A “Chop” of Oolongs comprises four, sometimes five, “Lines” termed “Firsts,” “Seconds,” “Thirds,” “Fourths” and “Fifths,” when any, which are again subdivided into “Brackets” or “Numbers,” ranging from one to ten but similar in grade.
An Invoice of “English Breakfast teas” includes a quantity of Capers, Pekoes, Congou and Souchong teas, graded and classed according to the district of production, by which terms they are best known to trade.
A Standard Invoice of Japans embrace some Pan-fired, Sun-dried and Basket-fired teas with occasionally other makes, also ranking according to the different districts.
A “Break” or “chop” of India or Ceylon include Pekoes, Congous, Pekoe-Souchongs, Broken-leaf and Fannings, and are best known to trade by their plantation names and district appellations.
The term “Muster” means Sample-package or chest, the name on top of label the vessel, route or “chop,” the initials in centre those of the importer. The names at bottom such as “Tong-mow,” “Tong-lee,” grower or packer, and the Chinese character on inside of package. “Chop mark,” denoting the “chop” or picking, which cannot always be relied on, as shippers are apt to put on that which has the best reputation, or which happens to be most in demand the season of shipping.
CHAPTER VI.
ADULTERATION
AND
DETECTION.
The Teas of commerce are subject to four principal descriptions of sophistication—“Facing” or Coloring with deleterious compounds, in order to enhance their appearance;—Substituting with spent, partially-used or exhausted leaves to increase their bulk and reduce the cost;—Mixing or blending with spurious or foreign leaves, and—Sanding or adulterating with a variety of mineral matter, chiefly iron or steel filings, to add to the weight. Each trade has its own special form of adulteration, and as in the milk business the most prevalent sophistications are watering and skimming, so in the Tea-trade the besetting malpractice is coloring and mixing with or substitution of partially-exhausted tea leaves, so that the main efforts of experts and tea-analysts should be directed more to this form of adulteration. The other forms have received some attention from chemists and others interested in the article, but not to the extent which the importance of the subject merits. But it is against the two former most common and dangerous forms of adulteration that the principal efforts of tea-analysts and inspectors should more particularly be directed; and, while considerable of this nefarious and positively injurious work is done in the countries of importation, by far the greater portion is perpetrated in the countries of production. For consummate skill in the “tricks of trade,” the Chinese as a people have long been proverbial. “They are a self-ended people,” says an old writer, “having the same reputation in Asia that the Jews have in Europe.” Yet there are strong reasons for stating that many dealers in our own and other tea-drinking countries have become expert imitators of their methods, especially in the minor forms of coloring, mixing, repacking and refacing. The sophistications in our own country being chiefly confined to the admixture of damaged, stained and tainted teas with sound, pure or high-grade goods, with the object of concealing or disguising their defects, and the substitution of one variety for another by repacking and relabeling. The latter form being practiced to a much greater extent than most people imagine, giving rise to a special branch of business in nearly all of the larger cities.