China is the country with the most tea in the world, among which green tea is the tea with the longest history, the largest production area, the highest output, the richest variety and the widest consumption range in China.
Green tea refers to tea made from new leaves or buds of tea trees through processes such as killing green, rolling and drying. Green tea is not fermented, and the color of the finished product and the tea soup after brewing retain the green style of fresh tea, with the characteristics of "dry tea green, soup green, and leaf bottom green".
Four categories of green tea
All the tea we see now belongs to green tea. Although the processing technology of green tea is mainly green, rolling and drying, due to different killing or drying methods, we usually divide green tea into four categories: stir-fried green, baked green, sun-dried green and steamed green.
1. Stir-fried green tea
Green tea is dried by iron pan stir-fried green method
Due to the different manual or mechanical operating forces during the drying process, the tea leaves form different shapes such as strips, beads, flat, needles, spirals, etc. Therefore, they are usually divided into long stir-fried green, round stir-fried green and flat stir-fried green according to their shapes.
Representative varieties include West Lake Longjing, Dongting Biluochun, Ziyang Maojian, Lushan Yunwu, etc.
2. Baked green tea
It is a green tea that is dried in an oven after being baked. The characteristics of baked green tea are complete and slightly curved in appearance, exposed tip, dark green color, light and mellow taste, delicious soup color, and bright yellow-green leaf bottom. Generally, the rotary machine for producing scented tea is cast with baked green tea.
Representative varieties include Lu'an Guapian, Taiping Houkui, Huangshan Maofeng, Guzhu Zisun, Gaoqiao Yinfeng, etc.
3. Sun-dried green tea
It refers to green tea made by using sunlight and wind to evaporate the moisture in the fresh leaves after the leaves are rolled and fallen. The green tea strips are thick and fat, the color is dark green and oily, the white hair is exposed, the aroma is rich and mellow, the soup color is bright yellow-green, and the leaf bottom is thick.
Since the fresh leaves of sun-dried green tea are relatively coarse and old, the processed raw tea is mainly used as the raw material for compressed tea such as Tuo tea, cake tea, square tea, kang bricks, and Fu bricks.
Representative varieties include: Yunnan green tea, Sichuan green tea, Shaanxi green tea, etc.
4. Steamed green tea
Green tea is made by first using steam to kill the fresh leaves, steaming them soft, and then rolling and drying them. It is the oldest category of green tea in my country.
Steamed green tea uses steam to destroy the activity of enzymes in fresh leaves, forming the quality characteristics of dark green color of dry tea, light green tea soup, and green leaf bottom.
Representative varieties include: Sencha, Enshi Yulu, Yangxian Xueya, etc.
Compared with several green teas, stir-fried green tea has a high aroma, strong flavor, and mellow taste. The aroma of baked green tea is generally not as high as that of stir-fried green tea; the astringency of sun-dried green tea is slightly heavier. Steamed green tea has a green fragrance, but not as fresh as stir-fried green tea. However, they also come in different flavors, providing more choices for consumers with different preferences.
