Technological development of a simple and rapid method of producing fermented teas using di erent kinds of tea leaves, and the manufacturing of new types of mixed fermented teas

The third crop of green tea leaves contains a relatively large amount of catechins, resulting in a bitter taste to the hot-water extract of its leaves. On the other hand, loquat leaves have a strong enzymatic activity that can oxidize catechins. They also contain chlorogenic acid, which accelerates the oxidation of catechins. Thus, we tried to promote the oxidative polymerization of catechins in third-crop green tea leaves by the addition of loquat leaves, and presumed that the taste of the third-crop green tea would be improved. However, the active ingredients contained in loquat leaves are difficult to extract with hot water due to the hardness of the leaves. Thus, we mixed and kneaded the third-crop green tea leaves and loquat leaves together using the tea roller of a tea manufacturing machine, which may have facilitated the elution of the components contained in loquat leaves, and may have effectively promoted the oxidation of catechins contained in the third-crop green tea. In this study, we improved the conventional method of producing black tea leaves, and developed a method for producing new high-quality mixed and fermented tea using the third crop of green tea leaves and loquat leaves, which were previously unused resources. We outline our main eforts here.