TEA AND TllK TKA PLANT. 



95 



Kumaon. This change was due to the greater favour shown in Europe for 

 black tea. While the object aimed at in the preparation of black tea is to 

 change the materials of the leaf (by fermentation of the juice), the green 

 colour in consequence becoming brown or black, the astringency being 

 reduced and the aroma altered in character, in the manufacture of green 

 tea the aim is to prepare tea without any alteration taking place at all. 



Fermentation is prevented. — The first operation in manufacture is 

 always, therefore, to heat the leaf immediately it is received from the 

 pluckers, and without any withering, so as to destroy the ferment 

 (enzyme), and thus prevent any after-colouring of the leaf, and at the 

 same time to bring the leaf into the soft condition required for rolling. 

 When small quantities are dealt with, this result may be obtained by the 

 old process of panning. The leaf is tossed on to the hot pan and moved 

 about to prevent any portion being burned or singed. When soft enough, 

 it is slightly rolled by the hand, then panned and again rolled, and so on 

 till it becomes crisp. It is then dried off by the methods already 

 described. 



When large quantities have to be dealt with, machinery is used that 

 has been recently invented, by which the panning is replaced by a steam- 

 ing of the leaf under pressure and within a rotating cylinder. But the 

 steaming must be very short, or the leaf gets boiled, and comes to 

 resemble broken boiled cabbage, and is then useless ; and yet it must be 

 treated long enough to ensure the destruction of the ferment. About 

 1^ to 2 minutes under steam pressure of 20 lb. to the square inch is 

 generally sufficient. The excess of water is now got rid of by a centri- 

 fugal machine. The leaf is then lightly rolled as with black tea ; but this 

 must be very slight, since broken grades of green tea are worthless. 



In order to obtain the full degree of green colour demanded by the 

 trade the habit prevails in China to " face" the tea by rubbing it when 

 finished in a hot pan with a small quantity of indigo or gypsum or other 

 similar colouring material. In Kangra the native manufacturers use a 

 green soapstone for that purpose. There is, however, no occasion to use 

 any foreign colouring substance at all, since the peculiar colour desired 

 can be produced by the ordinary process of manufacture. 



The following passage from Vigne's " Travels in Kashmir &c.," 1842, 

 vol. i. p. 265, is, I think, fully representative of the method of preparing the 

 beverage, and may appropriately conclude these observations on green 

 tea : — " Tea made, or rather boiled, with water, as in Europe, is called 

 MoguH chd, or the tea of the Moguls, as they call the Persians. But Tibeti 

 chci, or tea as made in Tibet, is a very different composition, for which the 

 following is the recipe for a party of five or six people. A teacupful of 

 the finest green tea is put into three pints of water, and upon this is 

 strewed a large spoonful of soda, and all three are boiled together. About 

 a pound of fresh butter, or ghi, and a pinch of salt are then placed at the 

 bottom of the milling churn and part of the boiling contents are poured 

 out and milled like chocolate ; a little cream or milk is then added to 

 what has remained in the saucepan, and on this the milled tea is poured 

 and boiled again, and part of it again transferred to the churn, and so on 

 till it is all properly milled. All that then remains to be done is to strain 

 it through a clean cloth. Much depends upon the quality of the tea and 



