Mr. Warington on the Green Teas of Commerce. 509 



On detailing what I had thus found to the friend who had 

 favoured me with the preceding samples, he inquired if I had 

 examined any unglazed teas. This appellation immediately ar- 

 rested my attention, and I requested to inspect some of them, 

 and found that they possessed externally a totally different 

 aspect, indeed, as far as their colour was concerned, not to 

 be like green teas. They were of a yellow-brown tint without 

 a shade of green or blue, but rather tending on the rubbed 

 parts to a blackish hue. I afterwards received two samples 

 of unglazed teas, specified as of very fine quality, accompa- 

 nied by two others of the ordinary or, as they are called, in 

 contradistinction, glazed varieties, also of a very superior qua- 

 lity. These were therefore immediately submitted to exami- 

 nation. No. 6. Unglazed Gunpowder. It presented the same 

 colour under the microscope as when viewed by the unas- 

 sisted eye, was filamentous and covered with a white powder 

 inclining to a brown tint, but no shade of blue was visbile. 

 No. 7. Unglazed Hyson. The same as No. 6. No. 8. Gun- 

 powder glazed. Filamentous, covered with a powder of a very 

 pale blue, and the blue granules being but rarely seen. No. 9. 

 Hyson. The same as No. 8. No. 10. Pidding's Howqua, 

 purchased at Littlejohn's at 85. 6d. per catty package. This 

 was evidently of the glazed variety ; it was filamentous and 

 covered with a pale blue powder interspersed with bright 

 blue granules. No. 11, entitled Canton Gunpowder. This 

 was a splendid sample of the glazed variety, as far as colour 

 was concerned ; it was more thickly powdered and blued than 

 any that I have examined, and the dust rose from it in quan- 

 tity when poured from one paper to another. A great many 

 other samples of ordinary green teas were examined, with 

 much the same results ; the cheaper teas, or those in general 

 use, and which form the bulk of the imports, being similar to 

 Nos. 5 and 11, and being represented by Twankeys and low- 

 priced Hysons or Gunpowders. 



After several unsuccessful experiments, I found that with a 

 little care the whole of this powder or facing, if I may be 

 allowed the term, it being entirely superficial, could be easily 

 removed from the tea, by simply agitating the sample briskly 

 for a few seconds in a phial with distilled water, and then 

 throwing the whole on a lawn or muslin filter, in order to 

 strain the liquid, with the suspended matter, from the leaves 

 as rapidly as possible. After this operation the tea presented 

 a totally altered aspect, as may be supposed; in fact, changing 

 its colour from a bluish green to a bright and lively yellow 

 or brownish yellow tint, and I found that with care it could 

 be redried at a temperature below 212° without even uncurl- 



