CAMELLIA 



BLACK TK\ THEA 



Manufacture 



<jr.fiii.il improvement has taken place, and those now in use leave little 



drsin-d except the making of the process continuous. In principle, contumitj 

 all tin- machines work by rubbing the leaf between two surfaces either 

 <!<4 in opposite directions or working at right angles to one another. 

 ue cases the pressure on the top of the leaf is supplied by the weight 

 of a large quantity of the leaf itself ; in others, and more commonly, by 

 i;tl heavy lid to the machine. By raising or lowering this lid, the 

 pressure on the rolling leaf may be altered, and the amount of juice ex- Prowurc. 



1 diminished or increased. Other things being equal, the lighter 

 tlu- rolling the more juice remains in the cells, and a pungent light-liquor- 

 :i is obtained, in which the whitish colour of the immature tip-leaf is 

 only slightly stained, thus giving a pretty-looking tea, full of " golden tip." Golden Tip. 

 t he rolling be hard, much juice is pressed out, the golden tips largely 

 ippear, and a much darker liquor is afforded by the finished tea, but 

 with more " body " and less pungency. The time taken by this 

 ition varies from a quarter of an hour to an hour or even more. 

 3n the rolling is partly carried out, and the leaf is then sifted through 

 iting sieves. The finer portions (containing most of the golden tip) 

 not again put in the machine, while the coarser portions are subjected 

 rolling under a greater pressure. 



The juice has been brought into contact with the air by rolling ; now Action of 

 curs the so-called " fermentation." Before the rolling is completed " 

 edges of the leaves and the ends of the stalks have begun to change 

 a green to a brown colour, and to take on an altered smell. This is 

 commencement of the fermentation, which is allowed to go on from Fermentation. 

 to six hours according to the conditions. For this purpose the rolled 

 is spread out about one to two inches thick in a moist, cool, darkened 

 5m, under conditions of the greatest cleanliness possible, and allowed 

 remain there. The material quickly becomes brown, and commences 

 smell like finished tea. The end of the operation is judged by the eye 

 the smell, and requires a good deal of experience to decide. The final 

 luct should be coppery brown in colour, like a new penny, and should Brown 

 ive quite lost its leafy smell, taking on, as has already been said, that of c 

 shed tea. The changes which take place during the fermentation are 

 very obscure, and it will be better to leave their discussion till a 

 tie later (see p. 238). 



Firing. Fermentation finished, the leaf must be dried or fired as quickly Firing, 

 possible. Formerly the firing was done over clear charcoal fires ; now 

 shines which make use of a current of hot air are exclusively employed, 

 earliest invented simply placed the leaf in trays through which a 

 snt of heated air passed, by natural draught, and as each tray was 

 ried the material was removed and replaced. Now such machines are 

 liefly employed for finishing the tea-firing, and the greater part of the 

 jrk is done on large automatic machines working with strong currents 

 air induced by fans. They are capable, some of them, of drying as 

 ich as two hundred pounds of finished tea per hour. The machines 

 sd for this purpose are simple in construction, and though ingenious, do 

 not embody any new principle of drying. The " firing " is usually com- 

 menced at a high temperature, the air entering the machine being often Temperature 

 kept at from 220 to 240 F., though naturally the drying leaf itself never h 

 reaches this temperature. After the drying is about three-quarters 

 completed, a somewhat lower temperature is employed, from 180 to 



231 



