The Withering Process
http://www.tocklai.org/activities/tea-manufacture/withering/ Withering Withering is the first processing step in the factory and is a process in which freshly plucked leaf is conditioned physically, as well as, chemically for subsequent processing stages. Indeed, withering is one of the most important tea processing steps and can be said to constitute the foundation for achieving quality in tea manufacture. Based on achieving the desired level of withering, one can make better quality teas and, on neglect, can invite serious problems in subsequent steps of manufacture. As a matter of fact, in planter’s perception, “Withering makes or mars the tea”. Process objectives The process objectives to be achieved during withering are as follows: To breakdown complex chemical compounds in the cells to simpler compounds which along with other simpler molecules then recombine to contribute to quality attributes of tea like the ‘body’ and ‘flavour’ at a later stage. This is known as t...
