The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1886-04-16
ABOUT TEAS.
Methods of Preparing the Leaf by Japan.
ess Growers.

ose NIoWers.
The principal market for green tea,
says the Pail Mall Gazette, is the
United States. Having fallen rattle,
into dlsrepute in the old world, it has
established itself in the new world,
whereltl Is lare ely consumed and known
as "tea" simply, in contradis.inction
to English breakfast tea," "China
tea," or "Oolong," by which names
the black teas are designated. The
reason for it's popularity is no doubt
IN a great measure due to the inter
course with Japan where green tea
alone is manufactured, and which every
year sends enormous cargoes across
the Pacific. In the making of tea, as
IN everything which this curious people
40, the japanese have q way OF their
own. 1t would startle an Assam
planter to see them in picking time
squattsng down before the trees and
stripping the branches of the leaves,
instead of scientifically selecting the
young, undeveioped leaf, the first leai
below that, and half the second, from
winch would be evolved respectively,
broken Tips" or "Orange Pe}oe,"
"Pekoe," and "Souchong." ANY one
accustomed to the elaborate machines
Tor rolling and firing the leaves
which are in use on European plan
tatlons might beamused at the .Japan-
ese method, where the workers roll
and squeeze and twist the leaves in
their hands on a parchment stretched
over a charcoal fire. Very fine teas
are, nevertheless manufactured blythe
Japanese, and in the celebrated dis.
trlct OF w rumor tells of tea worth
SIG per pound, though it is not def
nltely stated whether that price has
ever actually been paid for it. More
over, IN the case OF teas intended for
export only SO much work is done
upon them as will enable them to be
sent to the "tea-tiring godowns" of
Yokohama, where they are workedu p
LOT the market before being shipped,
AS is now well known, the difference
between green tea and black lies in the
TACT that i'll the former fermentation
has been arrested by "tiring," the
color OF the leaf being in its way JAR
TALLY preserved and fixed; while the
latter, by a much longer process, fer
up to a certain point is
permitted, and the leaves are not ..fr-
&c" until they have become, oxidized
by the air. In Japan the leaves, aft
er being picked and "withered' by q
short exposure, are fired In the way
describeu above sufficiently to stop
fermentation, and in this partially
cured state are sen to the European
tea MERCHANTS, by whom they are
again fired. in the ''godowns" of
Yokohama hundreds OF women can be
seen at work turning the leaves over
and over and round and round in
large basins built over a charcoal fire.
h coloring or painting" is also
at this period by means of a
spoonful of indigo and powered soap
stone put into each basin, and thus
disseminated through It's contents.
III Japan tea is not grown for ex-
port only, but 1t is the chef article of
acme consumption; and these domes-
tic teas as procured in the country
Ire probably the only samples of I'M
idulterated green tea which Euro
beams are likely to meet with. They
produce a beverage which is refreshing,
quite harmless, and which. notwith.
standing the way it is prepared. can,
only a short residence in the
'ountry, be readily distinguished
rom hot water.