The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-07-20
WHAT'S IN A CUP OF TEA?
Tannin and Theine, and What Their
 Effects Are.

l Perhaps l may be allowed to make
 some comments on a subject discussed
 in the columns of this paper the other
 day. The first proposition. is that the
 dark color of tea does not mean ex-
 celIence, the second that the darker
 the liquid is the more evil are its ef- 1 fleets ,and the third that the best tea 1 is Chinese. These are the opinions of
 an importer. It is worth nothing. I
 think, that they are also the scientific
 opinions, and, further, that this l case where doctors agree. What must properly be described as the pharma- rology of tea is simple and well un- derstood, and, as it concerns every
 one, it may be briefly discussed here.
 For pratical purposes, tea con
 sists of two things-the first being
 tannic acid, also known as tannin, and the second being theine, also
 known as caffeine. Let us consider
 each of these. The tannin, or tannic
 acid, occurs in the tea leaf, as in so many other plants; 1t is less readily
 soluble than the theine, and is much
 less readily obtained from the Chin
 csc leaf than from the Indian, the
 later, together with the singhalese,
 containing much more of this sub-
 stance. Fannie acid has no attrac-
 tions for the palate except in the case |of people who like little bitterness,
 and it has no action on the nervous
 system, none of 1t, indeed, being ab-
 sorbed by the body. Its action upon
 the tissues with which it comes into
 immediate contact is wholly deleter-
 ious. I do not say that it is necessar-
 fly serious, but what action there is is wholly bad. Notably does it in-
 terfere with the digestlbility of food stuffs. Plainly, therefore, a chief concern in the production of the best beverage from tea should be reduc-
 tion of the jamie acid to minimum. This is to be accomplished, first, by using the leaf which contains least of 1t, and secondly, by sharply limiting the length of the infusion It has been clearly proved that practically all the thene that can be obtained from the leaf is obtained in the first
 three minutes, whereas the amount of tannin increases markedly, even be tween the twientieth and fortieth min- utes.
 In the opinion of not a few, the said tannin is largely responsible for the deleterious. effects frequently attrib- uted to the theine. This last is an in- valuable ingredient of tea It is the same substance as that which gives its value to coffee, but is pres- ent in Jess abundance in the tea leaf than in the coffee bean; 1t is ner- vous stimulant of the purest kind, and belongs to an entirely different class from the pseudo-stimulants, such as alcohol. In some ways this is one of the most remarkable of all known drugs; it appears to be unique in that it stimulates the functions of the cer- ebrum, the highest portion of the brain, without inducing any subse- quent reaction that can be detected It has no second stage of action com parable to that of alcohol and opium, and in cases of emergency it is capa- ble of postponing sleea. for hours, and, more than that, of maintaining the mental activity as in the daytime. may confess that in past years I have systematically used caffeine for weeks on end for this purpose without any deleterious results; but this is quoted for illustration, not imitation.
 Now, it is plain that, 20 far as the remote consequences of cup of tea are considered, it is the theine or caf- felne that we desire, and the tannin that we do not desire. The relative solubility of the two- substances ex actly suits our convenience. If 1t were necessary to extract all the tan- min in order to get any theine there might be some excuse for the lady who likes her tea to have a little body to 1t, or for the servant girl who keeps her teapot on the hob all day. But the fact Is that it is possible to obtain all the theine desired while reducing the amount of tannin to a minimum, 1 AL plGSGllJ llG puDllC teohC lS lilOI~ l oughly vitiated; no one who has given 1 the matter a fair consideration, or who | cares to admit any palatal delicacy at all, will question the fine aroma of l B cup of properly made Chinese tea is In different category altogether from the sensations aroused by the | solution of tannin, which | Is usually offered under the pseudonym "a cup of tea" Which things are | written without prejudice.
 In order to make reasonably com plete, this brief account of the cup that cheers, I must add that it contains small proportion of volatile oil, | which is of small physiological impor- -ance, but which contributes largely to the gustatory character of tea. The thief public deluslon in this connec- ton is that the sense of taste may be implicitly trusted You think you are not getting your moneys worth unless your senses are violently assailed. It Is as If you judged the power of music I terms of the amplitude of the sound waves. The masters pianissimo has more poteYcy than the storZando of !