IO 
RESEARCHES ON THE MANUFACTURE 
green colour is damaged, becoming yellowish, and the tea 
prepared therefrom is not sufficiently strong. It is only from 
properly steamed leaves that tea with a delicate colour and 
a fine aroma is prepared. But as the raw flavour can with 
difficulty be removed, while the aroma can be easily produced, 
by refiring, over-steaming is to be preferred to under-steaming. 
As regards the practice of steaming, the leaves are put in a 
round wooden tray with a bamboo bottom, which is then put 
upon the mouth of an iron cauldron set in plaster over burning 
fuel. A wooden lid is immediately put upon the tray, and steam¬ 
ing is commenced. This tray is about i| sliaku 1 in diameter 
and receives about 60 me 2 of fresh leaves. During steaming 
the leaves are agitated once or twice, so that they shall be uni¬ 
formly affected by the steaming. This is, indeed, of vital im¬ 
portance, since it easily happens that while some of the leaves 
are sufficiently or even excessively steamed, others are but in¬ 
sufficiently steamed 3 4 ; the tea prepared from such mixed leaves, 
when brewed, gives an infusion with a reddish shade, which is 
regarded as a blemish by tea-drinkers. The time of steaming 
is, of course, dependent upon the nature of the leaves, the 
younger and more tender the leaves, the shorter the time 
required, and vice versa, being generally half a minute. A 
thermometer at the bottom of the tray generally indicates 
So—go c C, sometimes even 95°C. The proper degree of steam¬ 
ing is generally determined by the consistency, as well as the 
smell of the leaves. In practice, the leaves are regarded as 
sufficiently steamed when they incline to adhere to the sticks 
used for stirring and when the smell* issuing from the steam- 
1 i shaku = 0.30303 metre. 
2 i me= 3.7565 grams. 
3 Such leaves soon undergo a sort of fermentation, their lively green colour 
becoming dirty brown. 
4 A gradual transition of flavour is observed in steaming the leaves. At 
first, only a raw flavour comes out from the leaves, which soon gives way to 
a sweetish flavour, the latter being followed by an aromatic taste, this again 
passing away when steaming is continued for a long time. Such excessively 
steamed leaves produce tea totally destitute of a fine aroma. 
