We learn from the Tea and Coffee Trade Journal that the term "Indian Tea" is one which is made to cover a lot of territory. It naturally would be applied to the whole area covered by the geographical territory known as India. The character of the teas which are included in Indian Tea, therefore, must vary as much as the different localities which cover that vast territory. Among Indian teas are those which come from Assam, Darjeeling, Dooars, Kangra, Nilgiris and Travancore. Of these teas, experts claim that the finest are produced in Darjeeling, but often in that locality teas produced on different estates vary largely in quality.

Darjeeling is situated at the foothills of the Himalayas, and the climate in that region is favorable to production of a tea with fine flavor and aroma and general character. The yield of the trees, however, is somewhat limited in quantity, hence inasmuch as the farmers are not able to produce a large quantity of tea they use every means possible to produce teas of a high grade. The crop in Assam yields, it is stated, twice as much as in Darjeeling. The climate is much warmer, and the large crop and high temperatures result in a tea of less desirable flavor in character.

A large part of the Indian tea goes to England, and, as the English are great tea drinkers, and competent judges of it, it must be acknowledged that their preference for Indian tea is not wholly of a patriotic kind. It has not been very many years ago since China furnished Great Britain with the principal part of its tea. The great quantity of tea drunk in Great Britain, amounting to about 400,000,000 pounds, comes mostly from India and Ceylon. It is stated that this change in the character of the tea consumed in England is due solely to its quality, and not, of course, to any protection by import duties on teas of other countries, nor by any preference of the English for the tea simply because it is Indian.

One of the reasons for the rapid development of the use of Indian tea is found in the action of the Indian Government establishing a commission for the scientific testing of teas. Probably it is better to say, not the action of the Government, but of the action of the Indian Tea Association. It, however, receives quite considerable aid from the government, and hence may be regarded in that sense as a government body. This scientific commission called attention to the fact that the fermentation which takes place in the tea leaf when curing is not due to the bacterial change, but wholly to enzymic action.