SORTING. 141 



process of fermentation ; some then ?ay that this causes sourness, 

 while others maintain that the fermentation is absolutely necessary 

 for the production of a Black Tea. The fact that we never meet 

 with sourness in a Green Tea, one feature in the preparation of 

 which being that it is fired almost immediately on being gathered, 

 goes to corroborate this view. 



Burntness I have already referred to. As I said before, it may 

 either destroy the strength and flavour altogether, or sometimes, 

 without destroying the strength, add an unpleasant burnt flavour to 

 it. When the Tea has the flavour of smoke about it, it is called 

 smoky or smoky burnt. By being burnt, a Tea may be deteriorated 

 in value, say from zd. to is. per Ib. The symptoms of burntness are 

 a dead black leaf (as opposed to the greatly desired greyish, blackish 

 colour) having a burnt smell which often entirely neutralises the 

 natural aroma of the Tea. In looking over a broker's character of a 

 parcel of Teas, you may occasionally meet with the terms ' fresh 

 burnt,' * brisk burnt,' or ' malty burnt.' These phrases do not carry 

 a condemnatory meaning with them. The meaning of the word 

 burnt, as used here, would be better expressed by the term fired. 

 The term malty means of full rich flavour, perhaps from the aroma 

 of this class of Tea resembling somewhat that of malt. Teas of the 

 three above descriptions, you may have noticed, often fetch very 

 good prices. The meaning of the word ' full,' applied to a liquor, is 

 hardly appreciable except by tasting. It does not signify strength 

 or flavour, but is opposed to thinness. A Green Tea may be strong 

 or of good flavour, but its liquor is never full. Fulness is generally 

 characterised by a dark liquor. The quality known as body in a 

 wine is somewhat akin to fulness in a Tea. We speak of a ' full ' 

 leaf Tea in contradistinction to a broken leaf. ' Chaffy ' is generally 

 used in connection with Bohea and other brown leaf classes of Tea. 

 A light (in weight) brown, open or flat leaf, in fact one resembling 

 chaff, would be called chaffy. The lower classes of Tea, especially 

 the dusts, are often described as ' earthy ' in flavour. By this a 

 coarse low flavour is understood, perhaps often caused by the admix- 

 ture of real dust. 



When the make of a Tea is spoken of as a ' well made/ ' fairly 

 made,' &c., leaf, the effect of the manipulation or rolling is referred 

 to. We may have a * well made even,' or a ' well made mixed large 

 and small,' leaf. We may have a ' straight ' or ' curled,' or, as the 

 latter is generally expressed when applied to a large leaf Tea, 



