Black Tea Quality is Highly Affected during Processing by its Leaf Surface Microbiome

Tong W. Yu J. Wu Q. Hu L. Tabys D. Wang Y. Wei C. Ling T. Ali Inayat M. Bennetzen J.L.
30 June 2021 American Chemical Society

Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
2021 #69 Issue 25 7115 - 7126 pp.

Microbiomes can greatly affect the quality of fermented food and beverages, including tea. In this study, microbial populations were characterized during black and green tea manufacturing, revealing that tea processing steps can drive both the bacterial and fungal community structure. Tea leaves were found to mostly harbor Proteobacteria, Bacteriodetes, Firmicutes, and Actinobacteria among bacteria and Ascomycetes among fungi. During processing, tea microbial populations changed especially between sterilized and unsterilized samples. The surface sterilization of fresh leaves before processing can remove many microbes, especially the bacteria of the genera Sphingomonas and Methylobacteria, indicating that these are mostly phylloplane microbes on tea leaves. The surface sterilization removed most fungi, except the Debaryomyces. We also observed a fluctuation in the content of several tea quality-related metabolites during processing. Caffeine and theanine were found in the same quantities in green tea with or without leaf surface sterilization. However, the sterilization process dramatically decreased the content of total catechins and theanine in black tea, indicating that microbes on the surface of tea leaf may be involved in maintaining the formation of these important metabolites during black tea processing.

black tea , microbial community , surface sterilization , tea processing , tea quality

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State Key Laboratory of Tea Plant Biology and Utilization, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, 230036, China
Sericultural Research Institute, Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hefei, 230061, China
Department of Biomedical Sciences, Nazarbayev University, School of Medicine, Nur-Sultan, 010000, Kazakhstan
Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, 30602, GA, United States

State Key Laboratory of Tea Plant Biology and Utilization
Sericultural Research Institute
Department of Biomedical Sciences
Department of Genetics

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