Clonal Variations in the Response of Hard Physically Withered Leaf to Rehydration Following Long Chemical Wither Durations

Abstract

Long chemical wither durations and hard physical wither reduce the quality of plain black tea, through reduction in total theaflavins production while encouraging thearubigins formation. Such quality reduction may vary with genetic makeup of the tea plant. However, rehydration reactivates activities of oxidative enzymes responsible for producing plain black tea quality parameters. Influence of rehydrating hard physically withered leaf that had undergone long chemical wither durations on two clonal plain black tea quality parameters were assessed. Rehydration restored the formation of plain tea quality parameters from hard physically withered leaf. However, quality deterioration due to long chemical wither duration could not be reversed by rehydration. The patterns of responses of the clones used were similar. Thus in the processing of plain black tea, efforts should be made to maintain chemical wither durations to below 30 hours. However, rehydration reverses reduced plain black tea quality parameters by hard physical withers to equivalent of chemical wither.