The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1893-06-28
American Tea.


tea trade of New York is more skeptical
than the possibility of making tea culture
profitable industry in the United States.
The men who sit in dingy little down town
offices, with small brass teakettles about
them and ugly little teacups stored in cup
boards that would drive any neat house
wife into Mysteries, smile whenever Amer
lean tea is mentioned. The skepticsm of
the tea dealers results partly from the fact
that they know so much, partly from the
fact that they know so little. The litera-
ture of tea culture is library in itself. To
know the subject is to spend years in
study
There are men down in the tea trade who
can appraise to "a mill the value of u given
specimen of tea, but who use the very names
of teas without IA knowledge of their sig
nificance. Tea, before its arrival in mar
ket, is to the average dealer an oriental
mystery. Those who read books on the
subject find them full of contradictions.
Some dealers fatty declare their belief that
travellers who write upon tea culture in
China have never reached the interior of
the country, AS matter of fact, different
writers upon Chinese tea culture are of ne
cessity contradictory because 1hey happen
TO have seen the operations of different dis
tricts. There are many ways of cultivat-
ing tea in China, as there are many of pre-
pairing it for market. Tea bricks, for ex-
ample which are sold by the million pounds
all over central Asia, never appear in the
trade of the United States.
Should the average tea dealer see a close
packed dark green brick, hard on the sur
face and marked in gold with Chinese char
ba p,Ix, Il
The dealers find that the oriental PLAYS
strange tricks with this market When
one sort of tea has been IA drug on the mar
ket, next season the same tea appears UNI
der different name. Young Hyson and
Gunpowder are the came tea differently
rolled, and there are a dozen devices by
which the Celestial takes advantage of the
occidental world
In the face of ali the current skepticism
as to American tea u South Carolnian
who has lO-acre tea garden, recently sent
up some of his own product to be appraised
by firm of New York tea dealers. He sent
along also tea plant, which has been ex-
hibited in dealers window. The firm to
whom the sample had been confided tasted
smelled and drew the tea, and after mature
deliberation wrote to the eXperimenter that
all the tests indicated that his tea was
worth 20 cents a pound. The grower wrote
back to thank the dealer and TO express
satisfaction that his sample could be ap
praised at such rate.
All this makes no great impression upon
the skepticism of the tea trade Tea that
WHOLESALERS at 90 cents pound should
fetch about 40 cents a pound at retail A
fair average imported tea, such as is con-
sumed by persons of moderate means de
handing articles of good quality, whole
sales at about % cents a pound. Above
and below that prices have wide range
Tea dust from China WHOLESALERS in this
market at from to II cents pound. The
best of it is drunk by the poor, who pay
for it 20 cents n pound retail. The worst
is bought by druggists and by dealers in
whisky. There is an unkind suspicion in
the tea trade that a good deal of cheap tea
dust goes into sugar coated pills of one
kind or another, in place of quinine, for ex-
ample. 1t is well known that great deal
of tea dust is used to color new whisky and
give it an appearance of age.
After the tea dust come various cheap
grades of japan, Congou, Young Tyson
and Annoy, wholesaiing at 12 or 10 cents q
pound. Then there are other Young Hy-
sons and Japans and Formosa teas whole
sailing at 20 or 25 cents per pound. The
Ceylon teas range from II to 40 cents whole
sale, with fancy qualities as high as 50
cents a pound. Some of the fancy Young
Hysons and Formosas wholesale at from 60
90 50 cents, and Chicago firm has been re-
failing fancy brands rs high as 50 IA pound
Dealers down town smile at such prices as
this last and say that there is really no bet
ter tea in this market than some that may
be retailed at 81 Il pound As matter of
fact, the finest China teas do not leave the
county and probably would not endure
transportation.
The down town skeptics say that Amer
lean tea must compete, if at all, with grades
of imported tea somewhat below medium
quality. They believe that the thing can
not be done. Climate and the cost of labor
are both against it, and the fine art of adul-
teration is also in favor of the foreign
grower. Indian teas, which have greatly
increased in popularity of late years, are
grown with labor that costs from TO 6
cents Il day. Nobody knows how much less
may be the price of labor in the heart of the
Chinese tea growing regions. Labor in
South Carolina, where the tea growing eX-
pertinent has been most persistently tried,
is anywhere from to 10 times the cost Of
labor in Ceylon and India. But it was dis
COVERED iOlS ago llldU lluCH Oh IIt LABOR III
tea culture could be performed by machin.
cry, and even that many of the planipula-
tions to viii the Chinese tea producers
have chung for centuries may oe omitted
altogether without detriment to the prod
uct. The tea growing eXperimenters of
South Carolina have great hopes from the
application of American energy and inven-
ton to this ancient employment
AS to climate, the extension of tea culture
has been very gradual, partly because those
in whose hands it lay have been jealous of
competition, and partly because the eli
matte needs of the tea plant have been
greatly misunderstood The culture of tea
In China is Il matter of centuries perhaps
of millenniums, but it is a paratively
recent thing in Japan, while it is only a
little over SO years old in India and less
than 20 in Ceylon The American tea
growers have recent precedent and the ira
dition of American enterprise in their favor
They have against them cheap skilled labor
and constituencies adulteration abroad, and
mt home the conservatism of dealers and
consumers York san.
OFF the shore near Point Rouge
Trinida d, there is a submarine sprng