Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-06-01
WEEDS SOLD FOR TEA
Cheap Stuff That Bears No Relation
 to the Genuine.
ASany Consumers Unable to Detect the Imposition While Some Prefer the Spurious Leaf to
 the Pure.

"Most women think they know ev- erything about tea, or at least enough" said Thomas A. Phelan, but as matter of fact I don't believe there is any other single article that appears on American tables about which the consumers know so l;tt1e." All of this was apropos of the Ma tional Tea association, lately organ ized for the purpose of upholding the laws now in operation to protect this beverage from adulteration and spu- rious imitation, reports the New !, York Tribune.
 MT. Phelan is the president of the organization, the members and other officers representing nearly 200 large firms in all parts of the United States. Before 1s97," continued MT. Phelan, there was practically no protective legislation for this import and the United States was a sort of dumping ground for the refuse brands which could find sale no- where else in the world.
 ''Throughout the south, where the majority of the buyers and handlers were not experts, whole sections and states practically gave up the use of tea because of it's inferior quality, though they did not know where to turn for remedy. So clever were the limitations that only an expert could detect them, but they were no less spurious for that. ...
 Many herbs, some of them harm less, but having no relation whatever to the tea plant, were shipped hero by the million pounds and sold as tea. By some chemical process they were colored so that to the eye they were Identical with the genuine article. While many of them were not iniuri- ous to health, they had no more right to be sold as tea than would, for in- stance, paper imitation of beef steak painted red.
 ''Now, the fact is that of the so- called black tea alone there are at least 500 varieties, with as many havors as are known to the most lux urious flower garden. The greens and Japans might each be subdivided into 8 like number. One of the black teas, the so-called English breakfast, a name unknown incidentally in either China or England, is really the congou, of which alone there are at least 200 different flavors and grades.
 Other varieties of black tea are the colongs from Foochow and the island of Formosa and the Ceylons and Indias. All these are sold as 'black tea,' but there is as much diff ference in taste between an oolong nd hnk rI chocolate or whisky and claret. The congou, Ceylon and India are fer mented in their preparation or al- lowed to stew In their own juice,' so to speak, which gives them a heavy, malty flavor.
 "The oolong Is prepared like green tea, without fermentation, and iS fired almost immediately after pick ing, giving it bright, toasty charac- ter, which results in a light-colored infusion. They are equally good, de- spite their differences.
 As rule the English, Irish and their descendants drink the congous, while the older residents of America, and especially of New York and Bos- ton, prefer the belongs. The varia- fions in soil and temperature under which the different teas are grown produce the radically different favors so dear to the true tea lover and so inexplicable to the uninitlated. 't
 "The north China congous, for in- stance, are subdivided into 50 dis tricts, the leaves from each having flavor differing as distinctly from 4ba o%hare as daar fha Rar%Iatf paar from the Seckel, and of each variety there are half a dozen or more differ ent grades. The spring. early and