The Natural History of the Tea-Tree, with Observations on the Medical Qualities of Tea, and on the Effects of Tea-Drinking

by John Coakley Lettsom

Public buildings, or drying houses, are erected for curing Tea, and so regulated, that every person, who either has not suitable conveniences, or wants the requisite skill, may bring his leaves at any time to be dried. These buildings contain from five to ten or twenty small furnaces, about three feet high, each having at the top a large flat iron pan[31], either high, square, or round, bent up a little on that side which is over the mouth of the furnace, which at once secures the operator from the heat of the furnace, and prevents the leaves from falling off.

There is also a long low table covered with matts, on which the leaves are laid, and rolled by workmen, who sit round it. The iron pan being heated to a certain degree by a little fire made in the furnace underneath, a few pounds of the fresh-gathered leaves are put upon the pan; the fresh and juicy leaves crack when they touch the pan, and it is the business of the operator to shift them as quick as possible with his bare hands, till they grow too hot to be easily endured. At this instant he takes off the leaves, with a kind of shovel resembling a fan, and pours them on the matts to the rollers, who, taking small quantities at a time, roll them in the palms of their hands in one direction, while others are fanning them, that they may cool the more speedily, and retain their curl the longer[32].

This process is repeated two or three times, or oftener, before the Tea is put in the stores, in order that all the moisture of the leaves may be thoroughly dissipated, and their curl more completely preserved. On every repetition the pan is less heated, and the operation performed more slowly and cautiously[33]. The Tea is then separated into the different kinds, and deposited in the store for domestic use or exportation.

As the leaves of the Ficki Tea (Sect. VI. and IX. II.), are usually reduced into a powder before they are drank, they should be roasted to a greater degree of dryness. As some of these are gathered when very young, tender, and small, they are first immersed in hot water, taken out immediately, and dried without being rolled at all.

Country people cure their leaves in earthen kettles[34], which answer every necessary purpose at less trouble and expence, whereby they are enabled to sell them cheaper.

To complete the preparation, after the Tea has been kept for some months, it must be taken out of the vessels, in which it had been contained, and dried again over a very gentle fire, that it may be deprived of any humidity which remained, or might since have been contracted.

The common Tea is kept in earthen pots with narrow mouths; but the best sort of Tea used by the Emperor and nobility is put in porcellane or China vessels. The Bantsjaa, or coarsest Tea, is kept by the country people in straw baskets, made in the shape of barrels, which they place under the roofs of their houses, near the hole that lets out the smoke, and imagine that this situation does not injure the Tea.

This is the relation we have from Kæmpfer of the method in which the Japanese collected and cured their Tea. In the accounts of China, authors have in general treated very slightly of the cultivation and preparation of Tea. Le Compte[35] indeed observes, that to have good Tea, the leaves should be gathered while they are small, tender, and juicy. They begin commonly to gather them in the months of March and April, according as the season is forward; they afterwards expose them to the steam of boiling water to soften them; and, as soon as they are penetrated by it, they draw them over copper plates[36] kept on the fire, which dries them by degrees, till they grow brown, and roll up of themselves in that manner we see them.

However, it is certain, from the Chinese drawings, which exhibit a faithful picture, though rudely executed, of the whole process from beginning to end, that the Tea tree grows for the most part in hilly countries, on their rocky summits, and steep declivities; and it would seem by the pains the Chinese are at, in making paths, and fixing a kind of scaffolds, to assist them, that these places afford the finest Tea. It appears from these drawings, that the trees in general are not much taller than man’s height: The gatherers of the leaves are never represented but on the ground; they make use of hooked sticks indeed, but these seem rather intended to draw the branches towards them, when they hang over brooks, rivers, or from places difficult of access, than to bend down the tops or upper branches of the trees on plain ground.