According to the processing tool: handmade tea and machine-made tea

In traditional tea production, heating, twisting, drying and compressing are all done manually. In modern production, except for the selection, everything is done by machines.

Handmade tea

After completing all the other processing steps, tea leaves are manually compressed into different shapes under the weight of a pressing stone. The pressing stone is a traditionaltool used for compressing tea leaves much before the iron pres-sing machine was invented. The stone is of different shapesand specifications. Cakes compressed by the stones are neat and simple in shape.

Tea leaves being compressed manually Machine-made tea

Machine-made tea first appeared in the 1950s. Machines can heat, twist, dry, etc. Tea cakes compressed by machines are harder and their fermentation is slower but they are easy to preserve.

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