Tea Plucking

Tea Plucking

Saturday 19 July 2014

Fourth milestone of Tea Journey- Withering

Withering makes or mars the tea.  Withering is very important process and expensive as well in terms of space and time required. Trough withering is generally employed for its economy. Mostly during rainy season withering is closely controlled through hot or dry air flow to speed up the process.






The main purpose of this process is to bring down moisture of leaf between 74 to 83 % and it takes 15-20 hours.This process makes the leaf flaccid as loss of turgidity which further helps in rolling,cutting and shaping. As a moisture loss cells wall breaks down with degradation of chlorophyll  and oxidation reaction starts.Some chemical compounds degrade into volatile compound which helps in developing aroma and flavour. Any neglect at this stage will result in inferior tea in subsequent process.


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