one plant · the oxidation scale · seven processing steps
Built as a memo rather than a table: the thing worth hanging it up for reads across the room, with the full reference in smaller type below it.
Three sizes in one archive — from a sheet on the fridge to a poster on the wall.
Oxidation percentages are accepted landmarks, not measurements: the trade has no single method. The order of the categories and the gaps between them matter more than the number.
A fresh leaf carries its own enzyme. The moment the leaf is damaged, that enzyme starts joining its compounds with oxygen, and this is what makes tea darken and grow heavy. A short heating by steam or in a wok kills the enzyme, and oxidation stops for good.
So the whole difference between the six teas is when the heat came. At once, within the first hour: green. After some hours of oxidation: oolong. Only at the very end, once oxidation has run its course: black. White is barely heated at all — it withers and dries while oxidation quietly proceeds by itself.
This is oxidation, not fermentation: microbes have no part in it. They work only in puer, and only on already dried leaf — which is why puer stands off the scale on this sheet.
Why the numbers can be trusted. Every countable number here is computed from data rather than typed in, and the sheet must pass 7 independent checks before it is allowed to build — how many items there are, the order they come in, and the claim in the highlighted box itself. If one fails, there is no file.
