Chap. X. MANUFACTURE OF " CAPER/ 



211 



we had been examining. All the art of the mani- 

 pulator, in so far as heating, and pressing, and 

 rolling in the usual way, was not equal to make 

 a good-looking " caper " out of this. The leaves 

 were too old, too large and coarse in their present 

 state. But, although there might be some difficulty, 

 even to a Chinese, in making small leaves into 

 large ones, there was none whatever in making 

 large leaves small ; and their mode of doing this 

 was as follows : — These coarse leaves were first 

 of all heated and moistened as the others had 

 been, in order to make them soft and pliable. 

 They were then thrown into square boxes and 

 chopped up for some time, until the size of the 

 leaves was reduced. When this was accomplished 

 to the satisfaction of the operator, they were then 

 made into nice-looking round " caper," suitable 

 for the market. 



The origin of the name this tea bears is, no 

 doubt, derived from its resemblance in form to the 

 flower-buds of the caper-bnsh of the south of 

 Europe. And yet it is rather a curious coinci- 

 dence that the greater part of caper tea finds its 

 market in the Cape of Good Hope. 



It will probably suggest itself to the reader who 

 has paid any attention to tea-making that large 

 quantities of those kinds of green tea known as 

 " gunpowder " and " imperial " may be manufac- 

 tured in the same way as " caper," and this is, no 

 doubt, the case, particularly about Canton. And 

 further, it is the simplest thing in the world to 



Q 



