Page:The New Monthly Magazine - Volume 095.djvu/455

448 part of the teas of commerce; hence the distinction between hill-tea and garden-tea; but these plains stood at some elevation above the level of the sea.

After some general remarks upon the nature of the soil, and the propagation of the tea-plant by seed, as well as to its cultivation, Mr. Fortune goes on to remark on the vexed question of green versus black teas:

In my former work I offered some remarks upon the preference which many persons in Europe and in America have for coloured green teas, and I will now give a "full and particular account" of tho colouring process as practised in the Hwuy-chow green-tea country upon those teas which are destined for the foreign market. Having noted down the process carefully at the time, I will extract verbatim from my note-book:

"The superintendent of the workmen managed the colouring part of the process himself. Having procured a portion of Prussian blue, he threw it into a porcelain bowl, not unlike a chemist's mortar, and crushed it into a very fine powder. At the same time a quantity of gypsum was produced and burned in the charcoal fires which were then roasting the teas. The object of this was to soften it, in order that it might be readily pounded into a very fine powder, in the same manner as the Prussian blue had been. The gypsum, having been taken out of the fire after a certain time had elapsed, readily crumbled down and was reduced to powder in the mortar. These two substances, having been thus prepared, were then mixed together in the proportion of four parts, of gypsum to three parts of Prussian blue, and formed a light-blue powder, which was then ready for use.

"This colouring matter was applied to the teas during the last process of roasting. About five minutes before the tea was removed from the pans—the time being regulated by the burning of a joss-stick—the superintendent took a small porcelain spoon, and with it he scattered a portion of the colouring matter over the leaves in each pan. The workmen then turned the leaves rapidly round with both hands, in order that the colour might be equally diffused.

"During this part of the operation the hands of the workmen were quite blue. I could not help thinking that if any green-tea drinkers had been present during the operation, their taste would have been corrected, and, I may be allowed to add, improved. It seems perfectly ridiculous that a civilised people should prefer these dyed teas to those of a natural green. No wonder that the Chinese consider the natives of the west to be a race of 'barbarians.'

"One day an English gentleman in Shanghae, being in conversation with some Chinese from the green-tea country, asked them, what reasons they had for dyeing the tea, and whether it would not be better without undergoing this process. They acknowledged that tea was much better when prepared without having any such ingredients mixed with it, and that they never drank dyed teas themselves, but justly remarked that, as foreigners seemed to prefer having a mixture of Prussian blue and gypsum with their tea, to make it look uniform and pretty, and as these ingredients were cheap enough, the Chinese had no objection to supply them, especially as such teas always fetched a higher price!

"I took some trouble to ascertain precisely the quantity of colouring matter used in. the process of dyeing green teas, not certainly with the view of assisting others, either at home or abroad, in the art of colouring, but simply to show green-tea drinkers in England, and more particularly in the United States of America, what quantity of Prussian blue and gypsum they imbibe in the course of one year. To 14½ lbs. of tea were applied 8 mace 2½ candareens of colouring matter, or rather more than an ounce. In every 100 lbs. of coloured green tea consumed in England or America, the consumer actually drinks more than half a pound of Prussian blue and gypsum! And