The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1879-03-13

used. These leaves being ground are
mixed with gum paste and this in turn
with leaves of genuine tea. These
mixtures may not do harm to the body
polite, but they certainly do not con-
tain the happy ingredients from which
desirable and restful refreshment fol-
mind and body come. The sale of
exhausted tea leaves was long ago
brought to the notice of British officials
Here hotels, hospitals and restaurants
furnish immense quantities of partially
exhausted tea leaves, which are
carefully gathered, preserved, sold
and used again by families who pay
good prices for high toned teas. The
average tea drinker knows nothing
his tea beyond the fact of taste. He
orders a pot of tea, it is brought to
him, he pours and drinks. If it suits
his taste he is content. But there are
| men, aud especially dealers, who lit
orally eNamins their teas, and for
such it is necessary to prepare the ex~
hausted leaves SO that they will
resemble, in form and color, the
original. Sulphate of iron, rose pink,
logwood and plumbago are found
serviceable in these respects. Logwood
rose pink gives color and bloom to it's
surface.
CASES IN POINT.
The London Times mentions the
case of parties who were arrested for
manufacturing spurious tea. 1t was
found that they had an extensive iron
pan, containing sloe leaves and tea
leaves purchased from restaurant
keepers. The officers discovered large
quantities of exhausted tea leaves and
bay leaves, mixed with solution of
gum and cOpperas. One of the parties
was caught stirring the leaves and
gum In a pan, and over N hundred
pounds of the stuff. exactly initiating
genuine tea, we're discovered in an adj
joining apartment. These people sold
largely to country groceIs. Other in
tions Of starch, gum ca,elhu, sulphate
of iron, black lead, tale, china clay,
soapstOne and turmeric.
THE GREEN TEAs.
Thee is so great a demand for green
teas that the genuine article cannot be
supplied, but with characteristic in
genuity John Cinnamon, tided and
abetted by Brother Jonathan, finds
spurious articles quite as good for or
binary buyers. Black leaves are col
ored to resemble green leaves, and
damaged black leaves furnish the basis
for the choicest of green. All that is
needed to turn damaged blacks into
first class greens is a cast iron pan, a
fire and the chemicals. Tumeric,
Prussian blue and gypsum do the
business to perfect satisfaction. The
coloring matter SO DISCUSSES the char
acter of the leaves that the fraud is
not easily detected.
The fact that green and black tea
can be and is made from a parent
common tea is of itself q suggestion of
fraud, which when followed show
very clearly that the fraud is also a
fact. For the sake Of a color and a
possible bouquet the of
tea make away with thousands Of
pounds of Prussian blue every year.
rhis colOring is largely done in China
during the curling process, and adds
nothing whatever, save weight and
poison to the leaf.
When teas were higher than at
present a very ifnpost aut importation
was known as l~ie-tea, a composition
made of tea dust, foreign leaves quartz
and oxide of iron and starch. This
lie-tea and whatever there Is a poorly
concealed satire in the name or rot, is
a question was used largely fer adul-
teratIng purposes, but it is not used
here at present. Or late a very mott
ceable traffic has been done in recolor,
ed teas, which is rehea.ed and then
sprinkled with a powdered mixture of
terra alba, dutch pink and Prussian
blue. The leaves when covered with
this impalpable powder look quite as
good as new and find a ready sale.
Strange as it may appear it is a fact
that the intelligent public resolutely
decline to touch or be inveigled into
purchasing.t the genuine article. They
clamor for the nice green color"
while the natural, uncolored leaf has
a bilious, yellow color, which no one
cares to e e
Recently several samples of tea
were analysed and carefully examined
under the microscope, especially for
foreign CT spent tea leaves. With the
exception of tea dust and cOlOring
matter the microscope revealed no
foreign substance. The colOring matter
looked, under a microscope, as If it
had been plastered on the surface of
the tea without any regard to quan>
tity.
THE
The mixture was composed of china
clay and tale for the white color care
Donate of lime and a yellow organic
coloring matter for the yellow color
called Dutch pink sulphate Of baryta
and Prussian blue, called celestial