Tea was introduced into England in the year 1666, and sold for sixty
shillings per pound. It was first boiled till tender, and sauced up with
butter in large dishes, the "broth" being thrown away: An excellent way
for using the article!
All imported tea is black, unless colored before leaving China, and is
colored by prussiate of potash--a poison so deleterious as to require
labelling in drug stores as "POISON." It makes one very nervous,--good tea
does not, unless used to excess,--and acts as a slow poison on the system.
By its over-action on the liver, it makes one yellow, and will spoil the
fairest complexion. All teas contain tannic acid, which, combining with
milk, makes excellent leather of one. Black teas are sometimes colored
with gypsum and Prussian blue.
I obtained these facts from a retired tea merchant of Philadelphia. He
spent some time in China.
Coffee is adulterated with mahogany sawdust, acorns, peas, beans, roasted
carrots, but more commonly with dandelion root and chiccory. I have
obtained some samples of these from a large coffee-grinder in this city.
But what is more repulsive still, baked horses' and bullocks' livers are
often mixed with cheap coffees, to _give them more body_! Pure coffee is
the less injurious. All these substances may be detected, _as they become
soft by boiling, which coffee-bean does not_. Coffee browned in
silver-lined cylinders retains its flavor more perfectly than in iron.