OTHER VARIETIES OF TEA.
African Teas—It is expected that both India and Ceylon will doubtless have in the near future a formidable rival to their tea industry in South Africa, where promising tea gardens have been extensively laid out by planters from India, with seeds and plants obtained from Ceylon. The soil and climate of the region around Natal particularly are very similar to those of Southern India, and especially favorable to the successful and profitable production of the tea plant. Recent reports pronounce the venture a complete success, the product in 1892 amounting to over 20,000 pounds of tea, although introduced only three years prior and grading in quality with the average teas of Ceylon and India. It is predicted that in a few years South Africa will not only rival but excel the latter countries not only in the quantity but also in the quality of their product.
Singapore Tea—Tea plantations have been recently formed in the districts of Johore and Seragoon, from seeds and plants imported from India, but as yet are only in an experimental stage. Samples already received are large in leaf, coarse in make, coal black in color, an effort being made to imitate Oolongs in style. The infusion is dark red, heavy, strong and somewhat astringent in flavor.
Perak Tea—Recently an invoice consisting of some eighty half chests of tea grown in the Straits settlements was shipped to London. The general quality was so favorably commented on by the brokers and dealers there that it found a ready sale at full prices for its kind.
Fiji Tea—Is another new addition to the constantly increasing teas of commerce. It is produced from plants imported from India and assorted into Pekoes, Congous and Souchongs, grading with and approximating to Java teas in style, color and character.
Caravan Tea—Is simply a fine Lapsing or Padrae Souchong, put up in Hankow for the Russian market, and transported overland by caravan through Bokhara and Central Asia to Moscow and Petersburg.
Russian Tea—Grown in the district of Transcaucasia, consists largely of the leaves of a shrub possessing the botanical name of Vacinium staphylos, which when infused yields a decoction having some resemblance to the ordinary teas of commerce, but is acrid and nauseating in flavor. They are generally prepared for the express purpose of mixing with inferior China tea, and also with exhausted leaves, that is, tea once used, dried and rolled again.
American Tea—Samples of tea grown in South Carolina have lately been received in the New York market and tested there by experts, who pronounce them only fair in quality, and ranking them with the India, Ceylon and teas of that character.
Hop Tea—Is a species of tea now being prepared from common hops in the Kent district in England, prepared and cured by the “Sirocco” process, after the manner of India tea, and used chiefly to blend with the ordinary teas of commerce, the combination resembling a mixture of Virginia smoking tobacco and a rough-leaved Assam tea. It is claimed to be healthy and wholesome, from the fact that the lapulin of the hops counteracts or neutralizes the excess of tannin contained in the India teas, but nearly doubles it in price.
PARAGUAYAN TEA.
Yerba Maté, or “Paraguayan tea,” which although not entering into general use or commerce, is yet deserving of notice in this work from its extensive consumption among the inhabitants of South America. It is prepared from the leaves and stems of the Ilex, a species of holly found growing in a wild state in that country. In size and appearance it closely resembles an orange tree, having a whitish bark and leafy, tufted boughs, with leaves four inches long when full grown, dark-green in color, thick, glossy and crenate at the edges, pale on the lower surface and containing the same active principle, Theine, so characteristic of China tea. The flowers or blossoms are small and white, hanging in clusters at the angles of the leaves, the fruit or berries being red, smooth and similar to those of the common holly. So closely does it approach the tea of China in effect, that many authorities claim it to be a species of that plant, yielding a liquor similar in many respects. But while not containing as much volatile oil as the latter, owing to the primitive manner in which it is prepared, it nevertheless yields a most agreeable and refreshing beverage, enjoyed by many and forming the staple drink of millions of the inhabitants of Paraguay and other South American countries.
Expeditions to collect and prepare it start annually from the capital to the Yerbales or groves in the interior, taking extra mules and bullocks to bring the dried leaves back. On reaching the forests Tatacuas or camps are formed by clearing the ground and beating it down with heavy mallets until it is sufficiently hard and level for the purpose. The leaf in the natural state is from four to five inches long, thick, leathery, glossy and serrated at the edges, and is prepared for use in a network made from raw-hide straps stretched on posts, underneath which wood fires are kindled. The leaves and stems, as they are collected, are placed on these nets and scorched, care being taken only that they do not ignite or burn too much—in which state they closely resemble senna. When sufficiently scorched they are ground, in some instances, into a coarse powder in a rude wooden mill, weighed and packed for export in large bullock hides, holding from 200 to 250 pounds each and left to dry and tighten in the sun for a few days, becoming meanwhile as hard and impervious as stone. This method of curing is very defective, as the stems and other extraneous matter imparts a “woody” flavor to the infusion which is otherwise very agreeable and refreshing. It is prepared for use in a kind of filter or perforated bowl called Maté, from which it derives its trade name. The infusion is yellowish in color, almost syrupy in body, possessing an “herby” or weedy flavor, bitterish in taste, much disliked at first by those unaccustomed to its use, but nevertheless pleasant, wholesome and refreshing, pleasanter still when cold, and while approaching in its chemical composition to the regular teas of commerce it does not cause the wakefulness or nervousness attributed to the latter.
In the smaller towns and rural districts of South America it is regarded as a regular form of diet, and not, like ordinary tea, a mere accompaniment to the meal, being looked upon as a necessary, as well as a luxury, by the inhabitants, and is the first thing offered a visitor when entering a house, the table being rarely without it. The gaucho of the plains will travel for weeks asking no better fare than a little dried beef, washed down with copious drafts of Maté, the Indian carriers subsisting for days together on it alone, in short, being to them what the tea of China is to its inhabitants, essential and indispensable. The Government has a monopoly of its sale, a heavy duty being imposed on its exportation, forming the principal source of its revenue. The popular method of preparing it in Paraguay is to mix large proportions of raw sugar with a decoction made from the powder or leaves until a thick syrup is produced, when it is ready for drinking, the nourishing properties attributed to the infusion by the natives, it is contended, being due, in a great measure, to the excess of saccharine matter. It ranges in price from four to eight cents per pound in the prepared state, one pound yielding as much as twenty quarts of the infusion of moderate strength. It is difficult to get at any reliable returns for the entire traffic in this commodity, the production being carried on in such a crude and desultory manner, extending, as it does, over a vast area of wild country, the official returns furnishing only an approximate estimate of its trade and consumption. The total production may, however, be computed at 1,500,000 arobas, equivalent to about 40,000,000 pounds per annum, the total consumption averaging thirteen pounds per capita to the population, as against two pounds of coffee and one-fourth pound of China tea. Its use is confined chiefly to Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentine, Peru, Chili and Brazil. Its consumption in Paraguay and Argentine alone is over 35,000,000 pounds per annum, as against 5,000,000 pounds of coffee. Surprising as this large quantity may appear at first sight, it is explained by the fact that Maté constitutes the only vegetable nourishment of many classes in these communities, forming, as it does, the chief dietic beverage of over 20,000,000 of people in South America alone. Yet it is singular, to say the least, that its consumption should be so great in such large coffee-producing countries, and which export annually over half the world’s supply of that commodity. Strong efforts are being made at the present time to open up a trade in it in Europe, particularly in France, where the cafés now advertise it among their regular beverages, and shops devoted to its exclusive sale also recommend it. But whether these efforts will succeed remains to be proven, considering the enormous increase in the production of so many other teas and their established consumption.
TRADE GRADINGS OF TEA.
A Standard Invoice of Green tea contains a number of “Lines,” made up as follows: Gunpowder, No. 1 and 2 and 3; Imperial, No. 1, 2 and 3; Young Hyson, No. 1, 2 and 3. There being rarely more than two lines of Hyson, and never more than one of Twankay.
A “Chop” of Oolongs comprises four, sometimes five, “Lines” termed “Firsts,” “Seconds,” “Thirds,” “Fourths” and “Fifths,” when any, which are again subdivided into “Brackets” or “Numbers,” ranging from one to ten but similar in grade.
An Invoice of “English Breakfast teas” includes a quantity of Capers, Pekoes, Congou and Souchong teas, graded and classed according to the district of production, by which terms they are best known to trade.
A Standard Invoice of Japans embrace some Pan-fired, Sun-dried and Basket-fired teas with occasionally other makes, also ranking according to the different districts.
A “Break” or “chop” of India or Ceylon include Pekoes, Congous, Pekoe-Souchongs, Broken-leaf and Fannings, and are best known to trade by their plantation names and district appellations.
The term “Muster” means Sample-package or chest, the name on top of label the vessel, route or “chop,” the initials in centre those of the importer. The names at bottom such as “Tong-mow,” “Tong-lee,” grower or packer, and the Chinese character on inside of package. “Chop mark,” denoting the “chop” or picking, which cannot always be relied on, as shippers are apt to put on that which has the best reputation, or which happens to be most in demand the season of shipping.
CHAPTER VI.
ADULTERATION
AND
DETECTION.
The Teas of commerce are subject to four principal descriptions of sophistication—“Facing” or Coloring with deleterious compounds, in order to enhance their appearance;—Substituting with spent, partially-used or exhausted leaves to increase their bulk and reduce the cost;—Mixing or blending with spurious or foreign leaves, and—Sanding or adulterating with a variety of mineral matter, chiefly iron or steel filings, to add to the weight. Each trade has its own special form of adulteration, and as in the milk business the most prevalent sophistications are watering and skimming, so in the Tea-trade the besetting malpractice is coloring and mixing with or substitution of partially-exhausted tea leaves, so that the main efforts of experts and tea-analysts should be directed more to this form of adulteration. The other forms have received some attention from chemists and others interested in the article, but not to the extent which the importance of the subject merits. But it is against the two former most common and dangerous forms of adulteration that the principal efforts of tea-analysts and inspectors should more particularly be directed; and, while considerable of this nefarious and positively injurious work is done in the countries of importation, by far the greater portion is perpetrated in the countries of production. For consummate skill in the “tricks of trade,” the Chinese as a people have long been proverbial. “They are a self-ended people,” says an old writer, “having the same reputation in Asia that the Jews have in Europe.” Yet there are strong reasons for stating that many dealers in our own and other tea-drinking countries have become expert imitators of their methods, especially in the minor forms of coloring, mixing, repacking and refacing. The sophistications in our own country being chiefly confined to the admixture of damaged, stained and tainted teas with sound, pure or high-grade goods, with the object of concealing or disguising their defects, and the substitution of one variety for another by repacking and relabeling. The latter form being practiced to a much greater extent than most people imagine, giving rise to a special branch of business in nearly all of the larger cities.