The importance of retaining all blends regular and uniform—when once they have been adopted and proven satisfactory—cannot be overestimated, as what Tea dealer can expect continued success if his blends consist one week or month of fine, flavory Teas, the next of heavy, dull-liquored Teas, and the third of a sharp, pungent or astringent character? Each new combination may possess good qualities of its own, all its component parts be skillfully and judiciously arranged and the mixing performed with the greatest care, but unless one or more good blends is decided on and then closely adhered to complaints will be made by the customers if they do not go elsewhere. To obtain this necessary uniformity is sometimes very difficult for the dealer, as no two invoices of Tea will be found exactly alike in all respects; and although Teas may be selected of about the same grade and quality, even chosen from those grown in the same district and blended in exactly the same proportions as in the combination they are intended to replace, the divergence may still be so great as to cause dissatisfaction among the customers. This variation may best be avoided by not changing more than one of the Teas composing the blend at the same time, so that when a number of Teas are used in a blend the alteration of any one of them—providing that particular one is fairly matched—will make but a comparatively small difference in the combination. If the changes in the various Teas forming the blend are thus made gradually, few, if any, of the customers will detect the slight alteration in the blend.
Scoops or other measures must not be relied on in the proper blending of Teas; scales and weights must be invariably used if the dealer wants to be precise and successful in the business. For if it is worth his time and trouble to test a number and variety of Teas in order that he may select the most suitable for the purpose, and then study how to arrange them in the best and most advantageous proportions, it certainly is worth the little extra time and trouble of not marring the qualities of his combinations by an injudicious and hap-hazard muddling of the quantities of the various parts composing the blends. This advantage of weighing the Teas for blending is not excelled even by the advantages gained by the careful and judicious selection of the Teas for blending purposes.
All Teas after being blended should be allowed to stand in the caddie or bin, tightly closed, for from a week to ten days before dispensing, in order that the different Teas composing the blends may have sufficient time to assimilate and to exchange or impart their opposite flavors to each other. For should they not be allowed to thus stand, and the Tea be used just as soon as the blend is prepared, first one and then another of its component parts will predominate in too great a proportion, by which the time and trouble that has been taken in arranging the blend will have been to a large extent wasted and thrown away; while if the mixture be allowed to remain in the bin or caddie as directed, it will eventually become as one Tea and be always regular and uniform in quality and flavor.
Good, clean and sweet low-grade Teas being nearly always to be had for a few cents per pound above the price of the cheap, trashy Teas now offered on the American market, it is only folly for the dealer to purchase the latter, as they are not cheap at any price, as by the supposed saving of these few cents in the pound, the seed is not only sown for the future ruin of the individual dealer, but it also disgusts the public with Tea as an article of food, while on the other hand if the Tea dealer will make a comparatively small but requisite sacrifice for the sake of future gain, complete satisfaction will be given to his customers, the trade in Tea will be fostered and increased, and a great impetus given to its consumption by a discriminating public.
A blend of Tea should never have its cost reduced by the introduction of a grade coarser in nature than that of a majority of the Teas forming the combination, so that low-grade Teas when used for reducing the cost of the blend should be as full, plain and sweet as possible. This is advisable for the reason that a Tea of such a pronounced character will more or less stamp its own impression upon any blend into which it may be introduced. Again, should the lowest-priced Tea in a blend be a Tea of a marked or inferior character, instead of its being absorbed by the other Teas in the blend, its disagreeable features will stand out prominently among them, while the superior qualities of the finer grades will be—if not entirely obliterated—yet so injured as to be scarcely recognizable. While if the component parts of the blend be so well arranged that the most powerful Tea constituting it be also the highest grade Tea, the effect produced is that the other Teas in it are raised to its level, but if the powerful Tea is one of the low-priced Teas the others naturally reduce to its standard.