Tea

te, the leaf of a Chinese shrub. Several species of the tea plant yield commercial tea. The world's supply comes chiefly from China, Japan, India, and Ceylon. The use of tea was introduced into Europe by the Dutch East India Company about 1601. Tea cost at first over $50 a pound. At present Great Britain and Australia use over 6 pounds a year per person; Great Britain uses 600,000 pounds daily. This means that the British people drink about 4,000,000 gallons of tea daily.

The tea plant flushes or sends out young shoots four times a year. When the shoots have about six or seven leaves they are plucked by hand. The first picking is the best. Of every seven leaves on the shoot, the two at the tip are the youngest, smallest, juiciest, and make the choicest tea. The next leaf is second in grade. The fourth and fifth leaves are called "Souchong," the last or seventh leaf, now seldom gathered, is Bohea. Young Hyson is the crop gathered before the season of rains. Oolong tea comes from the Island of Formosa. Gunpowder is a fourth or fifth leaf tea.

In addition to a name according to the leaf, teas are classified according to the ways they are cured. For black tea, the leaves are withered in the sun, then rolled till they are broken and soft, then rolled into balls and fermented. After fermentation, black tea is sun-dried and fired in and oven. Green teas are withered in the sun and then rolled. They are sweated, but not fermented, and are finally dried by prolonged roasting. Tea is sent to market in neat wooden chests of exceeding lightness. They are lined with tea lead foil to prevent the escape of the aroma.

Tea buyers grow skillful in tasting tea. A professional tea taster commands a high salary. Tea tasters steep the weight of a new sixpence in three and one-half ounces of water. The Chinese say "take water for tea from a running stream," so that it may contain air; and further, "the fire should be lively and clear, but the water must not be boiled too hastily. At first it begins to sparkle like crabs' eyes," etc. Tea should be thrown into water just brought to a boil, "one teaspoonful for each person, and one for the teapot," it should be served at the end of four minutes. Tea should not be taken with heavy meals as it is not an aid to digestion. Cream coagulates and entangles the tannin of the tea, and is recommended. Sugar has no particular influence. The world's annual supply of tea is about as follows, not counting tea consumed in the country where it is raised:

Pounds.

The finest grade of tea is consumed by the Chinese mandarins, or transported overland to Russia and sold at high prices. A sea voyage is held to injure the flavor.

Tea culture requires a subtropical climate and sixty inches of rain, well distributed through the year. South Carolina has been found fairly well adapted to tea raising. A plantation near Summerville, under government management, produces 12,000 pounds of high grade tea yearly. Tea culture is profitable, however, only in countries where adult labor commands a few cents a day and children a cent or two. In Ceylon 50,000 women and children go up and down the rows, picking tea leaves one by one. In a day, a child picks leaves for a pound of dried tea. In the four pickings some rich Ceylon plantations yield 1,000 pounds of tea per acre.

The United States imports about $16,000,000 worth of tea annually. Canada imports tea to the value of $3,500,000 a year. It is claimed that the average consumption of tea per capita of population of several countries in 1903 was as follows:

Pounds.

Tea is not placed on plates for drying and withering, but on protected bamboo mats, from which it is impossible for the wind to blow it. Green tea and black tea are prepared quite differently. The leaf of the green tea, immediately after picking, is partially dried in the sun or by artificial heat, and subsequently, at the pleasure of the tea man, is dried, rolled, and colored in iron pans over a slow charcoal fire. Then the leaf is sifted according to its size and shape, making such grades as Gunpowder, Young Hyson, and Hyson, as known in the foreign markets. After this process is finished it is put into packages or chests, weighing between sixty and seventy pounds, ready for export.

The color of black tea is due in no way to coloring matter, as is commonly supposed, but is caused by the withering or fermentation. Immediately after picking it is slightly withered or fermented by being placed in the sun, and the expertness of the tea man is shown in his being able to know just when to stop the withering or fermentation. After this the leaf is rolled in bamboo trays and fired in pans until thoroughly dry and ready for packing. These teas are packed in chests and half-chests for export, and in case it comes from the tea man in smaller packages, it is repacked to suit the wishes of the purchaser. Tea chests are practically all made in the same manner--of wood, lead lined, and when ready for export are wrapped with coarse Canton mats.

Both tea dust and common grades of black tea are made in the shape of bricks, weighing usually between one and one-half and two pounds. All teas in this shape are exported to Siberia and Mongolia and in a less degree to Russia. The United States does not use tea in this form.--Consul-General Charles Denby, of Shanghai.