The history of tea processing corresponds intimately with the role that tea played in Chinese society and the preferred methods of its consumption in ancient Chinese society. The domestication of tea and the development of its processing method likely began in the area around what is now Southwest China, Indo-Burma, and Tibet. Variations of these processing techniques are still used in modern tea processing albeit being far more mechanized.
Ancient Chinese society first encountered the tea plant in what is now south-eastern China and processed it as an additional medicinal herb for use in Chinese herbology. The processing technique used to process fresh tea leaves was to immediately steam the fresh tea leaves and dry them for preservation, which is the most ancient Chinese form of tea leaf processing known to date. This processing method was perfected near the end of the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) and produced a dried tea that would be classified today as green tea and quite similar to modern Japanese sencha. For consumption, dried tea leaves were either decocted with water and other herbs, or ground into a powder to be taken straight, or suspended in a liquid in the manner of matcha.
With the increase of tea's use in Chinese herbology, production methods changed, where the processed green tea leaves were not immediately dried after steaming. Rather the steamed tea leaves were first pulverized into a paste form, with the paste then formed in molds and slowly dried into brick tea, a technique well described by Lu Yu in his work The Classic of Tea. Tender leaves and leaf buds were generally not used, as older mature tea leaves were preferred for tea production. Some tea bricks were also produced from mature whole leaves, which typically required the use of a cooked rice slurry (米湯) to bind the tea brick together. The preference of producing tea in brick form possibly stems from the fact that it can be more easily transported and stored.
Even when the leaves were quickly cooled, if they are left in piles (渥堆) for too long before processing, the leaves will begin to undergo microbial fermentation to produce post-fermented tea. This technique is somewhat similar to composting, albeit tightly controlled, and still used in the production of Liu'an tea (安徽六安籃茶) and was more recently introduced for the production of the ripe type Pu-erh tea. The production of tea in brick forms and their storage also resulted in another type of post-fermented tea, which was produced by aging. The long transport and storage times of the day unwittingly allowed the tea bricks to undergo prolonged exposure to the elements and to various microflora, which resulted in the aging, oxidation, and fermentation of green brick teas. A brick of green tea that had been stored and aged into post-fermented tea was charred over charcoal to rid it of the layer of detritus, dust, and shiny multicoloured growths before being broken down into a powder, cooked, and then consumed. By the end of the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE) green, yellow, and post-fermented tea was commonly used in China and moved from purely being used in herbology to becoming a beverage drunk for pleasure.
Although each type of tea has a different taste, smell, and visual appearance, tea processing for all tea types consists of a very similar set of methods with only minor variations. Without careful moisture and temperature control during its manufacture and life thereafter, fungi will grow on tea. This fungus causes fermentation that will contaminate the tea and may render it unfit for consumption.
Tea is traditionally classified based on the degree or period of oxidation or fermentation the leaves have undergone:
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