All black tea goes through 5 successive stages:
Withering - The objective of withering is to reduce the moisture content in the tea leaf. The plucked leaves are laid out in troughs where air is passed through the tea, removing the moisture. This can take up to 17 hours and by the end of the process the leaves have a ‘wilted’ appearance.
Rolling- There are two types of rolling:Orthodox – Where the leaves are rolled between rollers until gently broken.CTC (Cut, Tear, Curl) – Where a machine cuts and tears the leaves into smaller pieces.
The purpose of this process is to break the leaves so the enzymes are released and the third step of oxidation begins.