Abstract: In order to explore the relationship tea hair and tea quality, the standard and routine analytical methods were used to systematically determine the chemical composition of tea hair and tea. The results showed that tea hair had significantly (P ＜ 0.01) lower tea polyphenols, catechins, caffeine, amino acid, and water extractable content than tea, and a significant lower amino acid content was also observed in tea hair (P ＜ 0.05). Despite tea hair a having lower total ash content compared to tea, the difference was not statistically significant (P ＞ 0.05). However, the content of crude fiber of tea hair was significantly higher than that of tea. These findings revealed that tea hair might be not positively associated with tea quality.

Key words: tea, tea hair, chemical composition