222 MANIPULATION OF HYSON TEA. 



out until about a month after the tea has been 

 roasted. No rest can be afforded the workmen 

 until this colour is produced ; for not until then 

 are the leaves properly dried. The three roastings 

 occupied about ten hours, and the original quan- 

 tity of leaves, 33 lbs. (25 catties), required the 

 constant labour of one roaster.* 



In this state, the tea is usually packed in chests 

 in the tea country, and called Mao Cha, from its 

 being unsorted. The Ching Cha is the Hyson tea, 

 after the Hyson skin, young Hyson, and gun- 

 powder have been separated from it. Both kinds 

 are sold in the tea country, though it is commonly 

 sold by the farmers and peasantry in its gross or 

 unsorted state of Mao Cha ; and from the samples 



* In the tea country, it appears that the Mao-cha or unpicked 

 tea undergoes but two roastings instead of three. Nor are any 

 more necessary, if care be taken to moderate the fire as the 

 leaves dry. This slow process of drying at a low temperature 

 seems essentially requisite to the production of the delicate 

 bluish colour of the leaves, significantly termed bloom by the 

 dealers in England. The fanning also accelerates the formation 

 of the colour, as well as the drying process, by a quick evapora- 

 tion of the fluids. I found by experiment that the colour could 

 be produced without it, but less expeditiously. I also found 

 that the taking the leaves off the fire, just as the colour was 

 about to form, and suffering them to cool a little, had a tendency 

 to produce the same effect, when the roasting was again resumed ; 

 but the use of the fan was preferable. Koempfer observes, 

 that the Japanese fan the leaves for the purpose of cooling 

 them, and of fixing the curls ; but describes this process as 

 taking place during the rolling (Japan, Appendix, p. 11.) I am 

 disposed to think that Kcempfer may have failed in his usual 

 accuracy on this point ; and that the fanning took place during 

 the roasting, or at any rate in both instances. 



