Tea, Its History and Mystery

L51J5L5L5L5L5LblJb li Lb UTLb University of California Berkeley JOSEPH M. BRANSTEN COFFEE & TEA COLLECTION Acquired in memory of JOSEPH M. BRANSTEN TEA -ITS- HISTORY AND MYSTERY -BY- JOSEPH M. WALSH, AUTHOR OF 'COFFEE. ITS HISTORY, CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION." PHILADELPHIA: HENRY T. COATES & CO. COPYRIGHTED, 1892, BY JOSEPH M. WALSH. All Rights Reserved. PREFATORY. Utility, not originality, has been aimed at in the compilation of this work. The obstacles and difficulties its author had met with in his endeavors to learn something of the article he was commissioned to sell when he first entered the Tea trade, the almost total lack of knowledge displayed by the average dealer in the commodity, allied to the numerous inquiries for a work con- " taining all about tea," first prompted the undertaking. The material was collated at intervals, in a fragmentary manner, covering a period of over twenty years, and arranged amid the many interruptions incident to an active business life, subjected to constant revisions, repeated prunings and innumerable corrections, due mainly to the varying statements and conflicting opinions of admitted authorities in every branch of the subject. Still, as careful and judicious an arrangement of the data has been given as possible, a faithful effort being made to omit nothing that may prove useful, instructive or profitable to the expert, the dealer or general reader. Aware that many facts have been omitted, and many errors committed in its preparation, he still trusts that the pains he has taken to avoid both have not been in vain, that the former may be few, and the latter of no great importance. The work was com- piled under impulse, not under inducement, a single line not being intended originally for the market, and is now being published " solely for the benefit of those whom it may concern." PHILADELPHIA, December, 1892. CONTENTS. Chapter Page I. EARLY HISTORY 9-28 II. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION . 29-35 III. BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND FORM . 37-49 IV. CULTIVATION AND PREPARATION . 51-68 V. CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION . 69-132 VI. ADULTERATION AND DETECTION . 133-157 VII. TESTING, BLENDING AND PREPARING , 159-204 VIII. CHEMICAL, MEDICAL AND DIETICAL PROPERTIES 205-235 IX. WORLD'S PRODUCTION AND CONSUMP- TION 237-252 X. TEA CULTURE, A PROBABLE AMERICAN INDUSTRY 253-265 (Branch of Tea Plant.) r. EARLY HISTORY* 'HE history of Tea is intimately bound up with that of China, that is, so far as the Western world is concerned, its production and consumption >eing for centuries confined to that country. But, having within the past two centuries become known and almost indispensable as an article of diet in every civilized country of the globe, it cannot but prove interesting to inquire into the progress, properties and effects of a commodity which could have induced so large a portion of mankind to abandon so many other articles of diet in its favor, as well as the results of its present enormous consumption. Although now to be found in a wild state in the mountain-ranges of Assam, and in a state of cultivation through a wide range from India to Japan, the original country of Tea is not definitely known, but from the fact of its being in use in China from the earliest times it is commonly attributed to that country. Yet though claimed to have been known in China long anterior to the Christian era, and even said to have been mentioned in the Sao-Pao, published 2700 B. c., and also in the Rye, 600 B. c., the exact date or manner of its first discovery and use in that country is still in doubt. One writer claims that the famous herb was cultivated and classified in China 2000 B. c., almost as completely as it is to-day, and that it was used as a means of promoting amity between Eastern monarchs and potentates at this early period, 10 EARLY HISTORY. Chin-Nung, a celebrated scholar and philosopher, who existed long before Confucius, is claimed to have said of it: "Tea is better than wine, for it leadeth not to intoxication, neither does it cause a man to say foolish things and repent thereof in his sober moments. It is better than for it doth not disease neither water, carry ; doth it act as a poison, as doth water when the wells contain foul and rotten matter," and Confucius admon- " ishes his followers to : Be good and courteous to all, even to the stranger from other lands. If he say unto thee that he thirsteth give unto him a cup of warm Tea without money and without price." A Chinese legend ascribes its first discovery to one Darma, a missionary, famed throughout the East for his religious zeal, who, in order to set an example of piety to his followers, imposed on himself various privations, among which was that of forswearing sleep. After some days and nights passed in this austere manner, he was overcome and involuntarily fell into a deep slumber, on awakening from which he was so distressed at having violated his vow, and in order to prevent a " repetition of allowing tired eyelids to rest on tired eyes," he cut off the offending portions and flung them to the ground. On returning the next day, he discovered that they had undergone a strange metamorphosis, becoming changed into a shrub, the like of which had never been seen before. Plucking some of the leaves and chewing them he found his spirits singularly exhilarated, and his former vigor so much restored that he immediately rec- ommended the newly discovered boon to his disciples. Tradition, on the other hand, never at a loss for some marvelous story, but with more plausibility, claims that the use of Tea was first discovered accidentally in China by some Buddhist priests, who, unable to use the brackish EARLY HISTORY. II water near their temple, steeped in it the leaves of a shrub, growing in the vicinity, with the intention of correcting its unpleasant properties. The experiment was so successful that they informed the inhabitants of their discovery, subsequently cultivating the plant extensively for that express purpose. While another record attributes its first discovery about 2737 B. c. to the aforementioned Chin-Nung, to whom all agricultural and medicinal knowledge is traced in China. In replen- ishing a fire made of the branches of the Tea plant, some of the leaves fell into the vessel in which he was boiling water for his evening meal. Upon using it he found it to be so exciting and exhilarating in its effects that he continued to use it; imparting the knowledge thus gained to others, its use soon spread throughout the country. These accounts connected with the first discovery of the Tea plant in China are purely fabulous, and it is not until we come down to the fourth century of the Chris- tian era that we can trace any positive allusion to it by a Chinese writer. But, as the early history of nearly every other ancient discovery is more or less vitiated by fable, we ought not to be any more fastidious or less indul- gent towards the marvelous in the discovery of Tea than we are towards that of fire, iron, glass or coffee. The main facts may be true, though the details be in- correct; and, though the accidental discovery of fire may not have been made by Suy-Jin in the manner claimed, yet it probably was communicated originally by the friction of two sticks. Nor may it be strictly correct to state that Fuh-he made the accidental discovery of iron by the burning of wood on brown earth any more than the Phoenicians discovered the making of glass by burning green wood on sand, yet it is not improbable that some such accidental processes first led to these 12 EARLY HISTORY. discoveries. Thus, also, considerable allowances are to be deducted from the scientific discoveries of Chin-Nung in botany, when we read of his having, in one day, discovered no less than seventy different species of plants that were poisonous and seventy others that were anti- dotes against their baneful effects. According to some Chinese authorities, the Tea plant was first introduced into their country from Corea as late as the fourth century of the present era, from whence it is said to have been carried to Japan in the ninth. Others again maintaining that it is undoubtedly indigenous to China, being originally discovered on the hills of those provinces, where it now grows so abundantly, no date, however, being named. While the Japanese, to whom the plant is as valuable as it is to the Chinese, state that both countries obtained it simultaneously from Corea, about A. D. 828. This latter claim not being sustained by any proof whatever Von Siebold, to the contrary who, relying on the statements of certain Japanese writers to this effect, argues in support of their assertions, the improbability of which is unconsciously admitted by Von " Siebold himself when he observes that in the southern provinces of Japan the tea plant is abundant on the plains, but as the traveler advances towards the moun- tains it disappears," hence inferring that it is an exotic. The converse of this theory holding good of China, a like inference tends to but confirm their claim that with them the plant is indigenous. That the Japanese did not originally obtain the plant from Corea but from China is abundantly proven by the Japanese themselves, many of whom admit that it was first introduced to their country from China about the middle of the ninth century.

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