Huntsville gazette., 1883-05-05
PoisOns Called Tea.

Lea, fragrant and exhilaratino tea
gentlest and most lady-likeo of all bever-
ages, solace of old age and sweet. com
muner of sociability. It's Of tea this
article will speak. Who in poring over
some volume of half-forgotten lore.
origin ating on British soil century or
more ago, has not been dirnly conscious
OF a. certain indescribable spirit, soft,
benefiting, contemplative and gossipy-.
the influence of the Oriental herb upon
the nervous system of the writers of
Queen Anne and the first two Georges
reigns? Could the pleasantly senti-
mental g TrIstram Shandy'' ever have
been written in our time, when vile
decoction has to supply the place of the
genuine article? Does not Dickens, and
still more Thackeray, infuse quantity
different from that of writer's of the
present day into their tales? Tea PLAYS
very important part in the makeup of
their words and sketches You feel that
the wholesome cup that cheers but not
lnebriates was then an indispensable
adjunct to every chat and to every
meeting OF old cronies. More ardent
liquids were then, as now, not missing
from the social board, but tea in every
instance preceded them or was their
concomitant. Alas for the DAYS of pure.
unadulterated and not too expensive
tea! They have fled, never to return
this side the ocean as well as beyond.
Let us see. What is found TO-DAY
when we imbibe the pellucid fluid hon.
ored by the name of tea? We'lI enter
restaurant on Fifth avenue, right
where hundreds of cups of the cheering
stuff are sold daily, at the rate of five
cents each, to the mechanic, to the print
er, to the clerk or small shopkeeper.
Whew! this is not tea The flavor re-
sembles more that of a nondescript MKT
ure of extract of sole leather, with
sprinkling of pennyroyal or some such
homely medium. a@sg a4s
The investigator passes on and tries
cup in a Dearborn-street restaurant. It
is. better, but it is not yet the thing. 1t
is decoction of tea, true enough; but
| of what tea, and prepared in what a
horrid, savage manner Boarding.
house? Worse still. In families? Well,
in a few you do get q cup of decent tea
But really good, fragrant tea, the per-
fume of one cupful of which, fingers in
the air, where do you find it nowadays?
The truth is, good tea has become so
rare a thing in America that it must be
counted among the curiosities Even
in d large and prosperous city like
Chicago It is exceedingly difficultto find
IPeis place WHERE here insxehangs sof dog con-
to obtain what may be called goou Tea.
AS partial explanation of this fact,
it may be stated that it is impossible to
get Chinese or Japanese tea to this
country without the latter losing con-
siderable of its fine flavor and taste
while on its way on board ship. A sea
voyage invariably spoils tea, a very del
icate herb, to some extent. That is the
reason why you find the most excellent
grades of tea, outside of China itself, in
Russia. That is the so-called caravan
tea, it being pressed in China into brick
form, wrapped up carefully first in
Chinese tissue paper and then in hides,
and carried on the back of camels
through the steppes of Northern China
and by way of Kjachta across the undu-
lating plains of Eastern Russia to some
of the larger inland towns like Nishnij-
Novgorod and Kiev. That tea is as far
different IN taste from the American
commodity as is the genuine Mocha to
the cheaper kinds of Brazil coffee.
But to come back to the original
theme Of teas in America, it is deplor-
able fact that about ninety-nine per cent.
ofallthe teas to be bought here and drank
is less than tolerable. 1t is for that rea-
son. and for the further reason of its
wholesale adulteration, that Americans
have become, Il by large majority" a
nation Of coffee-drinkers, whereas, less
than hundred years ago, nay, still
forty years ago, they were as fond of
their tea as the English have remained
till to-day. And there is yet another
reason for the more and more diminish
ing popularity of tea, viz, the extor-
tionate prices the public are made to
pay for very inferior grades of it.-CM-
cago Herald. a l -.a|