I.

Popularity of Tea as a Drink—Consumption in England, and comparative Use all over the World—Legend of its Origin—Date of its Use—Growth of the Plant—Different Kinds of Tea—Great Falling off in the Exports from China—Ceylon Tea—High Prices of—Statistics—Analysis of Tea.

Of all non-alcoholic beverages, Tea claims the pre-eminence, being drank by nearly, if not quite, half the population of the world, and common alike to all climes and all nations.

In China it is the national beverage, and it is used not only as an ordinary drink, but it is the chief factor in visits of ceremony, and in hospitality. Japan, too, is a large consumer, and its houses of entertainment are “Tea” houses. In the wilds of Thibet its use is universal, and so it is on the steppes of Tartary, where, however, it is made as nauseous and repulsive a drink as possible. In Russia, it is the traveller’s comfort, and every post house is bound by law to have its _samovar_ hot and boiling, ready for the wayfarer. In Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania, the “billy” of tea is familiar, and forms the only drink of the shepherd, the stockman, and the digger. All the British colonies and possessions are devotees to the “cup which cheers, but not inebriates.” Great Britain herself is a great tea drinker, whether it be the “five o’clock tea,” which has developed into a cult, with vestments peculiar thereto; the poor seamstress, stitching for hard life, who takes it to keep herself awake for her task; or the labourer, who takes his tin bottle with him to the field. In fact, go where you will, in every civilized portion of the world (except Greece, where the consumption is merely nominal), and you will find drinkers of tea.

Great Britain is the centre of the tea trade of the world, and in 1889 she imported a total quantity of 222,147,661 lbs., the declared value of which was £9,987,967. Of this she took for her own consumption, and paid duty thereon, 185,628,491 lbs, which, at 6_d._ per lb. duty, produced a revenue of £4,640,704. Wisely or not, Mr. Goschen, in the Budget for 1890, reduced the duty to 4_d._ per lb.

In spite of this enormous quantity of tea drank in Great Britain, she does not rank as the largest consumer per head, which, leaving out China, Japan, Thibet, and Tartary, where statistics are unknown, is as follows:—[121]

Australian Colonies, New Zealand, Tasmania, Great Britain, Newfoundland, Canada, Bermuda, United States, Holland, Cape Colony, Natal, Russia, Denmark, Uruguay, Argentine Republic, B. Honduras, Barbadoes, Trinidad, Antigua, British Guiana, Persia, Portugal, Bahamas, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, Grenada, Morocco, St. Vincent, Jamaica, Belgium, Sweden, France, Roumania, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Spain, Turkey (no returns), Italy (ditto), Greece (nominal), Mauritius, 1888, 106,589 lbs. Sierra Leone, 1888, 6,008 lbs.

The tea shrub grows wild in Assam, and in other parts between the limits of N. Latitude 15° to 40°, and this zone is most favourable to its growth in its cultivated form, although of late years Ceylon, which is nearer the equator, has made enormous strides in the production of tea. Up to the present time, however, China has furnished the largest quantity, and for centuries has enjoyed the monopoly of its production; a monopoly now broken down, and every day vanishing, mainly owing to the roguery of its manufacturers and the folly of its growers.

Of course such a plant could have had no common origin, and no reader need be surprised at its story. The legend runs that Prince Darma, or Djarma, the third son of King Kosjusvo, went, very many centuries ago, from India to China, where he abode, and became celebrated for his piety. Like the _fakirs_ of India, he showed his religious tendencies in a morbid manner—living only under heaven’s canopy, fasting for weeks together, and eliminating sleep altogether from his daily wants. Tradition says that this state of things continued for years, until, one day, weary nature asserted her pre-eminence, and Darma slept. Imagine his holy horror on his awakening! Something of the same kind must have possessed Cranmer when he stretched forth his right hand in the flames of his funereal pyre, with the heart-wrung exclamation, “This hand hath offended.” So with Darma; filled with pious horror, his first thought was, how to expiate his offence, and his peccant eyelids were, consequently, cut off and thrown upon the ground. Next day, returning to the spot where he had involuntarily sinned, he saw two shrubs, of a kind never before beheld in China. He tasted them, found them aromatic, and, moreover, possessing the quality of imparting wakefulness to their consumer. The discovery and miracle became noised abroad, and hence the popularity of tea in China.

But, apart from this legend, the Chinese themselves have no certain record of the introduction of tea into their country. They believe that it was in use in the third century, and in the latter end of the fourth century, Wangmung, a minister of the Tsin dynasty, made it fashionable and much increased its consumption. In all probability it was chewed at that time, for a decoction of it does not appear to have been drank until the time of the Suy dynasty, when the Emperor Wass-te, suffering from headache, was cured by drinking an infusion of tea leaves, by the advice of a Buddhist priest. In the early seventh century this manner of using the shrub was general, and it has maintained its popularity unto the present time, making itself friends wherever it is introduced.

The tea-plant somewhat resembles the Camellia Japonica, and Linnæus, imagining that the black and green teas came from different shrubs, named them _Thea bohea_ and _Thea viridis_. 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. May and June are the general months of picking, which is done mostly by women; but the time varies according to the district.

The young and early leaves give the finest and most delicate teas, but the flavour very much depends upon the drying and roasting; but still some soils and climates have a great deal to do with the taste, the finest tea in China growing between the 27th and 31st parallels of latitude.

[Illustration: THEA SINENSIS.]

The Trade names of teas imported from China to England are: _Black_—Congou, Souchong, Ning Yong and Oolong, Flowery and Orange Pekoe. The latter, and Caper, being artificially scented, are, therefore, carefully eschewed by _cognoscenti_. _Green_—Twankay, Hyson Skin, Hyson, Young Hyson, Imperial, and Gunpowder. Black tea has the rougher taste, and produces the darkest infusion. Green tea, however, has the greater effect upon the nerves, and if taken strong, acts as a narcotic, producing, with some people, tremblings and headaches, and on small animals even causing paralysis. It is, therefore, generally mixed with black in small proportion, say ¼ lb. to 1 lb. black tea. There is also what is called _brick tea_, which is consumed in the North of China, Tartary, and Thibet, but which we never see in England. This choice tea is made from the stalks and refuse and decayed twigs, mixed with the serum of sheep and ox blood, which, when it is pressed into moulds, hardens it.

The Russians are said to get the finest tea that comes out of China—called Caravan Tea—which is made into large bales, covered with lead. This goes to Russia entirely overland, and to this fact some attribute its superior and delicate flavour.

The tea trade of China is rapidly going from her, and she has but herself, and the shortsighted knavery of her growers and manufacturers, to thank for it. According to a Tea Circular,[122] the following are the imports and deliveries of China tea from 1st to 30th June:—

1888. 1889. 1890. 6,697,000 lbs. 508,000 lbs. 452,000 lbs.

a truly fearful falling off. English people got tired of the flavourless stuff sent from China, and India and Ceylon having perfected the manufacture (which at first start of the industry of tea growing in those parts was not good), send us delicious tea, of a much higher market value than that of China.

Ceylon tea, especially, has enormously won the favour of the English tea-drinking community in a very few years, as the following short statistics, taken from a Tea Circular,[123] will show,—

The total value of all the Ceylon tea in bond in 1880 was £5,024.

Ditto ditto ditto 1888 ” £1,555,095. ----------

The duty on above, at 6_d._ per lb., was respectively £2,871.

£464,664. ----------

showing that not only had the quantity imported enormously increased, but so had the quality, as shown by the enhanced market value. One instance, although an exceptional one, will show what Ceylon can produce in the way of tea. On 13th January, 1890, was sold at the London Commercial Tea Sale Rooms, a consignment of tea from the Gallebodde Estate, Ceylon, which experts described as the finest tea ever grown. This unique tea was of the brightest gold colour, resembling grains of gold. Its sale excited the keenest competition, and it was eventually knocked down for £4 7_s._ per lb., but it was resold a few days afterwards to a wholesale firm at the enormous price of £5 10_s._ per lb.

“Much excitement prevailed yesterday in the London Commercial Tea Sale Rooms, Mincing Lane, on the offering of a small lot of Ceylon tea, from the Gartmore Estate. This tea is composed almost entirely of small ‘golden tips,’ which are the extreme ends of the small succulent shoots of the plant. Competition was of a very keen description, the tea being ultimately knocked down to the Mazawattee Ceylon Tea Company at the unprecedented price of £10 2_s._ 6_d._ per pound.”—_Standard_, March 11th, 1891.[124]

Another circular of the same firm of tea brokers gives a list of 132 tea gardens in Ceylon.

Indian tea is fast helping to supersede China tea, and another Tea Circular[125] points out that, “Towards the 190 million lbs. probably required for home use during the coming year, India and Ceylon together will contribute fully 150 millions.” It also gives the following:—

“LONDON STATISTICS FOR YEAR ENDING 31ST MAY.”

1888. 1889. 1890. Import, Indian 86,371,000 94,954,000 101,052,000 Ceylon 14,705,000 26,390,000 34,246,000 China 117,185,000 98,695,000 90,097,000 Java 2,989,000 4,170,000 3,107,000 ------------ ---------- ----------- Total 221,250,000 224,209,000 228,502,000

Delivery, Indian 85,619,000 91,368,000 101,168,000 Ceylon 12,578,000 23,830,000 31,947,000 China 116,870,000 105,668,000 87,652,900 Java 3,133,100 3,862,000 3,280,000 ----------- ----------- ----------- 218,200,000 224,728,000 224,047,000

Of which— Home Consumpt. 183,000,000 185,250,000 187,940,000 Export 35,200,000 39,500,000 36,107,000

There are three active substances in tea, which we should do well to notice: Volatile Oil, Theine, and Tannin.

The volatile oil can be distilled by ordinary process, and it contains the aroma and flavour of tea in perfection. Its action on the human body is not thoroughly known, with the exception that it is injurious in a greater or less degree. The Chinese are well aware of the fact, and will rarely use tea until it is a year old, thus allowing some of it to evaporate, and it is probably owing to this oil that tea-tasters (who taste as much by smell as by palate) are subject to attacks of headache and giddiness.

Theine is the principle which gives to tea its power of lessening the waste of the tissues in the human body, and, when separated from the decoction, it forms an alkaloid having no smell, a slightly bitter taste, and is composed of colourless crystals. It is also an active agent in Maté or Paraguay tea, in coffee (when it is called caffeine, although identical in substance), in Guarana, which is used as coffee in Brazil, and in the Kola Nut of Africa.

The third product, tannin, gives roughness of flavour to the tea, and is

## particularly developed by allowing the infusion to stand a long time. It

is harmless; at least, its combination in tea has never been found to be hurtful; Its presence is at once shown by dropping some tea on the clean blade of a knife, when it will produce a black stain—the tannin derived from oxgalls, and a solution of iron, forming the ink with which we write.

That Chinese tea has been, and is, largely adulterated, is an indisputable fact, and in those bygone days, when all our supply came from China, it had to be borne. Now, at all events, the Indian and Ceylon teas are pure, and can be taken without the slightest fear. The green teas used to be most adulterated, but the black teas could also tell their tale of fraud.

J. A.

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TEA.