120 CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION. 



criminating against them, irrespective of merit or value, 

 in this particular instance compelling their customers, in 

 a measure, to use these dubious varieties of the genus 

 tea. But for presumption and audacity in their claims 

 of superiority the India and Ceylon tea growers and 

 dealers are far and away ahead of all competition. The 

 so-called great favor with which India and Ceylon teas 

 are said to be regarded by British consumers being due 

 in a great measure to the energy and persistency with 

 which the trade has been pushed, the teas being literally 

 forced on the public by the Government as well as by 

 the English growers and dealers, in addition to the strong 

 ties of relationship connecting the planters with the 

 mother country. There is not the slightest doubt but 

 that the check which the consumption of China teas 

 appears to have sustained in England is entirely due to 

 these causes. But already there is a growing and posi- 

 tive revulsion of taste in many sections of that country 

 in favor of the purer China teas, owing to their truer 

 character, greater delicacy and richness of flavor. 



The chief and only advantages that India and Ceylon 

 teas possess over those of China and Japan are their great 

 strength and thickness in the cup, which are due mainly 

 to the modern methods of fermentation and firing by 

 steam and machinery. China and Japan teas excel them 

 in flavor and aroma, occupying in regard to them a 

 position analogous to that of French wines, in com- 

 parison with those of other countries. The product of 

 the latter may be stronger and heavier in body, but for 

 richness of flavor and delicacy of aroma essential quali- 

 ties in both wine and tea the French grape and China 

 tea-leaf stand alone and unrivalled for their intrinsic 

 merits, as well as for their being the only true teas, in all 

 that constitutes tea. Broadly stated, the predominant 



