I. Introduction of Tea
Tea has lots of health benefits like containing antioxidants, obesity management, and polyphenols and it contributes to lowering the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Moreover, the ultimate tea will provide you the added benefits in a refreshing cup. Due to many health benefits, tea will be increasingly in demand by consumers over the forecast period.
II. Advantages of Tea Drying
1. Lower water content
Water is essential for the biochemical reaction of various compositions in tea. With the increase of moisture content in tea, changes in tea will also speed up. When the water content is 7% above, there is no preservation technique to keep its flavor. So for better storage and higher quality, tea needs to be dried. After drying process, the water content of tea is around 4%-6%, which can prolong its shelf life.
2. Increase the distinctive flavor
Tea drying not only removes the water from tea but also greatly influence tea quality. Drying is crucial to control the enzyme activity in tea. There are chemical changes in drying to enhance the color, flavor, taste, and shape of tea.
3. Remove foreign flavor to improve tea quality
Tea in bad quality tastes bitter. By drying, the bitterness will reduce and tea quality will be improved.
III. Three Machines for Tea Drying
Tea processing is to use leaves and buds that produce strong, robust flavor to make higher quality and better-tasting tea. Processing picked leaves into tea need the following steps withered, sifted, CTC (crush, tear, curl), fermented and dried, then sorted into different grades and bagged for delivery. So tea drying is the last but not the least step in tea processing.
1. Tea Dried by Microwave Drying Machine
Microwave drying offers a means of preserving foods in a stable and safe condition as it reduces water activity and extends shelf-life much longer than that of fresh food.
As we all know that the process of tea drying is complicated and its drying technology is also strict. Tea picked from the tea trees should be processed. These teas will undergo deterioration due to water in them, and it results in poor tea quality. And tea drying is of importance in tea processing.
Our microwave drying machine is the professional equipment for tea drying, sterilization. Applied with the microwave technology, tea is processed with uniform heating to get rapid dehydration, softening tissue, herbaceous taste volatilization, purified enzyme’s activity. Our microwave drying machine is featured with reasonable design compact structure, reliable performance, easy operation. Compared with conventional drying, microwave drying has the following priorities.
2. Dried by Belt Drying Machine
Belt drying machine can also do tea drying with larger capacity and slower drying speed compared with microwave dryer machine. Tea can be fed to the upper layer of belt dryer through the conveyor from the hopper, and flow to the removal window at the bottom of belt dryer machine. As the conveyor belt of each layer can perform two reciprocating drying processes with one layer, a wide drying area is obtained, realizing a compact and space-saving structure.
3. Dried by Hot Air Circulation Drying Oven
Hot air circulation oven is featured with consistent heat and air circulation. Most hot air is circled inside the oven, so the drying process is with high heat efficiency and energy saving. But hot air drying machine requires lots of worker labor. Prior to drying tea, workers need to spread tea on these drying trays and then put trays on baking vehicles. At last, they push the baking vehicles into the drying oven and turn on the machine. However, drying ovens have three capacities for small-scale production, medium production, and large production. If you would like to first invest small-scale drying business, drying oven may be a good choice.
Tea is the popular beverage in the world and needs to be produced on a mass scale.There are several countries famous for tea like China, Kenya, India, Vietnam and so on. Tea processing is necessary after picking and tea drying is the last and vital step in the processing. Food drying machines are the ideal machines that widely utilized in tea drying. There are three types of drying machine offered to meet your specific demands. So if you are interested in tea drying, please feel free to contact us.
