172 TESTING, BLENDING AND PREPARING. 



The tastes of communities differing so widely in the 

 various sections of the country, the dealer must study 

 and learn the particular variety and flavor best adapted to 

 the locality or town in which he is doing business, as a 

 tea that may give general satisfaction in one section may 

 not suit at all in another. But generally in mining, mill- 

 ing or manufacturing districts or among working classes 

 in cities, heavy-bodied Amoys and dark-leaved Foo- 

 chous will be found the most popular. The taste for 

 China and Japan teas in this country is undoubtedly an 

 inherited one, but irrespective of this cause they are for the 

 vast majority of tea-drinkers peculiarly the most suitable 

 and best adapted, being softer, milder, richer, more 

 mellow and wholesome than either the India or Ceylon 

 growths, and it is only a cultivated and refined taste that 

 can appreciate them at their true worth. In a com- 

 munity composed principally of Irish, English or Scotch, 

 thick "fruity" Congous, heavy-bodied "tarry" Sou- 

 chongs, Capers, Pekoes, India and Ceylon teas or com- 

 binations formed from these varieties will prove the most 

 satisfactory. While Green teas are most in demand in 

 the Southern States. Oolongs in the Eastern and Middle, 

 Foochows and Formosas being chiefly sold in the 

 larger seaboard cities, Amoys in the principal manu- 

 facturing districts, Japans in the Pacific and North- 

 western, India, Ceylons and teas of the Congou order, 

 in Irish, English and other foreign settlements. 



All teas after ripening have a tendency to decay, some 

 teas not keeping as well as others, there being a great 

 difference in the time that some will keep before the 

 deterioration becomes pronounced in comparison with 

 that of others. And tea also possessing an natural apti- 

 tude to become impregnated with the odor of any high 

 or foul-smelling article near which it may be placed, care 



