TESTING, BLENDING AND PREPARING. 167 



and flavors in demand are so numerous and various that 

 most dealers are compelled to mark out a distinct line 

 for themselves. In the larger cities this is the most 

 successful course to pursue, particularly if the kind and 

 quality of the tea be kept regular and uniform the year 

 round, as it secures the return again and again of the 

 same customers for that particular tea, and thus keeps a 

 business always steady and progressive. Even away 

 from the larger cities it is well to follow this course, but 

 while at first it may be found advisable to keep close 

 to the established tea-taste of the section, a gradual 

 change may be found good policy, as a dealer can 

 by a little effort educate his trade in time to a particular 

 variety or flavor of tea, for after all is said, and as 

 remarked before, the taste for a certain tea is only an 

 acquired one. He may, for instance, be selling a heavy- 

 bodied Amoy or dark-leaved Foochow Oolong and 

 suddenly change off to a fine Formosa. In such a 

 case his trade would be very apt to find fault at first, 

 notwithstanding that the latter may be choicer and more 

 expensive than the former, but by ignoring the complaints 

 at the beginning and continuing to insist upon their tak- 

 ing it, eventually succeed in educating them to acquire a 

 taste for it. Still the importance of retaining and main- 

 taining the quality and flavor to which his customers 

 are longest accustomed cannot be overestimated, for no 

 dealer can afford to jeopardize his business or can expect 

 success if his teas one month consist of fine flavored 

 teas, the next month of heavy and dull and the third of 

 a sharp and pungent kind. To maintain this necessary 

 regularity, must be admitted, is difficult, as no two con- 

 secutive importations of tea are exactly alike although 

 selected from the same picking or chosen from those 

 grown in the same district the variations may still be so 



