March i, li-ga.] 
THE TROPICAL AQRIOULTURIST. 
63* 
FACTS ABOUT TEA. 
(To the Kditor of the Globe.) 
Sir,— Y ou were kind euooKh 1o insert some time 
au;o a letter from me on the above Bubjeot, in reference 
to Ceylon tea. This letter been quote ! and com- 
mented upon in most of the EaAteru papers, and I 
trust, has been tho incanH of ualling public attention 
to the merits of Ceylon tea. 1 see the subject is again 
being discussed iu your columns, but what 1 sliould 
suggest is that a number of sampluR of Ceylon, iudian, 
and Chinese tea sliouhl be Rubmitlcd for analysis to 
some analjat of repute, aud their r».'Bpective proper* 
tions of tnnnin and tboine correctly given. 1 saw in 
your papar what purported to beau uualysis of those 
teas iu a letter of a currespoudent, but I should he 
forry to take his ipnOtlijcU on the u)alt»T, as 1 believe 
lie was not au analyst. As your corr(i.«pondent Mr. Hicks 
eays, unless tea is properly made, that U iufa^el^ for 
the proper time, tho tauiiio and I itler extractive are 
brought out. Sly exptrieoco is that Ceylon tea should 
infu ''0 for ^even or eight minutes, but no more. There 
are many brands of Ceylon toa that can be procured 
pure, aud, ns Eoropcau intelligence and improvements 
are used iu bsrvestiug this toa, it should eurely compete 
with tbal imported from au Empire that looks with 
jealous eyes on Western ideas, even when they are 
good ones. I bavo uo doubt Iudian teas will find 
champions, but tlioy cannot compete with tlii'se of 
OoyloD. — Yours truly, M. E. YoiiKK-DAVins. 
January U. 
have read with much interest the letter in 
your issue of yesturday from a “ Tea Planter of Thirty 
Years’ Standing,’* which throws quite a new light on 
the question of some of the Himalayau growths of 
tfra, and it is very eatisfactory to bo.»r tbafc quality 
free from the excessive quantity of tannin ns found in 
the lower distriots of ludia and iu Ceylou can be 
produced ou tho hills of India. So far it bas generally 
been supposed that tho diifcrenco in preparation 
between Obioa and otlier kinds accounts for tho 
freedom from tannin in the one oasn and excessive 
quantity in the other, and all lovers of ready gc od tea, 
with the delicious ‘‘tea flavour” poKseseed by the 
better kind of China, will he gla ) to know a similar 
beverage can be produced from Indian products, but 
unless the mode uf preparation is more assimilated 
iu the process in Chioa, which expresses most of the 
tannin before tho • firing” lake place, I am very 
doubtful if this desirable result can be attained. 
Nevertheless, it is worth the serious consideratiou of 
Indian uud Oeylon growero to see what they can do 
in this direction, if they wish to preserve their valu- 
able industry, for the time cannot be far off when 
the medical profes.sion will step in an«l forbid the use 
of these unwholesome pungent tannin-Iadeu leas now 
being let loo«e on the public at the expense of nerves 
and digestion. Tea must nocesyarilv he tanuiferous, 
but tho less wo got of this deleterious property the 
bettor, and until they learn in India aud Ceylon to 
get rid of as much tanniti us possible during the 
process of nianutscture commend me to the doliciouB 
tea flavour and bouquet found so far only in China 
growth, such teas ns you get everywhere iu Kussia, 
but so seldom nowadays iu this country.— I am, sir, 
your obedient servant, 
January 13. M. R. L. 
SiE,— ^VbiIo Mr. Hicks appears desirous of placing 
certain “fact^ about ten” befote the public in his 
letter to you of tho l» h instant, bo has omitted to 
record other fads which may interest and euliuhten 
your readers. Ho snys that “all good tea is, when 
infused, of a bright copr^r colour in tho leaf”; this 
characteriHtic, however, which ii indicative of faultless 
msimtanture, must not he looked for by the consumer 
unleMR ho paya fair price. A tea with a bright copper 
coloured lunf aftt r infmiion cannot be got first hand 
nnc.er eight pence to f ine pence per pound (ex-duty 
tour poiiceb and such tea if Sold in its purity will 
not be offered to the public under Is 8d tola lOd 
per pound ; but it must be remembered that a consider- 
oo 
able portion of this margin bss been swallowed up 
by the various middleiron who intervene between the 
grower and consumer. Then, again, in ^^omparlng 
one tea with another, the consumer invariably over- 
looks tlie fact that he boys by weight and uses by 
measures. The trade are slivo to this fact, end loaroely 
any, if any of the best Tekoe Souebongs and Pekoes 
reach the consumer as imported. The leaf is passed 
through a mill, which reduces the origit al size to any 
desired degree, aud it can readily be uuderstoud that 
after this prom ss a much greater quantity can be taken 
from the caddy with the trsditioual caddy spoon tbaa 
would otherwise be possible— in other words, the mill- 
ing process increases the spoeifio gravity, and the 
consumer is unwittingly using a greater weight of 
tea than if he purchased an "hor.eet tea*’— i.c., that 
which has not been tampered with. 
The comparative strength of tea esn only be 
d< termined by weighing equal quantities, and infusing 
them an equal given time iu the same quantity of 
water, as practisi d by experts. By measure a tea 
sold at Is Gd wnich has been milled to half its natural 
size cao be shown to be better than another whieb 
has rot been milled, at 2s ^er pound, as judged by 
the strength of infusion, limply because a greater 
weight of the former has been used. Of course, mill- 
ing the leal will not sffoot tho flavour of any tea, 
whether it bo Cbi( a, Ceylou, DarjeeMug or Assam. 
So far as Ceylon tea is coucerned, I rejoice to see 
that it has made much rapid strides during the last 
few years; but it is a curious fuot that, aUbougb 
grown bImoat wholly from A^8am ValU-y indigenous 
and hybrid sued, it has asMuiued tho characteristica 
of the hi st Chinese tea, due to soil and altitude, Us 
superiority to China being due aa iu India, to ita 
cultivation being snperintended by Europeans, and the 
best approved machinery, whereby the loaf is only 
touched by hand iu picking it from the bush, all 
subsequent processes being achieved by machinery 
as opposed to manufacture wholly by hand, whioh 
in addition t<» bring ineffective, is the reverse of 
cleanly. Ceylou teas t-taud out as a class tea in 
rornmeu with Durjoeling, Neilgherry and Kangra 
Valloy tea, and by rt-ason ol their flavour and delieaoy 
appeal to the o}aS9«*K who cunsume but a amall 
quantity. Assam and Oaobnr teaR being full of body, 
and astrii gent, appeal to the masses who are they 
tefv-drinkers and (he tca-gTOwers’ friends. Statistics! 
show that while Ceylon tea has gone up in oonanniptioii 
to the detriment of John Obinamau, liidiao growths 
have nlsn made a sure and steady advance for Ik) years 
pHS^ The immediatn danger to Ceylon tea aud Indian 
is the ever increasing out-turn and no expansion 
of markets, the resolt being a yearly fall in prioes. 
From a mark«‘t report befote inu I find that in 1888 
Ceilon toa as sold in Mincing-l'no averaged lljd. ; for 
1889 the average was llijd. ; fur 1890, lid. ; aitd for 
1891, lOd. per pound. Indian teas also show a falling 
off, but not in such a marked degrees I travelled 
through Ceylon daring the past summer, and raunot at 
all agree with Mr. Hioks Iu bis concluding paragraph 
wherein he says that Ceylon toa is grown on virgin soil; 
almost all the tea there is bning produced on defunct 
coffee plantations, and where ooffoo still exirtts tea is 
being interlined, only waiting for the death of the coffee 
to assert itself ; and it is sheer douec-iisi- for Mr. Hicks 
to assert that Ceylou tea has “ Lenten out of the field 
, . . the heavier and more hisekms Indian tea,” but 
of its class, I nm quite prepared lo admit that Ceylon 
does produce a« good tea as any other part of the Bast. 
The fact of a packet bearing the words ‘ pMckod in 
Ceylou ” is no guarantee of itapuiity, nor does H rtnfry 
any guarantee ihut such is actually tho 0 H^e. There 
are far mere packoia of Oylon tea ••packed iu Ceylon” 
ill the neighbourhood of Oieat Towcr-stieet than ever 
are packed in tho island, and sitoe the duty on im- 
ported tea there ia 2.'» cents per pound, the chances 
of adulteration are very remote, as tho pure article can 
be produced at a lofs cost. 1 must npOiogise for the 
length of this', and having no desire lo ure your 
columns for an ailv^rtiEemeut, 1 euolcso my card, and 
Bubecribe myself, A Tka PtiNTicu, 
January I^th. 
