Wuyuan County is located in the mountainous area of northeastern Jiangxi, surrounded by the Huaiyu Mountains and the Huangshan Mountains. It has high terrain, towering peaks, beautiful mountains and rivers, fertile soil, mild climate, abundant rainfall, and year-round clouds and mist, making it the most suitable place for cultivating tea trees.

Wuyuan green tea processing process

Tea processing machine is an essential tool in the tea making process. Wuyuan green tea production techniques mainly include multiple processes such as picking, spreading, greening, cooling, hot kneading, roasting, initial drying, and re-drying. The process requirements are very strict.

Wuyuan green tea is mined every year around the Spring Equinox. When picking, the standard is one bud and one leaf; after Qingming, the standard is one bud and two leaves. When picking, do “three no-picks”, that is, don’t pick rainwater leaves, red-purple leaves, and insect-damaged leaves. The picking of tea leaves adheres to the principles of picking in stages and batches, picking first, then picking later, not picking if it does not meet the standards, and fresh leaves should not be picked overnight.

1. Picking: After the fresh leaves are picked, they are divided into grades according to standards and spread on different bamboo strips. The thickness of fresh leaves of the highest grade should not exceed 2cm, and the thickness of fresh leaves of the following grades should not exceed 3.5cm.

2. Greening: Fresh leaves are generally spread out for 4 to 10 hours, turning them over once in the middle. After the fresh leaves are greened, the leaves become soft, the buds and leaves stretch, the moisture is distributed, and the fragrance is revealed;

3. Greening: Then put the green leaves into the tea fixation machine for high-temperature greening. Control the temperature of the iron pot at 140℃-160℃, turn it by hand to finish, and control the time to about 2 minutes. After being greened, the leaves are soft, turn dark green, have no green air, have broken stems continuously, and have no burnt edges;

4. Breeze: After the tea leaves are greened, spread them evenly and thinly on the bamboo strips plate so that they can dissipate heat and avoid stuffiness. Then shake the dried green leaves in the bamboo strips plate several times to remove the debris and dust;

5. Rolling: The rolling process of Wuyuan green tea can be divided into cold rolling and hot rolling. Cold kneading, that is, the green leaves are rolled after being cooled. Hot kneading involves rolling the green leaves while they are still hot into a tea rolling machine without cooling them down.

6. Baking and frying: The kneaded tea leaves should be put into a bamboo baking cage to bake or stir-fry in a pot in time, and the temperature should be around 100℃-120℃. The roasted tea leaves are dried in a cast iron pot at 120°C, and the temperature is gradually reduced from 120°C to 90°C and 80°C;

7. Initial drying: The fried tea leaves are dried in a cast iron pot at 120°C, and the temperature is gradually reduced from 120°C to 90°C and 80°C. Will form clumps.

8. Re-dry: Then put the initially dried green tea into a cast iron pot and stir-fry until dry. The pot temperature is 90℃-100℃. After the leaves are heated, gradually lower it to 60°C, fry until the moisture content is 6.0% to 6.5%, take it out of the pot and pour it into the bamboo plaque, wait for it to cool and sift out the powder, and then package and store it.