Previous to being packed for export in the lead-lined chests in which they are received in this country, the teas are again subjected to a still further firing, with the object of totally evaporating any moisture they may have absorbed in transit from the interior or by laying exposed in the storehouses, as well as to better fit them for the long sea voyage, after which the tea is weighed in “catties,” and placed in the chests, the packer pressing it down with his hands. When another cattie is put in he steps on top, places his hands behind his back and throwing his head forward goes through a sort of a tread-mill dance, until the leaves are tightly compressed into the smallest possible compass. More tea is then put in and pressed down in the same manner until the chest is filled, when the leaden lid is put on and soldered, the chest being nailed, clamped, matted and rattaned later, numerous hands, men and women, being employed in its final packing.
Before matting a Chinese character termed a “Chop-mark” is placed on the side of each chest, ostensibly to denote the packer or picking, but although the same “crop” or brand is received year after year from the same shipper it does not necessarily follow that the grade or quality will be the same or even equal to that of the preceding ones.
The term “chop” in Chinese means contract, and does not, as is claimed, refer to the crop or picking of any particular garden or season. In trade it is applied to a quantity of tea frequently composed of the product of different gardens, or piens (localities) and even districts averaged or made uniform in the piens of the Twa-tu-tia by the factors before forwarding to the shipping ports. When a sufficient quantity of a certain specified grade has been secured from several growers to make up a chop, it is carried to a warehouse in the adjacent village, where it is all mixed together, averaged, refired and packed for the foreign market. The quantity for a chop being selected according to the quality of the leaf and the district producing it, and considering how chops are made up—a few piculs from several gardens, often widely apart, they are wonderfully uniform in grade. Still, although year after year the same “chops” are received from the same shippers, it does not follow that the chops of one year or season will be as fine as those of the preceding or of equal quality. It being by no means an unusual practice for the packers in the interior to leave the chests unmarked until they reach the shipper, who, knowing the chops must be in demand at that particular season in the consuming countries, supplies them to order, or, at least, not to use one of bad repute.
The average cost of medium to fine grades of tea is 40 taels (about $20) per picul (133⅓ pounds) laid down at the port of shipment is as follows at the present time: The refiring, packing, leading, chests, matting and rattaning varying from $3 to $4 per picul more.
CHAPTER V.
CLASSIFICATION
AND
DESCRIPTION.
Tea as it occurs in commerce is the dried leaves of the tea-plant, and is generically classified as Green and Black, under which names it is best known to the public. Commercially, they are classed as China, Japan, India, Ceylon, and Java teas, but are again divided into numerous varieties and grades, having terms derived from the districts and localities of production, or indicative of age, form, or quality, from the delicate product of the young leaf-bud up to that of the large, old, and fully expanded leaf. These numerous appellations which distinguish the commercial qualities of tea being almost entirely of Chinese origin.
CHINA TEAS.
Tea and China are almost synonymous terms. It is indisputably the “Land of tea.” Its cultivation forms the chief industry of that country, and has been the largest contributor to the revenue of the government for centuries, its export being the principal feature of all her foreign dealings. The welfare of the inhabitants of her fairest provinces depend on its production. It has been in universal use among them from time immemorial, forming not only the regular beverage of the people, but also administering to the luxury of the epicure. They drink it at all times and under all circumstances from early morning until late at night, in sickness or in health, working or playing, traveling or resting, all business being transacted there between two cups of tea. In brief, it is the natural beverage of the country constituting what wine is to the French, beer to the German and ale to the English, and but without which no Chinese family could live or thrive.