The diagram illustrates two distinct ways to produce black tea.
Overall, both of the process produce black tea from fresh tea leaves. They have some steps are the same, but the traditional and modern methods still have their own differences, especially in the third stage after withering.
First, fresh tea leaves are picked by individual, just only the bud and two top leaves are picked to have the best quality tea. Second, those tea leaves are withering by air, until 60% moisture out. After this, the process separate into 2 ways, traditional method and modern method.
In the traditional method, the withering tea leaves are rolled fat and broken, release enzymes. By this method, they can produce loose tea, while with the modern method, the tea leaves are packed into tea bags. Those withering leaves are cut, torn and curled, which is more quick and can create smaller pieces. Both methods continue with the oxidation or fermentation step, where the enzymes in the leaves react with air and make the leaves turn into copper color. Finally, those copper color leaves are dried in an oven or a hot air dried, until it just has 3% moisture left, the tea now has its total favour and aroma.