FOODS AND FOOD ADULTERANTS. 
PART VIL—TEA, COFFEE, AND COCOA PREPARATIONS. 
TEA. 
Tea is prepared from the various species of Thea. This plant is a 
hardy evergreen shrub. 
STATISTICS OF TEA CONSUMPTION. 
The extent of the consumption of teas is shown by the following state- 
ments obtained from the United States Treasury: 
Imports of tea less the amount exported, 
1890. 1889. 1888. 1887. 
Pounds. Pounds. Pounds. Pounds. 
i 
83, 494, 956 79, 192. 253 83, 944, 547 87, 481, 186 
The present per capita consumption of tea in the United States is 
approximately 1.53 pounds. 
We derive about 5L per cent of our tea from China, 42 per cent from 
Japan, and all but a small fraction of a per cent of the remainder from 
the British possessions. | 
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION, 
Teas are usually designated as black or green, the name depending 
upon the color of the prepared leaf, due to the methods of curing and 
not, as formerly supposed, to differences in species. 
Col. Money,! in his work on tea cultivation, gives an illustration, from 
which the following is taken, indicating the leaves which constitute 
1Tea cultivation, 3d ed., page 102 et seq., Lieut. Col. Money; London, W. B. Whiting- 
ham & Co. 
875 
