Some planters have proposed to do away with charcoal under McMeoltin'e drawers, supplying ite place by hot air. It was long supposed that the fumes of charcoal were absolutely neceasary to make good tea. Col. Money has disproved this by making as good or better tea without oharcoal, and drying chambers using hot air generated in outside furnaces are coming into favour. The advantages are :—(1) The economy of of the fuel used; (2) cleanliness and absence of charcoal dust ; (3) absence of the objectionable carbonic acid fumes of charcoal ; (4) immunity from fire; (5) greater rip ed in the firing process, and saving of all the labour employed to make charcoal ; (8) reduced tempeinture in the tea-housee.
Green Tea.—For green ti a, the leaf is brought in twice daily : thnt coming in at 1 ie partly made the same day ; that bronght in at evening is spread in. thick till next morning. lf either 6 m arrives wet, it must be dried, the former before going into the pans, the latter before being spread. The dry leaf is put into thick pans, 2 ft. 9 in. diam. and 11 in. deep, set sloping over fireplaces, and numbering 4 or 5 for every maund (80 lb.) of tea to be made per diem. The pans are heated to about 71° (160° F.), and the leaf is stirred for about 7 minutes with flat sticks, till it becomes moist and sticky. It is next rolled on a table till it gets a little twisted (say 2 or 3 minutes), and is laid out 2 in. thick on dhallas in the sun for 3 hours, being rolled three times in that period, for not more than 3 nainutes each tinne, when it has become blackish on the surface ; it is then spread out as before. After 3 railings, it should have a goad twist. It is replaced in the pans at the same heat, and worked with the stick till it is too hot to hold (say 2-3 minutes). Next it is stuffed as tightly as possible into bags 2 ft. long and 1 ft. broad, made of No. 3 canvas ; the mouths are tied up, and the bags are beaten heavily to consolidate the contents, and thus left for the night. In the morning, the tea is turned out, and worked with the sticks in the pans at a temperature gradually falling from 71° (160° F.) to 49° (120° F.) : the gmen colour is thereby produced. The leaves of the Chinese plant make the best green tea, while hybrids are best for black.
&Ping and Sorting.—These operations constitute a very hnportant item in the manufacture, as they may make a difference of 2-3 annas a lb. in the selling-price of the tea. Tea-sieves are round, and either of brass wire with wooden sides 3i in. high, or of cane withbamboo sides lf in. high. The
latter are Chinese, and superior in every way to the former. Both are numbered according to the orifices in 1 linear in., the brass numeration including the diam. of the wire, and thus giving a slightly less aperture than the corresponding number in cane sieves. Tea should be sifted daily, taking that made on the previous day, aud be binned in that state. For daily sifting in au ordinary garden, the sieves (Chinese) required will be : 4 of No. 4, 6 of No. 6, 6 of No. 7, 9 of No. 9, 9 of No. 10, 6 of No. 12, 4 of No. 16. Red leaf is carefully picked out before commencing to sift. No rules can be laid down for sifting and sorting ; much practice is required to make an efficient sifter, and no two batches of tea will demand precisely the same treatment. Hence the general failure of sifting-machines for this purpose, since they cannot be worked economically and at the same time adjusted to suit all needs ; fanning-machines, however, may be used to separate dust and open leaves.
The classification of black tea is according to the size, make, and colour of the leaf, the ordinary descriptions being Flowery Pekoe, Orange Pekoe, Pekoe, Pekoe Souchoug, Souchong, Congou, Bohea; and of broken kinds, Broken Pekoe, Pekoe Dust, Broken Mixed Tea, Broken Souchong, Broken Leaf, Fannings, and Dust.
Flowery Pekoe generally preserves a uniform greenish-grey or silver-grey tint. Its liquor is very strong, in flavour approaching green teas, but infinitely superior, having their strength and astringency without their bitterness ; it is pale, and the infused leaf is of a uniform green hue. When too much heat has been employed, dark leaves are intermixed, and the prevailing green is sprinkled with leaves of a salmon-brown tinge, which is the proper culour for the out-turn of any other ordinary black tea. A common mistake is to call ordinary Pekoe containing an extra amount of Pekoe ends, Flowery Pekoe. When strong. and of Flowery Pekoe flavour, it is called a Pekoe of Flowery Pekoe kind. In England, Flowery Pekoe is worth about 4s. 6d.-6s. 6d. a lb.
When the Pekoe ends are yellowish or orange, and the leaf is very small and even, the tea is called Orange Pekoe. In flavour, it is much the same as ordinary Pekoe, and many growers send away the two varieties in the finished state mixed together. Its value is 2-4d. a lb. more than Pekoe.