Evening star., 1914-11-07
YOUR CUP OF TEA.
BY Frederic ]. Haskin.

Your cup of tea. If you take tea, is
quite as interesting as your cup of cof-
fee. discussed yesterday. Assuming
that you are the whole United States
your annual tea bill is very small COM
pared to your expenditure for coffee
Your coffee costs you about $l20, 1000, ,00(
year. at the port when the coffee is
landed. As you pay for 1t, pound for
pound, at the grocery store. it will run
up well to a quarter of billion dol
lars Your tea costs just about $751;
000,O0O year at the ports, and prob
ably something like $4,000. 900 over
the counters OF the grocery stores
The probable effect of the great wa.
on coffee will be to cheaper the price
but 1t will have the contrary effect at
70 tea. Tea Will go up. In fact. the
price Of tea has been steadily advanc-
ing for the last twenty years, with
practically no downward fluctuations
in the steady upward curve. The aver.
age price at the port In that time has
increased from 12 to 10 cents a pound
A similar increase in the price of CO...
fee has been accompanied by d marked
decrease in consumption. but for some
reason or other the per capita con-
sumption of tea In the United States
remains practically stationary
~
Since 1860, the per capita consump-
tion In year was highest in 1878
when 1t was
Per Capita Use 1853 pound $
n,,.. porn5, v and lowest in
1910. when il
was o.Ss of 4 pound. The average fol
Co.
d year-an average fairly well reflect.
ed in the statistics for tho last three
years. In 1911. each of us drank 10;
pounds of tea; in 1912, LOS pounds, an6
in 1913. 0.95 of a pound
Away back just after the war, wher
tea-drinkins reached its maximum, the
price was 3S cents a pound, or JUS,
double the 19-cent price that prevailed
for this year up until the time of this
war.
1t is interesting to compare our con-
sumption of tea with that of Great
Britain. The people of the United
Kingdom consume only six-tenths Of a
pound of coffee per year per capita.
as against the American assumption
of nearly nine pounds. On the other
hand, against our scant pound of tea,
the English people drink seven pounds
IL year apiece.
The effect of the war on the tea in
dustry is quite as far-reaahing as 1t
is on the two other great crops of
neutral countries-coffee and cotton.
Practically all Of the tropical and
semi-tropicai Asiatic countries produce
tea in commercial quantities for ex-
port. China and Japan, India and Cey-
to the worlds supply of tea. There is
SO much difference in the flavor of
the tea produced in different countries
and different climates that the ulti-
mate marketing depends very largely
upon the Individual taste Of the ulti-
mate consumer.
Very competent Judges Of tea de-
clare that the best tea in the world
Is grown right here
Say Best Tea il at home in the
Grown in q. S. on''sq tea n,antation ssases, IA "A
South Carolina furnishes a small
amount of extraordinarily we'll flavor
ed tea to few favored customers, who
are willing to pay fancy price. The
cost Of labor, however, practically pro-
hibits an extension Of the tea industry
in the United States under present in
QOSlflal COn0ltIoAos IL ~ AuCIClJ 0OIn6-
thing we have in reseFve--we car
grow tea il We must.
Japan, of course. is in the war. but
her participation Ia almost entirel,
naval, and the war is having very little
actual effect upon domestic production
China ia untouched by the war SO fal
as military operations are concerned
except In the netghborhood of German
| territory. India and Ceylon are In
empire, and. although they are SENDING
soldiers to Europe, the numbers of tn
expeditionary forces are quite to'
small to have any appreciable effec
on home production. Java and Sumatr;
are not SO important as tea-producinl
oountries. and they are under tt. Dutcl
far. which is still neutral.
The threatened advances In the price
of tea. therefore, do not spring froI
any curtailed production. There 1
every reason to believe that the tea
growing industry will flourish despit
the war. The trouble with tea Is pri
marily that Of transportation, and nee
ondarily that Of financing exports.
The transportation troubles are in