|
"Pray thee, let it serve for
table-talk."--Merchant of Venice.
A natural taste for hot liquid foods and drinks is common to all races
of men, and they may be traced in the soups of meat and fish, and in
their decoctions or infusions of vegetable leaves, seeds, barks, etc.
Hot "teas" were in habitual use as beverages among civilized nations
long before they ever heard of Chinese tea, of coffee, or of cocoa. The
English people, for instance, freely indulged in infusions of Sage
leaves, of leaves of the Wild Marjoram, the Sloe, or blackthorn, the
currant, the Speedwell, and of Sassafras bark. In America, Sassafras
leaves and bark were used for teas by the early colonists, as were the
leaves of Gaultheria (Wintergreen), the Ledums (Labrador tea), Monarda
(Horsemint, Bee-balm, or Oswego tea), Ceanothus (New Jersey tea or
red-root), etc. Charles Lamb, in his essay upon Chimney Sweeps,
mentions the public house of Mr. Reed, on Fleet street in London, as a
place where Sassafras tea (and Salop) were still served daily to
customers in his time, about 1823. Mate, Yerba, or Paraguay tea has
been a national beverage for millions of people in the central portions
of South America for several centuries.
With the exception of Mate, not one of the above named substitutes for
Chinese tea contains the peculiar nerve stimulating and nerve
refreshing constituent upon which depends the physiological value of
Black or Green tea, the Theine: nor do they possess the characteristic
flavoring principle or essential oil which distinguishes commercial
teas from all other known plant products. The Ledums are indeed
accredited by Professor James F. Johnson (Chemistry of Common Life)
with stimulating and narcotic properties, but the same may be said of
tobacco.
A comforting, stimulating and healthful beverage, which has been in
habitual use by the most extensive nation of the globe for more than a
thousand years, and which has at length become a necessity as well as a
luxury for millions of people, or of a majority of the inhabitants of
the earth, is certainly worthy of more than the passing thought which
accompanies its daily use in the form of "cup of tea."
Douglass Jerriold, English dramatist and writer, writing of tea,
said:--"Of the social influence of Tea upon the masses of the people in
this country, it is not very easy to say too much. It has civilized
brutish and turbulent homes, saved the drunkard from his doom, and to
many a mother, who else have indeed been most wretched and forlorn, it
has given cheerful, peaceful thoughts that have sustained her. Its work
among us in England and elsewhere, aye, throughout the civilized world,
has been humanizing and good. Its effect upon us all has been socially
healthful; peaceful, gentle and hearty."
There is no article of common use about which so little is popularly
known, or of which "we know so many things which are not so." The very
names of the various kinds of tea which we use are mysteries of meaning
to those who have not made special researches into the subject. And the
cause of the distinctions in the qualities of different teas, as of
black and green, are still matters of uncertainty and controversy among
many dealers of teas, as well as among unscientific travelers and some
untraveled scientists. The enthusiastic collector of writings upon tea
by self qualified experts, will find himself involved in a maze of
contradictory assertions and opinions from which there is no escape
save by the exercise of judicial powers, by an independent exercise of
his own judgment, in separating truth from error. And unless he is a
proficient in physiology and chemistry, he will find himself baffled at
last, because several important scientific questions concerning Tea are
still unsolved by adequate authority.
Then there are otherwise sane persons who profess to discover in the
habitual use of tea by whole nations a cause of national deterioration.
We record the fact as one of the curiosities of mental perversity in an
age of general intelligence.
How the inestimable qualities which lie latent in the green leaf of the
Tea tree or bush were discovered and developed by the Chinese is one of
those mysteries which we shall never solve. For it is a remarkable fact
that neither the green leaf of the tea plant, nor the tea leaf dried
without mans agency, conveys to human senses any hint of the agreeable
or valuable qualities for which tea is esteemed, and which have been
developed by the art of man. A leaf of any one of the mints, or of the
sassafras tree, or of the wintergreen vine, after being bruised in the
hand and applied to the nose or the mouth, makes instant impression
upon the senses of taste and small, and at once informs us of its
distinctive qualities. Not so with the tea leaf; a hundred valueless
plants impress those senses more vividly than the leaf which is worth
them all. Infuse the green leaf of the Tea plant and the prized
properties of "Tea" are still wanting, but in their stead, positively
deleterious qualities are said to appear in the infusion. Commercial
Tea must be regarded as an artificial production. A certain degree of
artificial heat, of manipulation, and induced chemical changes, are the
agents which develop the flavor and aroma of the tea leaf. And the
nature of man's treatment and manipulation determines in large measure
not only the desired flavor, but the distinguishing character of the
tea, its rank as a green, a black, or an "English Breakfast Tea," all
three of which may be evolved by skilful manipulation from the same tea
bush, at the same time.
Much has been said and written in contention upon this latter
assertion, and books may be quoted upon either side of the question,
but we make the statement without qualification and upon unquestionable
authority.
As Chinese teas became known to the inhabitants of other parts of Asia,
and to Europeans, curiosity and commercial interests impelled other
races to seek information concerning the origin and treatment of
different Chinese teas. The prices obtained by the Chinese from
foreigners for teas three and more centuries ago were most exorbitant,
and paid the Chinese Government and Chinese merchants an enormous
profit. Quite naturally that sagacious nation saw the danger of letting
the truth concerning the origin, manufacture and cost of their most
precious commodity pass into the possession of other people, and they
strove to prevent foreigners from penetrating to their inland tea
gardens, while they plied inquisitive enquirers with fairy tales which
were eagerly swallowed. They said that every different kind of tea was
the product of a different species of plant, which bore a different
name, and that the manufacture was a most intricate process depending
upon secrets confined to a very few; that the leaves could safely be
plucked only at certain phases of the moon, and at certain hours of the
day, and that some delicate varieties of tea leaves were plucked only
by young maidens, etc. They even allowed Europeans to believe that
green tea was colored by salts of copper, on copper plates, having
doubtless learned that their were European merchants who would not be
deterred from vending poisonous foods provided a good fat profit
attended the transaction. In short, they practiced some of the
dissimulation and tricks of trade to which many merchants were addicted.
To particularize further, and yet generalize at the same time, we will
say here that the Tea plant or tree is greatly modified in hardiness,
in height, in size of leaf, and in the quality of the leaf for a
beverage, by soil, by moisture, tillage, and climate. Some soils and
some climates develop a tea plant decidedly more suitable for a green
tea than for a black tea, and vice-versa. The Formosa Oolong, with its
natural flowery fragrance is a product of a peculiar soil, said to be a
clay topped with rich humus. Analysis would probably disclose
peculiarities in that soil not yet found in other tea districts. In
removal to other soils and other localities, the Formosa Tea plant
loses its most precious characteristic, its sweet flowery aroma and
taste. If the exceptional characteristics of Formosa Oolong accompanied
the plant when removed to other localities, its cultivation would
quickly become greatly extended.
What is known or believed concerning the remote history of Tea and of
its dissemination among other nations than the Chinese and Japanese,
has been told so often that its recapitulation becomes tedious to those
who are familiar with the story. But this book is intended for the
general reader, and for the purpose of collecting and welding together
disconnected and floating facts and scraps of tea literature gathered
from many sources.
|
SPONSORED LINKS
RELATED 