Crush, tear, curl
Crush, tear, curl (English for "break, tear, roll"), or CTC for short , is a process used in the production of tea , especially black tea .
This process was developed for better industrial processing of the tea plant ; the leaves are broken up after withering with several counter-rotating thorn rollers before the tea is fermented . The distance between the rollers is at least 0.1 mm, significantly less than the thickness of the sheets. As they pass through the pairs of rollers, the sheets are compressed and torn by the counter-rotating movement and the teeth on the rollers. Spiral grooves transport the material away, the leaves curl up in the process.
By rolling the tea leaves, the cell walls are broken and their contents mixed. The previously separated polyphenols and the enzyme polyphenol oxidase come into contact and, in conjunction with oxygen, contribute to the biochemical changes during fermentation.
The development of the CTC process revolutionized tea production, since instead of the previous batch production with a lot of manual work, a continuous production process is used. CTC teas are stronger than conventionally produced black teas, but have less flavor . The tea balls draw faster and are therefore well suited for use in tea bags .
The CTC process was developed in 1931 by William McKercher in Assam , but it was not until the 1950s that it became established. In 2013, 75% of Indian tea production and 94% of domestic tea consumption were made with CTC.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Ramasamy Shanmugasundaram Senthil Kumar, Subramanian Murugesan, Govindasamy Kottur, Daniel Gyamfi: Black Tea: The Plants, Processing / Manufacturing and Production . In: Victor R. Preedy (Ed.): Tea in Health and Disease Prevention . Academic Press , 2013, ISBN 978-0-12-384937-3 , pp. 41-57 , doi : 10.1016 / b978-0-12-384937-3.00004-5 .
- ^ A b Jeff Koehler: Tools: 6 Things to Know About Tea Bags. In: National Geographic . May 5, 2015, accessed May 9, 2019 .