Brick tea

“ It is well known that the inhabitants of Siberia and Central Asia make a soup of these brick teas, possibly because a drinking infusion of them were wellnigh an impossibility, but it may be that when they become acquainted with leaf tea brought on for distribution by the main railway line and its arteries, there will not be that inclination for the wretched hotch-potch now supplied to them in the commoner brick teas. ”

“ At the present time there is a great call for brick tea, which is made from tea dust, and is exported to Mongolia, North China, and Russia. The factories are working to their utmost capacity, but the supply seems to be insufficient. Of the brick-tea factories, two are situated in the Russian Concession and two in the British Concession. They are equipped with modern machines and employ thousands of Chinese, and the importance of the business may be gathered from the fact that some 26,000,000 taels' worth of brick and tablet tea have passed through the Customs during the last ten years. ”

“ We met strings of camels, mules, and bullock-carts, all laden with tea for Russia and Mongolia. The tea that is imported by the Mongols is of the coarsest quality, and pressed into large bricks, which look something like cavendish tobacco, only coarser, and with stronger fibres to bind them together. These bricks are in some parts the current coin of the country: large transactions are settled for so many bricks of tea, while smaller payments are made by cutting pieces off the block as the Chinese cut fragments of silver. The infusion made from brick tea is coarse and nasty ”

“ The tea is an inferior kind known as "brick tea," being composed of the refuse, stems, and leaves of the plants cemented with rice water and pressed into hard bricks. This kind of tea is preferred by the Tibetans, who brew it with butter and other ingredients and consume the entire concoction. The tea trade amounts to several million pounds annually. ”

“ Brick tea is not only used as we have described, but is common among Tartar dealers, and those who attend the fairs held for the purpose of sale and exchange as a medium of currency, just as the beaver skin and the Dentalium shell are by the North West Indians of America. ”

“ This meal they moisten with tea made in the Thibetan manner—i, e., of boiled "brick-tea" buttered and salted—or else, if too poor to use tea, moistened with soup, by mixing it in a cup and working the paste round with the fingers against the side of the cup. They eat this paste soft and moist. Tea made of the filthy "brick-tea," boiled with butter, salt being added to taste, and the mixture well churned, is the ordinary drink of the country, soup taking its place among the poorer classes. ”

“ The principal article of export continues to be black tea, of which staple Hankow has always been the central market. The bulk of the leaf tea, however, now goes to Russia by direct steamers to Odessa instead of to London as formerly, and a large quantity goes overland via Tientsin and Siberia in the form of brick tea. The quantity of brick tea thus exported in 1904 was upwards of 10 million ℔. The exports which come next in value are opium, wood-oil, hides, beans, cotton yarn and raw silk. ”

“ The teas exported are of three principal classes—black tea, green tea, and brick tea. Cultivation.In cultivation, the young plants are not ready for picking till they are three years old, by which time they should be well established, throwing out young shoots or “flushes” with vigour and profusion. It is these tender shoots, with leaf-buds and expanding leaves, which alone are gathered for tea manufacture, and the younger the leaf-bud the better is the quality of the tea. According to Chinese statements there are four gatherings of leaves in the year. ”

“ They are now placed in the basket in greater mass and pushed against its sides by the hands in order to allow the heat to come up through the sieve and the vapour to escape; a basket over all retains the heat, but the contents are turned over until perfectly dry and the leaves become uniformly black."
Thus much for the manufacture of black tea, from which may be gathered the main fact that often a considerable time may elapse after the sun-drying process and before the teas are put into the firing pans. Thus it is that black teas are heavily fermented. ”

“ Before it is put over the fire the drying basket receives a smart slap with both hands in the act of lifting it up, which is done to shake down any leaves that might otherwise drop through the sieve, or to prevent them from falling into the fire and occasioning a smoke, which would affect and spoil the Tea This slap on the basket is invariably applied throughout the stages of the Tea manufacture. There is always a large basket underneath to receive the small leaves that fall, which are afterwards collected, dried and added to the other Tea ”

“ How can we insure the least loss, taking into consideration the fact that the weights of both the gross and tare, because of the wood drying and lightening in transit, can never come out the same at the Custom House in London as they were on the garden.
We can do it thus: the Tea if well packed in a chest in no way alters in weight during transit. If dry, when put up, it cannot become lighter; if the leaden covering is air-tight, it can absorb no moisture, which would of course [276] make it heavier. I therefore beg the question that it is a fixed quantity, for it must be so if well packed. ”

“ The pans are heated to a certain degree by a charcoal fire made in the furnaces underneath. Charcoal being used exclusively for the purpose, as smoke of any kind would injure the flavor of the tea. A limited quantity of raw leaves are thrown into the Kuo at a time, rapidly moved about and shaken up with both hands until they become affected by the heat, making a cracking noise and give out considerable vapor, the freshest and juiciest cracking first. ”

“ The Dryer should be lined outside with one thickness of bricks—they are the cheapest and best non-conductors of heat—inferior or badly-burned bricks may be used. Both ends of the Dryer should be lined, and both sides and elbows as high as the trays. The top may either have a lining of bricks, or four inches thick of sand or clay. When the Dryer is lined round with bricks, it not only greatly reduces the consumption of fuel, but by preventing the radiation of heat, it enables the men to increase the out-turn of pucka Tea. ”

“ When the liquid has cooled sufficiently, the leaves may be removed with the hand, the liquid and sand being poured into a filter. The sand is then washed, dried and ignited in a platinum plate and weighed, in which manner the amount of sand yielded by 50 or 100 grams of tea may be actually weighed and ascertained. On examining the analysis it will be found that tea-ash contains a quantity of iron and some manganese, the presence of the latter being so marked in tea-ash, that on subsequent treatment of the ash with water a deep green solution of the manganate is obtained. ”

“ I have at last completed experiments with a view to do away with the use of charcoal in Tea manufacture, and I think with success.
The “Furnace Teas,” for so I purpose naming them, have in most cases been pronounced by the Calcutta brokers to be superior to similar samples of the same day’s leaf, made in the usual way over charcoal.
Nothing but the heat generated by any fuel placed in furnaces sunk under ground outside the Tea-house is used. No motive power of any kind is employed. The apparatus is very simple. It is cheap to erect and very durable in character. ”

“ The leaves are then put into dry baskets over a pan of coals. Care is taken, by laying ashes over the fire, that no smoke shall ascend among the leaves, which are slowly stirred with the hand until perfectly dry. The tea is then poured into chests, and, when transported, placed in boxes enclosing leaden canisters, and papered to keep out the dampness. In curing the finest kinds of tea, such as Powchong, Pekoe, etc., not more than ten to twenty leaves are fired in the pan at one time, and only a few pounds rolled at once in the trays. ”

“ A natural taste for hot liquid foods and drinks is common to all races of men, and they may be traced in the soups of meat and fish, and in their decoctions or infusions of vegetable leaves, seeds, barks, etc.
Hot "teas" were in habitual use as beverages among civilized nations long before they ever heard of Chinese tea, of coffee, or of cocoa. The English people, for instance, freely indulged in infusions of Sage leaves, of leaves of the Wild Marjoram, the Sloe, or blackthorn, the currant, the Speedwell, and of Sassafras bark. ”

“ The one wanting quality is the strength, sometimes, by-the-bye, the flavour is a little different. It may have the greenish, greyish blackish leaf (though generally the green leaves are distinct from black ones, the Tea thus being composed of greyish blackish leaves with a few green ones intermixed) , always has the pale liquor, generally the greenish infused leaf; but sometimes it is sadly intermingled with black leaves, as it is a Tea whose flavour is frequently burnt out, though its weakness and green appearance are no doubt often caused by deficient firing. ”

“ The Canton plant, however, is not cultivated in the North; on the Bohea hills themselves, speaking botanically, there grows no Bohea tea; the plant there, also, is the Thea viridis. The difference between our green and black tea is produced entirely in the making. Green tea is more quickly and lightly dried, so that it contains more of the virtues of the leaf. Black tea is dried more slowly; exposed, while moist, on mats, when it ferments a little, and then subjected in drying to a greater heat, which makes it blacker in its color. ”

“ That the teas are not properly cured or thoroughly fired by this over-hasty method is evidenced by the fact that India teas in general are noted for their great excess of tannin and peculiar raw, “grassy,” uncooked or herby flavor. But labor and fuel-saving machinery are effecting such economy in the cultivation and preparation of tea in India as to yearly reduce the cost of its production. So many improvements for drying, rolling, firing and sorting are annually being recorded that it is difficult even to 106estimate at what figure it may be produced there in the future. ”

“ Though I know many planters think the fumes of charcoal necessary and beneficial for the last drying, I do not. I have tried both sun and charcoal, and no difference was perceptible. The former costs nothing, is more commodious, and I always apply it when possible. The sun cannot burn the Teas; the charcoal, if the heat is too great, may.
Whether you use sun or charcoal, put the Tea hot into the boxes. The only object of the final drying is to drive off the moisture, which the Tea will certainly, in a more or less degree, have imbibed since its manufacture. ”

“ It will burn any fuel. Fireplace 21⁄2′ × 3′, when kept regularly three quarters full of firewood or coal about 6 to 8 inches thick, while machine is drying, will suffice (half a maund of fuel to a maund of Tea should be ample) . The appearance and fine flavour of Tea dried in this machine by fan beats charcoal; no gloss is lost on the Tea from shaking up and turning over, and the Tea is black, with glossy appearance and good flavour. ”

“ We were close to the window and could look down on the Bond Street crowd of people and cars. In front of us was the daintiest little tea that I had ever seen. This young man is, of course, accustomed to ordering the sort of tea that women like?
"And this is the second time that you have poured out tea for me, Miss Lovelace!" remarked the Honourable Jim Burke, as he took the cup from my hand. "Admirable little hostess that you are, remembering not to ask me whether I take sugar; storing up in your mind that what I like is a cupful of sugar with a little tea to moisten it!" ”

“ Broken Leaf—India and Ceylon Broken-leaf Teas are composed of the old, broken and mutilated leaves of the other sorts which are separated in sifting, and bear the same relation to these varieties that Twankay does to China Green Teas and Nibs to the Japan sorts. They vary in color from brown to black, their strength being seldom great, though the flavor of the finer grades is in general good, drawing and drinking in proportion to the grades from which they are separated, while that of the commoner kinds is poor, thin and coarse in liquor and flavor. ”

“ Then only appeared an old woman, who cleared the little table and brought in a copper ewer full of tea, a basket of figs and grapes and a plate of round cakes, samsa and mekrout, very rich and tempting, but quite beyond our capacity even to sample. We, however, made inroads on the tea, in spite of the fact that it was infused with fresh mint and terribly over-sweetened. Tea with mint is a very good drink in hot weather and, after the rich native food, is really an ideal beverage in African conditions, if only it is made with a normal quantity of sugar. ”

“ Fortune, no less a proportion than half-a-pound is used to every hundred weight of leaf.
Although botanists have divided Tea into two species, still the black and green descriptions are but varieties of the same plant. Practically it is found more convenient to cultivate each sort separately, certain districts favouring the specific growths. But any description of black Tea can, in the process of drying, be converted into green. Of course the Chinese never touch these artificially-coloured products. They have too much good sense for that. ”