Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  1 
February,  1903.  / 
Tea. 
35 
t©  exporting  points,  the  cost  of  curing  and  the  commissions  to  the 
various  dealers  through  whose  hands  the  tea  passes  before  it  reaches 
the  consumer,  are  the  chief  elements  in  making  tea  costly,  the 
expense  of  picking  is  by  no  means  inconsiderable.  For  the  finest 
qualities  each  leaf  is  separately  picked.  For  less  fine  qualities  the 
end  of  the  twig  with  the  bud  and  one  or  two  leaves  is  pinched  off. 
In  many  of  the  teas  in  our  markets  these  twig  ends  may  be  seen. 
For  indifferent  qualities  the  twig  is  pinched  off  further  down,  and 
the  fanning  and  sieving,  after  the  curing  is  complete,  must  do  the 
whole  work  of  sorting.  Tea  would  be  somewhat  cheaper  if  it  were 
practicable  to  take  a  branch  in  the  hand  and  by  one  motion  strip 
off  all  the  leaves.  But  this  would  involve  injury  to  the  plant  by 
removing  too  much  foliage;  would  strip  off  or  injure  the  buds  that 
must  be  depended  upon  to  start  the  twigs  for  future  crops ;  would 
break  the  leaves  and  thus  cause  a  general  mixing  of  qualities  and  a 
greater  amount  of  tea-dust,  and  would  take  all  of  the  stalk  of  each 
leaf,  thus  lowering  still  further  the  quality  of  the  product.  Most 
fine  teas  if  softened  in  water  will  show  that  the  leaves  were  pinched 
off  near  the  base,  leaving  the  stalk  on  the  bush. 
Other  things  being  equal,  the  time  of  picking  and  the  position  of 
the  leaf  on  the  twig  determine  the  quality  of  the  tea.  Generally  but 
three  or  four  leaves  nearest  the  end  of  the  twig  are  taken.  If  the 
partly  opened  bud  almost  at  the  end  be  taken  it  is  called  flowery 
pekoe;  the  next  leaf  is  orange  pekoe;  the  third  is  pekoe;  the 
fourth  is  first  souchong;  the  fifth  is  second  souchong;  the  sixth  is 
congou ;  the  seventh  is  bohea.  A  mixture  of  the  first,  second  and 
third  is  called  pekoe;  a  mixture  of  the  first  five  is  pekoe  souchong, 
and  there  are  various  other  mixtures. 
Curing. — There  are  many  varieties  of  tea  known  to  commerce. 
Many  of  these  differ  in  quality  and  many  in  trademark  only.  Some, 
as  we  have  seen,  owe  their  names  to  the  position  of  the  leaf  on  the 
bush,  others  to  the  geographic  sources  from  which  they  come,  others 
to  the  time  of  picking  or  to  the  shape  given  the  prepared  leaf,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  gunpowder  and  imperial  teas.  But  practically  all 
teas  are  classed  as  green  or  black,  no  matter  wha"t  other  circum- 
stance may  make  them  pekce,  souchong,  hyson,  imperial,  etc. 
The  method  of  curing  determines  whether  the  tea  shall  be  green  or 
black.  The  agricultural  variety  of  the  plant  from  which  the  leaves 
were  gathered  does  not  determine  the  color  of  the  prepared  leaf. 
