Comparative Quantitative Analysis of Probiotic Bacteria During Puer Tea Pile Fermentation

摘要

Puer tea (puer shucha) is a very popular post-fermented tea in China because of the distinctive color, savoury flavours and aromas [1]. Different to non-fermentation tea, puer tea chooses large leafs of Camellia sinensis as raw material, and has a special manufacturing process called "pile fermentation", which is a solid-state fermentation (SSF) with turned over once several days until the color of the tea was changed into rufous [1]. The pH of tea pile is acidic and the center temperature could reach to 60 °C [2]. Complex biological transformations are implemented by a symbiosis of many fermenting microbes (including fungi, yeast and bacteria) and their kinds of extracellular enzymes, and ultimately the unique flavours and aromas of puer tea are formed at the end of pile fermentation [1].