Process for manufacturing green tea.

Abstract

Disclosed is a process for manufacturing a green leaf tea product, the process comprising the steps of: providing fresh tea leaves comprising catechins and active endogenous enzymes; comminuting the fresh tea leaves comprising active endogenous enzymes under aerobic conditions sufficient to cause substantial bruising to the leaves and so that at least 50 wt% of the comminuted fresh tea leaves have a particle size of -5 +20 mesh; inactivating the endogenous enzymes in the comminuted fresh tea leaves to substantially prevent fermentation of the fresh leaves; and drying the comminuted fresh tea leaves to yield the green leaf tea product. Preferably enzyme deactivation occurs when the content of the catechins in the fresh leaves is between 60 and 95%, more preferably between 70 and 85%, of the content of catechins in the fresh tea leaves prior to comminution on a dry weight basis. Preferably the green leaf tea product comprises gallic acid in an amount of at least 0.4 mg / g by dry weight, more preferably from 0.5 to 2.0 mg / g