Study on ripening process of Pu'er fermented tea by high voltage pulsed electric field technique

A special storage way that Yunnan Pu'er ripe tea is more and more popular for its aroma and taste palate with the increasing of storage time is called "ripening" by the tea drinkers in the culture of Yunnan Pu'er tea. The feature that Pu'er tea "tastes better with longer storage time", has become an important consuming guidance in tea drinking and the tea price. Thus, using physical means to speed up the ripening of Pu'er tea is a hot spot in the field of tea study. After treatment by High voltage pulsed electric field (HPEF), we found that tea polyphenols and theine significantly decreased with tea extract increasing. The ripening effect is the most significant In particular, under the treatment by HPEF-B(14KV/120Hz/60min) whether from the perspective of sensory evaluation or important tea physicochemical index. The research provides not only a new method for improving the quality of Pu'er tea, but also a theoretical basis for further industrialized treatment and acceleration of tea ripening process using high-voltage pulsed electric field to the Pu'er tea.