The diagram displays two distinct methods for producing black tea. There are five main steps in the process, starting with collecting the quality tea and ending with frying the product.
To ensure the good quality of the products, only bud and top leaves are collected. The picked fresh tea leaves will be displayed on a rack for the drying purpose; the leaves allow air to pass through in order to reduce the moisture by 60%. The next step of withering leaves is followed by the traditional and modern methods. To produce loose tea, the traditional method rolls leaves into flat and broken shapes, making the enzymes release on the leaves. Whereas, the cutting process, namely the modern method, will cut, tear, then curl the leaves, which quickly creates smaller granular pieces.
Following the oxidized or fermented leaves, the leaves will be placed on a flat place such as tiles or cement. Allowing enzymes to react with the air leads to the change in colour of the leaves (copper). Finally, the copper leaves are fired in an oven or undergo hot air drying, in order to lower the total moisture to 97%. At this stage, the flavour and aroma are also released from the leaves.