Customer Inquiry: What is the difference between machine-harvested and hand-picked tea? Most high-mountain teas on the market boast about being hand-picked. The other day, while visiting a tea shop, I came across an Alishan machine-harvested tea priced at just NT$800 per 600 g. The dry tea leaves looked quite plump and even. I’m tempted to buy 600 g, but I’m worried it might not taste good. Is the quality of machine-harvested tea any good?
Chang-Hsing Tea: The drawback of machine-harvested tea leaves is that they tend to be more broken and may include older leaves. The advantages are that it saves labor, is more affordable, and is fast enough to allow harvesting to be concentrated around noon and in the afternoon. Compared to hand-picked tea, machine-harvested tea is relatively budget-friendly, though the leaves might not look as pristine. That’s the biggest difference between the two.
Many people assume that machine-harvested tea must be of lower quality, but this is actually a misconception. We know that tea leaves harvested at noon are of the highest quality. Because machine harvesting is fast, it can be concentrated during midday when the tea leaves are at their best, resulting in more consistent fresh leaf quality. For tea masters, machine-harvested tea is also easier to control during the production process, and its quality can even surpass that of early morning or evening harvests.
The reason why many machine-harvested teas on the market are of poor quality is mainly because machine harvesting is often used to rush work or beat the rain. These leaves are usually rushed, either too mature or too tender, which is why the finished quality is generally poor. This comes down to the quality of the fresh leaves, not the harvesting method itself. In fact, as long as machine-harvested tea leaves go through stem sorting and the removal of old leaves, their quality can easily rival hand-picked tea!
An additional downside to machine harvesting is that the leaves are easily bruised. Bruised leaves make the moisture reduction (withering) process more difficult, which is why many machine-harvested teas tend to have a bitter and astringent taste.