64 TEA 



CHAPTER XIV 



IN JAPANESE TEA-LANDS {continued) 



A VERY active and progressive part as tea producer is 

 played by the island of Formosa, which has been a 

 Japanese possession since 1895. It is famous for a 

 variety of tea known as " Oolong," which was first 

 exported in 1867. 



A legend tells how it came to pass that this name 

 " Oolong," which means " black dragon," was given to 

 a particular kind of tea. The story runs that a native 

 of the Province of Fukien, in China, was one day 

 picking tea-leaves in his garden when he noticed that 

 a certain tea-plant was giving forth a particularly 

 fragrant odour. Upon examining this plant, he found 

 a beautiful black snake curled round it. Beheving this 

 snake to be a good omen, he plucked the leaves of the 

 plant and made them into tea, when, to his delight 

 he found that the product had a specially agreeable 

 flavour not possessed by any other teas. 



Oolong Tea is neither a black tea nor a green tea, 

 but a combination of both. Before infusion the pre- 

 pared leaves look black ; the action of boiling water 

 on them results in a beverage that combines the 

 flavour of green tea and the odour of black tea. An 

 examination of the leaves after the infusion treatment 

 leads to an interesting discovery which throws light 

 on this curious combination of characteristics. As 

 witness to the fact that black tea is fermented during 

 the course of manufacture, the leaves when infused are 

 of a reddish-brown colour ; and as green tea does not 



