll and its derivatives. The initial fixation (or ""kill-green"") is the core process determining the liquor color-high temperature rapidly deactivates enzyme activity, inhibiting chlorophyll degradation and laying the foundation for the ""three greens"" (green appearance, green liquor, and green leaf base). Studies show that steam fixation, due to its strong penetration and short fixation time, results in less chlorophyll damage, leading to a greener liquor and leaf base; while traditional drum fixation, if improperly executed, can easily result in a darker liquor color. Historically, Zhejiang has investigated and dealt with many batches of substandard exported tea. Gunpowder tea, in particular, generally suffered from a dull appearance and a reddish-dark liquor color. Some companies even artificially enhanced the color by adding pigments to deceive consumers. After these irregularities were strictly investigated, legitimate tea companies placed greater emphasis on naturally preserving the liquor color through standardized fixation and proper storage, rather than resorting to opportunistic methods. On the judging tables of North African tea merchants, the greenness of the tea liquor is not an aesthetic preference, but a hard line for quality passing – behind it is the precise protection of chlorophyll by the withering process, and it is also the ""color pass"" for whether orders worth millions of dollars can pass through customs smoothly."
