LIE-TEA. 121 



Owing to the high duty and high price of tea, it is an 

 article which is much sophisticated, not only by the dealers 

 in this country, who adulterate with the leaves of various 

 indigenous trees, and the exhausted tea-leaves re-dried, but 

 also by the Chinese themselves. 



Latterly large quantities of a spurious article have found 

 their way into this country under the name of Lie-tea, given 

 to it by the Chinese manufacturers. It is used solely for 

 the purpose of adulterating other teas, and at first sight 

 has the appearance of fine gunpowder ; it is composed of 

 the dust and sweepings of the tea- warehouses ; this dust is 

 mixed with chrome-yellow and Prussian-blue, in very fine 

 powder, and in such proportions as to give the peculiar 

 light-green tea colour to this compound. A liquid, formed 

 by boiling the husks of rice in water until it has the con- 

 sistency of thin gruel, is then sprinkled in whilst the mass 

 of powder is at the same time briskly stirred with rods* 

 which causes it to granulate, and produces a very close 

 imitation of green tea. Mr. Warrington has stated that 

 the colouring matter of lie-tea is a mixture of Prussian-blue 

 and turmeric, with a large proportion of fibrous gypsum; 

 and that the black lie-tea is covered with earthy plumbago 

 or black-lead, having only a slight lustre. The author has 



