Ishizuchi-kurocha, a king of post-heating fermented tea, is produced locally at remote and seculuded place in the mountains of Ehime Prefecture in Japan. The present study was undertaken to investigate about the changes of the components in Ishizuchi-kurocha during the manufacturing process.
Optical density of the tea infusion at 380 nm increased, but amounts of ester type catechins in the infusion decreased on process of becoming moldy. The presence of organic acids such as lactic and succinic acids were newly found after fermentation, which were assumed to be products of microbiological fermentation. The amounts of aroma constituents, especially, acetic acid increased on process of taking out from bucket.
The amounts of amino acid, especially, leucine, thyrosine, histidine, lysine increased on process of becoming moldy.