514- Mr. Warington on the Green Teas of Commerce. 



stances employed samples of them were carried away from the 

 place. The Chinese seemed quite conscious of the real cha- 

 racter of the occupation in which they were engaged ; for, on 

 attempting to enter several other places where the same pro- 

 cess was going on, the doors were speedily closed upon the 

 party. Indeed, had it not been for the influence of the 

 Hongist who conducted them, there would have been little 

 chance of their seeing as much as they did*." " Jt is an in- 

 teresting and important question to determine whether the 

 same system of artificial colouring enters at all into the manu- 

 facture of the more genuine green teas brought to this coun- 

 try." " One fact is well ascertained and undeniable, that the 

 Chinese themselves do not consume those kinds of green teas 

 which are prepared for exportation t." " The young hyson 

 and Pekoe teas, made from the green tea plant, have a yellower 

 and as it were a more natural hue than the bluish-green that 

 distinguishes the elaborated teas imported to us." 



Mr. Bruce states % that in the last operation for colouring 

 the green teas "a mixture of sulphate of lime and indigo, 

 very finely pulverized and sifted through fine muslin, in the 

 proportion of three of the former to one of the latter, is added 

 to a pan of tea containing about seven pounds, about half a 

 tea spoonful of this mixture is put, and rubbed and rolled 

 along with the tea in the pan for about an hour. The above 

 mixture is merely to give it a uniform colour and appearance. 

 The indigo gives it the colour, and the sulphate of lime fixes 

 it. The Chinese call the former Youngtin, the latter Acco" 



Indigo however, as previously stated, has never yet been 

 met with on any of the green teas of commerce that have 

 fallen under my notice. 



The following curious observation occurs in Maculloch's 

 * Commercial Dictionary:' — " Blue is a favourite colour with 

 the Chinese; and in 1810 — 11 the imports of Prussian blue 

 into Canton from England amounted to 253,200 pounds. But 

 for some years past the Chinese have not imported a single 

 pound weight. The cause of the cessation of the trade deserves 

 to be mentioned. A common Chinese sailor, who came to 

 England in an East Indiaman, having frequented a manufac- 

 tory where the drug was prepared, learned the art of making 

 it, and on his return to China he established a similar work 

 there with such success that the whole empire is now supplied 

 with native Prussian blue." 



* Vol. ii. p. 468. f Vol. ii. p. 469. 



X Report on the Manufacture of Tea, and on the extent and produce 

 of the Tea Plantations in Assam, by Mr. C. A. Bruce, Superintendent of 

 Tea Culture, presented to the Tea Committee, August 16, 1839. 



