April i, tSgs.] 
THE TROHCAL AOmOULTURItT, 
729 
“ Do not keep yotir tea. It increases in weight and 
decreases in quality. Use fresh water from the tap, 
and not water that has boiled. This is very import- 
ant. Many people take water for making tea ont of 
a boiler, or use water which has been boiling. That 
water is no use, and you cannot make good tea witli it. 
“I don’t quite agree that Indian teas produce 
more liquid than Chinese, because you can infuse 
Indian teas only once, but Chinese twice, with good 
result." 
“ And Japanese teas t” 
“At present the Japanese prodneo jnat about 
enough for their own consumption, but I have here 
some very fine samples of Japanese green tea, Hyson 
tea, which has never touched copper. You will see 
that the leaves are long. They are simply sun-dried.” 
TOWEIi TKA. 
The Tower Tea Company deals almost entirely in 
Indian teas, although they hold in stock all other 
kinds. A call was made at one of their many es- 
tablishments which have come as such a boon to lady 
shoppers in Paris. licing asked tlieir opinion about 
Indian teas having a large quantity of tannin in thorn, 
they simply laughed at the idea. I’liey mentioned as 
a fact Unit Indian teas wore used very generally in 
the hospitals and liad never hoencondoninod, and that 
therefore they conld not have the evil qiialites which the 
Chinese tea-dealers tried to make out. They were 
rarely asked for Chinese teas by tlioir enstoiners. 
They said that in making tea they always used 
filtered water, and in serving it they at the siuue 
time gave a small pot of boiling water, so that tlio 
first cup of tea oonld bo drawn off at once before it 
had intuBod too loijg, and a second could bo made at 
once. The question of the period of infusion of tho 
various teas was that in the sasc of the Indian teas 
the leaf was small, and therefore did not require the 
same amonnt of time for infusion as the larger leaf of 
the Chinese teas. 
ANOTMKIl OPINION. 
The manager of tho I.ivorpool, China and India 
Tea Company, in tho rue St. Ilonord, spoke in a very 
interesting way on the subject of tens. He said that 
his firm dealt in every kind of lea, and tlisir experi- 
enoo was that the good grades of each tea-growing 
country were about tho same, and tliat tho inferior 
grades of Cliineso teas wore just as had ns those of 
India, Japan, Ceylon or Java. Good ton could only 
be oiitained by paying a proper price, and that 
price in England ranged from three to tour shil- 
lings, and at the latter price the best of tea 
could bo liad. Tho Darjeoliim and Assam teas wore 
just ns good as any others. He considered that Cey- 
lon teas, although somowhat now on the market, had 
been very good, bnt that thoro was a tendency at tlio 
present moment in that island to produce quantity 
rather tlian quality. By tliis lie meant that of into tho 
Ceylon tea-growers had lioen getting too many crops 
off the plants and that tliore ensued consequently a 
lowering in the quality. 
The Java teas, lie said, were principally sent to the 
United States, and their favorite tea was the young 
Hyson loaf. The Japanese produced plenty of tea, 
hut it was almost all sent to tlie United States, and 
ho was willing to say tliat if you went on the London 
niarket today, yon could not find any Japanese tea 
there, and tliat if any Japanese tea wa« found in Eng- 
land, it came from the United States. As regards 
the so-called caravan, or land-carried tea, he felt sure 
that very little of it was so conveyed nowadays, on 
aoconnt of tlie extra expense, and tliat if it were little 
or none of it reacliod this country, ns it would have 
to pay double duty. 
CKYLON TEAS. 
He then drew attention to an article in the 7 /otoc 
Colomul .Vail wliich is of much interest to tlie 
tea-drinking puljio and tiie trade. Ceylon tea, it 
la nnlike tho “ faded beauty" that is put on tlic 
shelf when youth and fresliness are past. No rival 
can yet replace her, although tho true rich Ceylon 
navour is seldom to be met with now. The bnlk 
I HUB year’s crop lias been very poor and many of 
no teas linve lioon coarse and raw hnrnt. 
A WARNING. 
In the above we have a sorloua warning to the 
Ceylon tea-growers, and it would seem to their best 
interests to rof^Uto, ns for as possible, the manii- 
®° *“*ff*' reputation 
which they had in a very short time should not be 
destroyed by the gx’aspiiig proclivities of those who 
at any price wish to moke money. 
The smue paper gives the foUowlng figures, as 
Showing the increase of tho Ceylon tea trade during 
the past throe years on tho London market In 
the year 1880, about 4.88,000 packages; in 1890, 545 OOO 
packages; and in 1891, about 741.600 packages, thus 
‘ , enormous iuorease in throe years of 
oH»G 00 packages. 
LAIlOE INCllEASBS. 
The grocer, another well-known trade organ, in a 
pubUoation of tho movements of tea in tho port of 
London, says of Ceylon tea “ Uuring the eleven 
first months of tho present vea-r the landings in round 
nnmhers, have been nearly 6,6,000, OiXllb., against about 
.97,120, (XXllb. in lH.90, and 28,444, (XXllb. in 1889. Tho 
deliveries in tho same period, it is an extraordinary 
fact to observe, have kept pace fairly well with this 
rapid incroaso in the inports, and liavo amounted to 
49,20,9.60011). in comparison witli .91.880,6001b. last voar 
and 2H,277,0O()lb. in 1889, and the business «till goes 
on expanding as fast as tlie rmps grow larger every 
season. Another rsmarkable fact is that tliat while 
tho receipts of Ceylon tea here have been augiucnted 
by close upon 18, OOO.tXlOlb., those of Indian have not 
hoon rendered heavier more than 8,C99,200lh., or barely 
half so iimch, and instead of tho very subHtantial 
gam of 14,92S,00(llh. in tho clearances, as shown by 
the I -eylon descriptions, Indian sorts actnally exhibit 
a deficiency of l,979,600lb. for tho past eleven months 
lo satiafv these requirements of Ceylon tea it is 
reasonable to infer that there must be a constantly 
mcreasing rate of prodnotion, and it is, therefore) 
higljly satisfactory to note that tl)o entire crop, as 
gangod by tlie estimated shipnieiits to tho United, 
Kingdom for 1891, will, in the aggregate, reach 
64,U00,0001b. more than the previous season.” 
THE TEA DRUNK IN AMERICA. 
TO THE EPITOK OE THE “ Km; York HeraU.’’ 
Beople in this country seem to have the idea 
tbat nnust of the tea iLat Amoricaus drink comes 
from China. They are way off the track, aa most of 
>bo tea comes from Japan. Japanese tea, in its effect 
on the nerves, ia about twice as existing ns the tea 
from China. One would naturally think tbat we 
are tl,o Isst^ people on earth who ahonld uso auoli 
tea ; but it is a tsot that wo here in the United 
StatCB cosBumn more of Japan tea than any other 
nation on tbe globes 
We now import more than 40,000,000 lb. of toa 
from Japan, and tho cousumptiou is continually on 
the inerraae. Tho teas of Japan are made in eight 
grades, and wo do not get the heat by any means. 
Tho Japanese are willing to pay much more than 
wo are for tea, and they understood how to 
make tea better than wo do. Everybody in Japon 
drinks tea, and wety little house at the oross roads 
is a tea house. The hot water is always ready, and 
ftfl tea 18 best ^vhen the water has been on the 
loaves only a few momenta, you can always get as 
much t(B at you want. They don’t drink tea in 
Japan the way we do here. They have imall porcelain 
eupa, holding about as n iich aa cur egg cups, and 
the very qnintcasence ot elegance is to diiuk your 
cup in three sips, 'Phe more noise you n.ako in 
drinking the hot liqnid tlio better your .Iapane.se 
host like it. 
There is one practice of our Amertcau groceryman 
that makes toa even worse than it really is, and 
that is buying of tea duet, which they mix with the 
good tea, and aell it all at the higher price of the 
good tea. The duet comes from the sifting of the 
tea before it ia packed, and there ia over ftlSO nno 
worth of this toa dust mod in United States I 
should say that this enormotw anmitiall wo can gel, 
