OF HYSON TEAS. 233 



the roastings of the Hyson tea, which take place 

 at this period of the siftings and classification, 

 great attention is paid to the colour ; and, though 

 the roastings are regulated by the measure of time 

 designated a che hiang (the one I tried burnt 

 forty-five minutes), yet that instrument is used 

 more as a guide than a rule ; for, as the time of 

 roasting draws to a close, each parcel is frequently 

 compared with a sample kept for that purpose, 

 and the roasting increased or diminished as the 

 colour approximates to that of the sample. The 

 superior Hysons (as Tien-Hing and Lum-Hing) 

 are afterwards picked from the third and fourth 

 sieves. It is hardly necessary to observe that the 

 more the teas are roasted the closer becomes the 

 curl. 



The teas being now assimilated in colour and 

 leaf and properly assorted, are arranged according 

 to their classes of Hyson, Hyson skin, young Hyson 

 and gunpowder ; and these classes again arranged 

 and mixed agreeably to their qualities, which are 

 noted down previously to packing the tea in 

 canisters. 



In about the sixth or seventh moon (July or 

 August), the tea harvest being concluded, the 

 qualities of the aggregated purchases are further 

 arranged, and the teas of suitable and nearly 

 equal qualities are started into a heap or pile in 

 sufficient quantities to form a chop or parcel of 

 one uniform quality, which in Hysons is about one 



