TEA 975 



fire. Another basket is placed over the whole, to throw back any heat that may 

 ascend. Now and then it is taken off, and put on the receiver ; the hands, with tho 

 fingers wide apart, are run down the sides of the basket to the sieve, and the tea gently 

 turned over, the passage in the centre again made, &c., and the basket again placed 

 on the fire. It is from time to time examined, and when the leaves have become so 

 crisp that they break by the slightest pressure of the fingers, it is taken off, when the 

 tea is ready. All the different kinds of leaves underwent the same operation. The 

 tea is now little by little put into boxes, and first pressed down with the hands and 

 then with the feet (clean stockings having been previously put on). 



There is a small room inside of the tea-house, 7 cubits square and 5 high, having 

 bamboos laid across on the top to support a network of bamboo and the sides of the 

 room smeared 'with mud to exclude the air. When there is wet weather, and the 

 leaves cannot be dried in the sun, they are laid out on the top of this room, on the 

 network, on an iron pan, tho same as is used to heat the leaves ; some fire is put into 

 it, either of grass or bamboo, so that the flame may ascend high ; the pan is put on 

 a square wooden frame, that has wooden rollers on its legs, and pushed round and 

 round this little room by one man, while another feeds the fire, the leaves on the top 

 being occasionally turned ; when they are a little withered, the fire is taken away, 

 and the leaves brought down and manufactured into tea, in the same manner as if it 

 had been dried in the sun. But this is not a good plan, and never had recourse to if 

 it can be possibly avoided. 



Preparation of factitious Green Tea. Tea is brought to Canton unprepared ; as 

 Bohea, Soshung, and is thrown into a hemispherical iron pan, kept very hot over a 

 fire. The leaves are constantly stirred till they are thoroughly heated, when they 

 are dyed, by adding, for each pound of tea, 1 spoonful of gypsum, 1 of turmeric, and 

 2 or 3 of Prussian blue. The leaves instantly change into a bluish-green, and after 

 being well stirred for a few minutes, are taken out, being shrivelled by the heat. They 

 are now sifted ; the small longish leaves fall through the first sieve, and form Young 

 Hyson : the roundest granular ones fall through the last, and constitute Gunpowder, 

 or Choo-cha. 



The observations of Liebig afford a satisfactory explanation of the cause of the great 

 partiality of the poor, not only for tea, but for tea of an expensive and superior kind. 

 He says, ' We shall never certainly be able to discover how men were first led to the 

 use of the hot infusion of the leaves of a certain shrub (tea), or of a decoction of certain 

 roasted seeds (coffee). Some cause there must be which will explain how the practice 

 has become a necessary of life to all nations. But it is still more remarkable, that the 

 beneficial effects of both plants on the health must be ascribed to one and the same 

 substance {theine or caffeine'), the presence of which in two vegetables, belonging to 

 natural families, the products of different quarters of the globe, could hardly have 

 presented itself to the boldest imagination. Yet recent researches have shown, in 

 such a manner as to exclude all doubt, that theine and caffeine are in all respects 

 identical.' And he adds, ' That we may consider these vegetable compounds, so re- 

 markable for their action on the brain, and the substance of the organs of motion, as 

 elements of food for organs as yet unknown, which are destined to convert the blood 

 into nervous substance, and thus recruit the energy of the moving and thinking faculties.' 

 Such a discovery gives a great importance to tea and coffee, in a physiological and 

 medical point of view. See THEINE. Consult Watts's ' Dictionary of Chemistry.' 



Indian Teas. The following remarks by the late Dr. Archibald Campbell on Indian 

 teas are of interest : 



Dr. Campbell's observation led him to believe that little was known of the subject 

 in this country, although it was 40 years since tea was first discovered in Assam, 

 growing wild, and 30 years since it was found in the same state in Cachar. It was 

 very satisfactory to be able to state that the Indian authorities had been roused to 

 vigorous exertions in providing means of communication between the tea-producing 

 districts and the seaboard, Merchants from Thibet, Cashmere, and Afghanistan had 

 crossed the Himalayas into India, and were carrying off the teas from the factories in 

 the north-west at highly remunerative prices, bespeaking all the crop of next year in 

 Kumaon, and paying down half the cash in advance. Taking all circumstances into 

 consideration, the tea prospects were brighter than the pioneers of the great Indian 

 industry could hitherto boast of. The tea crop of India was in 1873 about 20,000,000 

 Ibs., of which Darjeeling contributed 2,600,000, increasing at the rate of 15 per cent, 

 per annum on the land actually under tea cultivation i.e., 14,000 acres. For the 

 present year (1874) 21,000,000lbs., could be reckoned on, of which 3,000,000 would bo 

 from Darjeeling. There were other lands which, when cultivated, would increase the 

 supply. Dr. Campbell dwelt upon the quantity of spurious and adulterated China 

 teas imported into England, and the extent to which pure Indian teas were kept back 

 from the public for the purpose of mixing to make them saleable. 



