New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-07-01
OF TEA.

CHT'A is truly the Celestial Empire, and
the charm Of China is tea. We must all admit
Monarchists, Republicans, Presidents, and Cars
that the Emperor of China is properly entitled
Lord of the whole world. 1t is Rajah in the in
terror of Borneo, believe, who enjoys the style
of /" Great Grand father of the Fixed Stars "a
compliment which we would willingly pay to the
Chinese dynasty. For the civilized and savage
world unite in homage to tea, and the official rep
resentatiye of tea is his Celestial Serenity. There
is but one realm upon the globe uninyaded by tea,
the Empire of the Commander of the Faithful.
But long since, learned men have apprised US Of
the Turkish decline, and ascribed it to the slow
consuming poison of coffee. There is evidently
no salvation for Turkey but in tea
In the ninth century certain Arabian Doctors
mentioned fragrant and fascinating Chinese bev-
erage, prepared from the plant called Schah or
Sab. After the lapse of some six hundred years
in l633-Olearius discovered that tea was do
mestcated as luxury among the higher ranks of
society in Persia. And to-day, the tea-drnking
Powers Of the Land and the Sea-Russia and Eng
land-are striving to destroy the tea-nourlshed
power of Persia, as well the coffee poisoned
weakness of the Ottoman Empire. All through
the wastes of Central Asia, beyond Persia, among
the Nomads with shifting tents who dit along the
far Asian extremities of Russia, now owning the
Gar, now the Celestial Serenity, for Lord, the
Kirgish. the Camucks, the Baschkiri &C., tea is
supreme. But their use of it is according to
their condition. With them it is no drink, but
solid nourishmeht. 1t has no appearance of deli
cately rolled leaves, Dut sticks and stalks OF the
plant are made into heavy, stohdslke CAKES, oil
the color Of tan.balls, and Of the consistenCe OF
ron-bolts. This is moistened and baked with the
water of the Steppes, mixed with the blood Of
animals and enriched with the fat of beef or NUT
ton, and it is then eaten with spoons like a thick
SOUP There is hope Of the Nomadic Asans. They
will advance from the thick soup to the exquisite
extract. But still more wonderful is the use of a
tea. like beverage upon some OF the islands OF the
Pacific Ocean and the South Sea. Perhaps, says
an ingenious German commentator, some wander
ing Chinese junks have touched those shores, and
left the tradition of that celestial luxury, which
spread from island TO island in the calm Archipela
90. When the first European ships arrived, the
mariners were offered, in token of friendship not
the pipe of peace, but reed through which they
imbibed "hot fluidity" like tea. 1t was not
vertable tea, adds the German, significantly, but
it was the symbol OF tea.
This reminds as that tea cannot be trans
planted. The Chinese, alone, has that magic Of
mental and material e1hiliration, that ethereal
aroma, that dewy influence, peculiar to the drink.
1t is poison" said an old woman to DR.. Johnson.
" Madame, it may be poison, but have been
seventy years dying Of it," and he drained his
sixth evening bowl.
In eight years the leaves of the tea-plant are
fully charged with their peculiarities. In the
ninth year they begin to lose them. Yet the
plants are stripped sometimes to the eleventh and
twelfth yeaTs-and hence the endless varieties of
tea. Each year there are four harests, of which
that OF February is the least in quantity and best
in quality. The April harvest is kind of rOpes,
second cutting of the best. That of June yields
mainly large leaves, and that of August is of the
baser sort. But each harvest carefully strips the
plant and for each the work men prepare them
selves as for religious act. For eight days they
must eat only little and carefully, for the leafs
sensitive to an unpleasant breath. careful bath