Abstract:This study aimed to explore the dynamic changes of color and pigments content of the Huangjinya fresh tea leaves during processing, with a view to providing theoretical guidance for the processing and production of the fresh tea leaves of Huangjinya as well as this kind of albino tea cultivars. Taking Jiukeng, a conventional tea cultivar, as control, the changes of appearance color and intrinsic pigments contents of Huangjinya during thermal processing were analyzed and the pigments content was determined by UPLC method. Results showed that the appearance color transformed from yellow to green and the value of chromatism a* changed from positive (red) to negative (green) after fixing of Huangjinya fresh tea leaves, since the content of yellow pigments represented by lutein decreased significantly, which resulting in a significant increase in the relative content of green pigments. However, the piling process was able to make the appearance color of tea return to yellow due to the significant improvement in the relative content of yellow pigments caused by the reduction of chlorophyll a/b content. Thus, the appearance color and pigments content of tea products after piling were more similar to those of fresh leaves, so that the color advantage of fresh leaves of Huangjinya cultivars can be fully highlighted.