New Fermented Tea: Processing Technology, Microbiology and Health Benefits: 2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

Tea has acquired increasing attention due to its health benefits. Six traditional categories of Chinese tea, black tea (fully fermented tea), oolong tea (semi-fermented tea) and green tea (non-fermented tea) have already been known to provide positive effects as a daily drink. Now, a novel fermented tea (including Camellia sinensis and other herbal teas) has come out ahead of traditional tea with its special flavour and health efficacy. It is a little different from traditional fermentation methods. The external conditions affecting the degree of fermentation are no longer limited to temperature and humidity. For example, microbial fermentation affects the sensory quality and metabolic profile, creating a novel kind of tea drink, such as dark tea and kombucha. Moreover, the flavour and health benefits of other teas can also be improved via exogenous microorganism inoculation during tea processing.

Moreover, innovative non-destructive detection technology will contribute to solving some of these problems, such as near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), machine vision (also called electronic eye (E-eye)), hyperspectral imaging (HIS) and olfactory visualisation (also called colourimetric sensing array (CSA)). A single technology can determine the characteristics related to only one aspect of a sample and analyse the fermentation quality of tea and herbal teas. For instance, NIRS can identify the main non-volatile components in these drinks, and E-eyes can capture the appearance-related characteristics of these teas and herbal teas. Based on these features and an artificial intelligence algorithm, the fermentation quality of teas and herbal teas is evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively. These methods are effective, convenient and non-destructive. They have improved the intelligence level of tea fermentation, and it can be expected that the search for the intelligent detection of tea fermentation will continue.

This Special Issue aims to reveal the processing technology, non-destructive detection technology of fermentation quality, metabolic mechanism and health benefits of the new fermented tea.

The following topics are welcome:

• Microbiology and health benefits;
• Novel fermented tea and herbal teas;
• New processing technology of daily drinks.

Dr. Chunwang Dong
Guest Editor

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• new fermented tea
• manufacturing processes
• fermented methods
• flavour
• microbial action
• biological mechanism
• human health