188 TERNSTRG@MIACEA 
ance counts to a considerable degree. In this respect the 
size of the leaves, indicating their age and likewise the 
presence of what is termed “ tip,’’ consisting of the unexpand- 
ed leaf buds, serve as indications by which tea is classed 
partly as Souchong or Pekoe and partly also as varieties of 
those kinds of tea. In addition there is also the process of 
tasting practised by tea brokers. This consists in preparing 
infusions of the different samples much in the same manner 
that tea is commonly used, and then forming a judgment as to 
the value of the samples according to the aroma, flavour, and — 
other characteristics of the corresponding infusions. This 
is anart that is practised with a surprising degree of precision, — 
eo that the results arrived at by different operators agree 12 & 
very remarkable manner. In carrying out the broker’s test, : 
tea is infused for five minutes in boiling water in the propor ; 
tion of about 43 grains to 3} fluid ounces of water. The — 
infusion is then poured off from the leaves into a eup, and the — 
value of the tea estimated by its taste. In this operation the — 
soluble constituents of the leaves are only partially extracted, — 
‘and while more perfect exhaustion of the leaves will give — 
about 35 per cent. of extract, the amount taken out in the 
ordinary broker’s method of testing does not amount to more 
than 20 per cent on the average. Hence it is evident that 
attempts to value tea on the basis of the total amount of 
extract obtainable by treatment with boiling water must be 
entirely fallacious and useless for any practical purpose.. In 
respect to the amounts of extract thus obtainable from tea of 
different qualities, there is not in reality any such difference 
as would afford indications of the actual differences in value. 
Peligot and others have made determinations of this kind, . 
showing that different kinds of black tea yield from 24 to 47 — 
per cent. of extract, or on the average, 34 to 40 per cent., bab — 
these data have little practical value. It js indeed not by the — 
perfect extraction of tea that its value can be estimated. This 
must be sought for within the limits of extraction which obtail 
: in the ordinary methods of using tea,as is the case in the 
. broker’s method of testing, which fairly represents ordinary 
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en mat 
