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all mentioned steps are done, we can call it
primary tea. Then the primary Rock Tea is
ready to be roasted. The charcoal for roasting
During summer, workers cut out all
stems and yellow leaves (old leaves). Not tea should be made out of
being afraid of summer heat, they start to
roast tea in order to sell their final product delicate and firm fruit wood.
in the market before mid-autumn festival.
The color of primary tea is brownish, it
turns darker during roasting process, and the
aroma is getting more astringent as the roasting
time goes. generates soots. For the environmental and eco-
You have to reserve your tea in advance nomic reasons, nowadays tea roasters usually use
even though it has not yet gone through the electric ovens instead of charcoal. Although the
roasting process, otherwise it would be quick- outcome of electric roasting is not as efficient as
ly taken by others. Merchants can discuss with charcoal, roasters don’t have to work in an envi-
tea-roasters roasting levels according to their ronment with high temperature. In addition,
customers’ preferences: people from the North electric roasting is cheaper and reduces cost of a
love jasmine tea and Tie Guan Yin Tea(a variety final product. Overall, commodity Rock Tea is
of Oolong tea), hence roasting level should be usually roasted electrically, while only specialty
light and full of floral fragrance. People from Rock Tea is roasted with charcoal and of course
Fujian Province like medium roasted teas with has a higher cost.
gentle fragrance and decent body. It would be Similar to roasting levels of coffee, the rock
better to suggest your roaster to roast it with tea can be roasted in light, medium, and dark
charcoal rather than electricity, if the raw ma- levels. Within those three categories, there are
terials are decent enough. also light-medium and medium-dark levels.
Charcoal-roasting is traditional for Wu The color of light-roasted rock tea is yellow-
Yi Rock tea, it rises gentle heat higher and ish brown or bluish brown with bright and sharp
higher during the process. The end product fragrance. The extracted fluid is light with the
is neither burnt nor half-roasted because of color between golden and orange. The body is
the consistent heat rising. The charcoal for muddy and mouth feel is bright and fresh. The
roasting tea should be made out of delicate color of tealeaves underneath is typical to Oolong
and firm fruit wood such as Litchi and Lon- tea with 30% red and 70% green. The aroma of
gan, those charcoals last longer with balanced light-baked rock tea reminds of wild flowers. It is
thermal level. However, the charcoal is made easy to define the quality of the roasting process
of wood and while preparing charcoal, it as even light-roasted tea has no bitterness.

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