CniNA TEA 67 



green tcaw which arc niaiiufocturcd in conHidcrablo 

 quantities in the vicinity of Canton are obtained from 

 the Thai liohtu, or blnck tea. And, really, when wo 

 givi' tht' suhjfct our un|)r«juditvd considrration, tliero 

 Boeuis nothing Hurprising in thiH Ktate of thingH. More- 

 over, we muHt Ixar in uiind that our former (>]>inior)rt 

 were forineil upon Htaleinenl.s nmde to uh by tlie 

 Chinoeo at Canton, wlio will Kay anything which Huitw 

 their pur|M)s<>, and rarely give tIienis<'IveH any trouble 

 to aswrtain whether the information they communicate 

 be true or false." 



The leaves of one and the same tea-plant will, there- 

 fore, produce either green tea or black tea. according t^> 

 the will of the manufacturer. I would remind you that 

 I drew your attention to this fact in connection with 

 CV-ylon (rre<'n Tea.s and (N-ylon IJIaek Teas ; and equally 

 It holds good as regards Indian Green Teas and Indian 

 Black Teas. But Fortune made his highly important 

 discovery in the days b<'fore Ceylon Ix'gan to grow tea, 

 and when India was only preparing to compete for the 

 patronage of the world's great tea markets. And in 

 the early stages of the struggle to make British-grown 

 tea more popular than China tea. both India and 

 Ceylon eoncvntraled their attention on producing 

 rival gra<le« of the black variety. When these coloni<*s 

 took up the green-tea branch «»f the industry, they 

 knew, thanks to Tortune, that there was no need for 

 them to cultivate a special kind of tea-plant for their 

 purpoM) ; the manufacturing prtx'CKs alone demanded 

 their K|H>eial attention, and their ambition was to 

 win over customers by supplying green tea which 

 should l>e of the best quality that could be purchasc'd 

 at the priiv charged, and which, no matter what the 



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