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Hi All.
A friend
of mine grows the camellia sinensis tea plant but never harvests them. He has a
huge hedge of them,10 meters long. I love sencha green tea. I have read on a site that
you can sun dry the flush. I was going to try a huge fan with the leaves sitting
on a steel open mesh so the air can flow from bottom and top and dry it as
quickly as possible. Do you think this would work. It has been mentioned many
people like the sun dried best. I could try a combination of both. Sun and big
fan.Ive 3-4 weeks before the hedge starts to flush. The plants are from
Japan 50 years ago. of course they are cuttings,but these are about 30 years
old.
Any ideas would be
appreciated.Kevin in
Australia -
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Hi Betty,
I cant believe my luck also! So Im really hanging out to get started. You can put them in pots. Get a big one and it should last. My friend also sells 10″ pots for $25. And he says that big and you cant kill em. And its from Japan as well ! I wonder what they are like fresh picked and you just chew them? I’ll let you know what happens,but i have ti find out about how to do it first. Ive it good just Sun dried. -
@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 sizeFirst 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 hereWhen 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. 😉 -
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Hi Leo,
thanks for answering my question! Ive seen a tumble dryer used that has heat forced through it. Wouldnt this rattle the leaves? I could make a tunnel and put the leaves on an open mesh. Putting the leaves in the open sun does heat them up,so i was playing with the idea of drying them with ambient warm air. Sun does evaporate volatile oils,which i was hoping would add to the flavour,but if they roast leaves to make sencha,then there goes the oils. Thinking out loud here. Thanks again. -
I am sorry I haven’t respond to this earlier. Yes forcing through heat is a way to use a “big fan” to hurry drying. As a matter of fact it is part of the design of most modern auto green tea drying setup, where external heat is applied. The leaves actually dance vigorously in the drying chamber. The factor in concern is time here. Where in an auto production line with external heat, the total processing time is shortened to a few hours where drying is 15~20 minutes, drying by way of sunning takes much longer. A lengthy process gives time to enzymic reactions before things get too dry or cooked for any chemical actions. If you manage to draw the air flow without rattling the leaves, I guess the fan is still a great thing to use.
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@GreenHornTea, have you been able to make the tea? How does it taste?
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