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Chinese pan-fired green tea

Heat first, shape second. The route puts fixation at position three, before the leaf has been ruptured at all, and everything that follows happens to a leaf that has stopped changing colour.

Green tea6 steps炒青綠茶Practised across almost every Chinese producing province, and in Korea, Vietnam and increasingly in Japanese kamairicha production, where it is the minority method.

What makes this route what it is

Fixation is the third operation, not the seventh. Move it later and the leaf oxidises during the wait and the tea becomes an oolong or a black tea; move the rolling in front of it and the ruptured leaf browns before the heat arrives. The category is defined by the position of one step, and everything characteristic about the cup — the green colour, the fresh top note, the absence of malt — follows from that position rather than from anything about the plant.

The route, in order

Each note describes what the step is doing in this route. The same operation does a different job in a different chain.

  1. 1.

    Hand plucking

    Not always done

    Fine standards are the norm here because the route offers nothing that would rescue coarse material: there is no long wither and no oxidation in which a mixed intake could even itself out.

    Volume production for the domestic market is increasingly machine-harvested, which is the main reason ordinary Chinese green tea and famous-name Chinese green tea have diverged so far in price.

  2. 2.

    Spreading and cooling (tan liang)

    The pre-fixation form, tan fang. Intake is spread for a few hours so the whole bed reaches the pan at one moisture, deliberately stopping well short of a wither. The same operation recurs as a cooling rest after every hot step in the route.

  3. 3.

    Pan-firing (Chinese fixation)

    The step that makes the category, and it is here rather than later. For flat-shaped teas the maker fixes and shapes in one continuous set of movements, so steps three and four are physically inseparable even though they are separate decisions.

  4. 4.

    Flat shaping

    Not always done

    Shaping acts on a leaf that can no longer brown, which is what allows it to be this prolonged and this physical.

    The position is filled differently across the category: `process-rolling` for twisted teas, `processing-curling` for Bi Luo Chun, `processing-needle-shaping` for the straight-needle greens, and `process-flat-shaping` for Longjing and its relatives. The route is the same; only this slot changes.

  5. 5.

    Two-stage drying (mao huo and zu huo)

    Two passes with a cooling rest between them. For the pan-shaped teas the second pass happens in the same pan, which is why a Longjing is described as fired rather than dried.

  6. 6.

    Sorting and grading

    Screening and hand picking of yellowed leaf and stalk. Late enough that it has no effect on the tea, which is precisely why it is at the end.

How it differs from its neighbours

A route described on its own teaches very little. The useful fact is always which other route it is nearly identical to, and where it leaves it.

  • Japanese steamed green tea

    Same step, different methodat step 3

    One position in the route is filled by a different named method. The shape of the route is unchanged.

    One slot, two methods, and most of the difference between Chinese and Japanese green tea. Dry contact heat toasts the leaf surface as it fixes and contributes chestnut and roasted grain; steam contributes nothing of its own and leaves the marine, vegetal character intact. Nothing else about the two routes explains why they taste so unalike.

  • Orthodox black tea

    Same steps, different orderat step 3

    Both routes use the same operations. Only their positions differ, and that is the whole of the difference between the two teas.

    Both routes pluck, work the leaf and dry it. This one applies heat before the leaf is ruptured and the orthodox black route never applies it until the drier. That single difference in position is the whole of the difference between a green tea and a black tea made from the same shoot.

Where it goes wrong

An uneven or under-run fixation leaves some of the batch still enzymatically active, so a lot that is supposed to have stopped keeps changing in the sack; the tea yellows in storage over months and reads as stale long before it should. It is the commonest fault in the category and it is invisible on the day of manufacture.

In full

This is the oldest and the most widely made route in the world by number of named teas, and its shape is very simple: get the leaf hot before anything else happens to it. Fresh intake is spread thin for a few hours so that the whole bed enters the pan at one moisture, and then it is fixed by contact with hot metal. Because the heat arrives by contact rather than through steam, the leaf toasts as it fixes, and the chestnut and roasted-grain note that Chinese green tea carries is a by-product of the fixation method rather than an added flavour. Shaping happens afterwards, on leaf that can no longer oxidise — which is why a Chinese green tea can be worked, pressed and handled at length without darkening, and why the range of shapes in the category is so much wider than in any other. The finishing bake and the sorting are the tail, and for the flat-shaped teas the shaping and the drying are the same set of hands in the same pan.

Teas made this way

Other green tea routes