TeaForum.org

Hello all. Yesterday I saw fresh tealeaves in the Chinese shop where I go to buy fresh and processed spices, and I was thinking 'what if I made my own tea?'.
After all, homade beer is far better (to me) than storebought. I could roast the tealeaves as much/little as I like etc. Has anyone here done this? Or is it too elaborate and not worth the hazzle?

Btw, I like a very mild brew, but tasty and fragrant.

Of course you can. But self made is not necessarily better, it’s not for nothing that tea makers often have specialised roast masters that do the roast according to their specifications.

In any case go slow. Over roast can not be repaired, not enough roast can.

The most basic tea processing is probably: withering > hand kneading > letting the leaves oxidize > sun drying.
Pan-frying or oven roasting might be unnecessarily risky step where the leaves can get burned.

Farmerleaf has some informative videos on tea processing on youtube (but he's using kneading machine).
Petr Sic has been doing some small batch hand processing of Georgian tea and sometimes shares some photos or videos: e.g. https://www.facebook.com/10000068791904 ... 515250293/ or https://www.facebook.com/groups/3229740 ... 799839217/

I can't offer any help here apart from pure encouragement.
As Bok said it may not be "better", but there will definitely be a potentially immense sense of satisfaction that will make even mediocre results so much better.
There are some plants not far from my house that I am intending to attack come spring so I look forward to hearing how you go.