Artisanal Black Tea Processing 

Thanks for this interesting question, I didn't mention it in the video but you're right, farmers typically make black tea tea with cheaper material than Pu-erh tea. While leaf quality is crucial in Pu-erh tea production, a good processing skill can give decent black tea, even though the leaves are not the best. We made this black tea with third flush gushu, which means late spring, had we made Pu-erh tea with that material, we'd have had a lot of yellow flakes. Since black tea is very tightly rolled, you won't get yellow flakes even if you use coarse leaves. In Summer, Pu-erh tea has a lot of yellow flakes and a weak taste, but it's possible to make very decent black tea and that's what the farmers do if they have that possibility (technical know-how and equipment). Now, it also depends on the customers you have, a friend of mine has customers who are willing to pay a high price to get the 'best' jingmai black tea, he uses early spring single trees to make it. The taste is slightly better but the price much higher than late Spring or Summer black tea. I think this premium material would be better used for making Pu-erh tea though. Black tea is a good option to add value to the cheap and weak leaves that are available during the rainy season. You can find the same pattern in Taiwan, where the farmers make lowly oxidized high Gaoshan Cha in Spring and Autumn and heavily oxidized Oriental Beauty during the Summer.

Innovation is strong among the tea makers of Jingmai. A lot of experiments are made and some processing techniques are implemented on a larger scale when they give an interesting tea. I always discuss tea processing methods with like-minded friends in jingmai, we work on Pu-erh, black and white tea mainly.

brotomann because they use the larger leaves which aren’t gushu material

A.Z. C. Oxidation (or fermentation) stops, or proceeds very slowly, whenever the leaf is dehydrated in the sun or in an oven. However, in other types of tea besides black and white teas, heat is applied in order to regulate oxidation *before* leaf is dehydrated. This is the case with green, puer, and oolong. Are you still trying to grow and process your own tea? I would be interested to know. And yes, we are very fortunate to have William’s insights!

@@mikeloeb3562 Well, the tea is still growing being harvested by horses and cows since I had to put my farm for sale.

Don't go to normal factories

Good luck in your tea enterprise, feel free to contact me if you need help with your gardens. Most of the black tea made in the world is dried with hot air. Air dryers are fairly expensive machines, and many farmers of Yunnan don't have one, this is why they sun-dry the tea. Most Pu-erh tea producers have a small rolling machine though. You could do a hand-rolling, just like in our video on pu-erh tea processing, but it takes a long time for black tea, you have to increase the pressure progressively. Hand-rolling black tea is not really viable commercially but technically possible.

​@@farmerleaf61 @ 0😊

Merci pour votre commentaire! Le roulage peut se faire a la main (nous l'avons deja experimente il y a quelques annees en faisant du the en Thailande). Cela prend moins de temps qu'a la machine parce qu'avec les doigts, il est possible de rouler plus intensement le the sans l'ecraser. Il me semble que les thes noirs ne se sont repandus que tres recemment, au moment meme de la mecanisation. Avant le XIXeme siecle, ils etaient peu produits, je crois que le plus ancien est le Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong (aussi appelle Lapsang souchong) produit dans le Fujian. Etant donne que c'etait un the assez cher, il etait viable de le rouler a la main.

@@farmerleaf61 Merci beaucoup pour votre réponse!

You can do your research, that's the most interesting part of the process. Look for suitable varietals and see which one thrives. I hope you'll be able to make a good tea soon!

@@farmerleaf61 ok, thanks!

The greenhouse is especially useful during the rainy season because it protects from rain and has a slightly higher temperature than in the open. With a clear weather, we could as well dry the tea directly under the Sun. There is some discussion among the tea makers about whether it's better to dry directly under the Sun or under a cover, I haven't studied the question myself. Last Autumn, we had constant rain for a week but still managed to get our tea dry inside the greenhouse, even without having strong sunlight. The tea dried by diffusion with the air as long as the layer is thin enough. If humidity is high, the tea will dry more slowly, but if the Sun is strong it doesn't matter much. Since black tea is tightly rolled, it's water is better extracted than in Pu-erh wet leaves, it will evaporate faster. As a consequence, black tea dries much faster than Pu-erh tea.

Thank you! What is the temperature in the greenhouse? I see that you have siding as well so that also keeps the wind down, no?

I don't have a thermometer in the greenhouse, with a strong sun, the temperature probably goes above 40 degrees Celsius on a clear day. It does protect from the wind.

No. “Tea tree” is Melaleuca Alternifolia, a type of myrtle. It comes from my region of South East Australia, and I get homesick when I smell it grown in other parts of the world. The natural tree is fragrant and wonderful, but very different to the tea we drink (although it’s possible to make tea tree tea, but that’s not common).

@@hellodavidryan I looked it up, what a gorgeous tree.

Thanks for your insight. I've changed my processing technique since this video. I just do a one-hour long rolling with minimum pressure all the way. The oxidation time is the most crucial step to determine the taste of tea, you can even forego it if you want a low oxidized one. Good withering is crucial to ensure the leaves don't break in the rolling machine and to get rid of enough water, if the batch is too wet, it will cause problems during the oxidation. We only do sun-drying, having a drier would open up more options. I hope you're having a good time making tea!

@@farmerleaf61 I'm watching this video again for the first time after five years and it's really interesting to learn about the evolution of your methods. I've tried to incorporate many of the same principles into my own tea-making here in the US. Thank you!

It does, you can find tea all over south east asia!