When talking about tea, we often talk about full fermentation, semi-fermentation, and light fermentation. The fermentation machine is a commonly used processing machine in the tea fermentation process. Let’s learn about the fermentation of tea.

Fermentation of tea – biological oxidation

Chinese tea is divided into six major tea categories according to different degrees of fermentation and comprehensive production methods. In tea, the same green leaf is processed into green tea, black tea, oolong tea, etc. through controlled biological oxidation, a process that is also incorrectly called fermentation. This process is more like a series of enzymatic reactions, and perhaps should be called biological oxidation. With the help of the biological oxidation of tea cell wall damage in the tea fermentation machine, the oxidases present in the cell wall promote a series of oxidation processes of catechins.

In tea cells, catechins exist in the cell fluid, while oxidase mainly exists in the cell wall, not mainly in microorganisms, so the cell wall needs to be damaged. This naturally explains why fermented tea requires rolling with a tea leaf roller. According to the different degree of oxidation of polyphenols, it can be divided into full fermentation, semi-fermentation and light fermentation. In black tea, the degree of oxidation of polyphenols is very high, which is called full fermentation; in oolong tea, the degree of oxidation of polyphenols is about half, which is called semi-fermentation.

The above is the basic meaning of fermentation often said in Chinese tea. However, due to the wide variety of tea in China, the rich processing techniques and preparation methods, and the different definitions of quality, people often use electric tea fermentation processing machine to carry out controlled fermentation. In the production and quality formation process of some tea leaves, in addition to the above-mentioned fermentation in the sense of biological oxidation in addition to its own enzymatic reaction, microorganisms will also be involved in some links.