Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1857-08-07
TEA TABLE DRINKS.

There are three aromatic beverages-tea, cof-
fee, and cocOa-which are generally used in all
parts of eivilised Europe, Asia, and America.
In the countries Of China, Thibet, Russia, Hol-
land, England, and the various States and pro-
vinces Of North America, having an aggregate
pJpula ion of five hundred million human be-
ings, an estimated quantity of two thousand mil
lion pounds of tea-fOur pounds to each indiyid-
ual, Is annually used. Coffee, which is preferred
by many people to tea, and which is indeed the
staple minor luxury of fMahomedan life. is yearly
becoming more and more generally used Tits
estimated that six hundred million pounds of the
coffee bean are consumed every year by one
hundred and twenty millions OF men. Cocoa.
the least popular cf these drinks is still favo-
rite beverage in Central America, Italy and
Spain, and is probably consumed to the extent
of one hundred millions pounds year among
a population of fifty million.
An article in the April number of the Edin-
burgh Review gives some interesting facts in
relation TO the chemical properties Of these three
tea table drinks, which are common upon every
table in our land, and explains at length the
reasons why they are always so refreshing to the
weary and so apparently nOurishing to the hun
CRY. 1t says that the tea. coffee and cocoa all
contain in the roasted state in which they are
used, aromatic oils, in minute proportion, to
which the peculiar aroma of each is due. They
contain also a proportion of an astringent sub
stance resembling the tannn Of gail-nuts or oak
II
quantity of a white crystalline body called
theme, and in cocoa a substance of nearly sim
liar character known by name of theobrOmine.
OF these three constituent parts two of them. the
volatile oil and the theme are known to exercise
peculiar influence upon the system. The oil
possesses narcotic properties, intOxicates. Oc-
easions headache and giddinesS and sometimes
paralysis In those who, as tea tasters, are much
exposed TO its influence New tea contains this
oil in larger quantities than old. The small
proportion of it which exists in tea as we get it
from China is harmless.
The theme which is found in coffee and tea and
the theObrOmine in cocoa, are Bitter strengthen
ing substances, distinguished particularly by
the peculiar property Of retarding the natural
waste of the animal body. The faster the
waste the larger the quautity of food which must
daily be consumed TO make up for the loss which
1t occasions. The theme or theobrOmine, there
fore, by lessening the waste, lessons also the
amount Of food necessary to be eaten within a
given time. The volatile oil produces similar
effect in a somewhat less degree, and when old
age comes on and the powers of digestion di-
minish, the infusion tea, which contains both
these ingredients, by lessening the waste, aids
the digestive powers to maintain the strength
and bulk of the weakening frame. DIR. johnson.
the author of work upon the chemistry of
common life, says in connection with these i'm
pOrtant properties Of the thene and volatile oil,
that
1t is no longer wonderful, therefore. that tea
and coffee should be fayorites-On the one hand
with the poor, whose supplies Of food are scanty,
and on the other hand with the aged and infirm,
especially the feebler sex, whose powers of
digestion and whose bodily substance have to-
gether begun to fail. Nor Is il surprising that
the aged female whose earnings are barely
sufficient 10 buy the common necessaries Ofl life,
should yet spare portion of her small gains in
procuring this grateful indulgence. She can
sustain her strength as we'll with less common
food when she takes her tea along with it;
while she feels lighter at the same time, in
spirits, more cheerful and filter for the dull
work Of life, because Of this little indulgence =
Boston Journal.