Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-03-18
ART IN pRINKlNa TEA.
People In This Country Can Buy Better
Tea This Year Than Hitherto.

Tea This Year Than Hitherto.
THE TEA SITUATION IN cHINA-wuAr An AMERr-
|. Can HousExEEPER PAYS 81 4 POUND FOR
BEWARE OF GREEN TxA-sRHAr TEA PLAsrA-
TIoSs-How To MAKE A PERFECT CUP.
Tea drinkers in this country will learn with
pleasure that the crops Of tea during the past
year In Forrho sa were larger and very much
inner than ever before. Formosa tea is, with
out doubt. the best in the world, and Ameri-
cans consume IS per cent Of it 1t lie so supe-
rior and popular in fact that INSCRIPTIONS
dealers in japanese, Corean, and espe-
ciaiiy Indian and Ceylon teas, have
been doing big business in send
ing to the United States market
their own goods put up in Imitation of the
Formosa article. The new law compelling i'm
porters to brand each package with the name
OF the place it comes from has STRUCK blow at
the practice and has given much satisfaction to
merchants In China. Annoy which not very long
MO was .he greatest tea producing country in
the world, has almost ceased TO produce the
leaf chiefly owing to the dishonesty and rapac-
ity of traders and money lenders. particularly
Europeans. The tea planters fell into
| debt to them and were SO 6eeced that
they lost all interest in their calling In order
| to carry out contracts for required Quantities
with sweeplngs.
| In Russia and Japan and above all in China
| there are epicures more dainty as to their
| daily tea than rich eonnoisseurs in America are
over their Madeira and Burgundy, United
| States Consul Bedloe st Annoy writes TO the
State Department The governor of Formosa
pays from $40 20 $40 pound fox his tea. OF
\ the exquisite, Incompatible favor and aroma
possessed by the costly leaves people who have
never tasted anything better than ordinary tea
| can have no adequate notion.
In 1892 the United States will spend 81 l. 900, =
900 for Chinese tea. of which gum the planters
will receive $4,000. eco, the tradesmen on this
side Of the water g. SOC. 0G0 and foreigners,
with no interest in America or China, the hand
| some balance Of IS, 500, 600.
HOW TEA SHOULD BE MADE.
Americans don't know the fret principles OF
making lea, Consul BedIoe says. The delicate
leaf should never touch metal 1t should be
kept in paper, wood. glass or porcelain. To
! make it, put small quantity in porcelain
| cup fill the latter with boiling water cover il
| up with porcelain saucer and let it stand three
\ minutes.
Then, if you desire to be an epicure, drink
| only the upper layer Of the golden liquid.
throw the rest away, rinse the cup and begin
| drawing de novo. Never use sugar any more
than you would sweeten Chambertin or pour
molasses into Mumms extra dry. Do not use
| milk. 1t ruins the flavor Of the tea and the
combil alton Injuries the stomach. The cioudi-
ness produced by adding milk to tea arises
| from the action of the tannin upon the casein
and is. chemically speaking. pure leather.
! Above all things, do not boil tea.
Never let the tea stand except in tightly
closed porcelain pot. Better make it III small
! quantities. and make it often. In summer,
| when you want to cool off quickly. sip the tea
boiling hot, with slice of previously peeled
lemon or, nicer still, of orange without the rind,
\ floating IN it. In winter, especially when
you have cold and require sudorific, add a
| wlnegiass full of arrack to it and drink it down
| as hot as you can stand 1t. 1t will bring out a
| profuse Precipitation when punch or hot scotch
| fails to thaw you out.
| BEWARE OF GREEN TEA
1t is an abomination and a fraud. In the
/ first place it is the unripe leaf and bears the
same relation to the real article that the
green does to the ripe peach. The green
| tea of commerce derives its rare color
| from being cured, or rather killed,
| OF dirty copper pans, from being mixed with
| weeds and shrubs. from being STAINED with
| indigo and chrome-yellow, from being colored
| with verdigris grass juice or chlorophyl. Every
| green dye known to commerce has been used
| to produce that much admired but death
dealing color, excepting 1t may be Paris green.
| As soon as the use # that poisonous substance
| will give profit Of Q cent pound no doubt
| 1t will be literally used by the mercenary Mon
golian merchant and the much more msrcen-
! airy European tea trader.
| There is no fine tea in the United States.
What comes hither is the cheap stuff used in
/ China by the coolies and Jail inmates. When
| an American housekeeper pays 81 per pound
| for her Oolong or English breakfast she is
| buying what is sold in China Tor Is cents. No
really good tea is sold here for less than 81 per
pound by the wholesale. If laid down in the
market at home it could not be sold for less
than S1.75.
! FARMS IN TEA DISTRICTS.
There are farms in Formosa. Fo-Kien and
other tea districts whose tea crop is as famous
and distlnctively known in the eastern world
AZ the various chateaux of France are
to the wine experts of Europe Jus,
as the millionaires OF Europe control
| certain vineyards, so do the miilionaires
Of the fowery kingdom control tea plantations
| whose annual output Is worth 4 kings ransom.
| What nectar ia q really good cup Of tea. The
color is delicate gold, each leaf unfOlds into a
perfect olive oval; its fragrance, delicate and
yet penetrating, Is distinguishable above all
| other perfumes.
| IN ANCIENT TINES
| By whom and when the use of tea for drink
ing purposes was discovered is lost in ntiquity.
| The famous herb is referred to in the Chinese
annals as far back as 1000 b. c., at which period
| it was cultivated and classified nlmos,
| as completely as today. One ancient legend
| says that Its virtues were learned by accident
! by a Chinese monarch. King Shen Nung, 1.-THE
| divine husbandman." who hourished forty cen.
turtles ago, and who, in boiling water over fire
| made from tea branches ON which the leaves
still hung allowed some Of the latter to fall
| into the pot.
Tea was highly esteemed in nearly every
| ancient Asiatic city near the sea and was used
| as a royal gift from the Chinese monarcbs and
| great merchants to the potentates Of the east.
| To the rajahs OF Handy, the sultans OF
Ceylon, the shoguns and daimios OF
Il ted samples Of the leaves packed in
/ pr, ious boxes. Some of these presents must
| hav been worthy of q crown. One is thus re-
corded: 1T weighed forty catties (about fifty
| pounds), and each leaf was perfect
| in color, size and age. The leaves
were divided into parcels Of five maces
| each "a little over half an ounce,
and each parcel wrapped in fine white
| paper, and these in turn wrapped in pure silver
| foil and put into little bags made of bright
| colored silk. A hundred bags were placed in a
porcelain jar, whose lid was securely fastened
and sealed, and each jar was protected by q box
OF camphor wood trimmed with silver hinges
| and Ornamental"
In Korea in the list of the princes to whom
| these presents were made are many whose
! identity would be otherwise lost to history
| From the Old writings many curious facts are
thus obtainable. Among other things it appears
| that Korea was at one time formidable power,
| military and naval; that the Japanese at long
intervals changed from peaceable neighbors
| in mar nd hoo xl,.xh