AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES. 123 



to produce black tea, especially Congo (Kocha) and Oolong (Uriyo) 

 have been multiplied in the last fifteen years, up to the present 

 time, however, without satisfactory result. The black tea prepared 

 in Japan, lacking the characteristic good taste and aroma and the 

 strength, does not furnish an agreeable beverage. For reasons not 

 yet fully learned, the Japanese tea-leaf cannot stand the process of 

 fermentation so important in the production of the black sorts of 

 Chinese tea. It becomes easily damp and limp after this process, 

 yielding an unpleasant smell instead of the prized aroma. 



When the chief harvest in Japan is past, the older leaves are 

 gathered for home consumption, and preparations are made from 

 them. These vary according to the method of drying, and are 

 known as Hiboshi, Kamairi, and Kuroguchi. The infusion they 

 yield is of a dark colour, as with Congo, and has a taste that is not 

 agreeable to us. 



Colouring and Scenting the Tea. 



Two more processes are here to be considered, which are 

 designed to satisfy singular preferences of Western consumers, 

 preferences that are incomprehensible to the Mongolian. These 

 processes are colouring and scenting. 



Colouring is applied to green tea only. The exporter in Japan 

 and China adds to every pan of tea, especially such as is designed 

 for the North American market, towards the close of the last firing, 

 a little bit of powder — as much as will lie on a knife's point. This 

 powder is a mixture of Prussian blue and Chinese soap-stone, or 

 gypsum, — in Japan nearly always the latter, — generally in the 

 proportion of four to one. This blue powder is readily absorbed 

 by the moist, warm tea. It increases its weight only about \\ per 

 cent., and is not at all injurious to the consumer's health. But it 

 serves no rational end, since its only result is to change and 

 heighten somewhat the natural,- though less pronounced green of 

 the leaves, to meet what has been hitherto the taste in North 

 America. 



Scenting of tea is done only in China, and chiefly in the case of 

 the better black sorts. Like colouring, it seems to be on the 

 decline. They use the odorous blossoms, separated from their 

 stems and calyxes, oi Jasminuni Sambac, Ait, Jasm. panicnlatum, 

 Lour., Citrus Bigaradia, Duham., Rosa centifolia, L., Primus Mume, 

 S. and* Z., Oka fragrans, Thunb., Aglaia odorata, Lour., Gardenia 

 Jlorida, L., and Daphne odora, Thunb. When the tea is otherwise 

 ready, it is mixed with these blossoms {eg., one hundred pounds 

 of tea with forty pounds of orange-blossoms, or blossoms of the 

 Jasmin, with one hundred pounds of blossoms of the Aglaia 

 odorata). They are allowed to remain in contact for twenty-four 

 hours. Then the blossoms and fragments of blossoms are separated 

 out by sifting, fanning, and picking. The tea has taken from them 



