@Kevin, I am keeping my promise.
There are a few things I need to clarify before the technical part:
- Sun drying or big fan would not give you sencha, as Hokusai said.
- The chemistry of your “flush” determines the optimal variables for any process that determines the taste. The micro environment, the cultivar, the age and the flushing condition determines a leaf’s chemistry.
- The ultimate product employing a natural process such as sunning is dependent on the environment factors during and throughout the process. These factors include ambient temperature, humidity, temperature change, intensity and duration of the sun etc
- Changing of variables greatly affect the outcome, and therefore it may take a lot of experiment for the particular conditions to be optimized
- Lastly but most importantly in the concept: Success don’t come easy; but it’s the challenge that’s the fun
OK, the process:
Decide when to pluck: do you want the flush to spread a bit more or do you want it to be shooty? The chemistry is also dependent on the growth state. Normally for Japanese cultivars, the leaves are less bitter when a bit spread out. However, micro-environment and bush age make a lot of difference.
Decide to pluck when there is a lot of sun, or before the sun gets really hot. This determines the stiffness of the leaves, ie the water content that you will have to work with. Normally for a longer process, you want more water to sustain the rigidity of the leaf structure to last through it, for a shorter process you want less.
Decide where to pluck. One shoot and one leaf is typical of high end green. One and two is almost universal. Some, however, pluck only the first and second leaves and don’t touch the shoot. This is typical of larger leaf tea. Again, this results in the overall chemistry of your harvest. One thing is important: maintaining a rather uniform leaf size
First wither. Don’t let the plucks stay in the basket for too long. They start to oxidize the moment they got plucked. People in Yunnan when doing genuine sunned tea spread the greens immediately under the sun. The first turnover would have to take place in 30 min, if the sun is intense. Some people do a shaded resting for 1 hr after 1 hr sunning. Some don’t. Either way the leaves has to be turned at least once an hour.
When the sun’s gone cool the leaves as quickly as possible. Your fan would be useful, but I dont trust it unless you have design a way to create the airflow without rattling the leaves. Rattling breaks the leaf cells and causes enzymic oxidation.
Otherwise, it is ok to let the leaves cool in the open before putting them in the racks in indoor. Jamming them in a tight spot before they are cool down is bad. Leaves piling on top of others is bad. Your biology common sense applies here
When the sun is fierce enough the next day. Start your process again.
This goes on until the leaves are almost brittle. At this point, you may decide whether to further oven dry them or continue the sunning, which may take a few more days during which the chemistry and taste would further change. If you oven it, use a low temperature, 80°C max.
The resultant tea, though traditionally categorised as green, is actually a lightly oxidized tea, rather like a white. Send me a sample when you have made it. 😉
