MANIPULATION OF TEA. 249 



ascribed, it is obviously due to a copious and 

 rapid evolution of steam that the leaves do not 

 burn. Still after much thought and inquiry, I am 

 disposed to believe, that the red heat is never 

 intended to be used for the green tea, nor even 

 for the black, which forms any part of European 

 consumption. Yet in the rude manner in which 

 the Chinese regulate the heat, especially in the 

 first process of roasting, when dry wood is used 

 instead of charcoal, it may occasionally happen, as 

 in the instances which I saw, that the roasting vessel 

 may attain a very high temperature, if not red 

 heat. Mr. Jacobson of Java states, that the 

 "Kwalie" or roasting vessel becomes red hot 

 in a quarter of an hour, and cools as rapidly. 

 In fact, from the excessive thinness of the vessel, 

 " not exceeding a line in thickness in the thickest 

 part,"* and the means employed to heat it, there 

 is a real difficulty in maintaining any fixed or 

 equable degree of heat. It necessarily must be, from 

 the means employed, a varying quantity having a 

 considerable range. In fact, it is in the dexterous 

 management of the leaves under these varying 

 conditions of temperature that the skill of the 

 roaster is displayed. A difference of twenty or 

 thirty or even fifty degrees of heat is, I believe, of 

 little importance during any part of the process of 

 roasting. With respect to the amount of heat 



* Handboek v. de Kult. en Fabrik. v. Thee. § 374. 



