Tea Process Flow diagram

The figure below shows a process flow diagram of Tea Manufacturing.

Fresh Tea leaves

Ambient air Withering

Rolling

High humidity air

Fermentation Temperature of 20-30 oC

Drying

Packing and Dust, fibre and solid wastes

sorting

Black Tea

Figure 1: Process flow diagram of Tea production

(Adapted from: Taulo et al, 2016)

There are five main processes in manufacturing of black tea namely: Withering, rolling,
fermenting, drying, and sorting and packing.

1. Withering
The tea leaves are plucked and brought to the factory where withering takes place. Withering is a
process where the leaves are spread thinly on withering trough. Withering depend on
temperature, leaves size and moisture level. Therefore the leaves are categorized according to
their size and quality, normally kept for 16- 18 hours in withering trough with normal ambient
air with normal air according to temperatures and with moisture around 55-65 % (Sarkar et al,
2016). To prevent degradation of quality, these withering leaves are sent smoothly and gently for
rolling.

2. Rolling
This process ruptures the leaf cells and allows cell contents to mix in the presence of atmospheric
oxygen with enzymatic reactions (Johnson, 1961). The Orthodox and CTC method of tea
manufacture are separated at this stage of tea manufacture (Hampton 1992). Rolling is done for
30 to 120 minutes according to leaves condition and temperature (Sarkar, 2016). In Mauritius,
the Orthodox rolling machine is used for production of Corson tea as shown in the picture below.

Figure 2: Crushing of tea leaves

(Source: Corson Manufacturing tea, 2015)

3. Fermentation
Fermentation is the major process that will influence the final tea quality. For the production of
black tea, the process involves the complete oxidation of green tea leaves. These leaves contain,
as biochemical constituents, a large fraction of catechins (Higdon & Frei, 2003; Ping Tang et al.,
2018), which will be oxidized by the action of polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and peroxidase (POD)
enzymes to theaflavins (TFs) and thearubigins (TRs) respectively. The TFs contribute to the
sharpness, brisk and bright taste of black tea while the TRs provides the mouth feel and color of
the tea and therefore there level will determine the quality and standard of the black tea.

Figure 3: Fermentation in Tea manufacturing process

(Source: Corson Manufacturing tea, 2015)

References

Satyajit Sarkar, Anurag Chowdhury, Sanjay Das, Bhaskar Chakraborty, Palash Mandal,
Monoranjan Chowdhury. (2016). Major tea processing practices in India. International journals
of bioessays. Available at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309594512_Major_tea_processing_practices_in_India
[Accessed on 09 October 2018]

Hampton, M. G., 1992. Production of black tea . Willson, Inc K. C. Available at:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/45d9/fa750892d303fad3c3972d4f0165e09d88dc.pdf [Accessed on 09
October 2018]

Corson. 2018. Manufacturing of tea. [ONLINE] Available at:

http://corsontea.com/manufacturing-of-tea/. [Accessed 9 October 2018]

Gillanders Arbuthnot & Co Ltd., 2018. Manufacturing Process. [ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.gillandersarbuthnot.com/pdf/process.pdf [Accessed 9 October 2018]

Shodhganga., 2018. Tea Manufacturing Process. [ONLINE] Available at:

http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/92854/14/14_appendix.pdf. [Accessed 9 October
2018]