SECTION  VIII.

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VARIETIES OF TEA.

It has been already observed (Sect. VI.) that many different sortments of Tea are made during the times of collecting the leaves; and these are multiplied according to the goodness of their preparation, by which the varieties of Tea may be considerably augmented[38]. The distinctions with us are much more limited, being generally confined to three principal kinds of green, and five of bohea.

I. Those of the former are,

I. Bing, imperial, or bloom Tea, with a large loose leaf, of a light green colour, and faint delicate smell.

II. Hy-tiann, hi-kiong, or hayssuen, known to us by the name of Hyson Tea, so called after an East-India merchant of that name, who first imported it into Europe. The leaves are closely curled and small, of a green colour, verging towards blue[39].

III. Singlo, or songlo, which name it receives, like many other Teas, from the place where it is cultivated.

II. The bohea Teas.

I. Soochuen, or sutchong, by the Chinese called saatyang, and sact-chaon, or su-tyann, is a superior kind of long-fou Tea. It imparts a yellowish green colour, by infusion[40].

II. Camho, or soumlo, called after the name of the place where it is gathered; a fragrant Tea with a violet smell. Its infusion is pale.

III. Cong-fou, congo, or bong-fo. This has a larger leaf than the following, and the infusion is a little deeper coloured. It resembles the common bohea in the colour of the leaf[41].

IV. Pekao, pecko, or pekoe, by the Chinese called back-ho, or pack-ho. It is known by having the appearance of small white flowers intermixed with it.

V. Common bohea, called moji by the Chinese, consists of leaves of one colour[42].

III. There has also been imported a sort of Tea, in balls, of a different form from any of the preceding, made up into cakes or balls of different sizes, by the Chinese called Poncultcha.

I. The largest kind of this cake Tea, that I have seen, weighs about two ounces; the infusion and taste resemble those of good bohea Tea.

II. Another sort, which is a kind of green Tea, is called tio tè: it is rolled up in a round shape, about the size of peas, and sometimes as large as a nutmeg.

III. The smallest kind done in this form is called gun-powder Tea.

IV. Sometimes the succulent Tea leaves are twisted into cords like packthread, about an inch and a half or two inches long; and usually three of these are tied together at the ends by different-coloured silk threads. These resemble little bavins, one of which might suffice for tea for one person. I have seen them both of green and bohea Tea.

The Chinese likewise prepare an extract from Tea, which they exhibit as a medicine dissolved in a large quantity of water, and ascribe to it many powerful effects in fevers and other disorders, when they wish to procure a plentiful sweat. This extract is sometimes formed into small cakes, not much broader than a sixpence, sometimes into rolls of a considerable size.

That there is only one species of Tea tree, has already been mentioned (Sect. I.) from which all the varieties of Tea are procured. Kæmpfer, who is of this opinion, attributes the difference of Teas to the soil and culture of the plant, age of the leaves when gathered, and method of curing them[43]. These circumstances will severally have more or less influence; though whether they account for all the varieties observable in Tea may be doubted. The bohea Tea trees, now introduced into many botanic gardens near London, exhibit very obvious varieties. The leaves are of a deeper green colour, and not so deeply serrated; the stalk is usually of a darker colour, and the whole shrub appears less luxuriant as represented in the annexed plate of the bohea Tea; but the botanical characters are the same.

I infused all the sorts of green and bohea Teas I could procure, and expanded the different leaves on paper, to compare their respective size and texture, intending thereby to discover their age. I found the leaves of green Tea as large as those of bohea, and nearly as fibrous; which would lead one to suspect, that the difference does not so much depend upon the age, as upon the other circumstances.

We know that in Europe the soil, culture, and exposure, have great influence on all kinds of vegetables: but the same species of plants differ in the same province, and even in the same district; and in Japan, and particularly along the continent of China, it must be much more considerable, where the air is in some parts very cold, in others moderate, or warm almost to an extreme. I am persuaded that the method of preparation must also have no little influence. I have dried the leaves of some European plants in the manner described (Sect. VI.) which so much resembled the foreign Tea, that the infusion made from them has been seen and drunk without suspicion. In these preparations which I made, some of the leaves retained a perfect curl, and a fine verdure like the best green Tea; and others cured at the same time were more like the bohea[44].

I would not, however, lay too much stress upon the result of a few trials, nor endeavour to preclude further enquiries about a subject which at some future period may prove of more immediate concern to this nation.

We might still try to discover whether other arts, than are yet known here, are not used with Tea before its exportation from China, to produce the difference of colour[45], and flavour[46], peculiar to different sorts. An intelligent friend of mine informs me, that in a set of Chinese drawings, in his possession, representing the whole process of manufacturing Tea, there are in one sheet the figures of several persons apparently separating the different kinds of Tea, and drying it in the sun, with several baskets landing near them filled with a very white substance, and in considerable quantity. To what use this may be applied is uncertain, as well as what the substance is; yet there is no doubt, he thinks, that it is used in the manufacturing of Tea, as the Chinese seldom bring any thing into their pieces but such as relate in some respect to the business before them.

We are better acquainted with a vegetable substance which has been employed by the Asiatics in giving a flavour to Tea. This is the Olea Fragrans, whose flowers are frequently to be met with in Teas exported from China: and as the plant is now not unfrequent in the gardens near the metropolis, I am enabled to give an engraving of the plant and its botanical history[47].

Olea Fragrans.—Sweet-scented Olive.

Class and Order.

Diandria Monogynia.

Generic Character.

Cor. 4. fida: laciniis subovatis.
Drupa monosperma.

Corol. 4. cleft: segments
somewhat ovate. Drupe, one-seeded.

Specific Character and Description

from Thunberg.

Sir George Staunton, in his Embassy to China, Vol. II. p. 467, describes another Plant, whose flowers are used for the purpose of scenting Tea. The flower resembles the dog-rose, and the leaves those of Tea; hence the Chinese call it Cha-whaw, or flower of Tea. A Plate of this Plant is annexed, with the following description, which this very accurate and learned traveller has obligingly permitted me to introduce here.

“A Plant very like the Tea flourished at this time on the tides and the very tops of mountains, where the soil consisted of little more than fragments of stone crumbled into a sort of coarse earth by the joint action of the sun and rain. The Chinese call this plant Cha-whaw, or Flower of Tea, on account of the resemblance of one to the other; and because its petals, as well as the entire flowers of the Arabian jessamine, are sometimes mixed among the Teas, in order to increase their fragrance.

“This plant, the Cha-whaw, is the Camellia Sesanqua of the botanists, and yields a nut, from whence is expressed an esculent oil equal to the best which comes from Florence. It is cultivated on this account in vast abundance; and is particularly valuable, from the facility of its culture, in situations fit for little else.” It is delineated on the opposite page.

As green Tea is by some suspected to have been cured on copper, they have attributed the verdure to be derived from that metal (Sect. VII.); but, if there were any foundation for this supposition, the volatile alkali, mixed with an infusion of such Tea, would detect the least portion of copper, by turning the infusion blue[48].

Others have, with less propriety, attributed the verdure to green copperas[49]; but this ingredient, which is only salt of iron, would immediately turn the leaves black, and the infusion made from the Tea would be of a deep purple colour[50].

Is it not more probable, that some green dye, prepared from vegetable substances, is used for the colouring?