Visual Inspection and Harvesting
The picking requirements for Wuyi rock tea differ significantly from those of other teas.
Other teas are generally picked as a single bud, one bud with one leaf, or one bud with two leaves.
However, Wuyi rock tea requires "open-face picking."
This means picking the buds at the top of the new shoots that have already largely unfurled.
This is necessary for the subsequent "zuoqing" (withering/tossing) stage.
Judging the extent to which tea buds have opened requires the tea farmer to rely on visual assessment during plucking.
It takes about twenty days for a tea leaf to go from a new bud to being fully unfurled.
During this period, various changes occur, requiring tea farmers to use their ingenuity and visual experience
to measure and judge the secrets of nature; proper visual assessment
is the first step in establishing "rock rhythm" (Yan Yun).