Once the tea is appeared to get old, the taste of the tea will be affected greatly. Then, how do we prevent the aging of the tea leaves?
- Controlling the water amount of tea leaves contained. The safe amount of water contained in the tea leaves should be below 5%. The rough made tea will not be completely dried in high temperature for a short time. Therefore, the two stages drying can achieve relatively ideal results. And the dried tea leaves need to cool down before packaging. However, the cooling down period should not be exposed to air for too long, which is to avoid absorbing moisture. The rough tea leaves will be roasted again after the stems are picked out. This is how to make sure the water amount is less than 5%.
- Avoiding sunlight. Experiment indicates that sunlight is the cause of intense and rapid deterioration of the tea quality. Therefore, the newly made tea should avoid sunlight during the beginning of the processing to the packaging completion. Additionally, the tea dealers and tea farmers are still used to the package of transparent plastic bags (PE) to bag the tea leaves temporary. This should be avoided.
- Low temperature storage. At present, using low temperature to store tea leaves is recognized as the most effective way to maintain the original quality of the tea leaves publicly. It can main the best quality in the low temperature, in terms of color, aroma, and taste, especially the freshness of the tea leaves. Theoretically speaking, the lower the temperature, the better the tea is preserved, and the longer the shelf life. However, from the economic perspective, the temperature is the best maintained between zero to five degrees.
- Vacuum packing. The existing of oxygen is close related to the “aging taste”, “oily taste”, color deterioration, activity reduction and others. Currently, vacuum packaging, nitrogen packaging, and deoxidizer packing are the effective way to solve the oxidation issue of the tea. Generally, it is the best deoxidizer to delay the oxidization of the tea. The deoxidizer packaging requires the packaging material can block the air. Currently, the widely used aluminum foil bags are the commonly used that meet the packaging requirements.