1 66 TESTING, BLENDING AND PREPARING. 



extract obtained by exhausting the leaf is very irregular. 

 This result is also quite in accord with the fact that the 

 finer and more valuable qualities of all teas are to be 

 found only in the youngest and tenderest leaves, the 

 decline from the finer to the lower grades in the amount 

 of theine dissolved being also noteworthy as showing the 

 power to yield nearly all their theine, the latter doing 

 so only to a limited extent under the same treatment. 

 But although these results show the difference in the 

 drawing qualities of all the various kinds of tea, yet they 

 are not sufficiently uniform to make such analysis the 

 basis for calculating the price of tea. It is evident, 

 however, that the volatile or essential oil to which tea 

 owes it flavor and aroma plays a more important part 

 than any of the other constituents in determining the 

 commercial value of tea. Again, it must be noted the 

 strength and flavor of the infusion is as much due to the 

 character of the water used in drawing as to any other 

 cause, the quantity of tannin extracted by soft water 

 being greater than that obtained by the use of hard. 



The taste for tea being an acquired and not a natural 

 one, it necessarily follows that persons who have been 

 accustomed to a certain variety or flavor in tea, want 

 that particular kind and will be dissatisfied if any other 

 is given them. Consumers of wine have their fancies, so 

 have users of ale or beer one prefers a dry, another a 

 sweet wine one a mild and another a bitter beer. This 

 being the case, it becomes essential to the success of the 

 tea-dealer to study and learn what variety of tea or what 

 particular flavor his customers have been accustomed to 

 before attempting to cater to it. This is a question some- 

 what difficult to answer, as not only is there a wide 

 difference of taste in tea in the different parts of the 

 country, but in every large town or city alone the varieties 



