What is CTC Tea?
Crush, tear, curl (also known as cut, tear, curl) is a method of processing black tea. The tea leaves are passed through several cylindrical rollers with hundreds of sharp teeth that crush, break, tear, and compress the tea leaves into tiny, soft pellets. Tea made using this method is commonly known as CTC tea or mamri tea.
This process is an alternative to the traditional method of tea production (or orthodox), which involves plucking, withering, rolling, oxidation/fermentation, and drying.
What is the difference between Orthodox and CTC Black Tea?
CTC tea is typically less expensive and of lesser quality as compared to Orthodox tea. CTC tea is usually a mixture of tea leaves harvested from multiple plantations during the first “flush” and this combination tends to make their flavor fairly consistent from one batch to the other.
The CTC production process is different than the Orthodox production process. All five steps of the Orthodox process are done, but they all happen more quickly and in a limited way. The leaves are first crushed, then torn into small pieces, and finally curled into tiny nuggets. This process is much faster and cheaper than traditional Orthodox processing.
CTC was designed specifically for the black tea industry and CTC production aims to create smaller leaves that can be processed more quickly and easily, to save time and money (a single batch of tea may take more than a day to make).
Orthodox teas are well known to have an intense, multi-layered taste and are generally known for their rich and deeper taste while CTC teas tend to steep faster and have more pronounced and stronger flavors. CTC teas tend to be bitter also, while Orthodox teas are higher quality, less likely to be bitter, and contain more subtle and multi-layered flavors than CTC teas.
History of CTC Tea
In the 1930s, CTC tea processes were developed in Assam, India by Sir William McKercher. The project has spread throughout India and Africa since the 1950s. Today, most of the black teas produced are made using CTC methods. The finished product produces tea suitable for tea packs with a strong flavor and a quick infusion of tea.
The downside of the CTC Method
The CTC method of tea production is known for its way to homogenize the flavor of black tea. When the tea is crushed and torn, the pressure causes the tea to naturally break down the cells. The oxidized cells are completely broken, resulting in a black tea with a strong flavor but little nuance. Teas made using the CTC method can be combined with low-cost teas, making it more difficult to tell which tea leaves were used in the finished product. Conversely, whole leaf teas produced using the orthodox method are much harder to mix with inexpensive teas.
CTC Acronym Meaning
You may find different opinions regarding the meaning of the acronym CTC used to identify this method of processing black tea leaves.
These are the most common definitions found online:
- Cut, Tear, Crush
- Crush, Tear, Curl
- Cut, Tear, Curl
- Curl, Tear, Crush
- Crush, Curl, Twined
The first two are the most appropriate (event though “curling” is not part of the process).
We hope that this blog post has helped you become more knowledgeable about CTC Black Tea and the differences between different tea processing methods.
Knowing which type of black tea you are buying will help ensure that you get the results you are looking for in a great quality of black tea in your cup. From here, we encourage you to explore our website and learn more about the different types of tea we offer.
Are there any other questions about black tea that you would like us to answer? Let us know in the comments!
Once again, thank you for reading!