My Tea life: How to Make Orthodox Teas

Making Orthodox Teas is exciting when the process is known well, and this requires one to understand the intricate Biochemical attributes of seasonal leaf.

In this blog some light is thorn on the Topic- How do we make Assam Orthodox.

Seasonal Attributes - In Northeast India (i.e. Assam) Orthodox is made in four seasonal flushes. Each Growing flush possesses its own chrematistics of Liquor and Flavor. The first flush as the name depicts is the beginning of the season Teas when the first bud break appear after winter dormancy is over. The first flush teas are Blacker Orthodox teas lacks show of Tips (Tip-means the tender bud which is visibly separate from leaf). Assam first flush begins as soon as the change of season from winter to spring starts. Tiny leaf starts to grow on the Tea Bushes which has just overcome the dormancy period of winter. This small leaf plucked and bought to the Factory for Manufacturing.

This leaf has unique character. This leaf is very tender and have the higher aromatic compounds. First flush leaf being tender is prone to damage on overhandling. The bulk of leaf contains lot of buddy Tips, but these buds tend to become black whole leaf when manufactured. This is because the pubescence hairs are absent (a typical attribute of new growing shoots). The Second flush as it is known. begins after the banjhi period is over. Banjhi period is the time when bushes go dormant for a short period after first flush period is over and it normally happens in the month of April. The banjhi period gets over by first week of May. As soon as the banjhi period is over new shoots appear on the bushes and plucked at two leaf and a Bud. The growth starts getting faster as temperature raises, and rainfall received in this period. The growth of Two leaf and a Bud coincides within 6-7 days' time. This leaf consists of the tips and possesses the best Quality characters. The leaf SAP contains the highest aromatic substances. Manufacturing Orthodox out of this leaf needs careful handling and skill to make perfect Teas. The rain flush begins as soon as the second flush starts declining and begins after mid-July. During this period the character of leaf changes and tend to get less quantity of tips. This happens as the ratio of tip: first and second leaf decreases due to higher growth synergy of tea plants. The autumn flush is considered as the last flush of season for Orthodox tea making. During this period the leaf becomes harder containing more of xylem woody material than in other previous flushes. We can make some excellent Orthodox teas during this period provided the leaf is plucked properly and does not contain the hard woody material.

As we know from above that leaf characters vary in different seasons and this is why the processing parameters also differ. The Teas also appear to differ season wise. Hence the difference of seasonal leaf and environment conditions demands a different treatment of manufacturing to make fascinating orthodox teas.

We also need to know about the type of leaf Jat and we have to decide as what type of treatment is necessary for making good orthodox Teas

The Jat of leaf plays a huge role on the type of tea we get during second flush. There are several special jats which has different characters and aroma. Some of these are Panitola-126, S3A3, TV1, Nokhroi436, Heelikah, etc. And there are others jats which however need a different treatment to make a different silvery type of teas.

Let us begin with the making of initial first flush Assam Orthodox Teas.

The tender leaf coming from the Tea field is taken to the withering troughs, fluffed and lightly spread evenly over in the troughs at a thickness of 4 inches. The evenness of spread leaf is significant to achieve a uniform wither.

Leaf Spreading on Trough

Leaf is withered with the help of air Fans. The need of hot air is dependent on the weather condition. The weather condition remains dry in this period. In exceptional weather condition, if the leaf is wet due to any rains during this period it would need the artificial hot air to dry the leaf of rainwater. And if the season demands when the drying capacity of air is low due to high humidity level, it will demand the need of hot air to wither leaf for processing. The soft leaf should be withered to the extent that the leaf is rubberish and when curled within palm the leaf mass becomes a rubber ball which if swung over do not break apart. This is the first practical withering test. There are some other methods to ascertain the withering percentage by drying method and by weighing method. Weighing the leaf also gives a practical idea of loss of moisture and finding withering percentage. The leaf should be withered slowly up to18 hours so that the required chemical changes take place within the leaf sap. Faster wither and longer wither are not advisable as this will destroy the leaf quality characters. Once this is achieved the leaf is taken to Rolling table and filled to the capacity. Lower load or overload of rolling table will spoil the rolling action. In industry mostly 46 inches and 36 inches rolling tables are used. 46 inches rolling table takes 300 to 350 kg of leaf while 36 will take 160-180 kg of withered leaf. Rollers should be quickly charged and must not be beyond 5 minutes as this will also affect the variation in rolling and leaf. While rolling which mostly comprises of different sequences of pressure and normally goes from 30 minutes minimum to 45 minutes.

During first flush manufacturing we know that the leaf is very tender hence the rolling time should also be adjusted according to the leaf texture, wither achieved and what percentage of leaf (whole leaf, broken leaf) we are targeting to obtain. Leaf gets rolled within 20 minutes but for a good twist to achieve, 30 minutes of minimum rolling time would be needed. If one is desirous of obtaining more of whole leaf 2 fines is adequate.

As soon as the rolling table is filled to the capacity the rolling time starts. In this say 30 minutes of roll one has to put the pressure in sequence of different timing to obtain the required leaf twist. Below are some examples of the pressure sequence timings

Pressure -Minutes

Example 1-

NP-5

FCP-5

LP-5

NP-5

LP-5

NP-5

DROP

Example -2

NP-10

LP-5

NP-5

LP5

NP-5

DROP

Example -3

NP-5

FCP-10

NP-5

FCP-10

DROP

(Here NP-No Pressure, FCP-Floating Cap Pressure, LP-Light Pressure)

A Typical Single action 46 inch rolling table

The above sequence of 30 minutes of roll is to be decided once the rolled leaf of 1st roll is dropped. A good roll is when the leaf looks limp and curly. If the leaf appearing like broken flakes indicates inadequate wither or roll or timing or there is rolling tables Dalla not being proper.

Rolling table Dalla- To understand this we have to know rolling tables parts. Rolling table comprises of 2 parts the top is the Jacket, and the bottom is the Dalla. Rolling tables are of 2 types- Single action and Double action. In Double action both the jacket and dalla rotates in opposite direction and this action is done by crank shaft fitted in table. In single action however only the Dalla rotates while the jacket is fixed on the body. The Dalla has in the center a discharge door and above this discharge door lies a well which has an asymmetric cubic structure. The edges of the rolling table well must not be too sharp, and neither be as a plane smooth. If the edge of the well is too sharp the leaf being rolled will be sheared apart and produce leaf flakes. And if the edge is smooth and plane the leaf may not get properly rolled. So, the Edge of the well should be like a wave tangent or U curve.

The rolled leaf is passed through a ghoogie mesh ( 4No) to extract the finer

rolled leaf. The longer leaf which escaped roll drops as spill of ghoogie which is further rolled for a second time. This is known as second roll.

In second roll a gradual increase of pressure in rolling table may be applied to obtain the twisted leaf. Some factories does a second roll while some do not. The second roll may be needed if the spill leaf of the ghoogi is open and not well twisted. On the opposite if the spill leaf still has a good twist would indicate to avoid a second roll.

The extracted leaf is put on fermentation (enzyming oxidation) on floor or on continuous fermenting machine or in trough Gumla whichever facility the factory have.

A Typical Gumla Fermentation

The fermentation time is decided upon the ambient temperature humidity and normally coinsides 3 hours. If floor fermentation is being done the spread is at a thickness of minimum 2 inches.

During first flush orthodox manufacturing the process of fermentation is very important and if not taken care will spoil the Quality of Teas.

Some of the important factors which needs consideration are

1. Ambient temperature and Humidity- As in this period the air is more of dry in nature because the humidity level remains llower. Generally the rainfall in this season is not as high as in other flushes hence the earth around is dry having more of a capacity to draw moisture from air. Hence if the room temperature is low and humidity level is high inside rhe room than a little bit of air change would be sufficient fir fermentation. Higher forceful humidity will never help because the moisture will be absorbed by the surrounding air. Higher air circulation will dry the top surface of the leaf under fermentation which will cause quality deterioration. As the period of fermentation is a long of 3 hours continuous higher air change will lead to drying of leaf. So the point is that air should be circulated to a very minimum of say 4-5 air changes only. Same is the case for cfm or Gumla fermentation where similar adjustment of air circulation is to be set.

2 .The leaf once spread should not be handled further as this will loss bloom. Turning isn't needed.

3. The aroma will start developing after 2 hours and a close watch on the process is necessary. Some Jat of leaf ferments faster while some are slow fermenter this is because of the level of oxidising catechin varies in jats we will discuss this later separately. The point is that the fermentation time will vary on different days of manufacture because the type of leaf would vary daywise. During the first flush leaf volume remains low in most of the factories due to lesser growth and pruning of the bushes. Hence the manufacturing should be done after properly bulking of leaf so that variation in fermentation will not observed in a days manufacture.

4. The dhool at times will seem greenish even after completion of fermentation time so fermentation time should be carefully adjusted to get the well fermeted leaf. In this situation when color of leaf do not guide us fermentation achievement the nose of the dhool will be the guiding parameter for ascertaining the achievement of fermentation. The aroma of nose will be like a marigold

Drying -

The fermented dhool is sent to Dryer for drying. There are 3 types of drying method

1 Conventional drying

2 fluid bed drying

3 Combination drying

1 The conventional drying is the oldest method of drying. There are 4 types of dryer in this category. ECP (Endless chain pressure dryer) Quality Dryer (Super Quality dryer an upgrade),Empire dryer, Venetian dryer, However the process followed is the same in these except the one in Venetian dryer.

These all have one thing in common that is the the zone of temperature the top is exhaust and the bottom is inlet. The leaf travels from low temperature to higher temperature zone.

The tea dried in these dryers the inlet temperature should be maintained at 205 F to 210F and exhaust at 130 F.. The dryer run-through should be 24-26 minutes. The moisture content of dryed tea should be at 2.8%. The feel of dried teas should be crispy.

Black.

Conventional Dryer

2 fluid Bed drying - if the drying is done in VFBD (Vibro Fluid Bed Dryer) the temperature should be maintained as

T1- 115

T2-90

T3-60

T5-86-88

The feed temperature would remain a bit higher. No

The crispy black teas should be cooled for a little time of one hour before sorting to start.

3 The combination Dryer -In pursuit of development of drying process a new concept of drying was developed where combination of conventional and fluid bed is done. Such dryers models are Tempest/ Everest.

The temperature parameters to maintain are

T1-120

T2--110

T3-55

Throughput Top-4 minutes

Bottom -23 minutes

Sorting/ Grading-

This is very important step of orthodox Tea making. A good grading is necessary for getting higher price of Tea. Before we go into details of sorting procedure let us know about the Types of grades and grade names.

1. Whole leaf - As we know that the leaf gets rolled and dried the bigger sized particles of leaf coming as a twisted leaf and do not include the broken down pieces, the leaf which comes out of Mydelton spill consists of whole leaf.

TGFOP1, GTGFOP1, STGFOP1 (T-Tippy, G-Golden, F- Flowery, O- Orange, P-Pekoe)

TGFOP

GFOP

FOP

2. Broken- The Tea leaf which is broken into pieces during the course of manufacture and the leaf which is extracted from the mydelton trays consists of broken leaf.

BPS (B-Broken, P-Pekoe, S-Souchong)

FBOP, TFBOP (T- Tippy, F-Flowery, O-Orange, P-Pekoe)

GFBOP , TGFBOP, (T-Tippy, G-Golden, F-Flowery, B-Broken, O-Orange, P-Pekoe)

GBOP

3. Fannings- Small pieces of leaf.

GOF, TGOF (T- Tippy, G-Golden, O-Orange, F-Fanning)

4. Orthodox Dusts- Tea which is extracted from the process and the smallest of all grades. The leaf which comes through the mesh under 30.

OD, OCD (O-Orthodox, D-Dust, C- Churamani)

5.Off grades - Those grades of tea which aren't true to type

6 Secondary - The teas which is not of main line grade.

FBOP1, GFBOP1, FOP1, OP1

7. Red stalk- Leaf piece which is xylem part. This is considered as Tea Waste.

The fine leaf is first passed through a machine known as Mydelton. This is a very simple machine have 2 inclined decks moving to and fro by cranking shaft.

Mydelton

The top deck have bossed perforated trays ( Dimple tray) having 3/16th perforation. The bottom have the same tray with perforation of 7/32. The fine leaf is passed through this machine which separates broken leaf and the spill at the bottom end is the mass of whole leaf. The whole leaf is passed through a set of pentagonal or hexagonal pucca shifters in which wire mesh of 12 No. and 10 No is fitted The leaf falling from the mesh through 12 No is TGFOP1 and of 10 no is TGFOP/GFOP .the spill is once broken in TTB (Tocklai Tea Breaker) and repeated once again.

Shifters

The Tea extracted from the shifters are again passed through the mydelton to separate the mixed leaf and broken particles to make and even sized grade. The graded Teas if contains stalks then have to pass through a Color Sorter which removes the stalks and the Teas are ready to pack.

The Broken Leaf coming out of mydelton is passed in Arnott sorter or Mcintosh sorter for grading into sizes of leaf.

If the broken leaf also contains small stalks then would need to clean by color sorting. The Grades below GBOP is not sorted in color sorter.

For Course Tea which is obtained separately from dryer is followed the same procedure for sorting but would need to be broken once in Roller type breaker or in TTB so that the leaf is made smaller in size.