70 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. IV. 
and formed a light-blue powder, which was then ready 
for use. 
"This colouring matter was applied to the teas 
during the last process of roasting. About five minutes 
before the tea was removed from the pans — ^the time 
being regulated by the burning of a joss-stick — the 
superintendent took a small porcelain spoon, and with 
it he scattered a portion of the colouring matter over 
the leaves in each pan. The workmen then turned the 
leaves rapidly round with both hands, in order that the 
colour might be equally diffused. 
" During this part of the operation the hands of the 
workmen were quite blue. I could not help thinking 
that if any green-tea drinkers had been present during 
the operation their taste would have been corrected, and, 
I may be allowed to add, improved. It seems perfectly 
ridiculous that a civilised people should prefer these 
dyed teas to those of a natural green. No wonder that 
the Chinese consider the natives of the west to be a race 
of ' barbarians.' 
" One day an English gentleman in Shanghae, being 
in conversation with some Chinese from the green-tea 
country, asked them what reasons they had for dyeing 
the tea, and whether it would not be better without 
undergoing this process. They acknowledged that tea 
was much better when prepared without having any such 
ingredients mixed with it, and that they never drank 
dyed teas themselves, but justly remarked that, as 
foreigners seemed to prefer having a mixture of Prussian 
blue and gypsum with their tea, to make it look uni- 
form and pretty, and as these ingredients ware cheap 
