TEA.
It is well known wherever tea is used, that there are two descriptions of it, the black and the green. In the account of the domestic commerce of China heretofore mentioned, it is shown that the black teas are brought from the province of Tuh-keen, (which lies at the distance of about four hundred miles from Canton,) and the green teas from Keang-nan, (at the distance of about eight hundred miles.) The hilly upland districts of these provinces are the native and favourite soils of the tea-tree. It has not been supposed that these leading kinds of tea, as an article of wide consumption, were the produce of the same tree—but it has been and still is questioned, whether the black and the green teas are the produce of plants specifically differing, or whether these differences of colour, flavour, &c., are the result of the action of soil and sun on the same original tree. Botanists have never been permitted to traverse these provinces, and so decide this question; we believe however, that their opinion now is, that there must and do exist differences sufficiently great to be denominated specific, between the black-tea tree and the green-tea tree.
Beside this region producing the real tea of commerce, the greater part of the Chinese provinces, and even Cochin-China and Japan, have their tea-tree. The provincial tea of China is a widely different, and very inferior article, though used by the poorer local population; and sometimes when prices are high, it is used to adulterate, before exportation, the true tea. Perhaps the grape is the only plant whose produce can be compared for singular diversity of flavour, &c., to the tea of the tea-tree. The delicious “Woolung” differs as totally from the common Souchong, as does the “Vin ordinaire” of the worst districts, from the “Chambertin of Burgundy.”
We are not aware that there is any thing peculiar in the cultivation of the tea-tree, except that, like the mulberry, it is kept down to a sapling size, to secure a tenderer leaf, and to render its gathering the more easy. It is said to be cultivated by small proprietors, who sell the produce of their tea-groves to collectors, called at Canton “teamen.” These collectors leave Canton in the winter and spring with their own, and perhaps a loaned capital, and after purchasing, curing and packing, as much tea as their means will command, return with it to Canton in the autumn. In the curing of tea, we are not aware that any unwholesome methods are regularly resorted to—it is certain, however, that iron filings have sometimes been detected in black teas, and that the colour of the green is sometimes attempted to be heightened by a little “Prussian blue.” It is perhaps from a few cases of this kind, that prejudices have been excited against this wholesome, temperate and social beverage. The green tea, when arrived at Canton, is spoken of in the market as a “Sunglo,” or a “Hyson” tea; the black tea is called a “Mohea,” or an “Anki” tea. These names, derived from the districts where the tea is grown, are used as general distinctions of flavour and quality—the “Hyson” and “Mohea” being sweeter and more valuable—the “Sunglo” and “Anki,” more astringent and less esteemed teas. These names are however almost unknown to the consumers in Europe and America. The names with which they are familiar, are found under both these general distinctions in tea. The Hyson—Hyson Skin—Young Hyson—Gunpowder and Imperial, all green, may be either Sunglo or Hyson teas. These names, viz.: Hyson, Hyson Skin, &c., merely designate the sortings, or siftings of the green leaf into its different sizes, or stages of growth, but plucked from the same tree. The Hyson, being the full-grown, mature leaf, has hitherto been in much the greatest quantity; but the increasing demand for Young Hyson, Gunpowder and Imperial—younger leaves—will no doubt be followed by a corresponding effort to increase by a different time of gathering, the proportion of these kinds of tea.
There is not so much care taken in sorting the produce of the black-tea tree. Its rougher, coarser leaf cannot be made to curl or roll when dried, like that of the green-tea tree. In the spring, the first sproutings of its twigs and tender leaves are gathered—these make the Pecco tea; they may be distinguished by the white down which covers them, as it does the spring shoots of other plants; hence the name “Pih-haou,” white down. In the course of the summer, there are three other gatherings, each less valuable than the preceding, of the leaves of the black-tea tree. The “Congo,” the great article for the English market, is made from one of the early gatherings, without any mixture of inferior tea. The “Campoi,” though not at the present day a favourite article, or a very inferior one, has a large clean leaf, and should be, as its name signifies, a “selected” tea. It is not correct to say that the “Souchong” is an inferior tea. Its name merely designates it as a “small-leafed” tea; its different qualities take in a wide range of flavour and value. Its first gatherings, from favourable soils, are delicious teas; while the third crop, “Souchong,” is superior only to Bohea. The “Pouchong” is only a peculiarly packed tea; a clean unbroken black tea is chosen and tied up in small papers to make Pouchong tea; its name signifies “enveloped,” or a “packed tea.” The very inferior article called “Bohea,” is at the present time, rather a manufacture than a growth of tea. Its name is corrupted from “Woo-E” the hills bearing the black tea. It is now prepared either in the country, by mixing the refuse of the Souchong, or with “Wa-ping,” a neighbouring provincial tea, or at Canton by adding farther, the tea which has been damaged on its passage from the interior, and all the leaves within reach of collection, which have been once infused and dried again.
The “teamen” are in the habit of affixing the same name, year after year, to the tea which they bring to market; this name given to their whole parcel, or to each of the qualities it may contain, is called the “Chop” name. The foreign resident at Canton has little or no intercourse with the “teamen.” The “hong” merchants, or the merchants trading through the hongs, are the medium of sale; they often, however, purchase largely on their own account and judgment from the “teamen.”
The Dutch learned the use of tea at Bantam from the Chinese, and first introduced it into Europe in 1610. It was not known in England until after 1650; and from 1700 to 1710, there was imported less than eight hundred thousand pounds; but from 1710 to 1810, it amounted to seven hundred and fifty millions of pounds: between the years 1810 and 1828, the total importation exceeded four hundred and twenty-seven millions, being on an average of between twenty-three and twenty-four millions a year. In the year 1831, the quantity amounted to twenty-six millions, forty-three thousand, two hundred and twenty-three pounds; and in the season of 1832-33, the export of the English Company was thirty millions, thirty-six thousand, and four hundred pounds. The expiration of the English East India Company’s charter, and the ill success of the Netherlands Trading Company, are now turning the commerce in this valuable article into private hands. At the close of the company’s charter, (in 1834,) the consumption of tea in the United Kingdom, was estimated at thirty-two millions of pounds. Under the free trade now opening, it may be estimated at thirty-five millions. The consumption of the rest of Europe, imported almost entirely through Hamburgh and Holland, may be estimated at five millions of pounds. The quantity imported into Russia by land from China is not included.
The American trade to China commenced in 1784-5; and that season, eight hundred and eighty thousand, one hundred pounds, were exported. In the next season, six hundred and ninety-five thousand pounds were taken. In 1786-7, five ships were engaged in the trade, and they exported one million, one hundred and eighty-six thousand, eight hundred and sixty pounds; but in the season of 1832-3, fifty-nine vessels exported thirteen millions, two hundred and fifty thousand, one hundred and eighty-five pounds of the following descriptions:—
| Catties. | |||
| Bohea, 13,665 quarter chests of 50 catties each, | making | 683,255 | |
| Souchg. and Pouchg. | 39,538 chests 50 catties | „ | 1,876,900 |
| H. Skin and Tonkay, | 36,608 „ 52 „ | „ | 1,903,616 |
| Young Hyson, | 51,363 „ 70 „ | „ | 3,595,410 |
| Gunpowder and Imp. | 12,583 „ 83 „ | „ | 1,041,899 |
| Hyson, | 14,248 „ 49 „ | „ | 710,972 |
| Pecco, | 2,563 „ 49 „ | „ | 125,587 |
| Catties, | 9,937,639 | ||
| Equal to pounds, | 13,250,185 | ||