Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1896-04-16

The Burmese Make a Preserve os the
Wild Tea Of Assam.
The earliest users Of tea In New Eng
land, 1t may be remembered, laid them
selves open to ridicule on the part Of
Inbred persons. They had some tea,
recommended as fashionable English
dish, but they had no directions for
using 1t. After much elaboration they
decided that it was green's" so they
boiled 1t and served 1t with q sauce, az
one serves spinach. They reported
that it wasn't good, and they wondered
at the extent to which v0taries OF
fashion would go In pursuit Of novel
ties.
The New Englanders. however, were
only using their tea as great part OF
the people of the East uses it's tea.
Infusing tea leaves, and drinking the
infusion is only one way of taking
tea" Tea cigarettes offer a second way
of doing so. In upper Siam little tea ID
drunk; most Of it Is prepared for chew
ing, and the laboring classes there use
1t largely. In Thibet and Western
China brick tea is stewed with milk,
salt and fat, and is eaten as q vege-
table; and in Burmah they make what
is called picked tea, which is eaten as
a preserve with the other articles OF
food. The great royal gardens at Kew,
England, recently obtained specimens
Of the plant as grown in Burmah, and
in the Kew Bulletin Is an interesting ac-
count Of the process Of picking and the
method Of using this tea.
The tea is called let-pet or leppett tea,
and is made from the wild tea OF As
sam. Camellia theifera. 1t is grown in
the Yaung Baing State of the Northern
Shan States, whose inhabitants, one
and all, including the sawbwa himself,
trade in the commodity" No explana-
ton of the word 'sawbwa" is vOuch-
safed; bit from the word himself"
which followed the mysterious title, it
Is evident that the sawbwa is akin TO
the grand panjandrum, who also was
known as himself"
The tea gardens Of the sawbwa HIM
self and the other Inhabitants OF this
Yaung Baing State are on the hillsides,
which are very steep in that State.
The trees yield crops of trees suitable
for the market until they reach ma
turity at height Of some sixty feet.
but the best article is obtained from
young shrubs, of which the gardens
chiefly consist. Two crops Of tea are
secured each year-One in May and one
in July--only the young and tender
leaves being taken. The leaves, while
still green, are boiled in large, narrow
necked pots made for the purpose.
When thoroughly boiled the contents
of the pots are turned into pits dug in
the ground These pits are square and
about six feet deep. The sides and bot
tom are lined with thin walls Of plan
tain leaves, which keep the tea pure
from contact with the earth. The pit
being full of boiled tea and the juices
from the pots, n top made of plantain
leaves is placed over it, and earth Is
piled above it, big stones and other
heavy weights being finally placed on
the top.
The tea is thus compressed for some
months. When the trading season
comes the pits are opened, and the tea
sold to the traders. For transport the
tea is packed in long baskets. The
baskets have no lid. but are covered in
with strips of bamboo, so arranged as
to serve the purpose of lid in being
alright. and at the same time to admit
the insertion of wedge, the pressure
of which prevents fermentation from
setting in. Every day the wedges are
hammered in a little further, SO that,
although the tea dries in the baskets
and shrinks, constant pressure is
kept up.