摘要或動機

茶品的發酵程度對其香氣與口感有決定性的影響，然而業界卻缺乏相關的客觀指標與其有效的量測方法。茶品發酵的主要化學過程是其兒茶素的氧化與聚合，這些茶單寧將隨著發酵過程逐漸由還原態轉變成氧化態。所以，不同發酵程度的茶，其氧化態單寧與還原態單寧的比將有所不同。這個比值預料可由氧化還原電位間接地量測得知。本研究使用白金絲與銀/氯化銀參考電極為電極對來量測此氧化還原電位。量具則使用具高輸入阻抗(大於十億歐姆)的pH 電極用電位計以取得茶汁中微弱的氧化還原電位訊號，可於十秒內取得高再現性(相對標準差小於3%)的電位訊號所得到的電位訊號與發酵程度呈高度的線性相關(相關係數大於0.9)。Degree of fermentation is pivotal for the aroma and the aftertaste of tea, but an objective scale and efficient evaluating methods are demanded for the important quality factor. Oxidation along with the polymerization of catechins is known to be the major chemical process during tea fermentation; the tea tannins will gradually change from their reduced forms to their oxidized formats. As the consequence, the ratio of oxidized tannins to reduced tannins will differ with the extent of fermentation. The ratio can be measured simply by the redox potential. In the present study, we used a platinum wire and an Ag/AgCl reference electrode as the electrode pair to measure the redox potential. A pH meter with high input impedance (over Giga ohm) served as our voltmeter for the weak voltage signals retrieved from tea infusions. The measurement was quick (less than 10 second) and with good reproducibility (CV<3%). Several kinds of fermented tea including Bih-Luo-Chuen, Wen-Shan-Bau-Joong, Bair-Haur-Oolong and black tea were measured, the redox potential was linearly correlated with the degrees of fermentation (r2>0.9).