Why Tea Tastes Different: The Dozens of Decisions Behind It

How tea is made from the leaf to the cup and what actually happening with the tea before you brew it. Hi, my name is Sergey, I'm a founder of Moi Chai and I'm doing tea for more than 20 years and today we'll talk about the topic how tea is made. So what really happens before you brew the tea? Let me brew first the tea then. Yeah, when you drink a cup of tea you're tasting not just the tea, you're tasting a process. It's not just a plant, it's not just a certain region or famous producer, it's actually you're tasting a dozen of decisions. When the leaf was picked, how long it was rested, how long it was heated, oxidized, rolled, dried, sometimes aged for years. Most people see tea as a finished product but tea is not, yeah, manufactured. It's literally crafted through transformation. It's so much attention need to put to make it happen. Today I'll show you how tea is actually made from fresh leaf to the cup in your hands and how the same plant becomes green tea, oolong, black tea, white tea, yellow tea and pu'er and hei cha and some experimental varieties even. All starts actually from completely same plant. Yes, there are the cultivars but still it's Camellia sinensis with different variations. It's, yeah, all true comes from the same species. Different cultivars, different regions, different climates and even, yeah, some experiments but still it's the same kind of plant. But where it becomes delicate green tea begins from the same leaf. That changes everything. It's processing. The moment the leaf is picked, chemistry actually already begins. Enzymes activate. Moisture starts to evaporate. Oxidations begin naturally. From that point forward every decision shapes the final character of the tea. One of the most important stages is withering, the first transformation. After picking most teas go through withering process and actually if not all the teas, yeah, the fresh leaf is spread out and allow it to lose moisture slowly. This softens the structure and makes leaves flexible. But withering is not just drying, it's biochemical change in the leaves. Sugars begin to concentrate, aromatic compounds start developing, the leaves becomes ready for shaping and oxidation. In white this stage is minimal and natural. In the long and black tea it's more controlled and intentional. Even here timing changes everything. And also even in some stages and some experimental teas during withering you'd also do shaking in between, Yaoqing in Chinese. The next stage could be oxidation, the key difference between tea types, which is also visually you can see the difference. Oxidation in the process what defines most categories of tea. Then the leaf is brushed and rolled, cell walls break and enzymes react with oxygen. Oxidation is the process that defines most categories of tea. You can see it by color, by taste, by whatever. Then the leaf is brushed or rolled, cell walls break and enzymes react with oxygen. This darkens the leaf and transforms flavor compounds. Green tea, oxidation is stopped almost immediately, so it's not oxidized. White tea, very light natural oxidation. Oolong, partial oxidation, anywhere from 10% to almost 60%. Black tea, full oxidation. Shengpu, slow natural oxidation over time with aging. The level of oxidation determines wherever your tea lays crusty, floral, fruity, malty or deep and resinous. This single variable creates entire worlds of flavor most of the time. Also in combination with for sure the first stages like withering and shaking. The kill green, fixation, stopping the process. Actually for green tea and many oolongs oxidation must be stopped at a precise moment. This is done through heat, pan-frying or steaming. Steaming is mostly used for matcha and some Japanese teas, but mainly in China now also start using it. High heat deactivates enzymes locking in the current state of the leaf. This is why it's called fixation. In Chinese green tea, pan-frying creatives night tea chestnut notes. In Japanese green tea, steaming preserves bright vegetal intensity and umami and what we know about all the Japanese green teas. A few seconds too long or too short and the profile shifts dramatically. This is why it is especially before whatever it can be pan-frying or anything else or like steaming it's very important to take attention to details. The rolling. Rolling does more than creates beautiful shapes. It breaks cell walls intentionally, helping flavor extract later during brewing. For example twisted wei yancha or steep style steep shape dancong or even needle-shaped green teas or even red teas. Shape affects how the tea opens in water, how quickly it releases flavor and how it feels in the mouth. So it's not like kind of decorative form, it serves a function. But for sure the beauty is also important. Especially in China people value the how to say the appearance, how tea looks like. Drying and roasting. Stabilizing the tea. Once the desired oxidation level is reached the tea must be dried. Drying stabilizers, drying stabilize it for storage and transport. Some teas stop here like many green teas. Other undergo roasting especially oolong and rock teas and baking and they're more longer kind of couple of different cycles of baking and this adds more complexity and yeah. Light baking preserves floral notes, heavy creates mineral depth and caramelized warmth and yeah and this small change also can be completely yeah completely change the general result of the tea. So there are many after stages in processing. Fermentation. It's a different path and often yeah you can call mostly it's about pu'er tea and some hei cha. It's a completely another dimension. Shampoo is pressed and slowly aged over years through natural microbial activity. The ripe pu'er or shu pu'er undergoes controlled pile fermentation without piling water accelerating that ages process. Yeah so it's not simple oxidation it's kind of microbial transformation it's just more complex stage and earthy deep sometimes forest-like flavors develop over time like okay all this nutty like yeah whatever chocolate notes so this is very complex technology itself but also there are much many many layers. Aging and yeah some teas are meant to be consumed fresh. Others improve with rest and especially if we talk about pu'er. Aged white tea also because honeyed and fig well-stored shampoo gains smoothness and complexity. Some baked roasted oolongs are often needed months to settle. You need some time to make them better. Time is not kind of decay is managed properly it's becomes part of the actually technological cycle. So it's so important to understand that the tea has a such a rich complex diverse stages to develop certain taste and fragrance and uh what I just told is a maybe very upper layer yes actually I visit hundreds and hundreds of almost yeah and I can say that I all the time see some tiny experiments and people do know all the basics this is why when we talk about oxide some technologists call it like steel fermenting because they do kind of very special type of oxidation which is in also use some kind of microbial activities also there are like HR types which is acid earth of pu'er and still existing and this HR also can be a full cycle of processes which is not that much known because there is a white HR for example or there is a HR which is more closer to a raw pu'er like shampoo or like tea but still not shampoo because there are difference there is a liubao tea there is a liuancha from Anhui province and there are many many many other teas which something in between we do like a very special also tea from Anhui province yellow tea from Sichuan province it's very rare varieties they have something in between all the time they're a little bit kind of dried that's not the same like regular teas so I like the compassion like so the tea is yes actually the tea factory is kind of a kitchen and you can do a lot of experiments and you can develop absolutely amazing results through your really ongoing workflow ongoing craftsmanship ongoing like experience and research and also trying to show something absolutely amazing in any taste so by the time you brew the tea it has already passed through dozens of hands and hundreds of micro decisions harvest timing weather conditions within duration shaking oxidation control heat application roasting baking storage aging yeah whatever when you drink tea you're tasting all of that and not just uh yeah put some leaves in hot water so it's something much much more complex and once you understand the process you begin to taste differently no longer asking is this tea good you're asking yeah what's happened to this leaf when you try and tea and you can distinguish quality better and that's why the tea becomes truly interesting when you go a little bit deeper in understanding of the processing then you just can distinguish the quality you can distinguish these tiny notes of everything taste after taste fragrances and yes really helps you to develop not only your knowledge but also feeling of the tea better so yeah it's very interesting world to discover drink good tea wish you all the best and see you in the next video and i really appreciate your comments please yeah ask your questions below what topic of abc of tea you would like to discover in the next video thank you very much