August i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



77 



believe, travelled witli Mr. Dcane, furnished Mr. 

 Gnhble with a description of the native manufaotuie 

 of black tea. The openirg p.iiagraph reveals tl o 

 grand miat.ikc of wasting the juica exuded in rolling, 

 a practice, we believe, foTlowed laigcly if not generally 

 ia Chin.i, while Indian and Cejlon planters arc 

 careful tiial the juice is absorbed by the rolled leaf 

 1 efore it is fermenteil. We quote as folloivs: — 



" The great objecliou to Japanese made congou is that i 

 it is too skinny in leaf and hicks strength in cup. The j 

 first crop produces the most attractive tea, hut tlie leaf is | 

 too succulent, and nenrly all its gpod iiualities are lost | 

 when being rolled. I hive often seen a heap of green foamy | 

 juice, rolled out of the leaf, lying on the gi-ound beneath 

 the rolhng tables, and as a natural result the infused tea 

 much resembled ' toast water.' Tlie third crop produces 

 the lest tea, as the sun is then powerful and the shoots 

 are strong and hard. The greater part of the congou 

 made in Japan is sliipped to England, where it is mi.\ed 

 with Indian teas, the former most effectually toning the 

 latter, antl thus forming an excellent combination. 



" l>iyijii/, — The young pickings are spread out in thin 

 layers on bamboo or straw mats in a sunny place till they 

 are quite soft. Care must be taken not to wilt them too 

 much ; in fact extremes should he avoided, for if the leaf 

 is either not sufficiently soft or wilted too much, broken 

 or dead haves will become visible and spoil the apijear- 

 ance of the tea when made up. "When then the leaf is 

 as soft as untanned leather it is fit for rolling. In 

 wet weather or when it is CDld, or in the early morning, 

 the leaf may be reuilered sutiiciently pliable by wilt- 

 ing on iron plates or ordinary firing pans over charcoal 

 fires. Steaming, as in the ' Uji sei ' or green tea process, 

 must be avoided, as it takes too much vitality out of 

 what is natura'Iy a, weak tea. 



" Rollin!/. — The wilted leaf is gathered up in baskets and 

 taken to the rolhng room, where it is turned out on a 

 long table, on either side of which stand the rolling 

 coolies. Each coolie takes a double handful and rolls it, 

 a* a baker kneada dough, for thirty minutes, after whicli 

 it is packed tightly in largo round baskets (obotc) and 

 covered over with a cioth for .m hour or so to allow it 

 to ferment, at the expiration of which time it attains a 

 reddish-brownish tint. To assist the process of ferment- 

 ation, the b;iskets containing the rolled leaf should be 

 placed ill the firing-room. The leaf is then tipped out on to 

 the roiling tables, well shaken out and rolled for fifteen 

 minutes more and fired on iron gauzo sieves or in tsiisiimi 

 kayo, drum baskets, over charcoal fires. The first men- 

 tioned and best process takes forty-five, and the drum 

 baskets seventy minutes. There is a saving of charcoal 

 in the latter, a small item, however, when the difference 

 in quality is taken into consideration, for sieve-fired teas 

 always command a better price on the London market. 



" SiJ'tinij. — Ten men stand in a row, the first having 

 a large-sized sieve, the mesh of the others decreasing 

 in rotation, anil the tea is passed from one to the other ; 

 the last sifting being dust. As ail the tea must pass 

 through No. 5 f-ieve, tiio larger sittings are broken by 

 the hand and then winnowed to take out all fiakey leaf. 

 The bulk is at last reduced to five siftiugs, viz., large 

 and small congou, large and small pekoe, and ilust. 



" Sorl'n;/ is generally performed by women, who sit 

 down before long, low, black tables and take out the 

 stalks and discoloured flat leaves, either with chopsticks 

 on their fingers. 



" Mak'ny a Chop. — A layer of large tea is first put into 

 the bulking recess aud carefully levelled; then a layer of 

 small congou, then pekoe, then a small amount of dust, 

 followed by another layer of large leaf, and so on. The 

 No. 5 sieve teas are fired once more in drum-basketa 

 and put into the chop quite hot. ^Vhen thoroughly warmed 

 through, the bulk ia broken with iron rakes in a most 

 careful niauucr, so that the tea shall be all alike. It is 

 thoii packed into leaded balf-cliests ready for shipment. 

 " AnotJter Afellwil. — .Some tea producers in Orni and 

 Mino, acting upon instructions given them by the Kuwan 

 no Kii/olu (department for the advancement of husb.andry r) 

 about live years ago made at congou after what they called 

 the ' Indian method ' (Indit «ei), bat the demand for their 

 production was not at all up to their ezpectatioas, and they 



were forced to abandon an enterprize that cost thiem a 

 lot of money in ] lant and buildings. 



" Pri'iMmtion.- Wilt the leaf on white calico .sheets in 

 the sun, and when sufiiciently soft roll on cross planed 

 or ribbed tables for twenty minutes. The rolled leaf is 

 then placed on shelves in a hot-house (muro), bearing a 

 temperature of lbO°, where it remains till it assumes a 

 reddish colour. It is theu rolled again for ten minutes 

 to give it a twist, and fired on thin iron plates over slow 

 charcoal fires. After the first rolling the leaf is sifted so 

 as to separate the pekoe from the congou. 



" A very attractive tea can also be made by steaming 

 the grceu leaf and then rolling it for thirty minutes, 

 after which it is fired for forty minutes in a hot Fychow 

 pan. The tea then .somewhat resembles a Hyson, nml has 

 the advantage of being a natural green leaf, but in cup 

 it has what the Japanese call uo kusm, or raw taste." 



Intormatiou is given lespecling "brick tea" in which 

 none of our readers are practically interested. We 

 need only mention the curious fact that in certain 

 parts of Mongolia the people will only purchase bricks 

 which have Deen cut in half, so as to show the stalks. 

 Mr. Gribblo indicates that the foreign merchant 

 are making experiments with machiuery and im- 

 proved modes of preparation, the results of which 

 are likely to bo apparent in the future. The 

 trade in Japan teas has grown up within the score of 

 years or eo sinco the Perry aud Elyiu treaties. It 

 is practically confined to the Uuited S^tate3 and C.uada, 

 and production has now outstripped demand. Prices 

 have gone down from S5G per picul in lH'i'l to §33 

 in 18S3 for choice, and for lower gr ides the fall has 

 been heavier in proportion. The export in 1863-64 

 was only 4^ millions of )b. aga ust an average of 40 

 millions now. Mr. Gribble produced specimens of te.ie, 

 from $3,50 per picul d ivvu to .SS. The la'.ler was an 

 uncoloured common tea.. Finally the author of the 

 paper said : — 



Allow me, in conclusion, to thank you for your kind 

 attention and to offer you a cup of the Powdered Tea 

 {Hikicha), such as delights the heart of the most tcsthetic 

 and extravagant me.mber of the Cha no I'u. Its value is 

 only about §400 per picul, and you will please imagine 

 that the three or more hours necessary ceremonies have 

 been gone through elsewhere, before it has become comme 

 il faut to drink this tea. 



The value of this exceptional tea would be about 12a 

 per lb. 



The paper by Dr. Diver on " Tne Chemical Cora- 

 position of Japan aud Other Tea" is oue of the bi-at 

 and most disci iminative we have met with, and our 

 readers will thank us for extracting it : — 



The following analyses of Japanese tea, made in the labor- 

 atory of the Imperial College of Agriculture, Tokiyo, were 

 published in Ih79 by Mr. Edward Kinch, then Professor of 

 I Chemistry there, and now in the same position in the Koyal 

 Agricultural College of England : — 



Water 6.74 



Kbre 11.20 



Ash fi.63 



Soluble in water ... 43.26 



Tannin 12.50 



Nitrogen 5.79 



These quantities refer to 100 parts, and are not to bo 

 added together, because the matters enumerati.'d are not ex- 

 clusive of each other, part of the ash, part of the nitrogen, 

 and all the tannin being contained in the matter soluble 

 in water. No. I. is hiki-dm, or ground-tea, from Uji, for 

 eating with its infusion in the form of a broth. No. II. 

 is sm-elia or leaf tea for infusing in the ordinary way, also 

 from Uji. No. ill. is tea made by the (Jliinese method, 

 at the Experimental Section of the Agricultural Bureau, 

 Naito Sinjiku Gardens, Tokiyo. I liave myself had ex- 

 amined tea sent me by Mr. Gribble, and found it to con- 

 tain moisture varying from 2 to ^'{ per cent, and in the 

 dry state, 5.73-5.8 per cent, ash or mineral matter. Eder 

 in DiMjUrs poliitrchm^ehcs Jom-iuu, vol. 231, has reported 

 upon * yellow ' or Japanese tea, so called because although 

 it is nearly black in its dry state, it differs from truo 



