Tea leaf

“ To particularize further, and yet generalize at the same time, we will say here that the Tea plant or tree is greatly modified in hardiness, in height, in size of leaf, and in the quality of the leaf for a beverage, by soil, by moisture, tillage, and climate. Some soils and some climates develop a tea plant decidedly more suitable for a green tea than for a black tea, and vice-versa. The Formosa Oolong, with its natural flowery fragrance is a product of a peculiar soil, said to be a clay topped with rich humus. ”

“ The border of the true tea-leaf is more regularly serrated, the serration stopping just short of the stalk, and the venations are very characteristic, the veins running out from the mid-rib almost parallel to one another, but altering their course before the border of the leaf is reached, and turning so as to leave a bare space just within the border of the leaf. ”

“ There will be some coarse leaves in the roll which cannot be twisted. These, if left, would give much red leaf in the Tea. They should be picked out by, say, the third or fourth man from the head of the table, for it is only when the leaf has been partly rolled that they show. The man who picks out the coarse leaf should not roll at all. ”

“ A later gathering of coarse leaves yields an inferior tea, scarcely worth exporting. It should be understood that although black and green tea are both made from the same kind of leaf, there really are two tea-plants. The plant cultivated at Canton for black tea, and known in our gardens as Thea Bohea, differs from the Thea viridis, which yields the harvest here. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A fixed oil composed of equal parts of oleine and stearine, serving many purposes, medicinal, illuminating and others, is extracted from the seeds of the tea-plant in many parts of China and Tartary. The other substances extracted from the tea-leaf consists principally of those which, in various proportions, enter into the composition of all plants and include a modification of constituents analagous to sugar, fat, salts, starch and water. 215The fibre, tannin, legumen coloring matter and a certain quantity of ash making up mainly the portion of the leaf insoluble in boiling water. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The different sorts of black and green arise, not merely from soil, situation, or the age of the leaf; but after winnowing the tea, the leaves are taken up in succession as they fall; those nearest the machine being the heaviest, are the gunpowder tea; the light dust the worst, being chiefly used by the lower classes. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Prune so as to cause lateral growth. A Tea plant should never be allowed to exceed, say, 4 feet in height, but the wider it is the better.
Prune off all lower branches tending downwards, [26] for the plant should, if possible, be clean underneath to a height of, say, 6 inches. This clean stem high class plants have naturally, not so the Chinese, or the Chinese cast of hybrid.
Plants should be more or less pruned out in the centre. In the following spring young wood is then formed in the heart of the tree, and it is only young wood and shoots that give leaf. ”

“ Black tea is of the lowest kind, with the largest leaves. In gathering the choicer varieties, we are told on credible authority that "each leaf is plucked separately; the hands are gloved; the gatherer must abstain from gross food, and bathe several times a day." Many differences in the flavor and color of green and black teas are produced by art. Mr. Fortune says of green tea, that "it has naturally no bloom on the leaf, and a much more natural color. ”

“ TEA consists of the prepared leaves or leaf buds of a plant known as the tea plant and is used as one of the three stimulating beverages. This plant is grown in China, Japan, India, Ceylon, and the East Indies, and to a small extent in South Carolina. There are two distinct varieties of tea, and each one may be used for the preparation of either green or black tea. The leaves of the tea plant, which are what is used for making the beverage, are gathered four times a year from the time the plants are 4 years old until they are 10 or 12 years old. ”

“ The quality of the tea largely depends on the exact time of picking, as the choicest leaves may be changed into an inferior grade of tea on a single night if the exact proper time to pick them be neglected. The practice of picking the young leaf-buds just as they are beginning to unfold would also prove greatly injurious to the plants, were it not for the copious rains that fall during the season of picking, causing fresh leaves to sprout out and elaborate the sap necessary to constitute the further growth of the shrub. ”

“ Tea can be made of the young succulent leaves only. The younger and more succulent the leaf the better Tea it makes. Thus a will make more valuable Tea than b, b than c, and so on; e is the lowest leaf to make Tea from, for though a very coarse kind can be made from f, it does not pay to take it. The stalk also makes good Tea, as far as it is really succulent, that is, down to the black line just above 2. ”

“ The great strength of the leaf enables the manufacturer to fire the leaves longer; the longer they are fired the longer they will keep, the third crop, or “Autumn teas,” that have been well-fired improving with time after exposure to the air, the action of the atmosphere bringing out the fragrance of the tea, the toasty flavor at the same time disappearing. ”

“ Sir,—The following idea, suggested to me by a planter up here, may be practicable or not, but in any case it is worth letting the patentees of Tea-rolling machines know it.
In days gone by when iron worked in contact with iron on the faces of rollers the colour of the outturn (that is the infused Tea leaves) was quite destroyed. That is now remedied, but there is still an evil of less importance. The wood on the said faces of the rollers absorbs the sap of the leaf, and unless they are washed very clean, the said old sap is apt to contaminate, more or less, the new leaf. ”

“ 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. ”

“ For any long journey it is best placed in layers in boxes with thoroughly dry and fine charcoal between the layers, and sheets of paper here and there to prevent the charcoal running to the bottom.
It is scarcely necessary to consider how Tea seed can be utilized when not saleable, for seed prevents leaf, and therefore it should not be grown if there is no market for it. It will, however, make oil, but the price it would fetch for this purpose would not compensate for the diminished yield of leaf it had caused. ”

“ The white powder of tea was formed in the leaf, when that leaf was stretched out in the Chinese sunshine, as the plant grew on the side of the warm Chinese hills. It was made out of the food which the plant sucked in from its native soil and its native winds, in the little chambers of its living structure, at a great expense of wise effort and skill. No human artist can make a grain of that white powder, if he [521] spend a lifetime in the trial. ”

“ A commission of haberdashers could alone have reported what the rest of her poor dress was made of, but it had a strong general resemblance to seaweed, with here and there a gigantic tea-leaf. Her shawl looked particularly like a tea-leaf after long infusion. ”

“ Space and light are the great wants for withering leaf in wet weather. Bamboo mechans, tier above tier, should be constructed in every available space. Large frames, covered with wire mesh, may also be made (by means of weights running over pulleys) to run up to the roof of any Tea [124] building. The leaf withers well in such frames, for heat ascends, and much heat is given out by dholes. ”

“ Fortune has definitely settled that both green and black tea are made off the same plants, and it is now taken that there is but one tea-plant, the Thea Sinensis, of which, however, there are several varieties, induced by climate, soil, etc.
Tea-plants are grown from seeds, and are made bushy by pinching off the leading shoots. They are planted in rows, each plant being three or four feet distant from the other, and the leaves are stripped in the fourth or fifth year of its growth, and are plucked until the tenth or twelfth, when the plant is grubbed up. ”

“ If young plants could be procured in China, they might be sent over in a growing state in some of these boxes.
The young Tea-plants in the gardens about London thrive very well in the green-houses in winter, and some bear the open air in summer. The leaves of many of them are from one to three inches long, not without a fine deep verdure; and the young shoots are succulent. It is therefore probable, that in a few years many layers may be procured from them, and the number of plants considerably increased thereby. ”

“ A tea shrub of Chinese origin now before us, growing among a host of common American plants, displays no special characteristics which would attract attention to itself. It resembles an orange plant. Its developed leaves are smooth on the surface, leathery in texture, dark green in color, with edges finely serrated from point almost to stalk. They are without odor, and when chewed in the mouth, have a mild and not unpleasant astringency, but no other perceptible flavor. ”

“ The indigenous tea plant of India, which is believed to be the parent stock of Chinese tea plants, is a tree, growing to a height of 20 to 35 feet with a trunk 8 to 10 inches in diameter, and bearing leaves of a lively green, 8 to 9 inches in length and 4 inches in breadth. The leaves are much more delicate in texture than those of Chinese plants, which hardly reach 4 inches in length, and the former contain a larger percentage of the invaluable alkaloid, Theine. ”

“ The plants I speak of were from one to three feet high; if they have grown any thing since they were transplanted, it has hardly been perceptible, either in height or thickness; many of them have had the advantage of a little shade from the tree: in my garden, and those that had the most shade I find look healthier than those that had none, and they throw out more leaves. I have often read and heard of the China Tea plant growing no higher than three feet; their being planted in the sun and their leaves constantly gathered, I think accounts for it. ”

“ There is only one species of this plant; the difference of green and bohea Tea depending upon the nature of the soil, the culture, and manner of drying the leaves. It has even been observed, that a green Tea-tree, planted in the bohea country, will produce bohea Tea, and so the contrary. ”

“ Tea is generally brought from China, and groweth there upon little shrubs and bushes, the branches whereof are well garnished with white flowers, that are yellow within, of the bigness and fashion of sweet-brier, but in smell unlike, bearing thin green leaves, about the brightness of Scordium, Myrtle or Sumack. This plant has been reported to grow wild only, but doth not: for they plant it in their gardens about four foot distance and it groweth about four foot high, and of the seeds they maintain and increase their stock. ”

“ I have never met with the Tea plants growing in the sun, but invariably under shade, in thick woods, or what we call tree-jungle, and only there, and in no other jungle whatever. It struggles for existence amongst so many other trees, that it becomes tall and slender, with most of its branches high up. The largest Tea tree I ever met with was 29 cubits high, and four spans round; very few I should say attain that size. I have taken great numbers of Tea plants from the jungles, brought them 4 to 8 days journey to my own house, and planted them in the sun, that is, without any shade ”