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This study investigated the effects of conventional hot-air drying, microwave drying, far-infrared drying, halogen lamp drying and halogen lamp-microwave combination drying on sensory and chemical quality of black tea. Sensory evaluation revealed that the black tea dried with halogen lamp-microwave and microwave got more uniform black color, fresher taste and higher sweet aroma. Total quality score was in the order: halogen lamp-microwave dried tea (89.3) > microwave dried tea (88.2) > halogen lamp dried tea (86.4) > far-infrared dried tea (85.2) > hot-air dried tea (83.1). The highest contents of polyphenols, catechins and theaflavins were found when black tea dried with microwave. Far-infrared drying and hot-air drying could remarkably increase the contents of amino acids and soluble sugars. The volatiles of black tea were identified with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Microwave dried black tea got the maximum contents of volatile compounds, followed by halogen lamp-microwave dried tea, far-infrared dried tea, halogen lamp dried tea and hot-air dried tea. Overall, microwave drying and halogen lamp-microwave drying could ameliorate the drying process of black tea.

This study aimed to figure out the optimum fermentation temperature by analyzing the major chemical constituents of black tea and its antioxidant activities, inhibitory activities against α-amylase, α-glucosidase and glucose uptake. Sensory evaluation revealed 28°C-fermented black tea showed best sensory quality with highest scores for aroma (6.5) and taste (29.8). With increasing fermentation temperature, polyphenols, polysaccharides, (−)-epigallocatechin, (+)-catechin, theaflavins and thearubigins decreased significantly, while amino acids, soluble sugars and volatiles increased when temperature increased up to 31 °C. Furthermore, black tea fermented at 28 °C showed strongest DPPH radical scavenging ability, anti-lipid peroxidation and inhibitory effect on α-glucosidase activity with IC50 value of 17.72 μg/mL, 1.49 mg/mL and 21.69 μg/mL respectively. While 25°C-fermented black tea showed highest inhibition rate of glucose uptake in Caco-2 cells. The results demonstrate that appropriately lowering fermentation temperature could improve both sensory quality and bioactivity of black tea.