El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-11-09

cost Of handling the product after 1t
reaches our shOreS-in other words,
into the pockets Of the importer, the
jobber, the wholesaler, and the re-
taller, a whole series Of 'middlemen."
By and by We shall wake up to the
absurdity Of this sort of thing, and,
by the adoption of cooperative meth
DDS, viii get rid Of the middlemen to a
great extent, not only for tea, but al
so where other merchandise Of all
kinds is concerned. Already a start
is being made in that direction But
in the meantime the American house
wife, though she pays far too much
for her tea, has the consolation Of
knowing that she gets it remarkably
pure. In fact, no other food product
in this country is so well protected
against adulteration, or sOphistication
of any any sort as tea-every pound
Of it admitted at our sea ports being
painstakingly inspected.
To see how this is accomplished, let
US venture together into the room in
the treasury building, and see Mr..
George +. Mitchell, the expert in
charge, at work. He is a remarkably
young looking man to have control
Of so large a business, but there is
no question OF the fact that he under
stands it in all its branches. To be
convinced, one should watch him
while he tests a sample Of tea. 1t is
no guessWOrk, but as much matter
OF definite determination as a prob
lem in mathematics. There are sew
eral points to be considered
First, there is the matter Of color.
Does the tea contain any foreign sub
stance, such as Prussian blue, intro
duced to improve its appearance
Secondly, there is the question Of
possible facing" by the Introduction
of paraffin or some other material to
make the tea glossy
Third, and most important, IS the
cup quality" which includes flavor,
fragrance, and ''bOdy"-this term re-
ferring to the "feeI" of the infusion
in the mouth. It should not be
Wishy Washy.
Incidentally, the appearance Of the
infused leaf must be considered. Watch
is kept for exhausted or decayed
leaves. The infusion should be clear,
containing no foreign particles. And
there must not be over certain per
centage of dust" representing the
debris of crumbled tea leaves.
Government Tea Examiners Alert.
There are government tea eXamin
erS at each of our eight principal
seapOrts, who take samples from every
batch of tea brought into the country,
and submit them to these tests. But
in order to keep a check on the work
of the examiners, they are required
from time to time to send to Washing
ton all of the samples collected by
them on a given day, together with
the Judgment recorded in each case.
ILasmuch Is they never know when
this demand will be made upon them,
they are kept always on the alert
against making a mistake. The sam
pies they send in are retested at the
treasury department, and If they do
not correspond to the examiners re-
port in any instance, he hears about
it promptly.
Until very recently the method
adopted for detecting artificial color
ing in tea was chemical and was slow
and bothersOme. 1t has been replaced
by a mechanical process, quick and
easy, which was devised by Miss Al
berta Read, Pm. D., A NJ, an employe
of the government bureau Of chem
istry. The tea under inspection is
shaken in a sieve, and the small par
ticles that drop through are allowed
to fall upon a sheet Of white paper.
being thereupOn mashed and rubbed
as fine as possible with the blade OF
a knife. A puff of the breath blows
the dust off the paper, which will then
show dots and streaks Of the artificial
coloring in case there was any such
in the tea.
The test for paraffine consists in
spreading a few leaves Of the tea be-
tween two sheets Of ungIazed white pa
per. Then a hot iron is placed upon the
upper sheet. The greasy substance, If
any, Will appear on the papere. Other
materials used for facing" such as tale
gypsum, and baTytes, are detected by
sitting the tea over black paper
Anybody. with a little instruction.
could make tests such as these. But