Broken tea (broken, therefore sometimes marked with the letter B) is a specific type of tea. It is made from broken tea leaves. The reason for this type of tea processing is to better release the dye and tea aroma.
The tea leaves are placed under the roller, which is equipped with sharp teeth. The tea leaves are literally torn and then rolled into small hard balls by the machine.
There are two basic technologies used to produce this tea.
The first is called CTC (crushing/crushing, tearing/curling/rolling).
This is why we can commonly see the term CTC tea. The advantage of this process is that the harvesting does not have to be so careful, even older tea leaves are processed. However, this has no negative effect on the quality of the final product.
Another option for producing fractional tea is the so-called orthodox method. Leaf teas are only produced using this process. Its essence is the manual harvesting of tea leaves, which is done early in the morning. The harvested leaves have to be processed in several steps.
In the processing plants, the leaves are left to wilt, followed by the rolling process.
This is important to release cell sap, thus facilitating subsequent oxidation. The next stage is the oxidation or fermentation of the tea leaves. Finally, the leaves must be dried and sorted so that they can finally go to their customers in the appropriate packaging.
