The diagram demonstrates two distinct methods for processing black tea. Overall, the process of manufacturing black tea consists of three main steps, beginning with selecting tea leaves, crushing and then drying it.
In the first stage, specialized workers select only fresh and top leaves for making high quality tea, and then putting fresh tea leaves into the container. After this, the leaves are arranged on the rack for withering to make leaves lose 60% of moisture.
In the following stages, there is two options to grinding tea leaves, traditional and modern methods. Traditional includes rolling which makes the leaves rolled flat and flattered with releasing enzymes from leaves. The second option is more advanced, cutting is used for breaking leaves and convert them to curled, and this make the pieces of creating smaller granular pieces, quicker. The key difference between the traditional and modern methods is that one is used for loose tea and the other one is used for tea bags.
As soon as leaves are grinded, rolled leaves spreading oxidation starts where mixing enzymes and dry changing the color of the leaves to copper color. And the final step is drying leaves in oven of hot air dryer, which creates flavour and aroma. In total, 97% of leaves moisture is evaporated.