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The greening of gongfu

For quite a while I've noticed that for lots of teas (e.g. young raw Pu'er, most oolong, first flush Darjeeling) the color of the leaves changes radically over the course of multiple steeps. Leaves that when dry are some shade of brown (most of the above) or multicolored (FFDJ, Oriental Beauty, some young shengs) gradually reach a uniform shade of green. This shade of green differs from tea to tea, but the direction of change over many steeps is the same.

I've never read anything about this, let alone an explanation. Is there a clue, someone?

/Lew

Reply to
Lewis Perin
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My guess the depletion of chylophyll. Oxidation reduces chylophyll. I judge a green tea from the color of the spent leaf. Indian oolongs are essentially black. Chinese oolongs are essentially green.

Jim

Lewis Per> For quite a while I've noticed that for lots of teas (e.g. young raw

Reply to
Space Cowboy

On Jun 27, 3:56 pm, TokyoB snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in response to Lew's question:

Here is a guess rather than an explanation, which would require a lab assay. Chlorophyll is insoluble in water (ref. Wikipedia, also my experience with cooking). So I don't suppose that the brown turns green but that the brown pigments are soluble, leach out, and leave only chlorophyll as a pigment. I note that most bright green tea leaves don't yield a green liquor. Now if you brew your tea in hot oil your results may be different.

Best,

Rick.

Reply to
chappell

That makes sense to me as far as it goes. I think the red/brown water-soluble pigments would be thearubigens and theaflavins. But how would the green chlorophyll be either browned or masked in teas like reds/blacks and cooked and aged raw Pu'er?

/Lew

Reply to
Lewis Perin

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