Deadly Adulteration and Slow Poisoning Unmasked / Disease and Death in the Pot and Bottle

by Anonymous

Where it is suspected that tea is adulterated with the leaves of other shrubs, the fraud, if not discoverable by the appearance and fragrant odour of the article, may be detected by putting a grain and a half of blue vitriol into a cupful of the infusion, when, if it be genuine green tea, and set in a good light, it will appear of a fine light blue. If it be genuine bohea, it will turn to a deep blue, next to black; but when an adulteration has been made in either case, a variety of colours, as green, black, yellow, &c. will be seen in the samples submitted to the experiment.

Where the damaged and ordinary green teas or tea leaves have been prepared with japan earth, or other adulterating ingredients, for the purpose of giving the leaves the colour, and the infusion the tincture of bohea tea, the fraud may be detected by either of the following tests or methods: 1. A less quantity of this dyed tea will give a deeper colour to the same proportion of water than if the experimented articles were genuine. 2. The colour it gives the water will also be of a reddish brown, whereas, if the article be genuine, it should be dark. 3. When the leaves have been washed, by standing a little, they will look greener than good bohea. 4. This dyed tea is generally much larger than the genuine specimens; it is, therefore, always advisable to buy the small leaved bohea; remembering to examine whether the ingenuity of the artist has not been at work to break or crumble it into pieces, so as to disguise the size of the leaves: for the adulterator’s wits are always at work in “the black art.” 5. The liquor drawn off, which should be smooth and balsamic to the palate, tastes rougher and harsher than the genuine tea does. 6. If milk is poured into it, it will rise of a reddish colour, instead of a dark or blackish brown. 7. A little copperas put into this last-mentioned liquor will turn it to a light blue, instead of a deep blue inclining to black. 8. Spirits of hartshorn make good tea of a deep brownish colour, after it has stood awhile, similar to new drawn tincture of saffron; but the same effect does not appear when the tea is bad.

When green tea is counterfeited by dyeing bad bohea with green vitriol the cheat may be detected by the following means: 1. By putting a piece of gall into the infusion it will turn it to a deep blackish colour, which would not be the case were vitriol or copperas not present. 2. If the infusion made of this tea be of a pale green, and incline to a blueish dye, it is bad. 3. Spirit of hartshorn will give it a slight purple tinge, and precipitate a small sediment, instead of a deep greenish yellow after it has stood about half a dozen minutes. 4. Where the adulteration has been made with carbonate of copper, the fraud is detected, by shaking up a tea-spoonful of the suspected article in a phial with two tea-spoonsful of liquid ammonia, diluted with half its bulk of water; when the liquor, if copper be present, will exhibit a fine blue colour. Mr. Accum in his work, p. 219-221, gives other methods for testing adulterated tea.

As a general and ready test to distinguish genuine tea from the sloe, or black thorn, and the white thorn leaf, make an infusion of it in the common way, and then spread out some of the largest leaves to dry; when, if the tea be genuine, the leaf will appear to be narrow in proportion to its length, and deeply notched or serrated at the edges, and the end or extremity acutely pointed; while the sloe, or black thorn leaf is notched or jagged at the edges very slightly, and is obtusely pointed. Another distinction also is, that the genuine leaf is of a lively pale green colour, its surface smooth and glossy, and its texture very delicate; while the adulterated leaf is of a dark olive green colour, its texture much coarser and surface more uneven. The leaves of the white thorn, when moistened and spread, have a less resemblance to the genuine tea-leaf than is the case with the sloe-leaf. The leaves of the other imitative or sham teas have still a less resemblance, and for this reason they are but seldom used. With respect to the different kinds of tea imported from China the shape of the leaf is the same in all of them, though its size varies; for all the varieties are the produce of the same plant; the difference of quality and properties depend chiefly on the difference of climate, soil, culture, age, time of gathering, and mode of drying the leaves. The difference of the size of the leaf is occasioned in a great measure by the different seasons at which it is gathered.

COFFEE.

Several substitutes are vended by the grocers and coffee-dealers, instead of the coffee-berry, when purchased in a ground state, or allowed to pass through the vender’s mill. Among many others may be mentioned ground dried acorns, horse-chestnuts, horse-beans, pigeon-beans, peas, nuts, barley, rice, wheat, parsnips, carrots, &c. but the best imitation of the real berry is obtained by roasting blue succory, or rye, with the addition of a few almonds. As all these articles, however, have but little resemblance in flavour to real coffee, except what they acquire from the torrefaction, and their empyreumatic oil, they are seldom vended solely by themselves, except to the coffee-shops of London, or those whom the dealers consider as “a plucked pigeon,” but are ingeniously mixed with a portion of the genuine berry.

Friend John will, no doubt, as usual, call to his assistance his native incredulity, and ask for proof against his “pals,” the grocer and coffee-dealer. To satisfy his just curiosity let him look to the same file of papers to which he was referred respecting tea, and there he will have no reason to be longer hard of belief. He will there find that one “gentleman grocer,” disliking the trouble of grinding horse-beans, pigeon’s beans, &c. proceeded by short hand, and threw in a dash (not a pinch) of gravel or sand; for which act of kindness towards his customers he was convicted in the penalty of £50. See the case of The King against Chaloner, a tea and coffee dealer.

But, probably, John, when he finds himself no longer able to cling to his strong hold—incredulity—will exclaim, shew us, then, your chemical test and analysis.—Ah! John, the coffee sophisticator is too much for us; his art is beyond the reach of short or long tests, or of hard or easy ones: he may do as he likes, unless thou canst put thy hoof upon some of his nicely packed-up parcels; and to accomplish this purpose thou, or thy representative, the poor, badly-paid, half-starved, ill-requited Excise-officer, must detect him in his machinations on his own proper “dominium” or “natale solum:” scarcely any other detection will satisfy that old lady’s scrupulosity and exactness—that “golden calf” of thy idolatry—that “all perfect and superhuman mass of incongruity and intricacy”—the law. Thou, therefore, seest plainly that the only certain way to have a drop of the “pure stuff” is to purchase the berry in its raw state and roast it, and what is still more important, to grind it thyself. But, if thou dost not understand all these processes to a-t—, thou mayst find them, with some other very interesting arcana of the science, detailed in a work which I shall shortly publish for the instruction and guidance of housekeepers of all kinds and descriptions, and which I shall entitle “The Housekeepers’ Guide to Domestic Comfort, Household Management, and Practical Economy.” This, John, I intend shall be a rare work—quite a tit-bit for thy fancy; and the price a mere “four-penny matter.” It shall not be a “marrowless collection of shreds and patches, and cuttings and pastings,” selected or stolen out of old useless books, but a collection of practical facts, conducing to domestic comfort and real economy.

As I must, friend John, have, by the foregoing particulars, alarmed thy coffee-drinking propensities, it is but fair to let thee into the secret of ascertaining good coffee.

Know then, friend Bull, and all ye little Bulls, who may have the satisfaction of deriving your paternity from that ancient and honourable stock, that coffee, commercially considered, is of three sorts: the Arabian, or Mocha coffee, the East-Indian coffee, and the West-Indian coffee. Of these, the Mocha, or Turkey, coffee is generally esteemed the best, and is so stated by all the writers on the subject; but this is not the case: for the Java coffee is considered, by all competent judges, to be superior, as it contains a considerably larger proportion of oil. Among the East-Indian species, that of Bourbon is preferred. Of the West-Indian produce, the growth of the French colonies is most esteemed, particularly that of Martinique. The coffee of Surinam, Berbice, Demerara, and Cayenne, is the least valued. The inferiority of the coffee of the British colonies is supposed to be occasioned by its being put to dry in houses where sugar and rum are kept, or by being set in vessels freighted with those commodities, or other substances of a strong scent, from which the coffee imbibes the flavour.