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

evening wrap them IN cloth, ana dlp them Tor
some moments in hot water After they have
drpped during the night, they are spread the
next morning, before the sun is high, in hot iron
pans in which they are constantly stirred. They
are then laid upon mats rolled with the open
hand, completely cooled with large fans during the
process, then skiUfuly packed in chests, of which
the inner surface is carefully lined with scentless
leaves, for the contact Of wood or metal would i'm
part their odor and flavor to the tea. Only with the
commoner sorts are mixed the flowers of the tea
rose or Of the Olea fragraRs or the Cdmetiia
sdSdRgua, to oyerpower with their fragrance the
somewhat rank Odor of the coarser leaves. The
proper tea-plant blossoms only very rarely
and cautiously scattered among the most select
teas. The white parts generally found 10 black
teas are nothing but the young leaves with the
stiff under surface rolled outward. The Chinese,
and then the Russians, responsible for this mis-
take .of confoundng these leaves with the tea
blossoms. The Chinese word BAL lwhite) is taken
by the Muscovtes to be identical with flower, and
they therefore call all black teas Baick0W, or
hower-enriched.
The best teas go overland to Russia. The diff
ference between those thus obtained and those
carried by sea is just the difference between ma
tive Havana cigars and those made elsewhere
from the Havana leaf. There are two leading
kinds of black tea, the flower and the trade tea.
Each of these is subdivided into three families.
OF green tea there are but two kinds. But there
one kind yet more exquisite than the black or
green, and that is the yeilOw. The tea which
approaches nearest it among all those which are
sod-for the yellow tea, like the Schloss johann
nisberger, is not to be bought-iS that known as
the Imperial Pearl
From Kiachta in Russia, the tea depot OF that
empire, straight to the Chinese tea plantations, is
a distance of FIVE thousand Russian miles. But
the traders at Kiachta rarely receive the article
directly from the planters. This tea is packed
upon the spot, carried upon mems shoulders
the mountains descends the river valleys in car
riages containing two hundred boxes each, and is
transferred three times to as many cOnyeyances
before it finally reaches Thuny -tschen, near Pc
kin. Here the tea destined for Russia is sepa-
rated from that which goes on to Canton. 1t is
purchased by agents from the first hands, and sold
by them to the traders of the Chinese frontier ut
Kalgan, the point of departure for all teas to
Kiachta, distant more than 500 Russian miles.
1t is journey of three or four months, and the
tea is not delivered for gold or upon credit, but
only in barter. The Chinese must receive the
substantial equivalent before they will part with it,
The essential difference between black and
green tea is an unsoved mystery That mise
rabe tradition of the leaves becoming colored by
the hot copper so that the greeRness is poison,
is now tolerated by no Savan. The subtlest
chemical analysis has detected no foreign sub
stance in genuine green tea, but only stronger
quality ofthe tea. charac ter than in black. Green
tea. in fact, perorates our German authority, is,
in its essential being, organic concentration OF
| teeinet And here we may remark that recent
profound investigations have resolved the essen-
tal characteristics of tea, coffee, cocoa, &C., into
one quality, which supplies the energy ex-
hausted by vital action, and thus POUNDS the uni
yersal use of those beverages under various forms,
in necessity of human organization. 1t is too
true, meanwhile that our usual green tea is pre-
pared upon low principles and is far from genu-
me- The names oftea--Twanky, Hyson, Hyson-
| skin, Young Hyson, Gunpo yder, &C., we owe
| merely to the dealers in those provinces where
| Europeans have penetrated. 1t is different with
the aristocratie green tea which goes overland to
Russia. In quantity, that is rarely more than
10000 or 20, 900 pounds year, and is of two kinds
only,Ithe Schun.Iun.ta and Sch0s-k0-ai. The
essential difference between these two, again has
never been satisfactorily elucidated. Tnere is u
lurking suspicion in the minds most gifted with
genius for the research, that SchaniuR-ta is moth
ing but the youngest leaves of the February,
and the ,Schan-ko-tdi Of the April, harvests.
1t appears that only the poets of interior China
can duly celebrate the color the green tea-plant,
while the Celestial cOnnOseurs with closed eyes
can easily distinguish the carefully, rolled, firm
corn-like leaves from the finest black kinds, no
less by weight than by smell. The subject of tea,
viewed in any way, opens new world to the ad-
venturous mind. | remember, says learned and
luxurious Philosopher, that once in Russia, with
a coterie of friends completely habituated to tea
drinking, partook ola little remnant of Chaaski-
tsehai, or Imperial pearl tea, unmixed with black,
and none Of US although we had drank less Sta
kans than usual, could sleep u second during the
following night. Mild and exquisite was the sx-
filtration meanwhile, like the sweet suspicion of
opium dreams but without hallucinaton. The
blood did not course more rapidly, and not until
the next afternoon did the agreeable influence de-
cline, and then into a soft languor which only in
tbe late evening announced itself as WEAKNESS by
the quicker beatu, of the pulse. But the impor-
tation ofgreen tea is diminishing in Russia. In
the year 1910 there was arrival Of26OOOpO pounds,
but in 1919 only 9i2.
1t remains to treat, as with washed hands and
purified consciences, of the San-peheH or Sin
ia.a-pecka, or YeHo1 Tea. Only pastes per-
fected in the experience Of tea can distinguish
this from the sublimest kind Of Imperal.pearI.
In color it leans to a rosy-red Its leaf
is elegant and tender. 1t blends the per-
lection of green and black tea in favor for