Black tea goes though four main steps of manufacture:

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.

Oxidation
The broken leaves are laid out to ‘oxidise’ or ‘ferment’. This part of the process is very important as this will significantly impact the overall taste and quality of the tea. This can take up to two hours.

Drying
To stop the oxidation process, the tea leaves are heated. The dried tea is now ready to be sorted into grades before packing.