i;6 TESTING, BLENDING AND PREPARING. 



dealers and consumers alike being averse to the practice, 

 regarding it as about on a parity with other methods of 

 sophistication. Such objections are entirely erroneous, 

 as it is an acknowledged principle that a combination of 

 different varieties of wheat make better flour, the same 

 being true of coffees and other articles of diet. So 

 that the practice of blending teas, if properly under- 

 stood and skillfully performed, would prove a more satis- 

 factory and profitable one to both consumer and dealer. 

 The object is not, as the public may imagine, to lower the 

 quality or reduce the cost to the dealer, but simply to 

 produce better tea and obtain a finer and more desir- 

 able flavor than that yielded by any single variety, one 

 giving better satisfaction to the consumer at a more 

 moderate price and at the same time allowing a larger 

 margin of profit to the dealer. As an illustration, a 

 dealer may be selling a tea possessing a suitable flavor, 

 but be lacking in body or light in liquor, whereas, by 

 adding to it one or two other teas possessing these 

 qualities the defect is rectified and a full-flavored heavy- 

 bodied tea is produced and the two latter also improved. 

 It follows then that by the judicious blending or mixing 

 of three to five teas, differing in variety and grade, a more 

 uniform and pleasing tea, heavier in body, richer in liquor 

 and flavor can be obtained by this principle at a more 

 moderate cost. 



The idea of blending teas originally arose from the 

 experience incidentally gained that a beverage more 

 pleasing, satisfactory and less costly, could be produced 

 from a number of different varieties and grades judi- 

 ciously and scientifically combined, than could otherwise 

 be obtained from any single sort when used alone. No 

 sooner was this experience confirmed than " mixing " or 

 blending of teas was generally resorted to by many of 



