John McEwan

“ More attention seems to have been given to the matter in the United States of America and in Germany and Russia than in England, but the infinite variety of samples known to the commercial expert, and the impossibility of standardizing those in such a manner as to make readily recognizable what the chemist has treated, renders most of the recorded analyses of uncertain value. There seems to be no relationship between the commercial value and the analysis, the arbitrary personal methods of the expert tea-taster being controlled by factors that chemistry does not appear to deal with. ”

“ The quantity taken by the country is very large, but when spread over the enormous population the rate of consumption per person is not great. The extreme poverty of the great body of the people and the high price doubtless explain this. The method of use differs much from that followed in England. The samovar, or urn for boiling the water, is always much in evidence. Tea that makes a dark, strong liquor is preferred—not that such liquor is used, but that the greatest possible quantity of tea-coloured water may be drained from the teapot by refilling it over and over again from the samovar. ”

“ He holds the opinion that the tea-plant is indigenous, not to Assam only, but to the whole monsoon region of eastern Asia, where he found it growing wild as far north as the islands of southern Japan. He considers that the tea-plant had, from the remotest times, two distinct varieties, the Assam and Chinese, as he thinks that the period of known cultivation has been too short to produce the differences that exist between them. ”

“ The introduction of Chinese seed and Chinese methods was a mistake, and there seems little reason to doubt that, in clearing jungle for tea planting, fine indigenous tea was frequently destroyed unwittingly in order to plant the inferior China variety. The period of unlearning the Chinese methods, and replacing the Chinese plants, had to be lived through. Vicissitudes of over-production and inflation came to interfere with an even course of success, but the industry developed and has increased enormously. ”

“ Asa beverage he drinks, all day long, cupfuls of hot buttered tea, which is really a soup or broth made by boiling tea-leaves with rancid butter and balls of dough, and adding a little salt, and straining—a decoction which was invariably nasty to our taste, though no doubt it is wholesome; for it is not merely a stimulating hot drink in the cold, but overcomes the danger of drinking unboiled water in a country where the water supply is dangerously polluted. ”

“ The Tea Cess Committees of India and Ceylon have both sent representatives in recent years to study the manner of growth and production, but in neither country has there been so far any successful attempt to produce commercially tea of the class. A radical difference exists in connexion with the method of growth, in that the plants are never grown from seed, but are always propagated from layerings. Soil, situation and climatic conditions have doubtless much influence on the peculiar character of the tea produced. ”

“ Chemistry.—What may be termed the chemistry of production, viz., that relating to soils, manures, manufacturing processes, &c., has of recent years received great attention from the scientific experts appointed in India and Ceylon to assist and guide the tea planters. The chemistry of the completed teas of commerce does not appear to have been subjected to adequate scientific study. There cannot be said to be any standard or recognized analysis. ”

“ Tea thrives best in light friable soils of good depth, through which water percolates freely, the plant being specially impatient of marshy situations and stagnant water. Undulating well-watered tracts, where the rain escapes freely, yet without washing away the soil, are the most valuable for tea gardens. Many of the original Indian plantations were established on hill-sides, after the example of known districts in China, where hill slopes and odd corners are commonly occupied with tea-plants. ”

“ Should the leaf be intended to be cured as green tea, the fermenting process is omitted and some other processes applied, but in India very little green tea is manufactured. Many people still cherish the antiquated belief that black and green teas are grown upon different varieties of the tea-plant, which is quite a mistake, the difference being merely one of preparation. ”

“ The lean years and the fat years of the general labour market always tell, and the low range of prices for sugar during recent times has undoubtedly assisted in increasing the amount available for expenditure on tea. In Russia tea costs more to the consumer than in any country where modern transit by railway and steamer exists. The reason is the enormous proportion of the retail selling price which is exacted by the government by way of duty. ”

“ A limited section of medical opinion has recommended China tea for reasons of health, and undoubtedly the inferior strength it possesses reduces the risk arising from improper use, but it also reduces the stimulating and comforting effects the ordinary tea-drinker hopes to experience. Next to water, tea is the beverage most widely in use throughout the world as regards the number of its votaries as well as the total liquid quantity consumed. ”

“ Consequently, direct shipments are made now from the countries of production to those of consumption. America gets its tea largely through its western seaboard from China, Japan, Ceylon and India, while not a little is reaching it of recent years by steamers running direct from those countries via the Suez Canal to New York. The Australian demand is fed by steamers from Calcutta and Colombo, with some additions direct from China and Java. ”

“ The finest teas are produced at high elevations in Darjeeling and Ceylon and in the plains of Assam, but the quality from individual estates varies much from season to season, and even from week to week. There are at times marked differences between the produce of adjoining estates, with apparently identical con- ditions of soil and situation. Tea grows and thrives from about sea-level in the tropics to 7000 ft. in more temperate conditions. The life of a well-cared-for bush has been estimated at 50 years, in spite of its numerous enemies. ”

“ The Japanese production is almost entirely green tea for North American use. It is prepared in two distinctive classes named by the final process of manufacture applied in each instance, viz. basket-fired, i.e. dried over a hot stove in a basket, and pan-fired, i.e. in machine-made pans. The industry Japan. is a declining one, because of change in the American taste, and the area under cultivation has diminished by nearly 20 per cent, in the ten years since 1896. The mulberry leaf for the more profitable silk trade has taken its place. ”

“ From 1860 onwards, the amount of Indian tea entered for home consumption is shown in monthly average by a black column. This column brings out the remarkable fact that the Indian tea alone consumed in 1886 equalled the consumption of all kinds in 1860, and was double the quantity of all kinds in 1836. ”

“ The country cultivator has, as a rule, only a small area—perhaps a corner of his farm or garden—planted with tea, the produce of which is roughly sun-dried and cured in a primitive manner. Any surplus not needed for the family is sold in its sun-dried state to the collector, who takes it to the hong, where it is fired, blended and packed for exportation. ”

“ The climate indeed which favours tropical profusion of jungle growth—still steaming heat—is that most favourable for the Climate.cultivation of tea, and such climate, unfortunately, is often trying to the health of Europeans. It was formerly supposed that comparatively temperate latitudes and steep sloping ground afforded the most favourable situations for planting, and much of the disaster which attended the early stages of the tea enterprise in India is traceable to this erroneous conception. ”

“ The manufacturing methods are elaborate and careful, and the produce has in its choicest qualities a particular delicacy and bouquet possessed by no other variety of tea.
As the planting, productive and manufacturing processes of India may be taken to be generally representative of Ceylon and Java also, and therefore of the tea of modern commerce in most lands outside of China and Japan, the methods followed will be described with someIndian tea trade. fullness.
A rich and exuberant growth of the plants is a first essential of successful tea cultivation. ”

“ The plucking is done by women and children, and is now practically the only part of the work where the tea is touched by hand. The plucking season continues in some districts of India till December. As they are plucked, the green leaves are thrown into baskets, and twice daily the pluckings are taken into the factory. ”

“ The only protracted camel or mule caravan journeys remaining in connexion with the tea trade are those in Persia and Morocco, where the conservatism of race delays the introduction of even wheel roads, not to mention railways. ”

“ In the third and fourth flushes only one large leaf, and after that — say during October, November and part of December — no soft leaf growth is left that can be harvested in good order. In northern India, where the weather in the winter months is cold and dry, growth practically ceases, and then the whole area is pruned and cut down to about 16 ins. high all over, but in Travancore and Ceylon it grows continuously and is only pruned when found expedient at intervals of 15 months to 2 years. ”

“ The rate per head of population within the United Kingdom has not increased much during recent years, and in the Australasian colonies it has apparently fallen greatly as compared with recorded averages of 12 ℔ per head in victoria and 9 ℔ in New South Wales in 1884. The modern statistics of the commonwealth may be more accurately kept, and there may be less waste in use, but it is not supposed that there is any diminution in the free use of the beverage which has always characterized the antipodean colonist. ”

“ Exceedingly delicate teas can therefore be used unimpaired. In Japan the ceremony of serving tea has, among the better classes, been raised to a high art, which the girls have to study at school for protracted periods. ”

“ But England, which formerly supplied almost everything to her own colonies and to many foreign countries besides, has, under the modified conditions of abundant steam tonnage everywhere, become less and less of a distributive country. ”

“ On a successful wither the amount of the tea ferment or enzyme is dependent. The object of rolling is to crush the leaves and to break their cells so as to liberate the juices. The leaves are passed repeatedly through a machine driven by steam or other power giving a rotary motion, the operation occupying about 40 to 60 minutes. ”

“ But in return the government, with a paternal care for its people, makes absolutely certain that the tea reaches their hands as pure and unadulterated as when it first entered the country. Russian tea has always had a high reputation—largely n sentimental one, however. ”

“ Some- times the plants arc grown in the nursery for a whole year or more and put out during the cold weather. After two years' growth the bushes should be 4 to 6 ft. high. They are then cut down to about 8 ins. and are allowed to grow again up to 2 or 3 ft. before, towards the end of their third year, being plucked regularly. The object of this cutting down is to cause the bushes to spread out and cover the ground area usually 'allowed to each plant, i.e. about 20 sq. ft. The yield in the third year is small, probably less than i oz. finished tea per bush. ”

“ The motive power is generally a steam engine, but the greater economy and facility of oil engines have led to their fairly wide adoption. Where water power is available, turbines of a variety of types are in use. The machines to be driven are air- fans, rollers, roll-breakers, sifters, cutters and packers, and there are besides numerous types of driers or desiccators. ”

“ In the early days an attempt was made to copy the Chinese methods, and the various processes were manual. Now, from the plucking stage onwards, almost everything is done by machinery. During the season of yield the flushes are TM anu1ac - plucked every 7 to 10 days, and, as a rule, in India the "' opening bud and two leaves below it are plucked. To take more than this would be considered coarse and less would be fine plucking. These arc of course quite immature, the longest rarely being one inch in length. The lower leaves on the young shoots are too old and hard to manufacture into tea. ”