Green tea

When making Green Tea the oxidisation process is omitted. This allows the tea to remain green in colour and keep its very delicate flavour.

In order to ensure that the freshly picked leaf does not oxidise, the leaves are either pan dried or steamed to kill active enzymes in the leaf before rolling. This prevents the air from interacting with any of the enzymes in the leaf, so no oxidisation takes place.

In China some green teas are withered before being pan dried, but more usually the withering process is omitted as well and the teas go straight to the rolling process.