July i, 1893,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
S3 
To the Editor. 
"THE BITTER CRY OF MINCING LANE" 
OVER CEYLON TEAS :— No. XIX. 
Central Province, May 28th. 
Deab Sia,— The Bubject of the letter headed "Bitter 
Cry cf Minoing Lane over Cejlon tea" is a matter 
that has interested me very much for a long time. 
That Ceylon ha\e deteriorated since 1885 in flavor 
and point, is a feet which admits of no dispute, 
although those incapable of judgicg on such matterp, 
residing in the island, say it is simply the taste 
that has changed and not the tea. Well, they don't 
know what they are talking about. There are 
scarcely any teas shipped from Oeylon now as 
fine as we had in 1885, — in fact I question whether 
even the gardens turning out the finest teas now 
and averaging over Is 2d a lb- are as fine as some we 
used to get. Personally I don't believe our teas have 
really got appreciably worse — that is to say if we 
pluck to make really fine teas we can still make them 
— though few try to make fine teas ; but now every 
one wants to show the 3001b. or 400 lb. an acre or over 
— as a rule as much over as possible. Now in manu- 
facturing tea, you have only to very carefully 
separate the top leaf and bud from the 2nd leaf, 
and the 2nd leaf from the 3rd, to see what a wonder- 
ful difference there is in the quality of the different 
leaves. Of course when you pluok 8 leaves and a 
bud, some of the juioe from the coarse gets mixed 
with the fine and vice versa. But no matter, even 
BO, taste the 1 leaf and bud — the 2nd leaf and 
stalk attached, and the 3rd leaf with its stalk and 
you will see in an instant that whereas in spite of 
coarse juice being mixed with fine leaf juice, you 
still get liquor with fine quality from one leaf 
and bud ; fair liquor from 2nd leaf ; and really 
coarse common flavour from 3rd. Now in ordinary 
manufacture as opposed lo experimental, you 
must roll at some period with very heavy pressure, 
if you pluok say 3 leaves and bud, in order to get 
any strength in cup and the conseqaenoe ia that 
a great deal of the coarse common-flavoured tea 
gets either broken in the roller into the fine tea 
or the juioe from the coarse gets absorbed into 
the fine leaf. The result is you get only very 
medium tea ; 15 per cent, of coarse tea will 
give 85 per cent, of fairish tea, a common 
touch of flavour which spoils its sale entirely in 
London and makes it into medium, rather undesir- 
able tea, instead of being inclined to fine useful tea 
which would be most saleable, and it also adds 
a certain amount of flat untwisted tea to the 
■amples. 
It is not correct when people say — " Oh 
when we make fine tea the market always 
drops for tine tea." The error lies here. 
When they change they usually change from 
common tea not to fine, but to finest — a vast 
difference. Now the market can't absoro too much 
fioeet i.e., tea over Is 8d a lb . because there is not 
the demand for it and we send very little fine tea 
home — not enough in fact to create a steady 
demand for it. Were the island all over to go in 
for fine-ish pluckirjg, not extra fine, but fine, so as to 
turn out plenty of teas averai^in^ pay la lici— 1b 5^, 
a steady demand woula suou commence lor buoh 
lead— say after (J months of fauoh teas, — and it would 
ooutiuue without doubt so long as plenty was 
forthcomirg * Now if a man buys a fine Ceylon, he 
may have to wait 2 months to get equally good 
again, and so lose his customers and name. Not so 
India. They always send plenty of fine tea, so 
that buyers can rely on getting it always and wit- 
ness their prices. We send such a mere daub 
of fine to finest that people scarcely dare bid for 
it. Why I heard recently of a fine Ceylon being 
sold in open market at Is 2d and resold in 
county at Is lOd. Why eoM at Is 2d ? Because 
the trade dare not give high prices for what they 
may not be able to follow again. Make fine 
teas all round and tbe market will res- 
pond to it by giving higher prioep, when 
it sees it can really rely on a constant supply 
of such teas. As soon as the market drops a bit, 
everybody here says, ' Oh no one will buy our 
good teas so we may as well go in for quantity.' 
Then when trade brightens up and buyers are 
ready for fine teas again, they are not to be got. 
I don't think the trade proper have sounded the 
praises of Ceylon teas any more than of Indians 
or Chinas. All they care about is buying a tea 
which they can resell at a profit on cost price. 
Fine-finest can nearly always be resold to show a 
profit ; common teas to n edium not so always as 
the market is always jumping about up and down 
with such teas. A good Indian at Is 3d - Is 8d is 
much safer stock than an lid Ceylon. Sooner or 
later a dealer can neaily always sell the Indian 
because good teas are so often scarce and wanted 
and are not to be got in the open market, except 
during the months September— April, the period of 
the Indian tea seaBon in tbe London market. But 
medium teas, why you can always get them in 
any quantity. The result is the dealer with 
medium teas only on his stock, has only got what 
everybody else has got or can easily get. And 
this medium tea is what nearly 90 per cent of 
Ceylon tea is, Now-a-days it is the exception, not 
the rule, for a big dealer to have any quantity of 
fine Ceylon on his stock list. How many parcels 
of Oeylon are sold at over Is 8d say during the 
year ? Of fine Indian he always has heaps, 
in the season. When once we recognise this fact 
throughout the whole island and make principally 
fine — finest and stick to it, then our prices will rise 
permanently to a high level, perhaps equal to Dar- 
jeeling, and dealers will not be so afraid to operate 
freely in " fine Ceylons " as they are now ; for they 
will know a purchase can be repeated pretty nearly 
every sale and they will always be able to supply 
fine tea when asked for it and not, only once in a 
way ae at present,— Youra truly, FINE TEA. 
No. XX. 
Dear Sib, — It is perhepa, worthy of remark that 
so many planters in speaking of their teas, call 
their bro. or. pek. or bro, psk, at 9-lOd "fine 
tea "? They don't understand that 9-lOd teas — 
or what 6 months or more to go were fetching 
1/11/3 — are not fine teas. T bey are good enough 
teas, pure, flavory, &c., &o., but they are only 
" medium teas," 
Your correspondent " T. P." is wrong is calling 
under-fermented teas, " teas such ae buyers would 
call stand-out." They might be called " pointy 
teas or sharp teas " but " a stsnd-out te» " ia not 
pimply a sharp or a pungent, or a thick tea, but 
one that ptards out by itself for quality, Iraf and 
• Witness the splendid prices invariably paid for 
Darjeeling teas. Why ? Because if a man buys fine 
' Darjeeling tea he knows he can alwaj-s get equally 
I goud agaiu during the season as nearly all Darjeuling 
ia tine tea, flue iu liquor and not on account of tip 
I or leaf. 
