New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1911-04-05

OthorWSee u Will Not Pass the Gus.
toms, Under Tea Boards Orders.
Differs from Black Tea Merely In the
Method Of curino-Whsrs the In.
convenience Hits.
There will be no green tea after May
/, but those who have been in the habit
Of using it may get tea which tastes
the same, but looks different. The
same thin, aromatic flavor will be
found, but the leaf will be dry and
yellow and not Of the present polished
emerald hue. 1t is simply matter of
eliminating coloring matter.
The tea board at Washington, which
consists of seven tea experts appointed
at the instance of the more reputable
tea merchants of this country to keep
the standards of tea sold in this coun
try as high as possible. ruled recently
that in order to avoid the confusion of
having to label each package of green
tea as "artifcially colored" it would
be better to order the Chinese and
Japanese tea growers to cure the tea
without coloring it.
Black tea has been cured simply by
driving it in the sun. But green tea
has been cured by the Japanese and
Chinese by Il quicker process. The
fresh plucked tea leaves are put in a
pot over a fire. AS they are dried the
Chinaman or Japanese who stands over
the pot rakes over the leaves constant
" with his fingers and sprinkles them
with small pinches of certain mys-
teriOus powder. .f
Powder Used to Color.
So little of this powder is used that
one pinch will color a whole chest of
fifty pounds. It's just Chinese pow
der. No one knows where the Chi
nese get it or exactly what change 1t
makes in the leaves during the firing
process. 1t makes the drying leaves
change from an unattractive yellow to
lustrous green, and it also preserves
them SO that they can stand the long
sea voyage. which until half century
ago meant four months voyage
around Cape Horn.
It is the use Of this powder by the
Chinese and Japanese that the tea
board at Washington is going to stop.
The board made an agreement with
the tea merchants of the country that
no more tea colored and preserved with
the powder should be imported and
sold in this country after May l. The
board also warned the business men.
of China and Japan who oversee the
l.picking and preserving of the tea
leaves that they must find another way
to preserve green tea.
Result of Pure Food Law.
The order of the tea board is the re,
suit of the pure food law. Under the
pure food law every kind of food which
is artificially colored must have IA
bel stating the fact pasted on the
package When the board of ten eX-
perts at Washington found that this
section of the pure food law WIS going
to apply to tea they held a meeting and
decided that the use Of labels saying
that green tea was artificially cclored
would make bad impression on Gus
toners and would give them the notion
that green tea was adulterated. which
Is not so.
Green tea is no more adulterated
than black tea Is. The two kinds OF
tea come from exactly the same leaf,
but are merely preserved in different
way.. The black tea is dried in the sun
and Is preserved by sort of natural
process of fermentation. The green
tea is put in pot over a fire, and the
preserving and coloring powder Is
sprinkled over It. The difference In
taste between the two kinds OF tea
merely comes from the difference In
their firing processes.
Difference In Teas.
The black tea, being left out in the
sun to dry for long time In natural
way, has q thick, stout. malty flavor.
The green tea. being fired quickly over
a fire. acquires thinner, more acrid
aroma. The pinel, of coloring matter
which is sprinkled over 1t doesn't make,
any difference in the favor at all. For
this reason the omission Of the color
ing matter in future will not make
much difference in the consumption OF
green tea by Americans.
Some American green tea drinkers
may shift to black tea, but most OF
them will continue to use the artificial
" fred tea, whose peculiar aroma they
have always liked so much. They Will
have to get used to its natural yellow
color, that IS all.
The chief Inconvenience will fall Oh
the japanese and Chinese. who have
been preparing the green tea In the
past. The use of the coloring matter
has always tended to preserve the tea
for the Pacific voyage; now the Japa-
nese and Chinese will have to fire 1t
little longer. This will Inconvenience
them, and they will probably think our
government unduly finical. Perhaps
it will give them an additional reason
Ill