138 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF TEA. 



greyish Pekoe, with no or very little dark leaf mixed, it is called 

 Flowery Pekoe. 



Flowery Pekoe is picked from the shrub entirely separate from the 

 other descriptions of Tea, only the buds and young leaves being taken. 

 In the preparation it is not subjected so severely to the action of heat 

 as the other classes of Tea, and generally preserves a uniform greenish 

 grey or silvery grey tint. Its strength in liquor is very great, flavour 

 more approaching that of Green Teas, but infinitely superior, having 

 the strength and astringency, without the bitterness, of the green 

 descriptions. The liquor is pale, similar to that of Green Tea, and 

 the infused leaf is of a uniform green hue. In many instances, where 

 too much heat has been employed, we find dark leaves intermixed, 

 and the prevailing colour, green, is sprinkled with leaves of a salmony 

 brown tinge, which is the proper colour for the out-turn of any other 

 ordinary black leaf Tea. A very common mistake is to call an ordinary 

 Pekoe, that may contain an extra amount of Pekoe ends, Flowery Pekoe. 

 When this class of Tea is strong and of Flowery Pekoe flavour, it is 

 called by the trade a Pekoe of Flowery Pekoe kind. In England 

 Flowery Pekoe sells, as a rule, from 45. 6d. to 6s. 6d. per Ib. One parcel 

 has sold as high as 75. 6d. 



By many people the expediency of making Flowery Pekoe is much 

 doubted. The true Flowery Pekoe leaf is the one undeveloped bud at 

 the end of each twig. To pick this alone, without any ordinary Pekoe 

 leaves, involves a great deal of trouble and expense, and I think though 

 the Flowery Pekoe be very valuable, that the account would hardly 

 balance when we consider the deterioration of the Pekoe by the 

 abstraction of the young leaves. 



The ordinary Pekoe is a Tea of blackish or greyish blackish aspect, 

 but dotted over with greyish or yellowish leaves which, on close 

 inspection, will be found to possess the downy appearance which gives 

 the name to Pekoe. In general we do not find the whole leaf covered 

 with down, but only part of it, which in its growth has been 

 developed later than the other parts. These are called by the trade 

 "Pekoe ends" when very small Pekoe tips. A Pekoe is generally of 

 good to fine flavour, and very strong, and its liquor dark. Its value is 

 from is. gd. to 35. 8d. per Ib. \,- 



When the Pekoe ends are of yellowish or orange hue, and the leaf 

 is very small and even, the Tea is called Orange Pekoe. In flavour it 

 is much the same as an ordinary Pekoe, and many growers do not 



