Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, August 10, 1892, Page 5

i THE OMAHA DAILY BE WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 1892 . PAXTON & GALLAGHER, LARGEST IMPORTERS OF "TIECAS WEST OF NEW YORK CITY ¢ T GUP OF TEA [ = time to cool. Who with tea amused the evening, with tea solaced the midnight and with tea welcomed the morning.” For ourselves it is amusing to record the thin leaves to collect in a heap on the ground and retaining the large and coarser celves about thirty, seeds and its center| is placed at a distance of about five feet from The Preparation of Japan Tea, Showing the Natives Pick- ing, Steaming and Firing. A deseription of Japan complete without a veference to the ori- gin of the plant which we all knaw by name, some of us by sicht, nnd all of us | by the maans of the refreshing beverage it supplies to our wants, A stimulant to gome, a sedutive to others, and to all a household drink. A beverage, too.with ptrong medicinal qualities and of active counter-irritant po o food, which by fteell might be injurious to life. For does not Kaempfer quote, upon the au- thority of Chinese physicians, the ¢ of a woman who, being weary of a | pionate and scolding husband, took ad- | vice as to the best of getting rid of im and was instructed to allow for his ‘en cannot be {should contaminate the leaves. imagi aanger felt by our forefathers for the beverage which cheers us all, for the innocent drink which gives occasion for an afternoon gossip, for the rofrosh- ing cup which renews the energies of a midnight student. All writers agree that the Tea Plant was introduced into Japan from China and most of them fi the ninth century as the date of its im- portation. For a long time, T Vi expensive a luxury, even to the Japan- se themselves, to be indulged in by any but the nobles, and Kaempfer, writing in 1692, describes how the Tea used at the imperial court was then grown and prepared under the care of the Chief Purveyor of Tea. How, for at least two or three weeks before the gathering of the leaves, the persons who were to pick them were prohibited from eating fish or any unclean food, lest their breath How, during the gathering season, they had to wash themselves two or three times a its neighbor. fROWING. —The circle of seod devel- opes into a compact bush, some shoots of which will be found to| bear leaves of darker| color and harder ture than the others und also much smaller. This difference in the|| leaf on the same teaf Ab bush is one of the dif- ficulties of the t rmers and tea pi ors. Inthe third yearj(§ of the growth the tea plant bears leaves ron-[ dy for pivking, and it is considercd at its[" best from the fifth to| the tenth year. But age does not deterior- ate the plant, the only day, nor were they allowed to touch the | difference being that MEANGAY WAL« e AR nv:.’;&,}figfi;, AN v,“‘ .‘.v, \:{\»“ ¥ ith years it requires more manure. The shrub 1s not allowed to grow beyond a height of three to four feet, nece sary both for the convenience of pi ing and for the strength of the new shoots. PIC NG.—As the season is early or late, the first pi ng commences the latter ond of April or beginning of May and lasts about twenty days or a month. The second crop is wthered in June and July and sometimesja third one on. This work is performed almost en- tirely by girls, who deftly pick off the new leaves but very often also the whole of a new shoot, so that long stems ar frequently met with in their baskets whefe leaves ohly should be seen. The shrnb being evergreen has still many of its last years leaves, so that some skill is neces:s y to fill a basket quickly without also including some of tne old growth. As a rule the tea be- longs to very small proprietors, who fire their few catties a day, generally in the entrance of their only apartment, and then sell the fired leaf to the larger deaiers as principals or go-betweens, who mix their various purchases togeth- er and then send twenty or more boxes of ssmilar tea for sale at the treaty posts. But the processof preparing tho green leaf 1s the same, whether done in a small shanty or in the godowns of a well-to-do merchant. It is as follows: STEAMING.—As soon as possible af- ter the leaves have been picked, they are steamed by being placed in a_round PICKING. wooden tray with a brass wire bottom over boiling water, the tray filling up the mouth of an iron cauldron set in plaster over a wood fire. The tray is about eighteen inches in diameter and receives about a couple of handfuls of green leaf. The leafl is put on to con- fine the steam, and the process is com- plete in about half a minute, the attend- b and all h would un- daily food only “sw le manner of fat things, wh Woubtedly kill him i ’s time, But Lhis good woman, not content with wait- Ing the prescribed time, took other ad- vice, and was bid give her husband, who was then atmost reduced to a.skele- ton, constant drinks of a strong infusion of tea leaves. which should without fail do herbusiness quickly; butalas! to her reat grief she found that by the joint se of these two contraries, her husband fnstead of declining, soon got better, re- covered his strength and was at last re- ptored to perfect health. Kven Dr. Johnson wrote as apologetically of his Jove for tea as ever an opium smoker fould pen his penitent confession. earned doctor drew his own port *A hardened and shameless tea-d who for twenty years diluted his meais with only the infusion of this fascinat- ing plant, whose kettle had scarcely Ll loaves excepting with gloved hands. When finally prepared, the tea was sent up to court under a good guard, some- times a simple pot of this tea, contain- ing no more than 3 or 4 Catties, being ant taking one look ut tho leaves and stirring before removing them. The water in_the caul- dron should show 210° Fahrenheit and the bot- tom of the tray 185°. The moist leaves with their natural oil now brought to the surface are attended by nearly two hundred people. | tumbled on a wooden table for a few minutes The imperial tea costs thirty or forty and then taken into the firing room, where the taels for one Catty. PLANTING:—The Tea Plant requires a well drained soil. level ground with well kept drains, but is more often seen on gentle hill slopes | and again on stoep inclines whero terra- ces aro cut to maintuin small level patch- It grows well on principal manipulation has now to be performed. RING”—A box shaped wooden frame, four feet long by twoand a hulf broad, coated with plaster forms the oven. Charcoal (well cov- ored with charcoal ashes) is alight in the bottom of the oven and about a foot and a half above the harcoal rests the wooden frame with tough Jap- o8 and to prevent the rush of water dur- |anese paper stretched across it. This paper gets ing lllh very p side when covered with plants, look any such elevation. is started from see about two feet diameter, each A new plantation turesque, but they are only se- | !lected as boing the cheapést ground pro- ' curablo und not because the taa requires | planted in circles of are thrown on to on vivele ro-! heavy rains. These terraces on the darkly tanned by the oil from the leaves, but be- low, it shows no sign of getting burned and one such tray will often do more than a whole sea- son’s work without being removed. The heat of the paper at the time of flring is about 120©. About six and 1 quarter pounds of green leaves > of these paper trays and a man (for the work can only be done by a man) now proceeds to fire this quantity, which by the time it is finished becomes reduced to about twoand a half pounds. At first he throws up the soft, moist leaves in quick s cession and keops the whole mass moving without any attempt at rolling or twisting. Gradually the leaves assume a darker color, and gradually he makes them up into balls, rolling the balls between his hands, separat- ing the leaves again, rolling them on the hot surface of the paper, again collecting them into balls which he will roll backward and forward on the paper and finally do so with PAXTON & GALLAGHERS TEA FIRING ESTABLISHMENT. HIOGO. consicerable casionally r ength and pressure, oc- ng one elthbow on the edge of the tray and rolling the tea cetween the palms of both hands with all his might. After some hours work (depend- ing on the quality of the tea), the leaves have all become separately twisted and have changed color to adark olive pur- ple. They are now crisp, long, thin, wiry and in the case of the best leal look more like slender toothpicks than the leaves of a shrub. When finished the leaves | o strewn on o similar firing tray, but, at a lower temperature (about 110° ) and | there allowed to dry uutil they become quite brittle, the heat is then reduced to | about 95° and the tea loft there for four | to six hours, ‘even longer ifit is intended to keep it in stock for many month: Tea well fired i\ this manner and afte ones to be thrown in a separato heap. H A N D-PICKING. —The completing pro- coss of tho country = preparation is to dis- tribute the tea togirls 1| seated on mats in front of a picking table, who sort out all the seed, stalks and rubbish t may still be mixed with the tea. The tea, thus finished as far as the country process is concerned, is packed 1 wooden boxes, nail- ed, corded and marked and then sent to the treaty port for sale, each box containing about half a picule. There are two sys- tems of finally firing Japan tea before it can be exported to Americ ‘anada, viz.: Pan Firing and Baske ing. PAN FIRIN This is done in rows of iron pans (21 inches in diameter by 13 inches deep) set in brick work and heated by charcoal. The tea which has been hought probably in small lots of different qualities, has heen bulked into large enough qu e3 of the same des- cription and is then carried by the women in ba s to the firing godown. Atagiven signal all the baskets are emptied into the pans (about 5 pounds into each) and the fires being well lit, and afterwards constantly attended to. The stirring of the leaves continues un- til the overseer (generally a Chinaman) considers the tea sufficiently fired. When the signal is given to take out the tea, it is either carried back to the PACKED PAXTON&CALLAGHER wards packed in earthenware jars will keep for a whole year without spoiling. SORTING.—After leaving the firing room, the tea passes to the hands of a man who sorts the leaves by jerking them upand down inabamboo hane tray by which he separates a large proportion of the light from the heavy leaf. SIFTING,—The tea is then passed to A sieve suspended from the roof and ung backwards and forwards with a rcular motion, allowing all the fine "The above illustrations are reproductions from photographs taken on the While in Japan Mr. Weaver established our ow tomers a uniform grade of goods from one season to another. lished a branch at Shanghai. son of the present year. T m—— NATIVE FIRI BY packing godownor put through a sec- ondprocess of stirring in cold pans, according to the quality of the tea and the idess of the tea taster. The pan 2 of one lot of tea may last from 40 %0 (5 minutes in y he hot and from twen- ty-five tosixty minutes in the cold pans. When finished it is n into the packing godown, where it is sifted to remove the dust and then packed while still warm into the half chests, lined with lead, which are to to the grocers and tea drinkers of Amer- ica. BASKET FIRIN cou; of sumpi, out any of the st ing tho tea with- ng pro as gone through in the y A bamboo basket shaped like a dice box, but open at both ends, is placed over a large iron bra containing lighted charcoal, (well c ered with ashes) and the tea is strewn, about an inch in thickness on a close woven bamboo tray which fits the nock of the dice box. The baskats ara oceasionally removed from the bra- zier, and the tea turned over by hand in order that at may ail be cqually fired; they are then carefully replaced on the brazi without allowing any dust or leaves to fall through the tray on to the charcoal, and in the course of forty tosixty minutes the tea is teady for packing. 5 BASKET FIRI rocured, ground while our Mr. Weaver was in Japan during the tea picking sea- n firing and curing house in Hioga, which will enable us to give our cus- B T R TR A R M R . A A : Mr. Weaver also spent several weeks in the best tea districts in China and estab- By having our own tea expert on the ground during the season when the finest leaf is p and by doing our own firing and curing, we are able to give our customers better teas and lower prices thap any exclusive tea house in America. Samples and prices Yours respecttully, PAXTON & GALLAGHER OMAHA, NEB. cheerfully submitted to dealers upon request.