The leaves are first steamed until they lose their elasticity. The operations of rolling and drying follow the steaming. The leaves are finally sorted by means of a series of sieves. In China, instead of steaming the leaves as practiced in Japan, they are heated in a pan over a charcoal fire.

The Japanese sometimes prepare a tea which they term " flat tea." In this tea the leaves, as the name indicates, are not rolled. They are obtained from plants which are kept in darkness for a week or two before picking; keeping the plants in darkness is said to produce a fine aroma.

The operations of tea manufacture require considerable skill and experience. At certain stages of the work an error may ruin the quality of the product.

In general the quality of a tea depends upon the age of the leaf, also upon the time of picking. The leaves gathered after the first and second picking (as high as twenty-five pickings are made in India) gradually become tougher and less juicy as the season advances.

The India teas are usually very much stronger than those from China and Japan, one part giving an infusion as strong as three parts of that from the latter countries. To those persons who have acquired a taste for the Chinese and Japanese teas, those from India at first seem too strong and the flavor is not as agreeable as would be expected from the high price of these teas. It is an excellent plan to add a certain proportion of India tea to the Chinese or Japanese product, the strength and usually the flavor of the latter being considerably improved by this mixture.

As has been stated the leaves of the India teas only come in contact with the hands of the workmen at the time of picking; this may also be said to a certain extent in regard to the Japanese teas, whereas those of Chinese origin are manipulated almost entirely by hand, and even the feet are sometimes used in rolling some of the cheaper grades.

The black teas have grown in favor to such an extent in England that now but a small proportion of the teas consumed are green. This is largely due to the supposition that the black teas contain less astringent matter and also act to a less extent upon the nerves. The following analyses from the valuable bulletin of Mr. Y. Kozai (loc. cit., p. 24) show in parallel columns the percentage composition of black and green teas made from the same leaves. In this experiment Mr. Kozai took special precautions in sampling the leaves in order that the teas might have identically the same composition provided the chemical changes were the same and of the same extent. These analyses are of especial value on account of Mr. Kozai's knowledge of tea manufacture and his residence in a tea-producing country. The percentages are referred to the dry matter.

1 Portion of original sample of leaves dried at 85° C.

2 Calculated as gallotanic acid.

This table shows the marked difference between the composition of the green and the black teas. In the black tea there is a very considerable increase in the "other nitrogen-free extract." This increase has evidently taken place at the expense of the tannin, a part of which has been decomposed during the fermentation. This reduction in the tannin is probably one of the reasons why black is considered more wholesome than green tea by the English, but the change in the tannin alone will not account for this preference. There are not sufficient data concerning the "other nitrogen-free extract" and other constituents for a further discussion of this question or for a statement as to whether this preference for black tea by the English is not merely a prejudice.