ART OF TESTING AND SELECTING TEAS.
The Teas of commerce possess two values--an intrinsic or real value,
and a commercial or market value--the former constituting its quality,
strength and flavor, the latter being more often based on its style
or appearance, supply and fluctuations in price, so that in their
selection for commercial purposes four leading features are to be
considered before purchasing by the dealer, viz.: Leaf, Liquor,
Character and Flavor, the drawing and drinking qualities of a Tea in
the cup being paramount to its style or appearance in the hand, as many
Teas though coarse or rough-looking in “make” or appearance draw and
drink exceedingly well in the infusion.
There are five principal methods of testing and selecting Teas for
commercial use, and which may be summed up in the following sequence.
First by
STYLE OR APPEARANCE.
A good Tea may be readily recognized by its style or appearance in the
hand, which though not invariably an indication of its merit in the cup
has considerable to do with its quality and value, choice Teas of all
kinds being handsomely made and pleasing to the eye. They are compactly
if not artistically curled or rolled according to their make, whether
Green or Black, and all Teas are fine in proportion to their youth and
tenderness, the ripest and juiciest curling up tightest and retaining
their form longest, that is the younger and fresher the leaves the
richer and more succulent the Tea. While old and inferior Teas on the
other hand are large, rough and loosely made in proportion to their
age, quality and period of picking, as being partially or totally
devoid of sap they are correspondingly coarse, astringent or entirely
flavorless in the infused state. By
FEELING OR PRESSING.
Judging a sample of Tea by feeling or pressing in the hand is more
applicable to the curled, twisted or Black Tea sorts than to the rolled
or Green Tea kinds. For instance, if the leaves of the former make so
tested be really choice, they will be found smooth, crisp and elastic
in the hand and capable of resisting a gentle but firm pressure without
breaking. But if the leaves be old and sapless they will be found tough
and chaffy to the touch, very brittle, breaking easily and crumbling
under the same conditions.
SMELLING OR INHALING.
By blowing or breathing heavily upon a sample of Tea and then quickly
smelling or inhaling the odor emitted from it, a very fair estimate of
its general character may be formed by the dealer. To judge correctly
by this method, however, an acquaintance with the distinctive flavors
and peculiarities will be necessary, this knowledge being best acquired
by the dealer adopting a type or standard sample of the Teas he is
using or wants to match. By
MASTICATING OR CHEWING.
An approximate estimate of a Tea may also be formed by chewing or
masticating the leaves, a good tea being easily recognized by the
rapid manner in which the leaves are dissolved on slight mastication.
If the Tea be young and the leaves tender, they become quickly reduced
to a pasty consistency and very juicy, but if old and inferior they
will be found difficult to chew, tough, and yielding little or no sap,
according to its age and inferiority.
INFUSING OR DRAWING
Is, after all is said, the most satisfactory and reliable a method of
testing or appraising a Tea at its true value, this being the manner
adopted by all expert dealers and brokers in Tea. For this method a
number of small cups, scales and a half-dime weight are necessary,
together with a clean kettle of freshly distilled or filtered water,
briskly boiling, and poured on the leaves, after which they are allowed
to infuse from three to five minutes before smelling and tasting. The
water used must in all cases be as soft and pure as can be obtained,
boiled briskly and used only at the boiling point, that is, it must
boil, but not overboil, as if allowed to do so for even a few minutes,
it will not extract in its entirety the full strength or flavor of the
Tea.
As the value of a Tea commercially depends principally upon the weight
and flavor of the infusion as well as in the aroma imparted to it by
the volatile oil which it contains, so the intrinsic value of a Tea is
based principally on the amount of extract which it yields on infusion
in addition to the quantity of the theine and tannin contained therein.
Again, the taste for a particular variety of Tea being an acquired and
not a natural one, it follows that persons accustomed to a certain
variety or flavor in Tea want that particular kind and will not be
satisfied with any other even if better or higher-priced. This fact
being admitted it becomes essential to the success of the Tea dealer
to study and learn the tastes and preferences of his patrons in order
to cater satisfactorily to them. To illustrate he may be selling his
trade a heavy-bodied Amoy Oolong or dark-leaved Foochow and suddenly
change off to a fine Formosa or Congou. In such a case his customers
will be very apt to find fault with the latter, no matter how fine they
may be. It therefore becomes essential to the success of the dealer to
pay particular attention to the quality and standard of the Teas he is
purchasing, as there is no article which he handles that will attract
trade or retain it longer than a good Tea at a legitimate price, such a
Tea creating more comment in a district than any other article used at
table and to such an extent that if the customers once lose confidence
in either the ability or honesty of the dealer in supplying them they
will be repelled rather than attracted, it being next to impossible to
draw them back again once they leave through any mistake of the dealer
in his selection. Poor or badly selected Teas will drive more customers
away from a store in a week than can be made in a year, so that it will
not pay the dealer to make any serious error in the selection of his
Teas, such mistake proving fatal to the holding or increasing of his
Tea trade as well as for other articles. It is therefore much better
and more profitable in the end to handle only good Teas on fair and
legitimate margin than to sell poor inferior and unsatisfactory Teas at
a larger margin of profit.
A dealer with any ambition to increase or even retain his Tea trade
should no more attempt to handle poor, inferior, dusty, musty or
damaged Teas than a butcher has to sell tainted meats or a baker to
give his customers sour bread. The offense may not at first seem as
objectionable, but the final verdict of his customers will be the same
in each case, and the positive manner in which they will eventually
manifest their opinion will be to quit dealing with him altogether.
Good, clean, pure and sweet-drawing Teas can always be purchased at a
few cents per pound above the price of the dusty, musty, mousey, woody,
herby, grassy, smoky, or sour and trashy Teas now flooding the market.
So that by the mistaken policy of trying to save a few cents per pound
extra the seed is sown for the final ruin of the dealer himself in
addition to casting discredit on the use of Tea as an article of diet.
While on the other hand, if the dealer makes a small but necessary
sacrifice for the sake of future gain and reputation by selling only
Tea that is Tea, and content himself with a fair but legitimate profit,
satisfaction will be given to his customers, his Tea trade fostered and
extended, and the consumption of this most important food auxiliary
increased throughout the country.
GRADING OF TEAS.
Black Teas, such as Oolongs and Congous, are graded as “Firsts,”
“Seconds,” “Thirds,” “Fourths” and some times “Fifths,” denoting the
respective pickings and grading in the order named. They are usually
divided into “chops”--quantities bearing the brand or “chop-mark” of
the grower or packer--and which are again sub-divided into “Lines,”
“Marks” and “Numbers,” the latter rarely exceeding fifty packages.
The term “chop” meaning in Chinese “contract,” which in the Tea trade
is applied to a quantity of Tea frequently composed of the product of
different gardens or districts and afterwards mixed together and made
uniform before packing and forwarding to the shipping ports.
Green Teas are graded as Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4, the former being applied
to the choicest kinds, No. 2 to choice, No. 3 to medium, and 4 to the
common grades.
Japan Teas are usually graded as “Common,” “Choice,” “Extra Choice” and
“Choicest.”
India and Ceylon Teas are divided into “Breaks,” each separate picking
being known in trade as a “flush” and graded accordingly. Nearly all
the India and Ceylon Teas are first “bulked;” that is, the whole is run
together in one heap and thoroughly mixed before being put up in the
chests, this process having the advantage of insuring the regularity of
the break or chop. The selection of India and Ceylon Teas for blending
purposes is much more difficult than that of China and Japan Teas,
greater care being required to avoid Teas that will not keep well as
well as those which may possess any other objectionable peculiarity.
The loss of strength and flavor is also much greater in some grades
than in others, the kinds most affected being the too highly-fired
Teas, the light-flavored Teas and those that possess a loose, rough or
open leaf.
WHEN TO BUY TEAS.
The Tea market fluctuating considerably, sometimes it will be necessary
for the dealer to learn to understand something of the law of supply
and demand, which, to a great extent, affects the fluctuations of the
Tea market, before he can be sure of making desirable purchases. The
dealer in Tea who not only understands the article he is dealing in,
but whose knowledge and judgment enable him, in addition, to make his
purchases about the proper time, possesses many advantages over his
competitors, the value of which cannot be overestimated. For instance,
each season, on the arrival of the first steamers from China and
Japan, high prices rule for the earliest pickings, and if the market
be bare of chance lots, these full prices are continued for some time
thereafter. Then follows a dull, drooping market, from which the
dealer derives no satisfaction, but should the demand at first be high
and the stocks large, through dealers declining to purchase at full
figures, prices rapidly decline to a more reasonable level, after
which they then continue comparatively steady for the balance of the
year, unless some outside causes should arise to create an advance.
For these reasons dealers would do well to take advantage of the fine
selections of Teas that arrive during July, August and September from
China and Japan. In the purchase of India and Ceylon Teas it will also
be found necessary to watch the new arrivals closely, as, after the
heavy receipts during October and November, the market is nearly always
easier, but when the arrivals are light the market is much higher.
These facts are worth the special attention of dealers, as India and
Ceylon Teas, although until quite recently comparatively unknown, now
form some of the principal kinds for blending purposes.
With the great reduction in the importation prices and the keener
competition among dealers, the retail prices of Tea have been brought
down to a very low figure, and as dealers generally have educated the
public to the purchase of poor and trashy Teas at low prices, it is
not probable that the retail prices will ever again reach any higher
figures, unless war or other similar cause should lead to a duty being
placed upon the commodity. Yet notwithstanding these unprecedented low
prices, the per capita consumption of Tea is comparatively very small
in this country at the present time. One of the chief causes of this
small consumption is directly traceable to the custom now prevalent
among retail dealers of charging exorbitant profits on inferior Teas in
order to make up for losses sustained on other goods, together with the
forcing of poor Teas on their customers. These unwise and impolitic
practices might be overlooked were it not for the greater mistake
made of sacrificing quality to profit, which in an article of daily
and almost universal use like Tea, is an important consideration, so
that by rectifying this error and giving more attention to the careful
selection of his Teas by the dealer, there is no valid reason why the
consumption of the article could not be at least doubled in a short
time in this country.