Before dropping the subject of Green Teas, I will say a word or two as to the expediency of making Green Tea. I have questioned several experienced people on the subject, but none can tell me their especial object in manufacturing their leaf into Green Tea. One gentleman told me that he thought it was because their Tea-makers (Chinamen) knew better how to make greens than blacks. I have carefully examined the leaf of several of the North-west Green Teas, and, noticing their English sale prices, consider that they would have sold on the average at least 3d. per lb. higher had they been made into Black Tea. The best way to test this would be to have a Green and a Black Tea made from the same leaf, and then to value the one against the other. I regret that I have never had the opportunity of doing this. We notice that the largest and most experienced producers never make Green Tea.[55]
I must not pass over Caper without a short description. It is a Tea which is made in large quantity in China, though I have only seen one parcel of Indian growth. It forms a link between the black and green descriptions. The colour of the leaf is a very dark green; in form it is similar to a gunpowder, Imperial, or round leaf Congou. The liquor is pale, and the out-turn green; flavour perhaps nearer to that of a green than of a Black Tea.
[CHAPTER XXVI.]
BOXES. PACKING.
By far the best Tea boxes are the teak ones made at Rangoon. The wood is impervious to insects of all kinds, even white ants. Sawn by machinery the pieces sent to compose each box are very regular. The plank is half inch, and each chest made up measures inside 23 by 18 by 18½ inches, and necessarily outside 24 by 19 by 19½ inches. The inner cubical contents are 7,659 cubic inches, and this suffices for above one maund of fine, and under a maund of coarse Tea.
Each box is composed of fourteen pieces—viz., for the two long sides three each, for the two short sides two each, two for the bottom, and two for the lid. By the arrangement of three pieces in the long sides, and two only in the short sides, the centre piece of each long side is attached to both the short end pieces, and thus great strength in the box is ensured, there being no place where it can possibly separate at the joints.
These boxes are not made to “dovetail.” Each piece (and they are sawn with mathematical regularity as to length, breadth, and thickness) must be nailed to its neighbour. The best nails for this are the kind called “French Pins,” 1¾ inches long.
The wood is sold at Rangoon in bundles, and could be landed in Calcutta for about Re. 1-8 or 1-12 per box. The boxes need not be made up till shortly before they are wanted, and in this form, of compact bundles of short pieces, are very convenient for transport and stowage.
Of course in many districts these boxes are not procurable, and local ones must be made. If so, use hard wood, and make your boxes about the size given above, for small boxes add much to the cost of freight.