Tea-Blending as a Fine Art

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.