April 1907.] 



227 



Edible Products. 



Assam growth, but on the other hand they never descend to the common liquors 

 noticeable in the crops of some of the inferior Indian districts, especially in the 

 produce of the rainy season. Ceylon tea is silky and smooth to the palate, and has 

 a characteristic flavour of its own, more or less developed according to the altitude 

 and soil ol the estate on which it is grown. The Tea districts are roughly divided 

 into two groups, the "hills" and the "low country," but this, again, is a very 

 arbitrary distinction, as the altitudes of the estates range the complete gamut from 

 100 to 7,000 feet above sea level, audit is difficult to say where the " low country '' 

 class ceases and the "hill" class begins. As in India the teas grown at the lowest 

 elevation lack the flavour of those from the higher districts, but are rather stronger 

 in cup, whilst the yield is considerably greater. The teas grown in the higher and 

 highest districts possess a nice distinctive " Ceylon" flavour, but it never equals the 

 flavour of the Darjeeling dictrict in India. 



There is not the same variation in the prices of Ceylon teas as in those from 

 India. Taken, for example, the last sale at the time of writing, those for the week end- 

 ing the 13th of April, (1905) the Indian averages range from 7 to 27 cents per 

 pound, whilst the Ceylon averages only range from 9i to 23 cents. This fairly 

 represents the comparative variations in the market values of the product of two 

 tea-growing countries. 



One advantage Ceylon tea certainly possesses over Indian tea, and that 

 is its suitability for straight drinking, e.g., without blending. The best teas in 

 India have to be blended down ; they are too strong and rasping to be consumed 

 pure. On the other hand the Ceylon teas can be consumed just as they are. Not 

 that they may not be improved by blending ; that is very probable. But blending 

 is a fine art, and it requires both a knowledge of the tea and of the water of the 

 district for which the blend is required. The average American tea man might 

 be cornered if he liad to fix up a blend out of his head, or even from a technical 

 book, and this would be awkward if he wanted to make a feature of a " pure 

 Indian " or " pure Ceylon." With such an object in view, and buying on the market, 

 he will find it safer to stick to Ceylon, although if he puts himself in the hands 

 of a wholesale blending house he will probably get a better article in a blended 

 Indian, such, for instance, as a Dooars flavored with Darjeeling, and fetched up 

 with Assam, than in any straight tea. 



It is difficult to give the intending buyer any hard and fast rules for selecting 

 Ceylon teas. You cannot say to him, as of Indians, buy Dooars for usefulness, 

 Assams for strength, Darjeeling for flavor, Cachars and Sylhets for the popular pot, 

 and so forth, because all the Ceylon districts are muddled up together in a small 

 topographical area, and a delicately flavored hill tea and a common quality low 

 country tea may be grown within ten or twenty miles of one another. I have 

 given a grea t deal of careful study to this matter in my desire to supply a general 

 guide to the characteristic liquoring qualities of the various districts, and the best 

 I can do for my readers is to list the districts according to their approximate 

 altitudes. This will indicate, broadly speaking, whether the teas are flavory or 

 merely strong, which often means a little common in Ceylons. By locating the 

 district of the estate whose mark is up for bid an idea can be formed as to what 

 class of tea its produce belongs : — 



Elevation 



District. 



above Sea Level. 



Nuwara Eliya 

 Upper Hewaheta 



Maturata, Dimbula, West Haputale, New Galway 



Feet. Feet. 

 6,000 to 7,000 



4,000 „ 6,800 



0,000 



30 



