They pick the leaves as soon as gathered into different sorts, and cure them nearly in the manner described to be practised by the Japanese. They build a range of stoves, like those in a chemist’s laboratory, or great kitchen, where the men work, and curl the leaves in the pans themselves. It seems also that they repeat the drying. They dry it likewise, after having spread it abroad in shallow baskets, in the sun; and, by the means of sieves, separate the larger from the smaller leaves, and these again from the dust.
The Chinese put the finer kinds of Tea into conic vessels, like sugar loaves, made of tutenaque, tin, or lead, covered with neat matting of bamboo; or in square wooden boxes lined with thin lead, dry leaves and paper, in which manner it is exported to foreign countries. The common Tea is put into baskets, out of which it is emptied, and packed up in boxes or chests as soon as it is sold to the Europeans[37].
One thing should be mentioned to their credit; when their harvest of Tea is finished, each family fails not to testify, by some religious rite, their gratitude to the Giver.
SECTION VIII.
VARIETIES OF TEA.
It has been already observed (Sect. VI.) that many different sortments of Tea are made during the times of collecting the leaves; and these are multiplied according to the goodness of their preparation, by which the varieties of Tea may be considerably augmented[38]. The distinctions with us are much more limited, being generally confined to three principal kinds of green, and five of bohea.